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The brand new series of Hoopla Animation’s Daisy & Ollie launched on Channel 5’s Milkshake in March 2020.
Based on an original idea by Helen Brown and developed by Hoopla Animation with Jason Manford as executive producer and writing many of the scripts, the new third series continues its mission to encourage young children to be curious and question the world around them with new questions, characters and even more adventures.
A highlight of the campaign was the announcement of a very special episode created in collaboration with the National Autistic Society (NAS) to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day on 2nd April. The new episode ‘How Do I Make Friends With Theo?’ features Top Gear presenter Paddy McGuinness as Uncle Tommy and NAS ambassador and TV Star Christine McGuinness as Theo’s Mummy. The couple are parents to three autistic children in real life.
Comedian Romesh Ranganathan also guest stars, featuring in two episodes, ‘What Makes The Perfect Playdate?’ and ‘What’s The Point In Playing Games If You Don’t Win?’. The two new episodes follow Daisy’s Daddy (voiced by Jason Manford) as he invites Romesh and his son round to the house for some play dates with Daisy and Ollie. Even though the children are having a great time eating cake, having water fights and playing games, Romesh and Daddy do not get along quite so well…
Daisy & Ollie launched on Milkshake! on 28th March 2020, whilst the UK was in the early stages of lockdown to battle the Covid 19 pandemic. It was a frantic time in the media, as we all learned new ways to work and create live television, plus how to interact sensitively with an ever changing news agenda and constant breaking news.
With children home-schooling and nurseries closed, pre-school television became an important tool to entertain and educate young children, plus we were determined that the show’s very special episode to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day should still get the attention it truly deserved.
After cancelling our planned campaign, which included an autism-friendly preview screening in Manchester, featuring one of the Milkshake! presenters and NAS ambassador Christine McGuinness, the new focus of the campaign became live broadcast, via Skype, to families tuning in together at home, plus telephone interviews with a wide range of national titles and a strong online media relations campaign to share clips and images from the show.
Christine appeared on ITV’s This Morning and Granada Reports, whilst Jason Manford appeared on Good Morning Britain, Granada Reports and Channel 4’s new format, The Steph Show.
The launch resulted in blanket coverage in most key national newspapers including the Express, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Metro, The Sun, Daily Star and Mirror, along with hundreds of regionals, and key specialist titles including Chortle, British Comedy Guide, Skwigly, Animation for Adults. We also caused a huge stir on social media, via a campaign that mobilised all the guest stars, plus the Daisy & Ollie socials managed in house at Sundae.
“As parents to three autistic children, we know how important it is for other children and families to understand autism, so voicing Theo’s parents in the show was a wonderful opportunity for us to share this important message.”
"The episode premiered on World Autism Day and helped teach children about autism and answer some of the questions they may have."
