Rajang-GOAT
Well-Known Member
Colchester was on Zoo Days, and Jersey briefly featured on Big Week At The Zoo, granted the former is long gone and the latter likely had limited benefits.
Making zoos more commercial
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Zooplantman
Well-Known Member
Good point about the differences between big zoos and small. I admit that I do not take the very small facilities into account when I think about zoos.
So the strategies need to be different perhaps. It seems as though you are recommending (in your original post) that the small zoos do what the big zoos are already doing. But if they could, wouldn't they be doing these things? If they are truly small, they are struggling to stay open let alone create new programs and new marketing positions.
So the strategies need to be different perhaps. It seems as though you are recommending (in your original post) that the small zoos do what the big zoos are already doing. But if they could, wouldn't they be doing these things? If they are truly small, they are struggling to stay open let alone create new programs and new marketing positions.
Some thoughts:
Outsourcing of the cafe is widespread amongst UK zoos, with only the large and smallest collections definitely likely to keep in in-house. The burger van approach was a novel idea for me, though.
Experiences are widespread across most zoos as an extra means of generating income. In fact I'd be surprised to hear of a UK zoo/collection that didn't offer something.
If zoos have the space and location then accommodation must be the biggest source of income outside busy days and membership. The trade-off is investing in infrastructure and staff.
Overall I'm concerned how all zoos can balance their overheads during these periods of high energy costs and remain open for business.
Outsourcing of the cafe is widespread amongst UK zoos, with only the large and smallest collections definitely likely to keep in in-house. The burger van approach was a novel idea for me, though.
Experiences are widespread across most zoos as an extra means of generating income. In fact I'd be surprised to hear of a UK zoo/collection that didn't offer something.
If zoos have the space and location then accommodation must be the biggest source of income outside busy days and membership. The trade-off is investing in infrastructure and staff.
Overall I'm concerned how all zoos can balance their overheads during these periods of high energy costs and remain open for business.
Charles
Well-Known Member
I think it might be like covid unfortunately, new exhibits will be delayed by a few years as funds will be used for energy
I agree, and wonder how zoos can gather money and promote attendance online?
I remember the Leipzig Zoo got quite a lot of popularity on memes with its cross-eyed opossum Heidi. Strangest of all, I saw the said Heidi, and it did not look that comical in reality - only in close-up. But Heidi still has its Wikipedia page in several lanuages:
Heidi (opossum) - Wikipedia
Hollywood Fame Beckons for Opossum: Cross-Eyed Heidi May Appear in Oscars Coverage
In Poland, there are lots of memes with proboscis monkeys, with Janusz Nosacz and family Grażyna and Pietrek stereotyping an overweight idiot, his wife and son. To the result, that even a 'fan' Facebook group was created to promote importing proboscis monkeys to Warsaw Zoo. Which is of course impossible in reality.
Log into Facebook | Facebook
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Lafone
Well-Known Member
Social media is certainly a big opportunity for zoos of all sizes particularly if they can find a hook (a new birth, rescue or very unusual animal) and although some zoos won't be able to afford someone with marketing as a speciality there might be someone enthusiastic to learn in house to make the most of an opportunity. Just speculating of course as it's a lot easier to have a view than it is to run a place!
Alwaysevergreen
Well-Known Member
A few comments above and don't want to reply to each one, but there is a lot zoos don't do they could do.
I actually feel very passionate about this, and personally I am more of a small zoo fan than a big zoo fan. I've gone out my own way to "try" and help and I feel that outside minds can help sometimes more than inside minds.
What smaller zoos should be looking at;
Social Media - Supporters Groups
- Check out a farm park in Scotland called Dalscone Fun Farm. They've absolutely smashed this. 1800 subscribers paying £4 a month for every few days videos with the keepers showing the animals up close, lots of interaction. This is a farm park, and they have somewhat created a bit of a cult following. So based on 1800 x 3 (after Facebook cut I'm sure), it's an extra £5000 a month for a farm park, £60,000 a year. But that's not all, on Facebook you can buy stars and when a live video is on, you can donate stars, 500 stars costs £5, this goes to the people running the group.
This model should be explored by more zoos. Lincolnshire Wildlife Park have started doing many lives with the owner Steve about Nigel the Puma. I have watched a few of these with interest, but for one reason, I've been counting the donated stars, and one video got nearly 20,000 stars the other week, now obviously you can buy more than 500 stars for £5 and save money, but taken on the basis of 500 stars is £5, that video alone created a donation of around £200. One video.
