KidZania Kicks Off Global Loyalty Program With Recruitment of Former Silicon Valley Virgin America Executive

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- KidZania, the global leader in children's location-based edutainment, announces the appointment of Sarah Marsh to the newly created position of Vice President Customer Loyalty. Recruited from Merkle Inc. and hailing from Virgin America where she successfully built a model customer strategy and loyalty program, Marsh now has her sights set on KidZania's rapid global expansion and creating a new standard in loyalty programs.

"Sarah has an innate talent for understanding what motivates people," explains Cammie Dunaway, US President and Global CMO, KidZania LLC. "KidZania is an incredibly special place and as we expand globally and prepare to launch multiple parks into the U.S. market, her ability to build a large-scale, innovative program will be invaluable."

Dunaway notes that Marsh's title as vice president of customer loyalty denotes the attitude KidZania has toward its valued customers, both kids and their parents.  KidZania has two goals - to always provide a rich and engaging experience for young visitors and to ensure that experience is available to more children around the world.

"Kids are naturally creative, and our approach is to develop a global program that embodies kids' choice and continuously invites new ideas from the very people who make KidZania special," describes Marsh. "Ultimately it's about demonstrating loyalty to our guests through exceptional experiences, and facilitating the connections that inspire kids not only at our parks, but in their everyday lives. And that excites me."

Under Dunaway's leadership, KidZania is building a team in their San Jose, CA headquarters. KidZania has had more than 20 million visitors in its 8 parks, and is growing at a brisk pace, embarking on multiple new territory entries, including multiple parks in the U.S., the first slated for 2013.

Marsh joins KidZania from Merkle Inc., where her hands-on experience in customer engagement strategy, program development, and marketing analytics enabled global brands to build direct relationships with customers. She also has advised and held several management posts across the travel, hospitality, retail, and entertainment industries in the past 11 years, including Virgin America, Discovery Communications and Amazon.com. Ms. Marsh holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Chemistry from Swarthmore College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

About KidZania:

Much more than a children's museum or theme park, KidZania takes interactive entertainment and learning to an entirely new level by combining role playing with real life in a kid-sized environment. KidZania creates a kid-centric city experience for 4- to 14-year olds. From arriving at the airport, to visiting a city center to exploring the city streets complete with vehicles and real-world establishments, kids experience the real world in a safe and contained 75,000 square foot kid-sized city. At KidZania, kids are in control and choose a "real world" job, earn and manage "kidZo" currency, and purchase goods and services.

KidZania, Inc., headquartered in Mexico, is privately held. This award-winning concept is recognized globally for its unique blend of entertainment and education for children. The first KidZania opened in Mexico City in 1999.  There are seven other locations including Monterrey, Mexico; Tokyo; Jakarta; Osaka; Lisbon; Dubai; and Seoul. To date, more than 20 million kids and parents have visited the parks globally. The trajectory continues with 13 parks in development, including a new park in Mexico City where kids can drive from point-to-point. KidZania will come to the U.S. in 2013.

For more information about KidZania and the park locations, visit www.KidZania.com.