Heading to the office is usually a welcome break from the pre-schooler discussions I'm subject to at home, but today, despite being in the office, I find myself writing about Peppa Pig. You never can predict a typical day at Blueprint Partners.
Parent or not, it's been hard to escape the media frenzy surrounding the birth of little Evie. I should rephrase - the fictional birth of the fictional youngest sibling of a fictional family.
Muddy puddles fan or not (Peppa Pig viewers, willing or otherwise, will understand this reference), anyone involved in marketing a brand should be paying close attention to the team behind Peppa Pig, because the past few months really have been a masterclass in marketing. The team has turned one children's TV show into an 'everywhere' brand, applying exactly the same marketing a social media influencer might adopt - but to a fictional piglet.
And it's worked - well. To the point where, a few months ago, a notification pinged up on my phone in my Whatsapp chat, full of fellow mums and mums-to-be: "Is Mummy Pig pregnant?" - as if Mummy Pig (who's a cartoon - let's remember that) was that girl we used to work with. (The answer to that is yes - her pregnancy was announced on TV in Mother's Day in the UK). So why a message that sounded as though Mummy Pig could rock up in your next NCT class? Marketing.
The marketing deliverables that caused a media frenzy
Grazia cover shoot
This is where the line between fiction and reality blurs, but bare with me. Mummy Pig had a pregnancy shoot and was featured on the cover of Grazia magazine - the go-to marketing tick box for celebrities who go public with their pregnancies.
Gender reveal
Obviously Mummy and Daddy Pig had a gender reveal. But it went beyond Instagram and took the form of a special YouTube episode, which has already amassed 6.5 million views.
Live TV
What would you expect when you're watching the news in the morning, getting ready for work? A live interview with the Pig family, of course, on Good Morning Britain, with Daddy Pig breaking headlines for tearing up while discussing his expanded family.
Paparazzi treatment
Until now, the Lindo Wing of London's St. Mary's Hospital was synonymous with royal births - we've all seen the photos of Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte on the famous hospital steps. But now a new family has graced those steps, giving the paparazzi exactly what they want. You guessed it - the Pig family, who even replicated the style of a Royal baby announcement, with a (pink) noticeboard.
It’s all about the launch
What all of this has done is bring the fictional Pig family in line with today's influencers and celebrities. Celebrities capitalise on these media opportunities to grow their brand, and the team behind Peppa Pig has done exactly the same.
This has all been part of the 'tease' stage of marketing. The marketing team has driven awareness, it's certainly driven conversation, and this will all amount to, I'd imagine, a pretty good ROI when the special hour-long Evie episode airs in cinemas today. There are official launch parties at various cinemas, including at Battersea Power Station, and the episode is being aired in 350 cinemas across the US.
In a Guardian article called 'Peppa Pig's new baby sister: could Evie Pig become a billion dollar brand?', they say: "A new character, if nothing else, presents a huge marketing opportunity". That's exactly what the team behind Peppa Pig created, and that's exactly what the team has capitalised on.
I can't remember a brand that was so 'everywhere' since the cinema release of Barbie, where pink was everywhere. Now, pig is everywhere. So whether you're Peppa's biggest fan, find her utterly obnoxious or hadn't heard of her until recently, her marketing team certainly deserves a round of applause.
No doubt this won't be the last we see of Peppa and the Pig family. Certainly not for me - tickets to Peppa Pig World (our second visit…) are sitting in my inbox. I wonder how much Evie merchandise there will be...
