Mattel Asia today launched a new video for its Barbie brand as part of its broader initiative to empower girls. Mattel Asia, takes on the widely held belief in Asia that imaginative play is not important to a child’s development, with the release of, “The Power of Play with Barbie,” a part of the ‘You Can Be Anything’ brand campaign.
The opportunity was to demonstrate the power of play when a girl plays with Barbie: she imagines all the possibilities of what she can become.
Unlike in the western markets where Barbie has had decades of heritage, in Asia the campaign needed to show, not tell, millennial Asian moms the positive benefits of imaginative play that their daughters could develop when the play with Barbie. The centrepiece of the campaign is an online video structured as a social experiment. In part one of the experiment, five girls from Asia and Australia were asked to tell an imaginative story on the spot: the girls stalled, hesitated, and eventually gave up. In part two, the girls unboxed one of four Barbie products and were asked to tell a story again: this time, the girls naturally expressed inspired stories using Barbie to role-play and connect with others, demonstrating creativity, improvisation and emotional intelligence.
The campaign will launch across social and video platforms across Asia, including Facebook, WeChat, YouTube, and Weibo. In addition to the core video, the campaign will be supported by social-by-design content including snackable video, animated gifs and additional images to drive to e-Commerce. The campaign will launch on 25 October, 2016.
“Barbie is the only brand that allows girls to imagine anything they can be. With this campaign we wanted to build an emotional connection with Asian parents by introducing them to the wonderful benefits of imaginative play and storytelling with Barbie to promote confidence and curiosity, said APAC marketing, director, Andrea Vitali. “Building on the global success of the Cannes Lion awarded global campaign ‘Imagine the Possibilities’, we worked with BBDO Asia to develop an engaging video that we hope will connect with moms while communicating the values of our brand.
