Historic Buena Park, CA amusement park Knott?s Berry Farm is drumming up interest for its fall transformation into Knott?s Scary Farm with an integrated mobile marketing program that has resulted in 31,013 engagements and 2,344 site visits so far.

The campaign, which launched the park's Instagram handle and raised its Facebook and Twitter followers by the thousand, was designed to differentiate Knott?s from a multitude of other California amusement park locations. Scary Farm?s Halloween theme aims to entice fans to come experience its twisted scare zones, live shows and frightening mazes.

?Because Knott?s Scary Farm faces a lot of competition in Southern California, we needed people to know that we have completely upped our offering this year,? said Julie Sheridan, senior vice president and group account director at Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago, IL. ?Our theme - Whatever you?re imagining, it?s here - is about all the monsters and frightening scenarios you can think of.

?Mobile was key because it enabled us to bring this theme to life," she said. "The scare could be in the palm of your hand through our micro-videos on Instagram or, in the case of Sightings, around the corner from you because we brought monsters from Scary Farm?s mazes out of the park to generate intrigue.?

Monster mobile ads
To promote the Scary Farm experience, ?monsters? were hidden near high-traffic locations in Southern California over a period of four nights in September. A series of targeted mobile ads, developed in partnership with PlaceIQ, mapped each monster?s sighting location.

The announcements and clues were then rolled out to consumers via paid, earned and owned media formats. Fans were encouraged to locate the monsters on the streets before snapping a picture with them and sharing the photo on social media sites with the hashtag #ScarySelfie.

The submissions were uploaded onto Instagram, where fans voted for their favorite Sighting night selfie, which won two tickets to Knott?s Scary Farm. A grand prize winner was also selected by the public, receiving four additional park passes, up to six meals at the Boo-fet dinner buffet and up to six front-of-the-line wristbands for select attractions.

?Before the Sightings even started at a location, people were lining up to see what monster was there, and reactions ran the entire spectrum from terrified (but they still took a selfie with the characters) to one woman in a monster stare down?it was a lot of fun,? Ms. Sheridan said. ?Results show there was a lot of sharing and positive engagement to help build the new Scary Farm social media presence and get people excited to go to Scary Farm this season.?

High results
Knott?s Berry Farm saw high levels of success with the creative, which included promotional tweets with hints to the monsters? locations.

PlaceIQ shared the #Sightings locations via mapping and mileage banners visible in mobile ads, that resulted in a click-through rate 0.19 percent higher than the average.

The @KnottsScaryFarm Instagram handle went from zero to 1,858 followers in the month of September, with the park?s Facebook and Twitter pages receiving a 4.8 percent and 7.1 percent increase in followers, respectively.

?Sightings definitely augmented awareness of Knott?s Scary Farm and helped us launch this season?s scares,? Ms. Sheridan said. ?This got people buzzing and sharing photos with friends before the park launched for the Halloween season.

?It was one piece of our whole integrated campaign that is driving high attendance for Knott?s this year.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York