Marketing Happy Hour - Creating Unforgettable Customer Experiences Online | Stephen Kubiak of Universal Parks & Resorts

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

How does the Universal Studios Parks + Resorts team engage guests online after they leave the attractions? You’ll find out during this interview with Stephen Kubiak, Manager of Social Strategy & Content for the Universal Parks. Stephen not only shares how to create unique experiences for audiences on social media, he also shares how Twitter became one of Universal’s top platforms for engagement and how you too can create world-class social media campaigns for your business. Grab a drink and listen in.  ----- Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Stephen's episode: Social Strategy 101: What You Need to Succeed | Lauren Freund of Shutterfly Getting Innovative: Pitching and Launching New Content Strategies | Michelle Westfall of Universal Parks & Resorts Video Content 101: Make it "Snackable" | Adam Cilley of Sports Card Investor ____ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and share your favorite moments from this episode - we can't wait to hear from you!  Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. NEW: Check out our website! NEW: Join our email list! Follow Stephen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephen_d_kubiak/ Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenkubiak Follow MHH on Instagram: https://instagram.com/marketinghappyhr Follow MHH on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-happy-hour/ Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Marketing Happy Hour Weekly: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/marketing-happy-hour-weekly-6950530577867427840/ Join our Marketing Happy Hour Insiders LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9238088/

Welcome, everyone, to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where you'll hear career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. Go ahead, grab a drink, and join us for this week's episode. For this week's social media update, we have three tips for writing copy that generates results. These tips are mostly applied for SEO on your website, but a lot of these can also be applied to your content writing for social media.

So let's get into it. Number one, keep your tone of voice consistent. Brands can and should aim to develop their own tone of voice to set themselves apart, but this tone of voice also needs to be in line with the preferences of your intended audience. Number two, ensure you're using the correct keyword strategy. Select your primary keywords and target them along with the semantically related keywords. Brief your copywriters properly so important keywords don't get lost in the process. And number three, make sure to include visuals. Images make posts more appealing to readers and trigger emotions. Make sure to create your own graphics, infographics, and videos. This week, Cassie chatted with past Marketing Happy Hour Clubhouse guest, Stephen Kubiak, manager of social strategy and content for Universal Parks and Resorts.

Stephen shares how Universal keeps their guests engaged inside and outside of the parks, and his favorite social platforms to reach their target audience. With the launch of their newest coaster, Cassie and Stephen talk about what the campaign building process looks like in promoting such a unique experience. Listen in. Hi Stephen, how are you? Hi, just fine. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining us. You've been on Clubhouse with us before, so you kind of know how we like to get started. But we always love to ask all of our guests, what is in your glass tonight? Because it is marketing happy hour. So what are you drinking this evening?

So I'm having just a LaCroix. LaCroix, and it's a blackberry cucumber. So I don't know how they come up with these flavors, but it tastes pretty good. So I love that. I have had that one before. It's very good. I am currently sipping on some water. So I'm keeping it very basic tonight. But love a good LaCroix for sure. Yeah. Awesome. So can you tell us a little bit about your background just to get started? You have worked for some awesome companies and we would just love to, you know, learn more about how you got into this role at Universal. Yeah, absolutely. I got to pull up my LinkedIn here

so I can remember everything that I've done. But yeah, I've had a really interesting career for sure. After high school, I joined the United States Air Force as an aerial gunner on an AC-130 Spectre gunship. And I did that for four years. Just didn't want to go straight to college, wanted to do something different. And I certainly did that. My career started on actually just 20 years ago. This month, it'll be 20 years since I enlisted. So right in between, I was actually in basic training on 9-11. So I kind of knew with my job, I would end up in Afghanistan.

And I did, did four tours there. And then during that time, when I wasn't flying or sleeping, I would be writing. So I've always wanted to be a writer and a storyteller, my own stories, fiction, nonfiction, anything like that. So while I was doing that, I really just got inspired more and more to write. So when I came back to the States, I went to Florida State, got my degree in English. And from there, I ended up going to a local television station. There aren't too many creative jobs in Tallahassee. It's more of a government and school town. and I didn't really want to teach English. But so this job opened up at WCTV and the television station, and I was their internet producer. And there I did updating the website, any kind of breaking news stories, but then social media too is brand new.

