In 2024, PEPPA PIG celebrated its 20th anniversary and ended the year as the #1 kids’ show on Netflix. Yet the brand faced a pivotal challenge: how to modernize one of the world’s most beloved preschool franchises for millennial parents and media-savvy kids—without losing the humor and warmth that made PEPPA iconic.
While still beloved by children, it risked losing relevance with modern parents who increasingly value emotionally intelligent, relatable storytelling. The objective was not just to generate attention, but to rebuild emotional connection, shift perception, and modernise the brand’s meaning for today’s families.
To do this, Hasbro made an unprecedented narrative decision: announce that Mummy Pig is pregnant, introducing Baby Evie as the franchise’s first new core family member in more than 20 years. Rather than treating this as a marketing announcement, the campaign treated it as lived news, designed to unfold across earned media, social, content, retail and experiential channels like a real-life family milestone.
The specific goals were to:
Reignite cultural relevance for PEPPA PIG beyond preschool media
Use earned media to break into mainstream, lifestyle and parenting conversation
Shift parent perception of Peppa from outdated or polarising to empathetic and emotionally resonant
Drive sustained social engagement and participation, not just momentary buzz
Translate cultural attention into meaningful behaviour, including content viewing, cinema attendance and retail demand
Establish a scalable, PR-led platform for long-term brand growth
Ultimately, PIG Changes aimed to prove that earned, socially driven storytelling could lead brand evolution — not just amplify it.
PIG Changes was brought to life through a PR-led, earned-first strategy designed to turn a fictional storyline into a real-world cultural moment.
The core strategy was to treat change itself as news. Rather than promoting a plot development, Hasbro treated Mummy Pig’s pregnancy as lived news that would unfold the same way families experience real life milestones. PR set the narrative, pacing and emotional truth, with all other channels activating in sync around a single, evolving story.
The campaign was structured like a real pregnancy, rolling out in sequenced beats: announcement, gender reveal, birth and parenting. This created anticipation over time and allowed audiences to emotionally invest, rather than consume the story in one burst.
Execution began with credibility.
The pregnancy was revealed through trusted broadcast and cultural outlets, including dual exclusives on Good Morning Britain and People.com, supported by an industry trade exclusive in AdWeek. A first-ever in-character interview with Mummy Pig on Kylie Kelce’s Not Gonna Lie podcast reframed the story through a modern parenting lens, helping it break beyond children’s media into mainstream conversation. Social channels supported the reveal with sonograms, countdowns and humorous visuals that mirrored real pregnancy announcements, inviting organic participation.
Momentum was built through participation.
The gender reveal culminated in a landmark stunt at London’s Battersea Power Station, where the chimneys lit pink. Lifestyle exclusives with USA Today and Grazia extended the moment, while Walmart (US) and Smyths Toys (UK) launched exclusive gender-reveal content tied to product pre-orders, converting cultural attention into action within the same news cycle.
The birth became a shared global experience.
Baby Evie’s name and likeness were revealed through HELLO! and People.com, supported by in-character interviews on Good Morning Britain and TODAY. The storyline culminated in Peppa Meets the Baby, a global cinema experience across 2.6K theatres in more than 20 territories. Trailers, YouTube content, Spotify soundtracks and retail launches extended the experience into everyday family life, while UGC from cinema screenings reinforced emotional authenticity.
Trust was deepened beyond entertainment.
An Ad Age exclusive positioned PIG Changes as a cultural moment, while Muddy Puddle Parenting content with Dr. Becky paired the storyline with expert guidance, making the brand genuinely useful to parents navigating similar life stages.
Challenges and differentiation.
The greatest challenge was risk. Permanent narrative change in a preschool franchise leaves no room for missteps; if the story felt overly marketed, trust would collapse. This was addressed by leading with earned media credibility, pacing the rollout carefully and ensuring every activation felt emotionally authentic. Another challenge was integration across teams and markets. A central narrative framework, shared toolkits and real-time insights ensured consistency while allowing local relevance.
What made PIG Changes unique was not the number of channels used, but how they depended on one another. Earned media created belief, social created participation and content, retail and experiential touchpoints turned attention into sustained engagement. The result was a socially driven, earned-first campaign that didn’t just launch a story — it made audiences live it.
PIG Changes succeeded because it met—and exceeded—every core objective: reigniting cultural relevance, shifting parent perception, driving meaningful social engagement, and translating attention into real-world behaviour.
From an earned media perspective, the campaign transformed a fictional storyline into legitimate news. With no paid editorial placements, PIG Changes achieved extensive global earned coverage, breaking out of preschool press into mainstream broadcast, lifestyle, parenting and entertainment media. The hashtag #MummyPigIsPregnant trended globally, sparking memes, parody and organic participation—clear evidence that the story entered culture, not just coverage.
Socially, the campaign delivered sustained engagement rather than a single spike. Across platforms, audiences actively shared reactions, created UGC tied to cinema screenings, and participated in ongoing conversation around the storyline. This demonstrated that families didn’t just consume the campaign—they engaged with it emotionally and socially over time.
Most importantly, the work achieved its primary brand objective: shifting parent perception. In August 2025, parenting publication PureWow published an unsolicited editorial reframing the long-standing “Peppa is a brat” critique as part of her enduring charm. This independent, third-party narrative shift signalled a meaningful change in how parents interpreted the character and brand.
The campaign also drove clear behavioural impact. Families showed strong intent and participation across content, cinema and product experiences, demonstrating that emotional engagement translated into real-world action.
Together, these results confirm that PIG Changes was successful not only in reach, but in relevance—strengthening brand meaning, deepening trust with parents, and proving that earned, socially driven storytelling can support long-term brand growth.
