Falcon’s Beyond Global, a fully integrated development enterprise for IP-driven parks, resorts, media and merchandise, has appointed Toni Caracciolo as its new executive vice president of marketing and branding.
An accomplished marketing professional with over 30 years of relevant experience, including roles at SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Inc. and at Visit Orlando, Caracciolo will advance the strong momentum Falcon’s has established over the past year as the company launched multiple projects and experiences across its three core business units: Falcon’s Creative Group, Falcon’s Beyond Destinations and Falcons Beyond Brands.
Her extensive travel experience is especially pertinent to Falcon’s Beyond Destinations’ planned future expansion. Through this branch, Falcon’s established the first Caribbean theme park of its kind, Katmandu Park | Punta Cana, and the nearby Falcon’s Resort by Meliá | All Suites Punta Cana earlier this year, providing a distinctive “resortainment” hospitality experience.
This is a newly created position, reporting to company president Simon Philips.
Supporting the rapid growth of Falcon’s Beyond
“Falcon’s Beyond is a company on a rapid international growth trajectory,” says Caracciolo. “I am both thrilled and honored to help bolster awareness for the brand and launch future projects across our multiple lines of business. I’m excited to leverage my deep and diverse industry experience and relationship building to develop marketing programs that elevate the brand’s remarkable story across travel, theme parks, consumer products, entertainment content, and so much more.”
Caracciolo joins the company as Falcon’s enters the second part of an already successful year, defined by several announcements of new entertainment content, consumer goods, and virtual platforms.
The firm has just revealed that it is developing an animated preschool series featuring Boro the Yeti, one of the popular characters initially launched at the first Katmandu theme park in Mallorca, Spain. Additionally, Falcon’s launched Shop Falcon’s Beyond, its first e-commerce website for consumer products. This website offers a variety of clothes, accessories, toys, and a brand-new original trading card game based on the Katmandu trademark. Additionally, the firm premiered BEYONDLAND on Roblox and released Katmandu: EtherMerge, its first mobile game.
“The significance of the addition of Toni’s role at Falcon’s represents a deep commitment to invest in our global marketing organization during this time of rapid growth,” says Cecil D. Magpuri, CEO of Falcon’s Beyond. “Toni is an exceptional marketing leader who brings her impressive background in the theme park and hospitality industry to our leadership team. She is an invaluable asset and will drive brand awareness while significantly impacting our business growth.”
Vast industry experience
Before joining Falcon’s, Caracciolo held the position of vice president of global marketing at Visit Orlando, the official tourism organisation for Central Florida, the most popular travel destination in the United States and the world’s theme park capital. There, she oversaw the execution of effective marketing campaigns that led to record-breaking visitor numbers.
Before this, she was vice president of sales and marketing at SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Inc., where she was in charge of strategic planning for marketing and sales, brand management, project implementation, and result analysis for the SeaWorld, Aquatica, and Discovery Cove theme park brands in Orlando.
Caracciolo oversaw marketing at SEA when it launched Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin, the company’s biggest expansion in history. Her experiential integrated programme earned more than seven industry honours, including the International Hermes Creative Award and the Flagler Award.
“Toni’s extensive experience in hospitality and entertainment, working with some of the world’s most recognized brands, made her the unquestioned top choice for this important new position at Falcon’s,” says Philips. “Complementing her industry experience are her skills as a communicator and business leader that are invaluable to a company like ours that is on the cusp of massive global growth and the eve of becoming a publicly listed company.”
Caracciolo has held positions on a number of boards of directors, including the executive boards of Visit Florida and Harbor House of Central Florida. She participates actively in the South Lake Chamber of Commerce and is a mentor and guest lecturer for the MBA programme at the University of Central Florida.
Via a binding merger agreement with FAST Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition firm created by Doug Jacob and headed by Sandy Beall, Falcon’s Beyond announced plans to go public last year. The new combined business will be known as “Falcon’s Beyond Global, Inc.” after the transaction closes, and it is anticipated that it will be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker code “FBYD.”
