PIRATES DINNER ADVENTURE
Pirates Dinner Adventure temporarily closed its entertainment center to repair damage from Hurricane Irma. To promote its grand reopening, Axia pitched several news media outlets, offering stories about the company and its new show. Major news outlets ran 14 stories about the reopening, reaching more than 4 million potential customers.
A year after Pirates Dinner Adventure closed due to damage from Hurricane Irma, the popular restaurant turned to Axia Public Relations to announce to Orlando locals and international visitors that it was reopening with a new show.
The company needed to hire more than 200 cast and operations staff to be fully staffed in time for the show launch. Axia connected with its media contacts and exercised its team’s substantial expertise in the entertainment industry to create a strategic plan to build momentum and excitement in the month leading up to the grand reopening.
IDEAS
Axia hit the ground running from day one. The company coordinated broadcast news crews during the first week of the campaign, who interviewed cast members about the reopening.
Next, Axia focused on the positive impact the reopening would have on the local Orlando community. Through team ideation sessions, Axia developed a concept for a Pirates-themed job fair. This idea helped promote the restaurant's admirable policy of offering a rehire opportunity to the 200 crew members who lost their jobs when the company closed its doors due to the hurricane. Axia secured earned media coverage on local WESH/CW NBC 2 TV affiliates around the job fair to encourage locals to apply; the morning show featured a full-costumed pirate.
Axia also recommended ways to generate excitement about the reopening date. To connect with local parents, the PR firm reached out to bloggers and influencers. It coordinated 10 ticket giveaways that increased awareness and engagement with Orlando families. Axia published reopening event information on more than 10 community calendars in central Florida. It also invited more than 50 celebrities, community leaders, and influencers to the event.
RELATIONSHIPS
Leveraging its relationships with media contacts and influencers in central Florida, Axia pitched story ideas right up to the grand reopening. The firm researched and coordinated with social media influencers, popular news personalities, and journalists. The resulting earned media coverage helped tell the story of Pirates Dinner Adventure’s success and reopening after hurricane damage.
RESULTS
- Dan Falls, vice president
The media coverage was all positive in tone and reached more than 4.4 million potential impressions. The two largest circulated newspapers in central Florida, Orlando Sentinel and Orlando Business Journal, published articles about the reopening. All five local Orlando TV news stations, WFTV ABC 9, WOFL FOX 35, WESH/CW NBC 2, WKMG CBS 6, and Spectrum News 13, covered the story multiple times on television and online. Food and Beverage Magazine published an article reaching a national audience.
Axia’s campaign generated 14 news articles, creating nearly 4.4 million potential impressions and 856+ shares on social media.
Pirates Dinner Adventure’s grand reopening was a huge success and it continues to dazzle audiences every week.
