Event Planning and Promotions Case Study

Merlin Entertainments and Hasbro

Peppa Pig Theme Park

TrizCom PR was hired in May 2023 to produce and promote the groundbreaking ceremony for The PEPPA PIG Theme Park in North Richland Hills, Texas on June 28, 2023. This new park was to be only the second theme park of its kind, modeled after the inaugural proof-of-concept The PEPPA PIG Theme Park in Winter Haven, Florida.

For the uninitiated, Peppa Pig is a well-loved British television program targeted to children aged 1 – 7. Each Peppa Pig episode is very short to allow the young target audience to enjoy an entire story within their limited attention span.

Peppa Pig’s world includes several recognizable characters and themes, including Daddy Pig, Mummy Pig, Grandpa Dog, Grampy Rabbit, Mr. Bull and Peppa’s best buddy George (her brother).

While Peppa Pig just celebrated her twentieth birthday, The PEPPA PIG Theme Park concept is entirely new to the world following a successful proof of concept park in Florida. As such, our task included education and awareness for multiple target audiences (i.e., families with young children in North Texas and short drive markets, media and bloggers).

We were also tasked with coordinating communications with the City of North Richland Hills through its Public Information Office, event permitting, City Council, Merlin’s operations and outside construction teams and Hasbro (the Peppa Pig character owner), while achieving our primary objectives.

Result: Record-breaking earned media coverage and strong community relations.

How We Did It:

Event Planning

• Our first partner meeting (5 weeks before the groundbreaking) was on the site of the future theme park. The only usable space was a large macadam car park next to a disused former amusement park. There would be no electricity, water, security or bathrooms available for the groundbreaking and the site was overgrown with weeds and scraggly trees.

• We worked closely with Merlin Entertainments’ team and the Public Information Officer at the City of North Richland Hills to create a magical experience for invited guests, including the mayor and city councilmembers, local police and fire department leads, executives from Hasbro and Merlin Entertainments and others.

• We ensured the site was clean and bush wacked; banners covered the old fencing; the road and nearby water park sound was manageable and the port-a-let was new/clean and stationed under shade. We ensured hand cleaners and paper towels were available everywhere on site. No detail was too small.

• Besides organizing and event planning, TrizCom PR created and managed the event itself from setup to breakdown including renting, installing and loading out all assets for the event, including a 70’ tent, trailerized generator, swamp coolers, water and port-a-lets; coordinating with the City of North Richland Hills and staffing speakers.

• We recruited the children (ages 3-6) and parents to help participate in the groundbreaking, ordered pink shovels, coordinated the pink sand and the front loader truck, ordered the rain boots (to match Peppa Pigs boots), provided wranglers for the Peppa character, equipment operator, children and parents, coordinated Peppa Pig toys and gifts for the children and more.

• Hired a videographer and photographer, ensured that they would be able to turn around the b-roll and photos two hours post-event and supplied a detailed shot list.

• Just two days before the event, the forecast called for unsafe heat (103 degrees). We quickly added more fans, increased the tent size to ensure everyone could sit in the shade, ordered AC units for the tents and found a food truck that supplied organic frozen fruit popsicles to give guests (we selected all the pink flavors from their menu!).

• We also let the kids meet the Peppa Pig character privately and dropped several bags of sand near their staging area so the kids could practice shoveling and wouldn’t be afraid of Peppa.

Research

Research was a key element of success for this groundbreaking since we needed to:

• Understand how aware target audiences were about the Peppa Pig character as well as the emotional connection they may or may not have with the character.

• Confirm our belief that the geographic target was much larger than the DFW Metroplex alone (the original target determined by Merlin Entertainments), as this was a primary driver of our media list research. 

• Understand how local targets would react to our groundbreaking, given the recent announcement of Universal Studios theme park to be built in Frisco, Texas and also targeted to families with young children. How would we be able to get attention for Peppa Pig Theme Park against the background of Universal Studios’ announcement?

Research methodologies

• We read all the media stories and videos from the first Peppa Pig Theme Park in Florida to gauge overall interest.

