Mattel: HOW MONSTER HIGH HELPED GIRLS CELEBRATE THEIR IMPERFLECTIONS

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: MATTEL
Agency: KETCHUM
Category: Best Use of Digital PR
Advertising campaign: HOW MONSTER HIGH HELPED GIRLS CELEBRATE THEIR IMPERFLECTIONS
Digital Producer: Shanna Liberman (Ketchum)
Account Supervisor: Alison McGlone (Ketchum)
Vice President/Management Supervisor: Angela Fernandez (Ketchum)
Supervising Vice President/Associate Director: Deanne Yamamoto (Ketchum)
Supervising Vice President/Digital Strategy/Innovation: Gur Tsabar (Ketchum)
Vice President/Group Manager/Executive Producer: Tom Delorme (Ketchum)

Execution
We introduced freaky fabulous content on FreakyFab13.com on the “luckiest” day of every month – the 13th. The themes were wickedly good for self-esteem. “Love Your Clawsome Self” In May, “ghouls” and parents could log on and meet Emily-Anne Rigal as a “monsterfied” character who roamed the Monster High halls, spreading the tween-esteem message. They could also download three fun activities – a Self-Esteem Checklist, a “Love, Yourself Letter,” and Monsterfied Mad Lib – each designed to elicit what makes them “freakishly fabulous.” “Take Back the Mirror”In June, we launched a special app, “Celebrate Your Imperflections,” encouraging girls to decorate their self-reflections with uplifting, monsterfied adjectives such as “scary sweet” and “clawsomely creative.” The app allowed them to upload, print and share photos. Smooches to My Own SelfLeveraging the popularity of our webisodes, which had generated 350m views to date, unveiled a special webisode featuring Emily-Anne’s esteem-building monster and message.

Relevancy
In an imperfect world, flaws are perfectly acceptable… and cool too...Monster High was a popular fashion doll phenomenon featuring a school for the progeny of world-class monsters. The students were slightly freaky, and somewhat awkward, but their relatability made them immensely popular, with a million Facebook friends and 350m YouTube views. But copycat dolls had clouded the market, and research revealed that many tweens and moms didn’t know Monster High was built on a bedrock of accepting one’s flaws (even if it meant constantly having to cut fast-growing wolf’s fur). To maintain the dolls’ “claw-some” momentum, Mattel needed to push a brand promise – take pride in your imperfections because nobody’s perfect in an imperfect world.

Strategy
The most be-you-tiful girls in the world…Harvard University research showed that 4 out of 5 girls are unhappy with their reflection in the mirror. To reverse this disillusionment, we created a campaign to empower girls to “take back the mirror.” It enabled fans to embrace their “freaky flaws” (just as Monster High dolls do), and ingest doses of self-love. Our website following and high online engagement reminded us to base the campaign online, where 90% of tweens “live.” We developed a content-rich experience and partnered with 17-year-old Emily-Anne Rigal, a former bullying victim and founder of WeStopHate.org, a nonprofit dedicated to erasing hate and building esteem. She helped engage our fans in our new online apps that elicited social media “shareable” moments, including a photo app that served as a “mirror,” compelling girls to see themselves as uniquely beautiful creatures.

Effectiveness
A monster campaign for retailers…Overnight, droves of girls changed their attitudes about their reflections, seeing flaws as perfectly perfect. The campaign built “pools of positivity” that put fans in touch with the brand’s promise to boost girls’ self esteem. Some 160,000 girls “took back the mirror,” and 229,000 downloaded activities. FreakyFab13.com drew 320,000 new unique visitors, a brand record. Within two months, aggregated page views rose 182% and monthly visits soared 490%. Monster High trended at #2 in Twitterland, drawing 21.6m social media impressions. Sales ignited, prompting Wal-Mart to forge its first-ever pro-social partnership and develop end caps in 1,500 stores, achieving a 180% summertime sales increase (and almost immediate sell-out online). Moms’ comments were gratifying. One spoke of the impact: “She takes about 8-10 shots a day and says that diabetes is her freaky flaw. Thank you Monster High for making it cool to be different. You have helped my little girl more than you will ever know.”

Client Brief Or Objective
Guiding girls through the frights of life…To ensure that Monster High dolls didn’t go the way of a fad and end up in the doll graveyard, we needed to capture the imagination of fans and moms in a creative and authentic way and prove to them what Monster High was really all about: “resurrecting” tween-esteem. We needed to ignite a pro social girls’ “positivity” movement by designing a self-empowerment platform that would engage fans and deliver on the brand promise of boosting self-esteem. A monstrously good campaign also had to appeal to retailers by driving sales out of this world during a traditionally sluggish summer season.

Campaign Description
What can monsters teach girls about self-love? Lots.Two years ago Mattel turned monsterdom on its head, creating a tween doll franchise called Monster High. Student bodies were perfectly-imperfect, including Frankie Stein (daughter of you-know-who), whose stitches came undone at inopportune times, and Draculaura, a vegan vampiress who fainted at the sight of blood. These students were not the ugly or damned. They were simply misunderstood. Sort of like tweens.The franchise became a hit. But body-snatchers – competitors’ “me too” products – invaded monsterdom. So Mattel needed an idea that would distinguish the brand, drive home its underlying rationale of self-esteem, and engage girls, 80% of whom were unhappy with their own reflection.The idea – empower girls to “take back the mirror," to see they’re not tragically flawed, but “imperfectly perfect” and can take pride in such individual traits as different hair texture – or diabetes. Surely, if Draculaura, who has no reflection, can be “freakishly fabulous,” then girls could love their “imperflections.”Partnering with WeStopHate.org, we launched an online movement where tweens could upload “freakishly fabulous” self-portraits onto FreakyFab13.com. The content-rich website, which one user called “a pool of positivity,” became a no-flaws-barred self-empowerment zone featuring a wealth of self-endearment tools.Almost overnight, the campaign triggered a social movement, drew raves among media and bloggers and attracted 320,000 new unique visitors, a brand record; and 160,000 girls joined in, loving their “freaky flaws.” The dolls became a bigger sensation. Wal-Mart completely sold out in stores and online by campaign’s end.