SEA LIFE Manchester was opening a brand new aquarium, and families across the North West needed to know what was inside.

So we made its animals the story, and the launch smashed its sales targets.

Sharks, a sprout-eating turtle and a waltz in the Sea TREK tank on Strictly.

The highlights

20%+

Pre-bookings beat the business target

11m

Viewers saw Strictly Come Dancing waltz in the Sea TREK tank

Newsround

Just before launch

Mirror

Double-page spread the day before opening

SEA LIFE Manchester opened at the Trafford Centre in 2013, and a family deciding where to spend a day out wants to know what they will see before they buy a ticket. The animals were the clearest way to tell them, so every arrival, feed and weigh-in became a story.

We worked the arrival of the sharks and of Ernie, the giant ocean turtle, who then ate ASDA out of sprouts and later went on a diet when his curator found 4kg of fat around his flippers. Ernie made The Guardian, Metro, the Daily Star, Mail Online and the Manchester Evening News, and SEA LIFE’s own brand team called The Guardian piece one of the most on-brand pieces of coverage they had seen.

Sea TREK, a European first that lets visitors walk along the floor of the tank, got a Mirror double-page spread the day before opening and a Granada Reports piece that our team helped film underwater. Newsround covered the attraction just before launch. Then a celebrity couple from Strictly Come Dancing waltzed in the Sea TREK tank, and we worked with the BBC press office to put it across the national press on the morning of the show, so the biggest spot on national TV came with a wave of coverage behind it.

Pre-bookings beat the business target by over 20%, so SEA LIFE Manchester opened and smashed its sales targets.

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Services used: PR, Content