• Conducted social media review across several platforms to look for existing emotional connections with Peppa (positive or negative) to understand how to create and localize messages.

• Reviewed tourism statistics for the DFW Metroplex to determine whether short-drive markets (e.g., Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Oklahoma City) were viable target audiences.

• Reviewed travel and theme park media stories to see how Hasbro, Merlin Entertainments and Peppa Pig Theme Park were viewed by industry watchers.  

Groundbreaking Event Description

• Due to the forecasted heat on June 28th (103+ degrees) and the media team's daily schedules (morning meeting, noon and 4 p.m. broadcasts), we scheduled the groundbreaking press conference at 11 a.m. 

• Seventy people attended the event.  TrizCom PR sent digital invitations three weeks before the event and managed RSVP responses efficiently.

• Created a run of show. Speakers included Merlin and Hasbro executives and Oscar Trevino, mayor of North Richland Hills. Speeches were held to a minimum (total of about 12 minutes) due to the heat and desire to provide the media with soundbites vs. long stories.

• After the short speeches, the emcee (Merlin Entertainments employee), invited the media to gather around a large front loader stationed about 15 feet in front of the tent. 

• The emcee then asked Peppa Pig and her friends to come forward from the small tents to help with the groundbreaking.  A Peppa Pig soundtrack played while a full-size Peppa Pig character and six children ages 3 -7 came forward to the delight of the assembled guests.  The children were dressed in child-sizes yellow hardhats with attached Peppa Pig-style ears, yellow construction vests, blue Peppa Pig t-shirts and yellow rain boots (Peppa and her brother George’s favorite game is jumping in mud puddles wearing their rain boots!).

• Once Peppa and the children were assembled near the front loader, the operator began to slowly drop a large pile of pink construction sand and then back off a bit. The speakers, children and Peppa used adult- and child-size pink groundbreaking shovels to turn the first spades of pink sand.

• Everyone moved back under the tent to have pictures taken with Peppa in front of a step and repeat background and media interviews.

• Once the event was over, the team processed the video and photos to assemble a VNR that we released to our custom media list within a few hours.

Differentiated The PEPPA PIG Theme Park powerfully

• The DFW Metroplex is chock full of theme parks and entertainment venues, including the announcement of a Universal Studios theme park just 90 days prior to our announcement. We differentiated The PEPPA PIG Theme Park from Universal Studios by the length of time to grand opening (one year for The PEPPA PIG Theme Park vs. four years for Universal Studios) and the target age group (The PEPPA PIG Theme Park is designed for even the youngest members of the family - as young as one-year-old).

Focused on the custom media list

• TrizCom PR assembled an extensive custom media list, including geographic target news, bloggers and influencers, as well as key verticals countrywide (e.g., theme park, tourism and parenting publications, etc.).

Leveraged the power of the Merlin Entertainment, Hasbro and Peppa Pig brands.

• The PEPPA PIG Theme Park General Manager and Hasbro’s Vice President of Location Entertainment headlined the event and the press release.  The Peppa Pig character proved to be a big draw at the press conference.

Execution

• Created and managed the event itself, including recruiting children and parents; renting, installing and loading out all assets for the event; coordinating with the City of North Richland Hills; staffing speakers; wrangling Peppa character, equipment operator, children and parents.

• Hired and managed video and photojournalists to produce VNR.

• Handled the entire media relations for the groundbreaking. Sent a media alert and followed up by phone (including from the car on the morning of the event) with all television stations to get maximum coverage for the event.

• Wrote and distributed an event press release three hours post-event including b-roll and photography from the press conference.

• Compiled a 400-page coverage book of press pickups.

Selective Earned Media Wins

The event garnered 247 television placements with a 2,587,458,583 Reach

Outlets from 47 states covered the Peppa Pig Theme Park Groundbreaking

Online/Print: 192 Stories/105,815,820 Reach

Local media coverage: All television stations (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, CW33 and Spectrum) ran stories

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