In a world where everyone’s doom-scrolling and saying it’s all “gone to the dogs,” Nelson flipped the script and handed the spotlight to its real stars—the Meerkats (and other animals) of NatureLand Wildlife Trust. These adorable little critters aren’t just standing upright and looking cute; they’re single-handedly (paw-edly?) turning the town into a hotbed of meerkat mania.
The mission? Sell out every last wildlife encounter slot. Imagine it: one of these furry celebrities jumping onto your lap, striking a pose, and making you question if you’re the real exhibit here. Enter Hi Ho, the marketing superheroes who swooped in with a killer social campaign on Meta. The result? Well it turns out, if there’s one thing the internet loves more than cat memes, it’s the promise of a lap full of meerkat antics.
Here’s what went down:
- Impressions: 210,080 (that’s like half the total meerkats in the wild seeing your ad).
- Reach: 94,150 (basically, everyone and their grandma in the target areas heard about it).
- Link Clicks: 2,248 (because who doesn’t want to click “BOOK NOW” when it involves a meerkat snuggle?).
- CPC: $0.08 (seriously, that’s cheaper than feeding a meerkat a single cricket).
And then, over on the website, it was an all-out traffic jam—only the kind you want:
- Sessions: 7,240 (up a whopping 139.5%—take that, sloths).
- Total users: 5,663 (up 165.5%—Nelson might as well rename itself Meerkatville).
- New users: 5,512 (up 172.3%—so many new meerkat disciples).
- Engagement rate: 68.55% (who says humans have short attention spans?).
But here’s the real magic: NatureLand Wildlife Trust is a total gem of Nelson, running on what can only be described as pocket lint and good vibes. Hi Ho pulled this off for FREE (yep, zilch!), so the only expense for NatureLand was their Meta ad spend and, of course, the time of their hardworking keepers and ever-curious meerkats.
And how did it all turn out? Well, let’s just say NatureLand had its best summer ever. The Meerkat Encounters sold like hotcakes, and the meerkats got to meet some very… interesting humans. Honestly, the question remains: who was watching who?
So, while the rest of the world might still be “going to the dogs,” here in Nelson, it’s official—we’ve gone to the (Meerkat) Cats, and we’re never looking back.