Narelle Hicks, chief marketing officer of KidZania (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, the firm responsible for developing the KidZania entertainment franchise in China, said that Cohn & Wolfe would “help with media relations and raising public awareness, while Y&R will source and identify brand sponsors for the themed centres.”
Each theme park is expected to include a range of brand sponsorships from banks, department stores and TV stations to pizza restaurants. The Toyko franchise features All Nippon Airways (ANA), HSBC, Coca-cola, Mitsubishi, NTT DoCoMo, and DHL among others. Y&R’s main role will be to sell marketing partnership opportunities to potential sponsors in China.
Cohn & Wolfe will stage a promotional event in October ahead of the theme park’s launch.
KidZania is billed as an “edutainment city center” by founder Xavier Lopez, who also serves as chairman and chief executive. The initiative was first rolled out in Mexico City in 1999.
The franchise also operates in Osaka, Jarkata and Lisbon, with new centres set to launch in Seoul and Dubai this year, and in Bangkok next October.
Kids Edutainment is a new company founded by real estate developer David Salim and the Salim Group. It plans to open eight to 10 entertainment centers in China over the coming six years.
