Zip World

Project Overview

Our reputation on the line

Zip World opened in 2013 at Penrhyn Quarry, drawing fearless visitors to North Wales to brave the world's fastest zip line. Now a hugely successful and popular attraction, it still has ambitious growth plans, and brought us in to help - initially on a short contract to make the most of the final three months of 2018. On the back of some roaring successes, Zip World then appointed us to shape its digital strategy for 2019. And that's when things really took flight.

Kind words

Visitor numbers for April were up 30% on last year. We're now planning to launch several new and unique adventures at our sites in North Wales, and push ahead with our ambitious growth plans for South Wales and beyond.

Andrew Hudson Sales and Marketing Director

What we did

Our approach

Bringing added zip to the local economy

First, a bit of background. Zip World offers 12 unique adventures across three North Wales locations, with plans to expand to South Wales. It’s a major employer in the area – with 95% of employees living locally – and a major draw. In fact, a 2018 report estimated that visitors to Zip World contributed over a quarter of a billion pounds to the North Wales economy since 2013 – and 80% of Zip World visitors plan to return within the year.

Picking up the pace…

For the end of 2018, we made the most of seasonal themes to boost what’s usually a quiet time of year. We ran Zip World’s first Halloween promotion, the Fear Forest. This increased ticket sales 10% on the previous year’s half-term – offering a night-time horror-based experience to adrenaline junkies, focusing on people within a two-hour drive. Then came Christmas. After strong gift voucher sales in 2017, Zip World had set demanding targets for 2018, yet our stand-out social media and paid search campaigns increased voucher sales by 25%.

…to get a jump on 2019

With our reputation cemented, we’ve become Zip World’s full-time digital agency. Now, our focus is less about one-off campaigns and more about shaping the digital strategy for 2019 and beyond. We created a plan that covered always-on activity, micro campaigns, and larger projects – all designed to keep audiences engaged and the momentum up.

We restructured the Zip World PPC account, too. That meant prioritising budget for top-performing campaigns and restarting lapsed campaigns that still had potential. We also made some small, but valuable, changes to search terms. The results? We increased clicks by 40%, conversions by 47%, and revenue (always the most important metric in our book) by a whopping 57%.

By the end of May, we’d reached 65% of our online sales target for the whole year.

By the end of May, we’d reached 65% of our online sales target for the whole year. And this was before hitting the busy summer period. We’re especially pleased as it means we can re-visit our strategy from a position of real strength, looking to expand the target audience and test new content strategies.