Tasked by the lovely people at Cartoon Network to come up with a unique way to launch new episodes on the channel, we wanted to appeal to hardcore fans young and old to promote the Powerpuff Girls as positive female role models in a way that would generate news and capture the hearts and minds of the nation during half term.
So we brought together the essential ingredients of the ‘super cute’ and ‘super-fierce’ world of The Powerpuff Girls by launching the world’s first emporium, embodying the very essence of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup. Open to the public for only three-days, we had queues round the block as thousands of Powerpuff fans descended on the space to experience make-up and nail bar, super-villainous Mojo Jojo punchbag, a PowerpuffYourself area with its own colouring wall, snake and rabbit petting and a power science café where visitors could try experiments.
We enlisted the help of BGT judge and Powerpuff Girls super-fan Alesha Dixon to talk about the fact that – according to research by a prominent academic – only one in ten leading film and TV in the last 80 years characters from the superhero genre feature a female ‘hero’ in a starring role. We even managed to recruit Secret Life of a 5 Year old’s very own little Eva – the internet’s favourite five-year old feminist and pint-sized spokesperson, to give her unique take on things.
With a decent handful of listings pieces in the likes of The Sun, Time Out and Metro.co.uk ahead of the launch, as the emporium doors opened the coverage started flowing in – with nationals, lifestyle mags, onlines and broadcast going Powerpuff mad.
Highlights included a full-page lead print feature in The Evening Standard, closely followed by cracking pieces in The Sun (print) as well as most nationals covering the story – either in the pictures, news or interview pieces with Alesha landing on the likes of The Mirror, The Express, The Mail Online – as well as the likes of The Pool, Refinery 29, Sunday World, Yahoo.com, BT.com Girl Talk, First News and Time Out (again).
Fantastic broadcast followed in the evening on two ITV channels (ITV 2 & ITV Be) and the Talk Radio breakfast show the next day, before going even further with a corking PA feature taking the emporium to in excess of 50 UK regionals – as well as masses of social buzz and Instagram stories dominating the social media sphere.
We even managed to nab a spot for little Eva on Stylist online – recorded in the space, dressed as her favourite Powerpuff Girl whilst putting the world to rights with her no-nonsense advice on everything from marriage to careers.
And here she is, being forthright in her opinions …
All-in-all, it’s been a pretty good week with some stunning results to show for it.