Nobody besides Facebook and updating it 30 times a day with news stories, no one was really using anything more than that. Although while I was there, I was able to get all of our anchors and reporters on Twitter, which was exciting to do. I said, hey, look at this new tool. This will be amazing. And what's great now is because reporters go all over the place, I can still follow them and see them on social media and the amazing work that they're doing. After that, I moved over to Visit Florida,

the state tourism agency for the state of Florida, which was an awesome experience. There I started as a social media representative and ended up managing the social media department. I finally got to build that out. And of course, like most social media managers that kind of started when I did, it was facing that kind of uphill battle

on the importance of social media, the storytelling that can be done with it, and the power that it has to really engage and ignite a fan base. In one like Florida, where you're combating things like hurricanes and weird news and things along those lines, we really needed to build up a force of good of people, of Floridians and natives that were excited to share about the Sunshine State. So that was part of it. We did our LoveFL campaign, which is still going on now, which was exciting. We started that in 2013. It was really cool. Just a side note that LoveFL, I was at HomeGoods one

day and they were actually selling, which I have in my office, a hashtag LoveFL sign. So I always joked that they stole the hashtag and sold it for $17.99. And of course I had to buy it. So it was really cool to be able to see how that became something bigger. And it continues to be something bigger as people learn more about what the Sunshine State has to offer. And doing that for about seven years, tourism is in my blood and theme parks have always been in my blood. And the storytelling that theme parks is something that's always excited me. So when it came to an opportunity at Universal Orlando Resort, I jumped at it. And I'm about to hit two years with the company.

I've jumped a couple of roles and now I'm in a really exciting role where I'm the manager of social strategy and content for Universal Parks and Resorts. So I'm doing social media, overseeing social media for all of North America, which includes Hollywood and Orlando. And, you know, I get to talk about attractions and work with the team on new projects and Orlando. And I get to talk about attractions and work with the team on new projects and campaigns. We just opened the Jurassic World Velocicoaster and it's just been an amazing ride, pardon the pun, so far. So I really loved it. That is amazing.

Yeah, you mentioned storytelling a lot. And I know I was an annual pass holder last year and plan to become one again at the end of this year. But I know being in the parks, there's such, you know, you're immersed in these stories constantly. And I think you guys do an incredible job of when, you know, someone leaves the park, they're still being immersed in those stories online and on social media. So I would say you guys are really just experts at creating these unique experiences with storytelling across all the social media platforms. But would you say for

you guys, are there different unique personalities and, and or purposes for each of those platforms? And if so, what would they be? Sure. I think there's no secret here about the different social platforms where social is not one platform fits all. You see a lot of platforms changing. For instance, Twitter. I just saw a notification today about Periscope going away. So no more live video. It'll be turned into a legacy product. Or even before that, Vine, when they bought Vine, that was so huge for a while. And then it just disappeared after Instagram arguably killed it with having more robust video features there. Or fleets. Fle were fleeted you know we were integrated that i think a lot of different companies and people used fleets at least for a little bit um to

include in their story mix of content and stories in general like that was something new that when it came for uh every every brand like okay here's this new thing on the same platform. We need to figure out ways to engage our audience here. You know, all these things change all the time. But all the platforms are just a little bit different, even if some of their features are similar. So, you know, with Facebook, you know, it's still going to be your broadest audience. You know, it's more of a pay to play platform. We know this and that's been historically the trend there. But also it's kind of like your front page when people are searching for a business. lot of businesses you'll see they won't even have web pages anymore. And for myself, when I'm going to a business, usually I will go to their website only to find their social channels because I know there'll be other features there that I can utilize, whether it's reviews or comments or

