Merlin Entertainments Chooses Isobar Nordics to Work on Digital Transformation

Merlin Entertainments, the global entertainment giant behind attractions such as LEGOLAND, Heide Park, London Eye and Madame Tussauds, has tapped Isobar Nordics as its experience agency of record. The goal is to deliver on a visionary digital transformation road map that will bring all the company’s attractions together on one, singular web solution and one marketing automation platform.

Every year, an incredible 69 million people enjoy the thrills and excitement of the more than 140 Merlin-operated attractions across close to 30 countries. But in order to create a digital customer experience as magical and delightful – from research, planning and booking to enjoying digital post-visit memories and perhaps planning the next visit? – Merlin saw a pressing need for a complete revamp of their digital platforms.

While Merlin today maintains more than 140 individual websites, the ambition is to gather all of Merlin’s attractions under one solution, able to combine the duelling demands of each attraction needing to have their own, unmistakable identity and the desire for global consistency, efficiency and benefits of scale.

Combined with Merlin investing in marketing automation technology, the result is a whole new world of opportunities for creating customer experiences that span the whole range of the company – and the life span of the customer: From visiting LEGOLAND as a toddler, to wilder teen-friendly rides in Alton Towers, to a trip to the London Eye on a couple’s getaway – and beyond.

“If you’re a loyal customer with one part of a company, of course you’ll expect to be recognised as such when visiting another country or another brand within that company, yet so many global companies fail at this. In our view, Merlin represents a dream client precisely because they understand the need to think in a holistic way about customer journeys – and the need to invest in a technology platform built to support this way of thinking”, says Martin Bochineck, CEO of Isobar Nordics. “We see a strong shift in the market where the best and most ambitious companies are not simply buying advanced marketing automation platforms such as Salesforce or Adobe, but also investing heavily in transforming their own organisation to take advantage of these platforms – in a way that creates business value AND better customer experiences”.

 

Merlin Entertainments is not new to working with Isobar, but with the new project road maps the partnership becomes truly global.

“We’ve had a strong collaboration with Isobar for many years, so when we decided to consolidate our digital agency roster, Isobar was the obvious choice”, says David Knight, Merlin’s programme manager for marketing solutions.

“We knew we needed an agency which combined deep technical skills and a visionary approach to the intersection of web, data and CRM, with a strong supporting presence in our local markets. We want a solution at the cutting edge of international agency work – but we also needed confidence that we’d get a high level of quality in local market roll outs. Isobar delivers on that combination”.

At the Isobar office in Copenhagen, client service director Louise Nørgaard Dam adds: “It’s no secret that we’re over the moon with excitement and quite a bit of humility in the face of this task. Merlin Entertainment instantly becomes a global flagship client for us – and we can’t wait to bring lots of digital magic to millions across the world.”

The first Merlin-website on the new global platform is to launch end of November 2019, with others to follow shortly thereafter.