How did Hasbro’s biggest campaign ever come together across channels, teams, and continents to earn over 13 billion impressions?

Meet Kristin McKay: Senior Vice President and General Manager – Global Brands – Fashion & Preschool, and the leader of the teams behind Mummy Pig’s recent pregnancy announcement.

The role. ✨

As the Global Play Leader for our Fashion and Preschool division, I am responsible for setting the growth vision for a portfolio of brands (including PEPPA PIG, MY LITTLE PONY, FURBY, and others) and delivering on our revenue and profit goals. I lead an extremely talented team to define our brand purpose, brand growth goals, and ultimately direct how we show up for fans across toys and games, licensed consumer products, entertainment and digital gaming.

The universal power of confidence. ?

It starts with having a brand promise that is a universal truth. For Peppa, that is the power of confidence, epitomized by our tagline, “Let’s Jump In”. No matter what age you are, there are moments where you just need to prepare as best you can and then JUMP IN! Learning, staying curious, and growing through experiences are what make us all unique – and that is what PEPPA PIG is all about.

Beyond a great universal truth – we keep fans at the heart of every decision we make, engaging with them regularly through formal research projects, but also in our daily dialogue on our social channels. Through their feedback we can activate the power of confidence and encouragement in ways that resonate!

Modernizing the Pig family. ?

Peppa was introduced to the world 20 years ago, and I think all of us can agree the world looked different. Today’s Peppa fans are a new generation with new world and family values and therefore it was important for us to engage with them and learn what they expect from the brand they love. We started this process almost three years ago, and the result included more modern storylines, modern visuals (cell phones and laptops vs. landlines and desktop computers), and a more modern family dynamic that shows co-parenting at the heart.

Bringing big ideas to life. ?

All the credit for bringing this announcement to life goes to Esra Cafer, my head of franchise management for our portfolio, and her outstanding team. In 2023, we were navigating changing trends and increased competitive pressure and knew we needed to freshen up the brand as we celebrated our 20^th anniversary. Esra came up with the “PIG” idea of introducing a new baby and kicked it into high gear so we could execute the idea in time for 2025. She rallied our amazing writers at Karrot for the linear series and our internal YouTube team under the guidance of Tom Hartley, Hasbro Entertainment’s VP of Digital Content, and together they made this story real in record time.

Getting on the same page. ?

Getting the team on one page starts with a very clear brand vision and is accelerated by trust! Our Senior Global Creative Director, Mollie Wilkie, will say it starts with a great brief! We knew this baby news is something many families can identify with, so we wanted to add a ‘Pig’ spin to it but keep it accessible.

The franchise team for Peppa is based in the UK and they work tirelessly with internal stakeholders to be clear on goals. Those stakeholders then activate with our exceptional licensed consumer partners, retailers, and manufacturing vendors around the world. The goal is to be sure each partner we work with knows and loves this brand as much as we do as the brand owners, and then we can all execute with excellence.

Every new stakeholder we brought on board gave us more to work with. I can still remember how during our first sneak peek with our partners, Walmart US, the ideas that flowed from that meeting turned into reality. When you have a great, simple, and sticky idea – it is easy to keep folks rowing the same direction. It is in complexity that you can lose the plot.

The inspiration behind it all. ?

What drives me most is the success of my team. With 10 years of experience as a cheerleading coach, I bring a deep passion for developing individuals into a unified team. There’s nothing more fulfilling than watching my team hit their goals or witnessing a team member unlock potential they didn’t even realize they had. Every person plays a crucial role in turning a vision or strategy into reality—that’s the essence of true teamwork. What we’ve accomplished with Peppa so far—though we’re just getting started—represents the result of 18 months of preparation, planning, and execution. Seeing the team’s ideas come to life is incredibly rewarding as a leader.