Plus Lincolnshire's group is free to view, not part of a supporter group.
Smaller zoos who want to interact, reach out to the public and become more popular can do this, it costs nothing and the upshot is endless!
I have been talking to smaller zoos about this concept with the research I have gathered over the last 6 months, as I see this is a relatively new thing, and something which will spread the message of zoos and introduce people more to animals.
My viewpoint is, if a small farm park can muster up 1800 subscribers, what could a zoo with cool animals, great stories, lots of lives and so on create.
I know not everyone would happily pay £4 a month to watch extra content, but it's clear some people would. Especially if you feel an added connection to the zoo.
For all Safari Zoo has people who dislike it, they also interact very well with the public and visitors and social media following is solid. Further to this, they have member days at the zoo, where they get to feed animals, meet keepers and so on, they have them every 3 months and included in annual membership. I am sure this gets them more members than most smaller zoos, because they offer something which makes members feel special.
A lot of smaller zoos close for the winter, but by offering private tours, and getting to meet the animals and having the zoo to yourself, this can attract high end customers, who would pay £1000 or so, to have them and a few mates get a 1 to 1 day at the zoo, meet animals and what it can generate for a smaller zoo is huge in the long run.
Adoptions are one thing, but Sponsorship can be huge. Companies can use it as good advertising and in the past we saw Spirit Of The Jaguar sponsored by Jaguar, but that's at Chester Zoo.
Smaller zoos would happily get into having business's sponsoring exhibits even for a few hundred quid. It costs them nothing and brings in extra money.
Bristol Sport (Bristol City FC, Bristol Rugby & Basketball) sponsored the old meerkat exhibit at Bristol Zoo.
You can have naming raffles for animals. Donate £1, chose a name, winner drawn from a hat, and gets to come to the zoo to meet said animal.
Small things can go a massive long way.
Personally I hated seeing a small zoo close, it breaks my heart completely.
I love animals, zoos and everything to do with them, I am passionate, lonely in life, and it has pretty much become my life. I can spend 10 hours at a zoo with 6 exhibits, it may sound crazy, but I will patiently sit with a camera trying to get shots I can be proud of, and try and get a connection to a zoo.
I think there is so much more smaller zoos can do to get support, raise funds and everything and it doesn't require hiring fancy teams and spending big budgets, the problem is, so many are a bit in the dark ages.
Whilst the world was in lockdown, people liked to hear from zoos, about the animals, as they couldn't go and see them. The older generation, some of these people are still not comfortable going out for the day, my parents rarely ever leave their house. They aren't internet people.
But there are people who will sit there all day, watching feeds on socials, and they enjoy it.
I am not pretending to know all the answers, or all the stats, but I do know, what can work with minimal effort.
But the correct way of doing things in a commercial sense is not going backwards in time, its about utilising the current demographic.
Some people have very little money these days, so the opportunity to buy members passes and go to the zoo frequently is not an option anymore.
But if a zoo offered daily content, loads of videos, talks, everything on animals, online and charged a couple of pounds a month, a lot of people would sign up. You can even give away tickets now and again.
I am certain this is the way a lot of small zoos should be heading. Zoos now have interns, keepers who are of a younger age, who spend their lives on socials. There are keepers on Instagram with thousands of followers and generate hundreds of likes when they post a picture on their feed.
These sort of people would love to be asked to do more content for the zoos they work for, you can effectively start your own sort of TV show without it being on TV.
It may not work for every zoo and it wont, but there is so much more that can be done, that will raise money, without expenditure.
You might think I am wrong, that's your opinion, but its something I feel very passionate about.
I actually feel very passionate about this, and personally I am more of a small zoo fan than a big zoo fan. I've gone out my own way to "try" and help and I feel that outside minds can help sometimes more than inside minds.
What smaller zoos should be looking at;
Social Media - Supporters Groups
- Check out a farm park in Scotland called Dalscone Fun Farm. They've absolutely smashed this. 1800 subscribers paying £4 a month for every few days videos with the keepers showing the animals up close, lots of interaction. This is a farm park, and they have somewhat created a bit of a cult following. So based on 1800 x 3 (after Facebook cut I'm sure), it's an extra £5000 a month for a farm park, £60,000 a year. But that's not all, on Facebook you can buy stars and when a live video is on, you can donate stars, 500 stars costs £5, this goes to the people running the group.