posts about things that they might be sharing. Most of it's food. I feel like I'm always looking at what new restaurants should I check out? And with that, you know, it's just where people are going to naturally come to. So there, you know, a lot of news, a lot the platform for brands, because that's just your spot to get people connected. as articles come out that you know that will get a lot of comments, you know, it would be, that would be great to share there. Doing that and knowing that it's going to really engage the audience or polarize them or it's just going to be interesting to see what kind of response they have to it. So Facebook, you know, kind of your standard front page. It's like your front page of your paper. Twitter is the one that we're probably most well known for because it is where we're playful, where we have a little fun with our audience too. We're always listening. And because of that, and being

really close to our audience, we're able to respond to them very quickly. And that's really exciting for us when we have the ability to do that. And not just with outbound messaging, but also any kind of fun engagement opportunities that we see, or, um, or with, uh, um, guest relations. We have a team that's working on that and ensuring that any issue that somebody has, they'll be able to get it taken care of. And, uh, that's just a great team that, that deals with a lot, um, with, with theme parks comes, you know, a lot of different, uh lines or safety procedures or anything of any one of those things. And those are things that they're dealing with on a daily basis and hundreds of those things. So being able to quickly engage your audience with fun content, but also being able to

help them out. And then, you know, the big one that is, you know, out of the big three, Instagram, you know, you have a little bit of everything. And that one certainly keeps changing. Now that you have Instagram Reels and you have another TikTok-like feature that you can utilize, it seems like we're getting away from stories and going, well, stories still exist and there's still a lot of value in them. But now you have reels and TikToks and ways to engage your audience in a much, much different way. And, you know, you kind of have to relearn everything again as a social team. And what what are our best practices? What do we want to utilize this for?

And since we do like to be a little playful and, and Tik TOK and reels, those are a little bit more playful. Uh, that gives us an opportunity to, uh, to be that. So, um, you know, we're always thinking of a way to kind of engage our audience, especially if it's something like a J a joke or meme or something that goes along with the theme park that just our fans will get. And then that message, if it gets bigger, spreads out to other audiences as well. But again, with Instagram, you've got your main wall that you're posting things on. You've got stories, you've got IGTV for longer form content, and then you have Reels. So there's a lot of different things that can be done there in a

lot of different ways. So your post, your main post can be just nice photography of the park, but then your Reels might be something very specific to a ride or a saying from a ride or a show uh that the fans would get and would be easily digestible shareable um uh content like that there so that one still i feel like i i love instagram and it's always been the the most wild card of the bunch where it's, it's so strong, but there's always little different ways to, uh, utilize it and nuances there. So. Awesome. Yeah. So speaking of Instagram, this is kind of an off the cuff question, but, um, with the recent announcement of them trying to move more towards an entertainment platform and how they want to kind of mimic TikTok.

I know you guys are already very entertainment focused on that platform, but has that recent announcement changed your thinking or strategy in any way? You know, it's one of those things whenever you see these announcements, you really need to step back and evaluate what that really means for all of the channels that you're working on and what that workflow looks like. So when it comes to those changes, except for something like fleets, you see something like that, okay, they're going to drop at this point. We don't need to share any more there and even there when you're posting

stories every platform has stories now Pinterest has a a form of story YouTube has stories LinkedIn has stories I mean you have stories on every platform so a lot of times for those and I've seen a lot of brands do this where they're just kind of duplicating their efforts, even though those channels are for different audiences there. So for Instagram, I would say it's a little bit more wait and see and not rush to make any sudden changes and kind of see where the platform goes from there. Because we know just slight changes can really significantly impact a platform so um i think we really have to see uh what that's what that's going to look like yeah i agree i think a lot of people are kind of taking it too far as well like they read that statement and they're like i only need to post reels from now on i only need to post entertainment any entertaining content

but really what he said in his full context was, you know, that's something we would like to focus on. But please continue to post, you know, photos, we love carousels, you know, all that stuff. So I think people have to figure out the way that it works for them and kind of apply it in that way. But, you know, I like what you said about just kind of seeing what happens with it and watching it develop. I think that's great. Yeah. Yeah. So you mentioned, so Twitter, you said you guys are really known for, but also Instagram's a big one for you. What would you say overall, just based off some of the KPIs you all have set for yourself, what have you seen recently some of to be some of the most successful platforms. And why do you think that is the most successful one? I still think, you know, I can't talk about specific metrics for us, but I can tell you what I've seen just in the industry so far is Instagram is still just incredibly strong.

