SeaWorld Entertainment introduced a "Meet the Animals"
marketing campaign, with an emphasis on up-close and personal
connections with sea life.
The campaign will
showcase individual animals at SeaWorld with a focus on their character and
personality, and will invite guests to visit the animals at the park.
The campaign will
include ads that air on cable networks and print ads in local markets near
SeaWorld’s three theme parks in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego. The
marketing initiative will also have a strong digital component.
The first ad in the
series invites visitors to meet Leon, a 9-year-old sea lion residing at
SeaWorld San Antonio.
The sea lion and
otter show at SeaWorld’s San Diego park, “Sea Lions Live,” has been suspended,
“to allow additional animal caretakers from the park to assist in the rescue
and rehabilitation effort” of sea lions in California, SeaWorld stated in a
release about the new ad campaign.
The campaign comes as
SeaWorld has seen its theme park attendance drop in the wake of negative
publicity about the company’s treatments of animals spurred by the 2013
documentary “Blackfish” about killer whales at SeaWorld.
The company is undergoing management changes. In January, former SeaWorld
CEO Jim Atchison stepped down and Chairman David D'Alessandro took over as
interim CEO. The Orlando-based company has stated that it expects to select a
new CEO within the next four to seven months.
SeaWorld stated that
the new ad campaign is independent of the company’s brand-reputation campaign,
which will begin in the coming weeks.