Episode 273: Renato Lenzi talks about using social media correctly, creating memories through emotions, and cohesive experiences across properties

Renato Lenzi is the Chief Operating Officer of The Dolphin Company, one of the largest operators of marine experiences with locations in 10 different countries, averaging 2 million visitors each year. Starting young, Renato originally worked with marine life as a trainer and found a passion in leadership through a partnered company's complimentary training. While growing with the company, Renato has made many strides in the worlds of marine life inspection and even made improvements with government inspections and regulations to help improve the marine experience industry. Today, The Dolphin Company focuses on bringing educational and entertaining experiences to guests across the world. In this interview, Renato talks about using social media correctly, creating memories through emotions, and cohesive experiences across properties.

Using Social Media Correctly

 

"Social media has pushed us all to be opinionators."

 

The fact is, Tiktok is the speediest form of news. Compared to when people would only spend 2 hours a day watching TV, we now have a generation that spends nearly double that on their personal devices. If something relevant were to happen across the globe, people everywhere would be notified and start discussing it in under a minute.

 

It’s safe to say that social media is a huge platform to be used for your benefit, and Renato knows taking advantage of it is a massive opportunity. Some large parks don’t even use certain social media, and they are left out of a massive market to engage with potential guests and people who can connect to your brand.

 

Additionally, with Renato’s mission to connect guests to wildlife, social media can be incredibly powerful. By connecting with an incredibly interactive audience, people fly across the world to The Dolphin Company’s experiences with dreams of becoming a vet or marine biologist, and they get more than what they came for. 

Creating Memories Through Emotions

 

"If you create an experience that will last a lifetime, you can make an emotional connection."

 

People experience many things in a year, and what makes some experiences more memorable than others are the emotions that are associated with them. Renato emphasizes that when people create memories with the emotions they felt, they often remember many other aspects of the experience that would otherwise be forgotten, such as who they were with and what events followed that experience. By creating these core memories, guests will remember your experience for a much longer time.

 

Everybody remembers their first kiss, and Renato has applied the science of this idea to his experiences. The wild emotions surrounding that major event are what compel people to remember their experience and share it with others.

Cohesive Experiences Across Properties

 

“There's more similarity than differences.”

 

With locations across 10 different countries, it is a challenge for The Dolphin Company to create experiences that complement one another. Furthermore, Renato has seen the company morph over the course of its existence, moving from marine parks to additionally acquiring water parks and adventure parks. To help tackle this challenge, The Dolphin Company has implemented regional directors to oversee operations in their many locations. 

 

Although each facility shares a common goal of family fun, there’s certain aspects where originality can make an impact. By serving food popular in the region, guests will be more engaged and excited about what the park has to offer. However, Renato knows that oftentimes, what works in one park will work on parks on the opposite side of the world.  

To learn more about The Dolphin Company, click here. To contact Renato, you can connect with him on Linkedin.

 

This podcast wouldn't be possible without the incredible work of our amazing team:

• Scheduling and correspondence by Kristen Karaliunas
• Summary by Mason Nichols
• Video editing by Abigail Giganan

 

To connect with AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com