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Score 39 - Future Possibility: Universal Parks & Resorts bolsters marketing team, hires creative AOR

Universal Parks & Resorts promoted Kristin Ong to digital experience and program management SVP, effective August, to modernize marketing and guest engagement experiences. She spent the previous 40 months serving as marketing and experience transformation VP at Universal Orlando.

The theme park operator also hired Mary Cavanaugh Knapp as global marketing VP, effective May. She previously served as brand management and marketing communications VP of Universal Orlando Resort, which she joined in 1998 as senior marketing manager of universal vacations. She has served many senior marketing positions since then.

Keep in mind Universal Parks is also bolstering the leadership of its individual properties - Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood. For Universal Orlando, it started a search for a brand management, strategy and insights SVP, as well as for a number of lower-level personnel (please view job postings CMO Mariela Ure in August.

Please view lower-level shifts across all three brands here.

With such extensive leadership shifts, we are likely to see agency changes. Agencies and martechs should note, though, that only media (an account currently split between Art Machine; we do not know how handles creative for Universal Orlando) is available since national creative just switched.

Universal Parks hired AdAge. The Omnicom agency will oversee all brand strategy, creative, digital, social media and experiential for the theme park operator and its parks on a national level, while the individual parks continue to use their regional agencies.

The first campaign from the agency is slated to debut later this year, so sellers should reach out to remain top-of-mind. Then, keep an eye on new attractions like the "Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure" set to drop on June 13, the "Jurassic World - The Ride" set to drop sometime this summer and the Endless Summer Resort - Surfside Inn and Suites set to open on June 27. There are also plenty of seasonal initiatives, especially during the winter holidays, to look for revenue from.

Kantar reports that both Universal Parks and Universal Hollywood hold planning conversations in Q3 and buying conversations in Q2, while Universal Orlando holds planning conversations in Q2 and buying conversations in Q1. The overarching company and the individual parks typically target parents and millennials.

Please view digital display spend (courtesy of here. Keep in mind the brands and company also typically use outdoor, print, radio, experiential, earned media, social media and sponsorships.