When Joseph A. Couceiro joined Busch Entertainment Corp. in the early 1990s, his first office was his living room. e_SPar At the time, Couceiro - now president and chief executive operator of ZooTampa at Lowry Park - was a marketing representative for SeaWorld based out of Miami. e_SPar "They brought a bunch of brochures to me and said, 'Okay what we want you to do is bring residents and visitors from Miami, to Orlando, to visit SeaWorld,'?" he said. "Then they found out that I was bilingual and said 'Well then, you can do South America, too.'?" A tall order for anyone with meager resources. But the Cuba native found a way to make it work.
For Couceiro, curating and promoting those unique experiences that people are looking for when they visit hubs of family fun and entertainment is his superpower. Over the years, he's built a successful career in sales and promotion, mostly at Busch's amusement parks including SeaWorld in Orlando and Busch Gardens in Tampa. His resume also includes a stint at Visit Florida and a brief gig at Walt Disney World.
He was working as vice president of marketing and communication for the Chicago Zoological Society in 2015 when he was tapped to return to Florida.
In the three years since, the zoo has been undergoing a renaissance of sorts.
New seasonal events, like Creatures of the Night and Christmas in the Wild, were introduced. Its Halloween-themed ZooBoo will be revamped into ZooBoo KIDS and hosted during the day.
Other events include the recent ZooBrews festival, Zoo University, and Yoga in the Wild.
In addition to the new name, the park is scheduled to build a new attraction: Roaring Springs, a boat ride that "takes a sudden turn when the elevation drops where guests will feel a rush of adrenaline as they experience a 3-story splashdown," according to the zoo's website.
The changes are designed to be more than just cosmetic or spark interest, Couceiro said.
"It's not about a name or logo change," he said. "What we're committed to is to make sure that we're an integral part of the Tampa Bay community, to have a place where people can come and affordably spend a wonderful day, where they can have these lifetime memories that they made. And as part of that, they're able to leave ZooTampa with a better appreciation for the wildlife in the world."
Couceiro recently spoke with Tampa Bay Times correspondent Kenya Woodard about the process of the zoo's transformation, making wildlife conservation relatable, and one of his favorite places to hang out in the park.
Zoo Tampa is undergoing a transformation. How did you and your team determine that one of the city's most beloved institution's needed an upgrade?
We started with a discovery process, where we sit down and just simply asking what are we about and why do we exist and why do we need to exist. We had like 15 people in the room and I went around and asked each of them what they thought. I asked them what our brand was and what I got was about 14 different answers; I think two people agreed. Obviously, that means that there is no clarity on the brand, so we went through and tried to figure out who we were from a brain perspective and our mission. One question I asked was why are we here and one lady said 'to save the world.' And I said 'Well I knew I was taking on a challenging job, but maybe saving the world's a little too challenging.'
Instead, let's figure out how we can influence or motivate people to take action to protect and preserve wildlife and each one of those people that we touch in that manner is able to then contribute toward a common goal.
The animals are the stars at the zoo. How have you all been able to ensure their care is a priority?
Throughout this whole thing we've made sure that we've also been taking care of the animal side of the equation because it's not just simply paint and mulch and landscaping. We have animals that are in our care. For example, our manatee habitat is shut down because we're in the tail end of a $3 million augmentation of our life support system. Now, that's not going to bring any attendance - in fact most people won't even notice it - but what it does do is give us the capacity to treat more injured manatees than we had before and in many cases treat more severe cases than we were able to before.
We have the David Straz Manatee Critical Care Center that a lot of people don't know about. We're one of three facilities in the state that treat injured manatees and release them back into the wild once they're okay.
During the process of reimagining the park and its experiences, you and your team dug deep to get to the zoo's "north star" or ultimate goal. What's Zoo Tampa's "north star"?
Our north star is unforgettable natural connections. So in order to create that aspirational demand to visit, in order to provide friends, families, children and adults not only with a great day but maybe special moments, we want to provide those unforgettable natural connections and moments that you will remember for a lifetime.
And that could be something as simple as a young child feeding a giraffe for the first time and the expression on their face in doing so.
You believe that current changes and growth are necessary to remain relevant. How does a 60-plus-year-old zoo maintain relevancy in 2018?
I think in order for us to be relevant first of all we need to be a place that people aspire to visit and in order to do that, we need to give them a tremendous experience during the day and maybe even more important than that is to give them some special moments during that day that they will never forget during their lifetime.
When people talk about zoos they often talk about ... educational elements that are important and that's absolutely true. But I will argue that nobody gets up in the morning and says, 'Hey kids, let's go to the zoo and be educated'. What they want to be is entertained and if you're entertained, then you're able to engage. If you're able to engage, then you're able to educate. If you're able to educate, then you're able to inspire. If you do it in that order we are able to make a difference each and every day with kids, adults and whoever visits our property.
What is it about Tampa that is a special to you or that you find very appealing?
I think people are more settled in here. There's more of a sense of family and community. You have the beauty of the area, which is surrounded by water. What really I think is remarkable about Tampa is that I think it's at the cusp of really blossoming as a cool place to be. I think people are beginning to recognize the chemistry, the mix: the Latin feel, the Florida benefits, the water, all the things that there are to do in this community, which is really unique.
Contact Kenya Woodard at hillsnews@tampabay.com.