ASIA-PACIFIC – SHANGHAI, MARCH 2011 – Sesame Workshop, the international nonprofit educational organization behind the highly acclaimed children’s television program Sesame Street, has officially appointed Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide/China as its public relations retainer.
Through a creative and fun communications campaign combining traditional and digital strategies, Ogilvy PR will focus on raising awareness of Sesame Workshop and its locally produced educational content and programming targeting Chinese kids, their families, caregivers and educators.
Sherrie Westin, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Sesame Workshop, said, “We’re committed to the principle that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow. We hope to contribute to this by making educational content accessible to as many kids as possible. Through the process of getting to know Ogilvy PR’s great team of people in Beijing and Shanghai, we became tremendously impressed by their professionalism, creativity and dedication. Their integrated and exciting approach to building our presence in China across a multitude of platforms will bring Sesame Workshop programming to more Chinese children than ever before.”
Scott Kronick, President of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide/North Asia, said, “I grew up with Sesame Street and know the power of Big Bird and Sesame Street‘s line up of programs. It is an honor and delight to be part of Sesame Workshop’s expansion in China and I am thrilled that so many kids and families will have even greater access to what Sesame Workshop has to offer.”
Sesame Workshop launched two initiatives in China in December 2010. The first was production and distribution of emergency response and preparedness content for children and their families in China which will be distributed in 2011. The second initiative was Sesame Workshop’s collaboration with Toonmax Media, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Media Group, and MSD, to produce a new TV series broadcast on Ha Ha Channel in Shanghai called Sesame Street’s Big Bird Looks at the World.
Sesame Workshop has a proud history of serving the needs of children globally since 1969, and in China since 1983 when Big Bird and friends first appeared in Big Bird in China, a highly acclaimed hour-long special produced in collaboration with CCTV. In 1998, Sesame Workshop and STV partnered to produce 130 episodes of Zhima Jie, the Chinese version of Sesame Street.