But TikTok is just so fascinating. And I think it's an amazing platform for quickly consuming content, but it also poses huge challenges for brand, especially when it comes to any media usage that doesn't, any licensed media that may be associated or that you might see in a consumer, just average user's post. But then when it comes to a brand, it may be a little bit more difficult to utilize depending on what guidelines they have set in place. So TikTok's really fascinating to watch. But what's interesting is I'm seeing a lot of people recently using TikTok

and creating videos there on the platform and utilizing the tools, similar to how people would use Instagram and use the filters and then pull it into a different platform to kind of quickly edit it. And we're seeing a lot of TikToks end up on Instagram Reels or we're seeing them on Twitter where people are pulling them into different places. It's kind of like Reddit and BuzzFeed. Like everything BuzzFeed posts lived on Reddit at one time or another. They're just kind of collecting it and putting it into a different place that looks a little bit different there too. So that's why, you know, with that recent announcement from Instagram, that's why I don't even, I think that Instagram and their leadership sees that people are utilizing the tool to TikTok to utilize, to create the content, but then it's going multiple places. Yes, they may be getting more views on TikTok, but some of

those legacy platforms, I wouldn't necessarily count them out. And with the versatility of Instagram, it's just really, really strong still. So I think measuring there in the amount of ways that you can, the amount of ways that you can communicate with people is just invaluable. Where on other channels, it may be one or two other things other things like yes, Facebook, you can do live video, you can do stories, but really like when you're talking about different kinds of content types or different audiences for those content types they're just not as robust as Instagram it is.

So that's going to be an interesting one to follow because people will utilize the tools if they're easy and then kind of blast it wherever they can. So, yeah, that's what I'm seeing right now. You know, I think Twitter, what's interesting is a lot of people said, you know, Twitter was dead. You know, I think I had mentioned this to you before with President Trump that, you know, it seemed to reinvigorate the platform, you know, not, you know, you just, things happen and this is the way things happen. But just for the, there's no other platform out there where you can get a message out so quickly and broadcast it the way you can,

where it's just kind of out there in the open space and you're just kind of yelling out there and seeing who listens. And I don't know, that's always fascinated me about Twitter and its ability to reach audiences in, in very, very rapid ways. So still just a fun channel to utilize. So some of the news about Fleets, Periscope, it's going to be interesting. So maybe they're going back to their roots.

It's going to be an interesting one to watch and see what they end up, what the next big thing for them is going to be an interesting one to watch and see what they end up, what the next big thing for them is going to be. Yeah, I agree. I know it's crazy that they decided to kind of step away from that so soon, but that's kind of what happens. You know, these platforms, it almost shows that there's humans behind the business, right?

They want to test things. And if it doesn't work out great, like, you know, they can move forward and decide what to do next. But I liked earlier too, how you mentioned the customer service aspect of Twitter as well. I think, you know, I almost go for Twitter first before picking up the phone to call a company or, you know, getting on their chat or anything like that just because it's so immediate. And I know you guys do a great job. I think I was at the park once and for a while, Hagrid's was closing earlier than the parks. And I think I DM'd you guys and immediately got a

response about what time that ride was shutting down. And I think it's just such an excellent platform for that, but also just sharing timely information and being fun and kind of quirky. So kind of on the topic of Twitter, you've always really mentioned to us that that's one of your favorite platforms to work on. And I know for me personally, working with clients, I'm not super versed in Twitter and it's not one of my strong suits. And I think it can be kind of intimidating to different businesses. But what is some of your advice you would give to people about excelling on that platform and really making it work for them? I think I would expand on that question first and not just, not just focus in on Twitter, because I really think it's all social channels. And I ran into this a lot at Visit Florida, where we're working with a lot of different partners, everyone to

