How can theme parks promote online traffic on Chinese Douyin to achieve one million GMV per day!

Nanchang, known as one of China's "Four Furnaces" due to its scorching summer heat, is also home to the 170,000-square-meter Nanchang Maya Water Park, a sprawling aquatic theme park with a distinct Mayan aesthetic. Following a nearly five-month pandemic closure and backed by a total investment of nearly 1 billion RMB, the park leveraged the power of mass local promotions and Douyin's immense traffic. By applying a strategic 'people-goods-scene' methodology and a remarkably efficient ad spend of just 56,000 RMB, they skyrocketed their Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) from under 100,000 RMB per day to a million-RMB level. This dramatic surge successfully translated online visibility into tangible offline visitor numbers, solidifying the park's leading position in Jiangxi's water park industry and serving as a powerful case study in effective Douyin Advertising.

01 Lead & Core Products: Optimizing Customer Acquisition

Aiming for higher visitor conversion during the summer break, Nanchang Maya Water Park targeted the family market by launching a limited-purchase 9.9 RMB child ticket as a lead-generation product. This ultra-low price point captured the target audience's attention and spurred word-of-mouth buzz within the "family fun" summer travel scene, significantly boosting exposure. Complementing this, the park promoted dual and triple-person tickets as core products to meet the needs of families and group outings. This strategy effectively guided parents—the primary decision-makers—to choose Maya Water Park for their holidays, driving consumption conversion and substantial business growth, a key objective for any China online advertising strategy.

02 Early Livestreaming to Capture Audience Interest and Drive Online-Offline Traffic

While promotions and discounts attracted new customers, and bundled deals satisfied core groups—with strategies continually refined based on market feedback—the park also focused on superior service and experiences to boost satisfaction and loyalty. Douyin's livestreaming platform became the primary window to showcase the park's appeal. By shifting their live broadcast schedule to start at 6:00 AM at park opening and run continuously until 10:00 PM, they created an all-day "cloud water park" livestream room. These broadcasts offered a comprehensive, immersive look into the park's various attractions, effectively engaging target consumers and demonstrating the power of Chinese social media marketing.

03 Precision & Agile Operations: Minimizing Waste, Maximizing Conversion

Prior to utilizing targeted ad platforms, the park relied on organic traffic, achieving under 100,000 RMB in daily GMV. To drastically improve ad performance, they built precise audience packages (including users interested in parenting, mother & child content, travel, and local tourism) for their campaign management platform. To further reduce ad spend waste (suhao), they refined this audience to women aged 18-40 for hyper-targeted delivery. Furthermore, the park moved away from broad campaign goals like video watch time or product clicks, focusing exclusively on conversion-optimized campaigns aimed at purchases. They continuously monitored performance, making real-time adjustments to each ad set to maximize effectiveness—a level of expertise often provided by a specialized China advertising agency.

This strategic approach, powered by sophisticated Douyin Ads management, yielded phenomenal results. From July 22nd to July 23rd, with assisted ad spend, the park's GMV broke the million-RMB barrier while maintaining an ROI above 6, demonstrating highly efficient conversion of potential customers. The success peaked on August 4th, when amplified ad spend propelled daily GMV to a new single-day record exceeding one million RMB.

Nanchang Maya Water Park's strategy offers invaluable lessons for the digital advertising industry. In the digital age, mastering how to leverage online traffic and utilize compelling content to transform online views into offline visitors is crucial. Their success provides a powerful reference point for any brand looking to navigate the complexities of the Chinese market.