Background

Secure Parking was founded in 1979 at a time when car parks were largely viewed as a commodity, with little differentiation in the operation of one site from another.

Secure Parking’s approach has always aimed at being entrepreneurial. It is based on the understanding that no two car parks have the same requirements and that each car park should be treated as a retail business. As a result, the company has developed a marketing system that is specifically designed to maximise each site’s revenue and asset potential.

Its commitment to innovation has led to these systems being continually revised to ensure they meet the changing needs of consumers and make the best use of new and emerging technologies. This has been pivotal in turning Secure Parking into the largest car park operator in Australia.

It currently operates 200 car parks across major metropolitan regions of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle, Wollongong, Gold Coast and Canberra.

Parking in Australia is predominately made up of two products:

• Monthly Parking: Customers use a pass to access a car park on a permanent basis over the term of a contract, and
• Casual Parking: Customers that use parking on an ad hoc basis for work, meeting and leisure activities.

In mid 2009, Secure Parking identified that volumes of casual parking were on the decline and a concerted effort was required to turnaround this trend. Casual parkers are regarded as the most challenging customers to target as in many cases they are unknown to the business. In most cases their parking decision is determined by two key factors: price and proximity to their destination.

To assist identify the casual parker base the company developed an online loyalty program, Club Secure. The program specifically drives casual parking volume through the allocation of tactical parking discounts. Club Secure also allows Secure Parking to develop a relationship and ongoing communication with our customer in an industry that has low levels of customer loyalty and high levels of customer churn.

The Parktoberfest promotion was developed to address the declining volume of casual parking, assist Secure Parking with identifying its casual parker base and present new revenue streams for future marketing activity.

Campaign: Parktoberfest
Client: Secure Parking
Creative Agency: Internal marketing team

Objectives

• To increase casual revenue in all Secure Parking car parks by 10%
• To encourage public transport users to trial causal parking
• To recruit 20,000 new Club Secure Members
• To generate 75,000 competition entries
• To raise awareness of Secure Parking and its network of car parks across Australia, and
• To demonstrate to landlords that Secure Parking is committed to developing unique initiatives to drive revenue.

Strategy

Secure Parking’s Parktoberfest promotion was developed to attract new casual parkers and encourage repeat visitation over an eight-week period. Every time a customer parked in one of its car parks over the promotional period they received an entry into the promotional draw.

Prizes were selected based on feedback from customer research which indicated that big ticket items such as cars, holidays, electrical items and parking could be used as an incentive for encourage customers to choose Secure Parking over competitor car parks in the same location.

Acquiring new Club Secure members was essential for generating ongoing casual revenue growth, therefore any promotion implemented would also require entrants to be added to the Club’s database.

Public transport commuters were highlighted as a major target group and specific media channels were selected to reach this audience.

To influence the pricing aspect of the customer decision-making process, tactical parking discounts were made available at a wide selection of the company’s car parks.

Secure Parking identified it would be beneficial to capture information about the entrant’s parking habits with view to later up-sell customers to permanent parking products.

Execution

Parktoberfest was launched in September 2009 and ran for a period of eight weeks. As this period coincided with the school holiday season, it was traditionally prone to further troughs in casual parking.

The campaign gave casual parkers the chance to win a share in over $120,000 worth of prizes. Specially designed parking tickets were developed and customers were required to send a unique ticket number by SMS or enter online at the Parktoberfiest website to take part in the draw.

All entrants were added to the Club Secure database on a weekly basis and presented with new discount offers to encourage repeat visitation during the promotion period.

Car park point of sale materials featuring customised messages were developed for display at each customer touch point including at entry gates, lifts, pay stations and walkways.

Localised versions of flyers were distributed in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and other cities by promotional staff at all major CBD public transport hubs to target commuters. Flyers included a range of single-use coupons that offered prospects significantly discounted parking comparable with the value of public transport usage.

The competition was promoted in association with locally customised press advertisements in the commuter publication Mx in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Peak-hour drivers and public transport users were also targeted through localised executions in morning, evening and weekend sessions across the Nova radio network.

A 45-second TVC was aired across a wide selection of Foxtel channels. The commercial-specifically targeted the commuter market by highlighting the benefits of driving to work over public transport whilst also featuring the benefits of the Parktoberfest competition.

Secure Parking also utilised its corporate Twitter feed, Facebook page and the Club Secure database to post regular updates about the competition and generate excitement in the lead up to the campaign launch.

Results

Secure Parking’s position to landlords as an innovative marketing focused car park provider was assured with this campaign. The results saw a 14% increase in casual parking revenue on equivalent period in 2008 and the traditional ‘troughs’ in casual parking were avoided. There were 82,000 competition entries, exceeding the projected target by 9%, with 28,000 new Club Secure members added to database (also exceeding the target by 40%).

A 134% increase in Secure Parking web traffic on equivalent period in 2008 was recorded.

Other results include:

• 14,700 qualified sales leads were generated for follow-up by sales teams in each city.
• 8,400 leads were customers that were identified as high-frequency, early-bird parkers that were contacted to for up-sell customers to monthly parking or bulk purchases of prepaid parking. An incentive program was developed to motivate sales staff to convert these leads into additional sales, and
• 4,200 leads have been identified as high-frequency casual parkers that will be followed-up by sales teams to convert into the ‘Advantage Parker’ product.