This model should be explored by more zoos. Lincolnshire Wildlife Park have started doing many lives with the owner Steve about Nigel the Puma. I have watched a few of these with interest, but for one reason, I've been counting the donated stars, and one video got nearly 20,000 stars the other week, now obviously you can buy more than 500 stars for £5 and save money, but taken on the basis of 500 stars is £5, that video alone created a donation of around £200. One video.
Plus Lincolnshire's group is free to view, not part of a supporter group.
Smaller zoos who want to interact, reach out to the public and become more popular can do this, it costs nothing and the upshot is endless!
I have been talking to smaller zoos about this concept with the research I have gathered over the last 6 months, as I see this is a relatively new thing, and something which will spread the message of zoos and introduce people more to animals.
My viewpoint is, if a small farm park can muster up 1800 subscribers, what could a zoo with cool animals, great stories, lots of lives and so on create.
I know not everyone would happily pay £4 a month to watch extra content, but it's clear some people would. Especially if you feel an added connection to the zoo.
For all Safari Zoo has people who dislike it, they also interact very well with the public and visitors and social media following is solid. Further to this, they have member days at the zoo, where they get to feed animals, meet keepers and so on, they have them every 3 months and included in annual membership. I am sure this gets them more members than most smaller zoos, because they offer something which makes members feel special.
A lot of smaller zoos close for the winter, but by offering private tours, and getting to meet the animals and having the zoo to yourself, this can attract high end customers, who would pay £1000 or so, to have them and a few mates get a 1 to 1 day at the zoo, meet animals and what it can generate for a smaller zoo is huge in the long run.
Adoptions are one thing, but Sponsorship can be huge. Companies can use it as good advertising and in the past we saw Spirit Of The Jaguar sponsored by Jaguar, but that's at Chester Zoo.
Smaller zoos would happily get into having business's sponsoring exhibits even for a few hundred quid. It costs them nothing and brings in extra money.
Bristol Sport (Bristol City FC, Bristol Rugby & Basketball) sponsored the old meerkat exhibit at Bristol Zoo.
You can have naming raffles for animals. Donate £1, chose a name, winner drawn from a hat, and gets to come to the zoo to meet said animal.
Small things can go a massive long way.
Personally I hated seeing a small zoo close, it breaks my heart completely.
I love animals, zoos and everything to do with them, I am passionate, lonely in life, and it has pretty much become my life. I can spend 10 hours at a zoo with 6 exhibits, it may sound crazy, but I will patiently sit with a camera trying to get shots I can be proud of, and try and get a connection to a zoo.
I think there is so much more smaller zoos can do to get support, raise funds and everything and it doesn't require hiring fancy teams and spending big budgets, the problem is, so many are a bit in the dark ages.
Whilst the world was in lockdown, people liked to hear from zoos, about the animals, as they couldn't go and see them. The older generation, some of these people are still not comfortable going out for the day, my parents rarely ever leave their house. They aren't internet people.
But there are people who will sit there all day, watching feeds on socials, and they enjoy it.
I am not pretending to know all the answers, or all the stats, but I do know, what can work with minimal effort.
But the correct way of doing things in a commercial sense is not going backwards in time, its about utilising the current demographic.
Some people have very little money these days, so the opportunity to buy members passes and go to the zoo frequently is not an option anymore.
But if a zoo offered daily content, loads of videos, talks, everything on animals, online and charged a couple of pounds a month, a lot of people would sign up. You can even give away tickets now and again.
I am certain this is the way a lot of small zoos should be heading. Zoos now have interns, keepers who are of a younger age, who spend their lives on socials. There are keepers on Instagram with thousands of followers and generate hundreds of likes when they post a picture on their feed.
These sort of people would love to be asked to do more content for the zoos they work for, you can effectively start your own sort of TV show without it being on TV.
It may not work for every zoo and it wont, but there is so much more that can be done, that will raise money, without expenditure.
You might think I am wrong, that's your opinion, but its something I feel very passionate about.
Zooplantman
Well-Known Member
But you are not necessarily representative. Most zoo goers are locals. For many families the freedom to drop in to their local zoo anytime for a family day out, for kids to play, etc. is well worth it (these are the reasons many members give)
littleRedPanda
Well-Known Member
Apart from Shepreth, I can't think of another zoo charging 5 x single entry for membership ... oh and Johnsons 15x single entry.
