Key takeaways
- Digital platform enhanced guest engagement and operations at Jimmy's Farm.
- Mobile app reduced paper use, improving sustainability and data collection.
- Integrated solution boosted visitor satisfaction, revenue, and retention.
- Real-time data and location-aware content personalised visitor experiences.
- The app proved vital for education and conservation messaging to visitors.
Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park, a popular Suffolk destination, is known for its rare breed farming, exotic wildlife, and immersive educational experiences. To enhance guest engagement, drive sustainability, and unlock data-driven insights, the park partnered with n-gage.io. This case study explores how a fully branded mobile app and integrated software solution transformed the park’s operations and guest experience.
Established by TV personality and conservationist Jimmy Doherty, the park has grown to include a Rare Breeds Farm, exotic wildlife enclosures, immersive woodland walks, and Europe’s largest polar bear reserve as part of its ‘Lost Lands of the Tundra’ exhibit. Jimmy’s Farm attracts thousands of visitors annually, offering a compelling mix of entertainment and education across more than 100 species of animals, including capybaras, meerkats, tapirs, reptiles, arctic wolves, and brown bears.
Challenges Faced by the Wildlife Park
As Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park expanded, its ambitions grew, leading to several recognised challenges:
- Enhancing the guest journey through digital interaction, from pre-arrival planning to on-site navigation and post-visit engagement.
- Capturing accurate and real-time behavioural data to understand how guests moved through the park and what content resonated most.
- Reducing reliance on traditional paper maps, signage, and printed tickets, aligning with environmental values.
- Strengthening educational delivery through mobile-first storytelling and interactive learning.
- Empowering marketing and membership teams to deliver more timely, personalised campaigns to increase retention and return visits.
The park needed a partner and platform capable of seamlessly integrating with existing systems, delivering measurable impact, and enhancing the overall visitor experience.
The n-gage.io Solution for Jimmy's Farm
Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park adopted n-gage.io’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, a comprehensive suite of tools including a fully branded, customisable mobile app for guests, powered by a robust operator system behind the scenes. Key features included:
Custom-Branded Mobile App
Visitors use the Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park app to explore the park via an intuitive map, receive real-time updates on feeding times, access rich educational content, and store digital tickets and memberships. The app incorporates both GPS and Beacon-based navigation.
Ticketing API Integration
Seamless integration with the park’s ticketing system enables automated import of visitor records, purchases, and membership data for more accurate analytics and targeting. The platform dynamically imports ticket purchases, membership, and visitor data, fuelling personalised in-app content and post-visit marketing.
Campaign Management System (CMS)
The operator team can create, schedule, and send push notifications and promotional content based on visitor profiles and behaviour.
Analytics Dashboard
Real-time analytics provide insight into footfall patterns, dwell times, campaign performance, and in-app engagement, supporting data-led decision-making. The in-house team uses a powerful dashboard to schedule targeted campaigns and automated push alerts, curate educational materials, offers, and animal talk schedules, and monitor live maps, dwell times at zones, and conversion data.
GPS and Beacon Technology
As guests move through the site, location-aware content is triggered, from polar bear facts in the tundra enclosure to café offers and event reminders, enhancing immersion and dwell time. Geolocation triggers deliver contextual content, such as polar bear feeding prompts or café offers near The Barn, and event reminders while exploring woodland areas.
Results and Benefits of Digital Transformation
The impact of the digital transformation at Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park has been profound:
- Over 45,000 app downloads to date, showing sustained uptake and relevance.
- Over 50% email opt-in rate through the app, greatly expanding the park’s digital audience and marketing capability.
- Ability to calculate average visit duration, which currently stands at 3 hours and 27 minutes.
- Visitor satisfaction improved, with positive app reviews highlighting navigation, animal content, and real-time updates.
- Integrated API ensured smooth syncing of ticket and membership data; GPS and beacon technology delivered tailored messaging, such as discount offers near the restaurant or reminders of animal experiences.
- Ancillary revenue increased, with guests more likely to visit the café or shop following targeted offers.
- Membership and return visits grew, driven by data-informed re-engagement campaigns and timely reminders.
- Sustainability impact delivered, as the app replaced printed maps and schedules, aligning with the park’s environmental ethos.
- Educational impact enhanced, with interactive trails and learning content deepening guest understanding of wildlife conservation.
- Benefits for other local attractions, as members receive 30% in-app discount on entry.
- Seamless live app updates allow park operations to react to any changes on site, such as limiting access to enclosures and making special announcements.
Client Testimonial
The mobile app has proven to be an incredibly valuable tool for our visitors, helping them to navigate the park, discover more about our animals, and really get the most from their visit. For us as a team, it’s allowed us to build a stronger understanding of our visitor behaviours, communicate more effectively and reduce our reliance on paper-based materials. The integration with our existing ticketing provider, Digitickets, was a real game changer, enabling us to run more personalised and targeted marketing campaigns. We’re already seeing the benefits of that through return visits, increased memberships and enhanced engagement.
It’s really important for us to ensure that when we introduce visitor technology it doesn’t detract from the physical enjoyment of being with us, but enhances the overall experience, and with the new platform and app we feel we’re getting that balance just right. We’re also seeing a benefit from a marketing perspective, with the ability to issue offers and special discounts in the form of in-app digital vouchers, not just for our attraction, but as we partner with other attractions in the area, for them too.
The software app is also helping the team with education and spreading the conservation message. With most of the younger generation being mobile first, what better way of helping reinforce our messaging than through the digital medium they use the most.
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