Home Marketers The Media And Retail Deals Behind The Peppa Pig Franchise Expansion

The Media And Retail Deals Behind The Peppa Pig Franchise Expansion

SHARE:
Peppa Pig

Peppa Pig is everywhere.

Whether or not you have children, you likely know the little girl pig from the kid’s cartoon show. But the Peppa media franchise is just getting started.

The program was acquired by Hasbro in 2019, and it’s become a YouTube and streaming hit that’s spawned toothpastes, toys and all sorts of merchandise, not to mention theme parks.

So how does a show like that keep growing?

Well, it takes data, distribution and a newborn pig.

The rebrand

Shows for prekindergarten-age kids are immensely important parts of consumer culture.

That’s partly about the numbers. Nielsen’s latest 2025 streaming program ratings has “Bluey,” another animated kids show, as the most-watched show of 2025 (2.5 billion minutes ahead of No. 2 “Grey’s Anatomy”). But there’s something even more important that makes a hit kids show a valuable enterprise.

A kid’s favorite character is “the No. 1 entry point for preschoolers into brands,” said Esra Cafer, SVP of global brand strategy and management at Hasbro, who oversees the Peppa Pig franchise, among other Hasbro lines like My Little Pony. The company has tested this with preschoolers.

Kids fall in love with the character, play the character at home and “want to eat the pot of yogurt with their favorite character on the lid.”

To that end, Peppa Pig has orchestrated a major brand expansion. Literally.

In May, the Peppa franchise added a new character, the baby pig Evie.

Mummy Pig, as the mother is known, did her own pregnancy announcement live on the YouTube podcast “Not Gonna Lie” with host Kylie Kelce. The “gender reveal” happened on Walmart’s site, along with the prerelease of a set of toys exclusive to Walmart. “It’s a comprehensive relationship” with Walmart, Cafer said, rather than a pure media or marketing deal.

Morwenna Banks, the voice actress behind Mummy Pig, “knows Mummy Pig probably better than you know anyone in the world” and can absolutely field questions on the fly in character, Cafer said.

It was new for this campaign to “break the fourth wall” by putting Banks on podcasts and other media as Mummy Pig, she added. But it was part of a strategy to create more direct and life-like connections to families almost as actual celebrities who can have a voice with parents.

“Mummy Pig is real, James,” Cafer joked. “She’s real.”

Pigging out on new media

One way to grow a children’s brand is to sign a hybrid audience and exclusive merchandise deal with the world’s largest retailer.

But Hasbro is also pushing Peppa Pig into new and data-driven media channels, with whole new charts to top.

The program cut its teeth as a YouTube pioneer, Cafer said. But there are plans for FAST channels, like parts of TV packages carried by certain smart TV manufacturers, which would stream ad-supported episodes. In April, Peppa moved its tentpole mobile gaming app to Netflix, and last year it created a podcast on the Amazon-owned Audible streaming audio platform.

The big plans being made now by the Peppa Pig team, Cafer said, are for the big retail and consumer events like Prime Day and the Thanksgiving shopping period in 2026.

“You’ll see this bigger family and these bigger feelings come to life across the Peppaverse,” she said.

Must Read

Omnicom Investors Cheer IPG Sell-Off, Despite Weak Ad Spend In Q2

Omnicom is halfway through a major sell-off of IPG agencies. Its future looks healthier as it prunes lower-growth firms, including eliminating certain specialist firms and overlapping agencies in certain countries.

Hundreds of emails, depositions and other documents have been unsealed in the lead-up to the Google antitrust trial, providing a fascinating look at how Google talked about its own products when no one else was watching – especially tools to counteract the rise of header bidding.

Why PubMatic Ditched Its Prebid Web Wrapper, But Never Its SDK

Earlier this month, PubMatic shelved its Prebid integration wrapper, known as OpenWrap Web, and announced it would begin recommending Playwire as an offloading-onboarding partner for the 250-odd publishers that use its wrapper.

Gareth Glaser, Co-Founder & CEO, Gamera

Google’s Buyer Direct Could Beat Agentic Ad Tech At Its Own Game

Agentic AI shows promise for direct deals. But if Google has its way, Buyer Direct could put an end to all sorts of agentic direct sales opportunities while they’re still in the cradle.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters

How Warner Bros. Discovery Is Creating Value Out Of Dead Air With Pause Ads

Streaming publishers are banking on pause ads to bolster revenue with a more user-friendly ad experience. With programmatic standardization still pending, Warner Bros. Discovery is taking a stab at advancing the capabilities behind its own pause ad formats.

Peacock Hits Profitability As Comcast Prepares To Spin Off NBCU

Peacock hit what Comcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh called “meaningful profitability” for the first time in Q2, just as Comcast decided to let it leave the nest. 

Comic: It's Coming For You

Programmatic Platforms Champion Transparency, But Not If It Means Giving Activists Access

A DSP refused to give ad industry watchdog Check My Ads a seat on its platform, even after both parties cosigned a master service agreement, citing concerns about “protections” for “vendor and supply partners.”