Imagine playing miniature golf deep in a vibrant rainforest where tropical wildlife await at every turn. Or navigating your putts through a forgotten world in an ancient city filled with cryptic riddles and adventures. Welcome to Treetop Golf in the UK, a destination mini-golf course with five thriving locations and growing.
Guests come to celebrate all occasions, from first dates, to days out with the family, and even corporate team-building sessions. Treetop Golf puts a high level of attention to detail into its fun themes and invests extensively in the buildout for truly unforgettable experiences. Each venue has two immersive, indoor, 18-hole courses—plus a pizza cabana, full bar with cocktails and mocktails, and a cafe that serves locally roasted coffee beans.
From the moment guests walk into Treetop until the 18th hole, guests are “transported into a different world,” said James Dannatt, Head of Marketing for Treetop.
We interviewed James to discover exactly how Simple Booth fits into the Treetop Golf experience and marketing strategy.
Maximizing the value perception
In keeping with a mini-golf tradition, Treetop aims to keep the fun going after the 18th hole. There’s a bonus 19th hole that offers guests a chance to win a free round.
And that’s where they tee up a free photo experience, powered by Simple Booth.
Guests can capture a still image, GIF or Rebound video clip, get it sent instantly to their email address and share it seamlessly across their social channels.
“Guests don’t have to pay anything—it’s just part of their admission fee. We know that that’s a big value-add to the experience,” James said. “Especially in these economically uncertain times, you have to look for any way that you can add value for a guest. The fact that they can capture that memory of a great day out and get it sent instantly to their phone is a big plus in terms of value perception of the whole experience.“
Simple Booth multiplies the value perception for guests at the peak moment of excitement.
“We think about it as a souvenir and memento of your visit to the jungle.”
James Dannatt, Head of Marketing for Treetop Golf
Even though it’s the end of the course, it’s exactly where the marketing magic begins.
Picture-perfect shots drive marketing
Over 300,000 photos, GIFs and Rebound video clips have been captured at the Treetop Golf photo booths, creating a continuous flywheel of user-generated content and social media sharing across all their locations.
“The photos are immediately emailed across to the guests and then, typically, they’re sharing them on social media or within WhatsApp friend groups at that moment of capturing their experience,” James said.
During their interaction with the Simple Booth app, guests are also prompted to enter two critical pieces of information: email address and postal code. While they have the option to skip this step, almost all of them choose to provide the information.
“Ninety percent of our email newsletter mailing list has come from people using the photo booth, which ultimately means that then we can start to have a one-on-one relationship with a guest and email them about any different special offers or interesting things that might be happening. In terms of an acquisition tool for email sign-ups, it’s been a huge success for us.“
“In terms of an acquisition tool for email sign-ups, it’s been a huge success for us.”
James Dannatt, Head of Marketing for Treetop Golf
Capturing first-party data for businesses like Treetop Golf is more important than ever because it provides a direct connection to guests, and also a way to re-market to them on social media.
Treetop Golf has captured over 150,000 unique email addresses along with photos since implementing Simple Booth. The email list has proven to be crucial for the company.
Simple Booth sinks a hole-in-one
Fun for the guests, social shares, a treasure trove of email addresses are all a big part of Treetop’s marketing efforts. But when we asked James about what problem Simple Booth specifically solves for Treetop Golf, he had a surprising answer:
“The fact that we take postal code information is one of the most important things for our marketing.”
James Dannatt, Head of Marketing for Treetop Golf
Why is the postal code so important? Treetop Golf spends a significant sum on digital advertising, considering it as one of their most important marketing tools. In order to allocate that spend efficiently, they need to know where their guests are coming from.
But because all guests are walk-ins and they don’t take online bookings, Simple Booth provides the only opportunity to find out where guests come from, telling them exactly where to put their next digital advertising dollar. And since practically every group takes at least one photo, it just works.
“We now have the ability to know exactly, geographically, where the majority of our guests are coming from, which gives us the chance to then make a decision on, OK, if we’re seeing lots of people come from these towns, do we do more marketing towards those towns? Or do we say, OK, there’s a gap over here—do we actually start marketing more towards them? From a marketing perspective, it’s giving us the chance to know a little bit more about who our guests are,” James said.
Becoming integral
Simple Booth has become an integral part of the Treetop Golf experience and marketing strategy through its multiple features and tools.
“When we first implemented the photo booth, we’d ask where we could put it because everything had already been built. Now when we design a new location, we’re building other things around it because everyone in the business is aware of the power of the photo booth and what that can mean in terms of encouraging repeat visits.“
And it pretty much runs itself. According to James, they just have to reboot their devices once in a while to get system updates, and working with the Simple Booth support team has been a positive experience.
“There’s always been a good quick level of engagement and willingness to assist with whatever inquiry we have.”
One of their favorite features in Simple Booth is that they don’t have to go in and fiddle with the actual devices. When they need to update settings or branding, they can push changes from the web dashboard remotely.
Unlock your data opportunities
Finally, we asked James what kind of businesses he might recommend Simple Booth for:
“For any business that’s restricted on opportunities to acquire data, this is great. There’s a reciprocated benefit for the guest and for the user who’s implementing the software as well.”
The team at Simple Booth looks forward to partnering with Treetop Golf for years to come and continuing to help them grow. We’re grateful they were willing to share their success story so other businesses can learn how Simple Booth helps capture data to turbocharge their marketing potential.
The next time you’re in the UK, make sure to save time for an adventurous round of miniature golf you’ll never forget. And you’ll want to snap a memento before you hit the Pizza Cabana!
Ready to discover the power of the photo booth at your business?