Unplug and Play

With the rapid ascent of online entertainment, Mattel found itself needing to induce its audience to put aside these new toys and rediscover the joys of real life games. More so, each of their diverse games and toys appealed to a different audience segment than its companions.

Every title that Mattel owns is a classic one, filled with specific rules and fun that can’t be found anywhere else. That’s what happens when you’re one of the most iconic companies on the planet. They’ve infiltrated our childhood, our shared memories and our adored pop culture. All we really need to do is remind people of the particular joy that each of these titles can bring.

We developed a multi-faceted social and digital media pipeline that spurred engagement and growth across numerous classic titles.

Mattel was on the verge of changing its wildly popular card game, UNO, with the addition of four new cards. To drive engagement, Amp helped Mattel develop a social extension of its “Get Wild 4 UNO” campaign that would tease the changes and create buzz for the relaunched UNO.

Our campaign began with a mysterious announcement, in which Instagram and Twitter influencers received a cryptic package, teasing big changes to come from UNO.

A second package dropped more hints, stirring the pot and eliciting influencers to share what a new wild card could be. This speculation generated UGC from fans adding their own theories.

Influencers then received the new UNO deck and helped announce the new cards, creating a shared experience with the fans.

Finally, we continued the new buzz by creating our own engaging content that the UNO community could get behind and share, to finish off the launch in an official way that made our community feel like they had a voice in the game and were really a part of the experience.

The fun-loving party game Apples to Apples needed a boost to reinvigorate brand popularity. After creating a new social content strategy centered around the odd quirks and personalities of the game’s fans, Amp enacted some ongoing content development, social management, and reporting. Then, in early 2015 we spearheaded a bold, new push to take back share with content that brings the gameplay to life in a variety of executions.

Memes and posts explored the quirky world of Apples to Apples, where messaging became less about winning and more about the social connections made while playing. To these players, the journey is the destination. This led to our intended result of a rise in engagement and UGC, as that audience now found a voice for their shared experiences.

Not limited to only North America, Amp brought our global chops to the table in a campaign for another classic brand, Scrabble. Amp developed a new worldwide social media content strategy for the beloved word game internationally.

This strategy was highlighted by a holiday social campaign that really took off worldwide. Taking a mobile-first approach, we created auto-playable cinemagraphs with engaging animations and holiday-themed greetings spelled out in Scrabble tiles.

Having recently redefined Pictionary’s brand DNA, Amp was tapped by Mattel to find better ways of leveraging the game’s “How Do You Pictionary?” message across social to engage fans and communicate the brand’s attributes.

Quickly realizing this was a golden task perfectly designed for social media content, we created a simple content strategy that brings to life the fun and excitement of gameplay. Social posts keep the drawing spirit alive endlessly through a variety of sketch types, from guess-it games to current events. Always reminding our audience not only of all the different ways you can play, but all the unusual ways the game can go with just the drawing of a pen.

With a young audience getting more and more tech savvy by the day, and realizing that they needed to make their brand more user friendly and digitally sound if they were going to stay relevant, Mattel challenged Amp to jump into a website redesign project for Hot Wheels. With an aggressive launch date looming, we took control of the project’s UX and development, supporting Mattel’s internal visual design team to deliver its first-ever responsive website ahead of schedule.

For the first time in their history, Hot Wheels was able to interact with their audience no matter the screen, no matter the device.

Based on the success of the initial site, we also implemented post-launch phases enhancements designed to shift the site’s focus from storytelling towards multi-screen engagement and conversion, guaranteeing that our audience will stay connected to their favorite brand online or off.

To implement this platform we prioritized journey touch points, established channel roles and focused investments where Mattel could achieve its greatest impact.

Campaign Idea & Tagline
Drives awareness and interest in new product launches

Product Experience Page
Generates demand and drives to retail

Targeted Rich Media Display Ads
Engages consumers with messaging tailored to their specific position within the purchase funnel

Influencer Campaign
Extends online reach and social media awareness