After a bleak 2014 financial report, SeaWorld is looking ahead to a marketing campaign that the company hopes will rescue its sinking reputation.
Attendance at SeaWorld parks dropped by 1 million visitors from 2013 to 2014, according to the company's fourth-quarter and full-year report.
Annual attendance -- at 22.4 million -- was the lowest since 2010. In the fourth quarter of 2014, attendance was 4.4 million, compared to 4.5 million in the same period of 2013. Revenue was also down, from $272 million in 2013 to $264.5 million in 2014.
Board chairman and interim CEO David D'Alessandro said in an earnings call on Thursday that SeaWorld will begin a targeted marketing campaign by April 1. (Former CEO Jim Atchison stepped down in December.)
With its campaign, the company hopes to convince consumers who are ambivalent about SeaWorld, D'Alessandro said.
"This is not a hit-and-run, as we say in the marketing world, where you can just advertise for a month and hope it goes away," he reportedly said. "This is changing mindsets, and making sure mindsets stay changed, recognizing that the opposition is not going to stand still as we do this."
And D'Alessandro was right: Almost immediately after the call, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) issued a statement.
"It has never been clearer that the tide has turned against the abusement park following the critically acclaimed film Blackfish," PETA said.
For his part, D'Alessandro said SeaWorld's strategy is "simply let's get people into the parks."
He said, "Let's re-establish our pass base, and then let's market more aggressively on the domestic side with additional marketing programs."
The expense of the marketing campaign will be offset by cost-cutting and planned layoffs.
SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment was the eighth largest theme park group in 2013, according to AECOM Technology Corporation.