Alwaysevergreen
Well-Known Member
Beale Park (x4.56), Cotswold Wildlife Park (x4.875),
That's off the top of my head, and given you can't have .56 and .875 visits, has to be rounded up.
Many years ago I helped Chester get sponsorship for its camels from a local sand company.
And, a little later, Chester's Jaguar building was part sponsored by the car manufacturer.
But it's a small field.
iirc Marwell as well had their jaguars sponsored by the car manufacturer back when they still kept the species... iirc the sponsorship ended not long before the jaguars left for Chester in 2004
Zooplantman
Well-Known Member
This may surprise no one but in the USA this is a very common practice
Corporate Giving
Current Partners
Sponsorships in Jacksonville Florida | Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
https://www.zoo.org/document.doc?id=335
Reaching big sponsors, people and companies with big money, is not easy. It requires making a ladder of personal networks to reach the right people. However, zoos with their conservation mission and cute animals are rather well equipped to do it.
However, rich sponsors can also be very bad for the zoo. Several zoos in financially rich European cities (I will not name but many people can guess) look surprisingly run down and uninteresting for their history and possible money. It seems that the zoo no longer cares much about the actual visitors, but about few very rich people who can give big sums apiece.
Alwaysevergreen
Well-Known Member
Why does it have to be big sponsors, any level of sponsorship is better than no sponsorship, You could sponsor a small exhibit for a few hundred pounds a year, and be offered say 10 tickets as well as a plaque on the exhibit, and a chance to bring your guests to the zoo, to see the animal you sponsor. Good opportunity for local exposure, and co-operate entertainment for a day.
Sponsorship of a flagship new species to a zoo in the UK, costs a few thousand, but again not impossible for local businesses, especially ones with a love of animals.
How is this linked to rich sponsors though ? Surely if they were getting big money sponsors, the exhibits would be of good quality. Would someone want to sponsor something that looks poor ?
Lafone
Well-Known Member
MrChris can clearly comment on Beale Park but in the case of CWP members and others make a lot of visits as it’s a really popular place to go in the summer for picnics etc and as you can take a dog people go as their local outdoor space as they also do at Whipsnade (minus the dogs at the latter). I expect quite a lot of people do memberships for CWP as they realistically will go more than 5 times a year and it is then good value for people on all incomes as it’s a great space to take the kids for the day etc.
In terms of sponsors the ark has some businesses sponsoring enclosures which being a rescue place as well as zoo is clearly appealing for small businesses to get involved with some charity sort of work.
Alwaysevergreen
Well-Known Member
I didn't say it wouldn't be popular, and agree that it will probably be well used, but 5x would put off some people, who may not go every 2 months to make it worthwhile, whilst 3x which is the norm is always attractive.
Always confuses me when you post The Ark as opposed to Ark, mainly because in Lincolnshire there is a domestic rescue centre which actually has this name, Ark Animal Rescue North Somercotes Lincolnshire
Whilst Ark Wildlife & Dinosaur Park is just Ark, not The Ark.
Wondered a few times, if you were referring to the rescue sanctuary or the zoo, which has a lot of rescues. Worked out now you mean the Zoo in Strickney, but technically The Ark is an animal rescue sanctuary near Donna Nook, whilst Ark, is the zoo.
Lafone
Well-Known Member
I didn't say it wouldn't be popular, and agree that it will probably be well used, but 5x would put off some people, who may not go every 2 months to make it worthwhile, whilst 3x which is the norm is always attractive.
Always confuses me when you post The Ark as opposed to Ark, mainly because in Lincolnshire there is a domestic rescue centre which actually has this name, Ark Animal Rescue North Somercotes Lincolnshire
Whilst Ark Wildlife & Dinosaur Park is just Ark, not The Ark.
Wondered a few times, if you were referring to the rescue sanctuary or the zoo, which has a lot of rescues. Worked out now you mean the Zoo in Strickney, but technically The Ark is an animal rescue sanctuary near Donna Nook, whilst Ark, is the zoo.
Yes the zoo; there wouldn’t be much reason to post about a dog and cat sanctuary here (though I’m sure they do good work).
Zooplantman
Well-Known Member
This thread is less and less productive and risks descending into endless fencing.
But that will be the only time such has ever happened here
But that will be the only time such has ever happened here