Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, home to the world’s largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor desert, chose Beonic's technology to manage occupancy and deliver a better visitor experience. Omaha’s Zoo and Aquarium, also home to America’s largest indoor rainforest and largest aquarium in a zoo, implemented Beonic's technology products including people counters, IO Insights, and guest WiFi.
Beonic's people counting technology allows Omaha’s Zoo and Aquarium the ability to measure, predict, and positively improve the visitor experience. The Beonic platform measures aggregate traffic and identifies the most popular areas and paths throughout the zoo.
Measuring occupancy was very important during the pandemic in order to keep the zoo doors open. Zach Mellender, Business Systems and Analytics Manager at Omaha’s Zoo and Aquarium, explained, “Our real impetus to engage with Beonic came when we needed to understand visitor flow throughout the zoo. During COVID, we wanted to monitor occupancies and comply with local mandates utilizing a technology solution instead of a personnel solution. Beonic provided the technology and experience to do so.”
Beonic assessed the space and installed three types of cameras including an infrared sensor used in the nocturnal exhibits. “Beonic created a customised solution for our zoo,” explained Mellender. “Beonic is able to ingest a diversity of technology into a unified platform and that was key.”
Beonic's Insights technology allows Omaha’s Zoo and Aquarium to measure average length of visits, understand how many people are in the zoo at all times, and which exhibits or attractions are most popular. When the zoo opens a new exhibit, Beonic's technology can measure change in visitor behaviour over time. This allows the zoo to understand which exhibits deliver the highest engagement.
Mellender noted how valuable this data is in gauging exhibit success, “It is integral for us to measure occupancy levels during our busiest season—Memorial Day through Labour Day. We plan to open a new exhibit during this time. Measuring visitor movement through those areas and comparing it to overall daily attendance will help us understand how those exhibits perform.”
This will help the zoo make informed decisions to positively impact the visitor experience and ultimately the zoo’s bottom line.
Mellender added, “We will be able to make meaningful decisions based on traffic pattern analytics and historical data. All of our business units can harness this data to drive decisions for operations, support, security, and staffing.”
In addition, Beonic's guest WiFi, Captive Portal, and marketing software can deliver personalised engagement through proximity marketing, targeted incentives, and customer sentiment surveys to help further improve visitor engagement. Mellender noted, “We are excited to extend the value of the visitor experience through the use of guest WiFi, Captive Portal, and IO Engage. We can now capture visitor data to build a robust customer database that we can use to understand who guests are, what they care about, and then use this data to optimise the visitor experience.”
Beonic is grateful to provide an improved visitor experience for Omaha’s Zoo and Aquarium. “Zoos are complex and diverse spaces. Finding a solution that can work with all the complexities of the environment is critical. We are honoured to provide a solution to Omaha’s Zoo and Aquarium that will expand their abilities to improve decision making, visitor experience, and marketing. We value this new partnership and look forward to collaborating on innovative ways to assist the zoo in the future,” said Wayne Arthur, CEO of Beonic.
