75 Years of WOW!

Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari is the perfect place for family getaways. And that makes sense, because it’s been family owned for all of its 75 years! Living in the town of Santa Claus, the Kochs’ great grandfather had the perfect idea of creating a welcoming park where children could meet Santa Claus all summer long. Santa Claus Land opened in 1946, including a toy shop, toy displays, a restaurant, themed children’s rides, and the big friendly guy in red. Soon after, Great Grandpa’s son took over as the second generation, and now the fourth generation is still running Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. The expanded name and continued growth came in 1984, when the Koch family added Halloween and 4th of July sections. Then in 1993, the Splashin’ Safari Water Park came on board, and the park adds rides every few years.

Always Fun, Especially After a Year of COVID

Happy as everyone is that COVID is well under control and mask mandates are loosened, Holiday World was eager to promote the full-open park as well as their festive celebration of 75 years. We enjoyed putting together TV and radio spots, outdoor boards, and digital and social-media ads to let visitors know about the amazing 75 years of fun as well as the park’s newest ride that opened in 2020 to a limited audience. Poring through past photos, many in black-and-white, and developing unique ways to merge them with current-day photographs and video was an added bonus to this year’s creative work.

Cheetah Chase, the world's first launched water coaster, opened in 2020. With such limited travel last year, this summer is providing a second first impression for visitors. So we also created ads specific to the super-fast, super-splashy, want-to-ride-it-over-and-over water coaster.