Combining creative vision with business legacy

Sharing Experience: Adam Goymour, ROARR!

In February this year, I became Managing Director of ROARR! after 15 years with the attraction.

Purchased by The Goymour Group in 2006, it forms part of a broader portfolio which includes Applewood Countryside Park and Applewood Hall, and landlordship of Banham Zoo and Africa Alive!.

My mission is to maintain the family legacy through ongoing development and diversification. While specific challenges vary across sectors, the fundamental principle remains – sustained sales are vital for long-term success, with creativity being the essential ingredient.

Creative marketing

For ROARR!’s core audience of families with children up to 12 years old, imaginative and engaging approaches are crucial to build loyalty and encourage return visits.

The current ROARR! brand identity, launched in 2018, includes comprehensive guidelines, while allowing flexibility for seasonal and special events. We have invested in official trademarks and IP registration for ROARR!’s mascots, along with branding and key straplines in order to strengthen our SEO and reinforce our positioning as the UK’s number one dinosaur theme park. The development of mascot Dippy and Friends has also enhanced our differentiation from other attractions and enables guests to extend their engagement well beyond their visit.

This experience shows how branding is one of the best ways to make your marketing efforts go further. Once you really begin to develop brand identity, it helps a company stand out from others in the industry, no matter how niche it might be. Consumers can then become attached to the brand through familiarity and trust, building authority.

Innovation and inspiration

Over the past decade, with £10 million invested in new developments, ROARR! has consistently ranked among Norfolk’s most-visited family attractions. The primary challenge is maintaining visitor numbers that enable continual reinvestment.

Behind the scenes, creativity drives operations and events, often led by Park Director, Ben Francis, in collaboration with teams across all departments. Ben creates new iterations of live shows and designs fresh events utilising existing assets to attract new audiences, such as the upcoming summer Retro Nights this August. He also oversees delivery of PrimEVIL – now in its 16th year and winner of UK’s Best Scream Park 2024 – which transforms ROARR! into a Halloween scare attraction during October evenings for an older demographic.

Business innovation includes calculated risks in development investments. The mechanical and pneumatic rides installed in summer 2023 represented a £500,000 investment, but they deliver broad guest appeal and differentiate ROARR! from competitors nationwide as they are wheelchair accessible.

Openness and collaboration

External influences enhance creativity. ROARR!’s participation in various business and tourism networks provides diverse inspiration sources. Memberships in trade associations like the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions, and the National Farm Attractions Network, along with regional groups such as Norfolk Business Leaders and Visit East of England, create opportunities to exchange ideas that can be adapted across different sectors.

By encouraging team members at all levels to suggest innovations, ROARR! harnesses collective creativity to develop unique solutions that attract both new and returning guests, ensuring the family legacy continues for generations to come.