a Universal Studios down to a Bubba's Airboat rides where some are utilizing social media because it's, you know, they see it as the, you know, quote unquote, free marketing platform, when we know that, you know, really good socials is never free. And what is the right platform for them? So for, you know, LinkedIn is not for everybody. Twitter is not for everybody. There's a lot of companies out there that don't have a Twitter account. And I don't think it's necessary for who they are or what they're trying to do. Not every business has to be on everything. So if you have to be on, say, one or two things, what are those things that are going to give you

the most value for your business? So I'd say for a lot of businesses, yes, TikTok may be hot right now, but that's not necessarily what, unless you're really spending some time on the platform to really kind of hack into it and create great stories. Or if you're looking to, you know, if you want to, if you really want to utilize the platform, you know, you can always go in and experiment, especially with a, you know,

just like Twitter's experimenting with new tools. I think a brand can go out and, you know, depending on the size of the brand too, if you're a small mom and pop, sure. Try something, play around with it. But then also focus in on those things that are going to be most valuable to you. So like a TikTok, yes, it may have all the traction right now, maybe the hottest, but that may not be the best tool for selling your product and getting people to understand who you are and what your business is.

Maybe Instagram is more important for you. And then demos is going to be important too. So looking at just some of the general demographics for the channels is very important there too. I would say a TikTok for maybe a brand, maybe even, you know, I don't want to speculate, but like if you have a brand that's really between, you know, 35 and 55. Yeah, that's that's the focus. Yes. Some of them are going to be on TikTok. I was reading an article about like the parents of TikTok and them creating their own content.

And I thought it was really fun also being a parent to see some of that content as well. I wish I had the time to do something like that. But with that, you know, that's not where the majority of that audience is going to be. It's going to be on a Facebook or an Instagram. And again, depending on the business will depend on what platform you're going to utilize. So one of the things that I've really wanted to do in my career is do more sales through Facebook or Instagram and utilizing some of those tools. But the brands that I've worked for, we haven't really had a need to do those types of things.

But I think those are really interesting to see those ones that work and get those immediate conversions because that's the golden goose is those conversions and people not only engaging, but if you can see that, and we know that's not always an easy thing to measure when it comes to social. So yeah, it just, it all depends on the business there. So demographic, definitely a first thing to look at and then what

the business is. Awesome. Yeah. And I 100% agree. Not everyone has to be on every platform. And I think when content becomes forced and when people start thinking, okay, I have to post on here, let me just come up with something really quick, then that becomes like almost worthless for them. Right. So I think that's a great note there. So you guys just launched an amazing roller coaster at Universal Orlando called the Voss Coaster. So you guys did a lot of really great kind of teasers leading up to the launch of this coaster, really getting people excited prior to this opening. So when you guys have a new park addition similar to this, what does the campaign building process look like for your team? Well, really, it really varies greatly. That's the one thing I've learned in the last two years. So I've seen historically what we've done for other other attractions um i was here for well in uh you know

a work from home situation for when we opened the born stuntacular last year which a lot of people don't even think about because it um it it opened uh in june of last year officially grand opening last year and we're uh in the middle of the pandemic so it's uh or the beginning i you know we're still ongoing so wherever it was so you didn't have that same uh fanfare just kind of open even though it was an amazing attraction and we did see a lot and continue to see a lot of guests uh just amazed by the uh the effects there and shameless plug like the show i went to go see it uh like two weeks ago and it's just it really is incredible um uh you know yeah it just is so i i couldn't think of anything more eloquent to say it's just awesome just definitely go see it but

then with something like velocicoaster um you know that's's such a bigger deal. People are seeing this thing. But I think like a lot of businesses too, like you really had to rethink marketing efforts and what your, what any kind of limitations there are because of quarantine, because of travel restrictions, whatever it may be. So, you know, with that, you really have to look at your marketing efforts there. So I know in the past, they've done some really amazing things. And a lot of those are captured on our YouTube channel for grand openings, grand openings of different attractions like Fast and Furious Supercharged. They have this huge shindig for that and then for uh um uh hagrid's

