Crafting Creative with Kids

Challenge

Helping a popular toy brand defend their spot in the market (and in kids’ hearts) by uncovering the most compelling point of difference in an increasingly competitive aisle.

Our clients, an ad agency working on a campaign for a super popular toy company, had a couple solid hypotheses about what made these toys unique in the hearts and minds of kids and their parents. To make sure the creative would really shine, we partnered to explore the role that these toys played in kids’ lives, and how that came to life during playtime.

Approach

To get to the heart of the matter, we went straight to the source. Through a digital diary, where parents interviewed their 5-9 year old kids, we got to experience the childs’ world (and playroom) firsthand. The kids absolutely loved showing off their toys, and we really got a sense early on for what made the clients’ brands a little more special.

We followed this up with one-on-one interviews with our parents, to help us contextualize everything that we learned from their kids. While parents weren’t asked to bring their kids, we had a few come along – giving us the unique opportunity to get both perspectives live!

Impact

With a really tight timeline to work against, the team kept the client up to speed on themes and findings coming out of the research along the way – culminating in a part story building session/part debrief just in time to incorporate into their deliverables.

We found that our client had been on the right track when it came to a revamped creative direction and, with more context and nuance to round out the new strategy, they delivered on what’s truly unique and ownable.