TO A NEW ‘WORLD’

Trump guru pitches turnaround to theme park

SeaWorld Entertainment, desperately wanting to rehabilitate its image and reverse an extended decline in attendance, has interviewed two Facebook-savvy marketing experts — both with ties to the Trump campaign, The Post has learned.

Brad Parscale, the bearded digital guru behind President Trump’s 2016 election victory, and Cambridge Analytica both vied for the job — although CA recently dropped out, sources said.

However, Parscale remains in the running, sources said.

Both marketers pitched SeaWorld the same controversial, Facebook-focused tactics that appeared to give Trump an edge in the 2016 election.

Parscale, in his pitch, told SeaWorld brass the 2013 documentary “Blackfish” — an exposé on alleged animal cruelty at SeaWorld — “had bad effects” — but that they could be reversed with a deft marketing touch.

“We need to figure out the right audiences, against which to place the right advertisements, which can be proven to drive a measurable increase in park atten- dance,” Parscale wrote in his pitch, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

In the pitch, Parscale invoked the micro-targeted Facebook ad strategies that he claims won Trump the presidency.

Cambridge Analytica con- firmed to The Post that it is no longer in the running for the SeaWorld contract.

“We were invited to pitch digital marketing services to boost ticket sales at parks,” a Cambridge Analytica spokesman said. “We were not hired.”

In the wake of the “Blackfish” scandal, SeaWorld attendance is down. It fell 5.5 percent last year and 3.3 percent the prior year. It is down 15 percent from 2012 — the year prior to the documentary’s release.

SeaWorld declined to comment on any possible effort to hire crisis consultants, saying it “talks with and is pitched by dozens of agencies for a host of services every year.”

Parscale declined to comment.

San Antonio-based Parscale Strategies, which also was recently named to head Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, would charge roughly $40,000 a month plus a 2.5 percent commission on ads the firm places, one source close to the situation said.

To reverse the attendance declines, Parscale believes the first step is “specifically determining who SeaWorld audiences should be — down to the individual,” the marketing wizard wrote in his pitch.

Phase Two is “trialing dozens of concepts for advertising across multiple channels to find ads we can prove work,” he said in the pitch.

SeaWorld investor Hill Path Capital, whose boss, Scott Ross, sits on the theme park’s board, has been pushing for big changes at the parks operator, sources said.

Ross’ firm acquired a 15 percent stake in SeaWorld for an average of $17.60 a share, according to an April 2017 public filing.

SeaWorld’s shares closed Thursday at $14.83, up 7 cents.