Madame Tussauds Blackpool

Delivering the unexpected to drive awareness, footfall and fun

  • Public Relations
  • Reactive PR
  • Communications Strategy

Brief

We took on the brief to unveil a new, high profile wax figure at Madame Tussauds Blackpool – global superstar Harry Styles – in a creatively innovative way designed to create maximum impact and publicity.

Challenge

Madame Tussauds Blackpool is part of a world-renowned brand. The arrival of a new figure is a landmark occasion.

But it’s a noisy media environment and the claims on journalists’ time and resources are huge. We had to pivot away from the obvious and deliver something different – a simple press call at Madame Tussauds Blackpool would not do.

We needed the unexpected – a fun, eye-catching stunt that was visually impactful, attracted media interest and which would place Madame Tussauds Blackpool front and centre as a must-visit destination.

We were aware that Harry Styles grew up in Holmes Chapel so strategically capitalised on this to set up a stunt where we teased the fact that Harry was ‘coming home’.

Instead of unveiling the figure in the more traditional surroundings of Madame Tussauds Blackpool we would take him back where it all began – to the bakery in the village where the real Harry once worked.

Using a mixture of social media, print and digital ad vans with ‘Harry is Coming Home’ on the side we built excitement and anticipation both among his fan base, the public and the media.

The reveal of the figure itself proved spectacular with major press in attendance as well as fans and locals queuing to get a ‘selfie’ with Harry – further amplifying the story.

Solution

The
Solution

Results

Harry’s Home attracted huge coverage from media outlets both at home and abroad.

In all, 36 separate pieces of content were published covering all platforms – online, print, broadcast and radio – all mentioning the client and featuring images of the Harry Styles figure.

The Madame Tussauds Blackpool Facebook page reached 187.5% more people than the previous 7 days.

The stunt also saw an uptick in traffic of 187.5% across all Madame Tussauds Blackpool channels while organic social content reached over 194.7k people.

In addition, Madame Tussauds Blackpool website saw a significant uplift in visitors with sessions up 50% versus the previous 7 days.

607k

views online

404m

audience reached

194.7k

organic social content reach

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