Dive Brief:
- Hot Wheels has kicked off a communications platform crafted in partnership with BBH USA, "Challenge Accepted," with a parent-targeted campaign centered on how the toy line can nurture a "challenger spirit" that helps kids reach their potential, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- A 30-second launch spot, "Try, Fail, Repeat, Grow," tells the story of a kid who looks to overcome challenges with a Hot Wheels track before taking his new sense of resiliency to the skate park. The spot was directed by filmmaker Jovan Branislav Todorovic and shot by Academy Award-nominated director of photography Dariusz Wolski.
- The creative will run on digital, starting on YouTube and social media, beginning today (Sept. 25). The campaign comes in the wake of parent company Mattel's success with the Barbie brand thanks to its eponymous billion-dollar movie.
Dive Insight:
Hot Wheels' new "Challenge Accepted" platform looks to market the toy brand as having purpose beyond simple fun, spotlighting how it can be a catalyst to help kids build the resiliency they need beyond the playroom. BBH USA led strategy, creative and production for the platform.
"Try, Fail, Repeat, Grow" gives a cinematic treatment to this idea, with storytelling and style crafted by Todorovic and Wolski. The spot focuses on a kid whose early attempts at building a Hot Wheels track land a toy car in a fish tank before achieving a successful jump. The spot then transitions seamlessly to the same kid using a skateboard at a skate park.
"Failure can take us places, but if we're willing to try again and again, failure can take us beyond what we thought was ever possible," per the ad's voiceover narration. "Every attempt teaches us to loop the unloopaple, leap the unleapable and stick the landing. Taking on the challenge got us here. Imagine how much further we can go."
The campaign is running on digital and social media platforms, and finds parent company Mattel looking to elevate a long-standing brand that was founded in 1968. Mattel is turning its attention to Hot Wheels after the runaway success of the billion-dollar grossing "Barbie" film, which the company expects to drive $125 million in 2023 from direct movie participation and related toys and consumer products.
"Hot Wheels" is one of the next Mattel brands to receive a big-screen adaptation, with the toy marketer teaming with Warner Bros. and J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot for a film that the producer says will be "emotional and grounded and gritty."
