The Nightmare Realm Case Study.

The Nightmare Realm Urban Horror 2022 Event.

The Nightmare Realm is Ireland’s top scare attraction and was awarded the World’s best Halloween event by Unilad Adventures 2018. It is a thrilling Halloween experience that has been running for 13 years. Sing! has worked with the Nightmare Realm for over 6 years but the pressure was on to take performance to a new level in the aftermath of COVID.

The 2022 campaign also brought the added challenge of marketing a new venue in Dublin 1 after 6 highly successful years in the RDS. This together with increased competition in the market with other local attractions made it a make-or-break year for all involved.

 

The Challenge:

With the client, we agreed on the following KPIs to help us evaluate the success of the campaign:

• Revenue- the goal was to beat 2021’s revenue by 25% in paid media-attributable revenues 
• Tickets – Sell 24% more tickets (21,000 tickets)
• CPA- Reduce 2021’s delivered CPA by 10% 
• ROI- Beat last year’s ROI of 615%.
• Website Conversion rate- Improves upon last year’s rate of 1.94%

 

The Approach:

• Segmented core target audiences and added depth including audience cohorts outside of the core audience. Matched platform, campaign objective, messaging, and format to each audience. On-boarded all available custom audiences to add quality/targeting precision.  
• Full analytics, UTM definition, and pixel review ensured tracking was optimal and data could be shared with platforms for maximum performance.
• Audited past several years’ activity, targeting tactics, platform spend mix, offers/creative, client website, checkout process, and leakage to enhance engagement rates and overall site conversion rate. 
• Identified key issues and implemented subsequent actions. GTM, GA Goals include enhanced e-commerce and data layer population.
• Identified the 3 core audiences (students, couples/families, corporate) and unearthed several untapped optimizations – dayparting, day of the week, geos, and budget pacing approach based on CR behavior over time.
• Social activity intensification Vs previous year. More activity, greater engagement.
• Programmatic supported social and we whitelisted those sites where we know the target audience frequently and consume content. Programmatic was also critical in driving awareness of the new venue.
• PPC targeted users in all segments of the funnel. A granular targeting structure, combined with proprietary data, automated scripts, and constant optimization ensured the budget could meet demand, delivering the lowest possible CPA.

 

The Results:

The campaign was TNMR’s most successful campaign in 13 years. It was so successful that tickets sold out 1 week early leaving 17% of the budget unspent.

Paid Media Revenue:

YoY change: Increased by 98% with 12% less budget 

ROI:

YoY change: The ROI increased from 615% by 145% to 1505% in 2022. 

Website Conversion Rate

YoY change: The website conversion rate increased by 72% from 1.94% to 3.34% 

Cost Per Sale:

YoY change: The combined Cost Per Sale decreased by 62% 

 ROI Platform:

• YoY change: The ROI for Google Ads increased by 154% to 2593% in 2022
• YoY change: The ROI for FB/IG increased by 125% to 517% in 2022

Media Cost (Cost Per Click):

• YoY: The CPC on Google Ads has reduced by 31% 
• YoY: The CPC on Facebook/Instagram has reduced by 27%