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What's Happening in SoCal Radio

Wild Rivers Banks on Radio
Southern California Broadcasters Association Volume 16, Number 6
September 2002

"Running a water park is much like running a ski resort," says Wild Rivers Water Park General Manager Mike Riedel. "If you don't have snow, there are no skiers. And, if we don't have hot weather, nobody wants to enjoy our water park." But, in spite of Southern California's temperate early summer and a cloudy August, Wild Rivers Water Park finished its season ahead of last year - and much of the credit goes to a zany series of comic Radio spots created by Santa Monica's The Miller Group. In exploring creative concepts, writer-producer Ed Cole considered the funny side of parental guilt as might be experienced by the mothers of Imelda Marcos, Saddam Hussein and Ivan the Terrible who reflect on how things might have turned out for the better if only they had sent their progeny to Wild Rivers Water Park. (Marcos and Hussein were suggested rather than named.) The radio campaign was designated as the Best Radio Series of the Month by the General Sales Managers Council of the SCBA.

Client Riedel points out that, "Our competition has a bigger voice and a bigger budget than we do, so we had to rely on impact rather than high frequency. We decided that, if we went with the traditional approach to water park advertising, no one would hear us. So, I told the agency to go with something different - something that gets listeners to stop and say, 'what is that?' You know, I think it definitely works."

"Actually, we came up with two campaigns," says agency President and Creative Director Renee Miller. "Mike listened carefully to both of them, then came back and said, 'I'm going to go with the 'troubled moms' because you're more passionate about it and I think it'll be a better campaign.'"

"We really enjoy doing humorous advertising whenever we can because it breaks through the clutter. We try to push the envelope without going over the edge but you really have to walk a fine line between what's offensive and what's just clever advertising. That's one of the reasons we do a lot of testing. Whether its formal or informal, we run it by a lot of people to make sure that it isn't offensive - just humorous." Riedel says, "We introduced the spots in June, running at the rate of one new spot a day. I got some phone calls. Some people really liked the campaign, but some didn't like the Saddam Hussein inference. I don't think we'd run it now because of what's going on. It's a humor piece and should be taken that way. We recognize that you're always going to get a few people who are going to be upset, no matter what you do. But they all noticed us. And that's the first goal in advertising: getting attention. I think we really accomplished that!"

"There's so much clutter these days and there's so much hard sell that you're more likely to pay more attention when you hear something that's refreshing," says Miller. "You want to hear more spots in the series. I've had business people say, 'And what have you guys done with radio?' and I'll say, 'We just did spots for Wild Rivers Water Park.' And they say, 'Omigod, those were so funny!' Actually, people were reciting lines."

"I don't spend as much on advertising as our competitors do," opines General Manager Riedel. "They sell the water park experience while we sell our name. We only run three months during the summer, so we have to hit the listener quick and hard. If it takes a month to get their attention, then we're halfway into our season so getting to them quickly is our challenge. That's why we decided to go with Renee and The Miller Group. I knew they could do it. We go in hard, build up a wave and ride it to shore at the end. We give a lot of tickets away and that's one of the reasons why we chose radio. Radio lets you add a tag or modify a copy point quickly. It's the kind of flexibility we need." "Radio is my favorite medium," adds writer/producer Ed Cole. "The creative expense is small - people don't go nuts over the budget. Because of the cost factor and the involvement of so many people, TV spots rarely turn out the way they were planned. But not so in Radio. It's so easy for Radio to take you away to another world!"

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