magical creatures motorbike adventure um there was a huge you know you had stars from the harry potter films that attended that and you know with velocicoaster is a little bit more low-key certainly and with that um you know we had to look at some of the efforts there, too. One of the things there that really helped was our universal creative team that's in charge of designing these amazing attractions that we get to experience. They were so open and worked so closely with us on making sure that we were able to share things that we could show before anybody else could see. And it may seem like something small,

but in years past, I think they've had a lot more trouble with that just because there's a lot of stuff going on. To take that roller coaster from the ground up in the amount of time it took they were really moving so there's a lot of things going on so one of the examples of us kind of jumping in there uh was just leading up to um the the opening is just sharing you you know, exclusive photos of the area as things open, like the sign being revealed. That was a huge thing, just the sign.

And, you know, people want to know every little thing that happens in a theme park. Or when we had, you know, not too, well, this is out there already, but there are raptors in the queue. So, like, seeing them and capturing video of that because of how amazingly lifelike they are. And the fun fact, it's because they're real raptors in the queue. So we've flown there. And with that, having those little teases just keep the anticipation.

And then just like the fan reaction too. You've got bloggers, you've got fans. So when is this opening watching everything we do and just, just they want any bit of information that they can get. So when it came to Velocicoaster opening, and especially because it's just an incredible ride you know, you had the fans in just, just you know ravenous for more information and ready to get on the ride and the reviews truthfully have not seen one negative

review about the velocity coaster i it's incredible not a single one and um it's just an amazing amazing experience and part of that um one of the things that was really big, if anybody followed the opening of Velocicoaster is, or any of this, is people kept calling it, we were a little bit late to the game, like the structures up of the roller coaster and people are, you know, what are you building over there? And we can't say anything because we're not announcing what it is and um so somehow it came out that oh no that's

not a that's not a new attraction at islands of adventure that's just a churro stand and that whole idea that it's just a churro stand really took off where um that's what we responded to everything like. You know, there was, you know, hey, what are you building over there, Universal? And it's us. Ah, don't be suspicious. You know, there's nothing going on over here.

And with that, that kind of meme that was created by the fan community and the guest service team and the content engagement team turned into this moment where at the opening of VelociCoaster, our president, Bill Davis, decided that, hey, we're going to give people churros as they're exiting the ride and say, like, yes, this was a churro stand all along. And we've got a great, somebody took an amazing photo of Bill holding a churro and he's in sunglasses. And we actually made a couple of memes about that with his blessing because he is just an amazing, amazing leader and just an amazing sport to jump on that. And sure enough, we built a churro stand. So it was amazing to see them, um, in just the logistics of getting that many churros. It's thousands and thousands of churros to people. So really taking something that started on the internet, um, and turning it into something that the fans like really, really could appreciate and, and kind of was like a way to, for us to tip our hat and say, like, look, we hear you.

We can poke fun at ourselves. We can have fun. We can give you free churros. And just turn it into a really amazing experience. And it definitely, the opening is one of the highlights of my career so far. And everything around that opening. And there's more to come. We've worked on a lot of content.

There'll be some more amazing content to come with that. So stay tuned. That is amazing. Well, I have not written it yet. I'm excited to come in the next two weeks. I think I'm coming to write it. So I cannot wait. But I love watching you guys work online. I think you guys do an incredible job. So kudos for that. And thank you so much for sharing your story, the story of Universal and just everything

that you guys are currently doing on the team. But Steven, really quick before we let you go, where is a great place for people to connect with you at? Sure, absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn. So I'm always, if I see anything related to social media or storytelling, I always like to share what I'm seeing. I like to keep my finger on the pulse of what's happening in the social space there. So I'll share things every now and then. So it's just my name, Stephen, with a PH, Qiak, K-U-B-I-A-K.

And you can search for me there. Also on Twitter, because I'm more of a lurker than I am a poster, just because I do stay busy, as a lot of social managers do out there. But it's just at Stephen underscore Kubiak. And you can find me there. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Stephen. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Of course.

Well, that episode was fun. I can't wait to go to Universal again. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to rate and leave a review. And as always, keep up with us on Instagram at Marketing Happy Hour. That's at Marketing Happy HR.