It's never easy when an attraction closes at a theme park. In 2025, Universal fans had to say goodbye to Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, a bright red roller coaster that had dominated the Universal Studios Florida skyline since 2009. The ride was unique in that it let guest choose the music they listened to as they rode, which made music a key theme of the attractions. As fans watch the countdown to its closure, the Universal Orlando Resort social media team knew it had to do something to give Rockit the proper farewell tour.
The goal of the social media team (aside from making a platinum pop album about churros) was not to craft the perfect social post about the attraction closure, but to create a moment that would generate buzz on social media.
And if you’re talking about an attraction based on music, you better bring backup and gear for the groupies.
Brainstorming began around what made the attraction unique, features like being able to pick your favorite song, that the ride covered the entire southern skyline of the park, and that the queue featured monitors that looped animated characters explaining the attraction. Next, we discussed what our fans liked about the attraction because the closure would be a celebration of their fandom. Finally, we discussed the heart of the attraction, the Team Members who operated the coaster and whom were also fans. What could we do to celebrate the ride, the fans, and the Team Members at the same time? This was more than a social post. We had to do something in the park on that last day – a surprise and delight moment for fans visiting the park for one final ride.
One, we needed something as a keepsake – something that was easy to hand out, make plenty of, be unique and on brand for the attraction.
Second, we needed something people could interact and engage with the day of.
From this jam session, er, brainstorm, the ideas came to us.
To celebrate the musical heritage of the attraction, the team produced custom-made guitar picks emblazoned with the Farewell Tour logo used on closing day merchandise. It was unique, fun, and functional if you play the guitar.
Those animated characters from the queue? Our team reached out to our Entertainment team and gave them the challenge of hiring talent and creating costumes based on the five characters from the queue. The result would make closing day the first time these characters had walked around, greeted, talked, and interacted with guests in a Universal park.
So, on the last day of operation for Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, August 18, 2025, the social media team, with bags of custom guitar picks, waited just outside the exit of the attraction to hand out a guitar pick to each rider. Making sure we celebrated our Team Member operators, we worked with their leadership to ensure each got a pick.
Also to greet guests, our animated queue characters made real. Surprised guests took selfies, posed with the characters, and flooded social media with photos and videos of their interactions.
The coaster may have closed and band broken up, but it was an epic farewell tour.
The results were not about the closing day social media posts themselves, although we did see a 3X increase from our average engagement rate on those posts. No, this was about the fans. Hundreds of photos and video from the activation poured across social media, praising the moment as a welcome closing act for the attraction. Beyond the fans, news outlets covered the closure, showing clips of fans with guitar picks in hand.
For those who couldn’t make it for the closure, they celebrated the activation and praised the team for celebrating the end of the era with the pick giveaway and character meet and greet. As a social media team, we took pride in the fact that we listened to our fans and gave them something we knew they’d love. How did we know? Because we’re also just fans.
We accomplished everything we’d set out to do: celebrate the fans, the Team Members, and the ride that had us rocking out.
