Mattel Barbie & Nickelodeon

Barbie has come a long way since 1959. With more culturally relevant products, it’s become a truer “reflection of the times” than ever before.

This partnership is a multi-year effort to close the “Dream Gap.,” a time in a girl’s life, around the age of 5, when she stops believing in her ability to accomplish certain things. These cross-platform campaigns have a single-minded goal: Celebrate that fact that girls can be anything.

“Orange Carpet”

Our focus in 2019 was on women creators as role models. Like many industries, there were too few women in leadership roles in media production, including the KCAs. While Nickelodeon worked to resolve that, we took on the challenge by creating a story around girls with media related interests. And, to be consistent with Barbie’s new diverse product lines, we opened our casting to diversity across ethnicity, body type and physical ability. In this spot, we rolled out Nickelodeon’s Orange Carpet to the song, “No Other Like You,” inviting all girls to dream big knowing that soon, they’d be running the show.

Project: Barbie & The Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards, 2019
Role: Art Director - creative development, pre/post production direction
Channels: TVC
Clients: Nickelodeon & Barbie

“You Can Be Anything” 

In 2020, the global pandemic completely changed the Kids Choice Awards, jeopardizing the partnership.

Since the footage of DJ Livia, our social media star, had already been shot with crowds of adoring fans, it risked being perceived as not “Covid aware.” So, in the two weeks prior to the event, our team wrote and produced additional content for both linear and social platforms. This was our first remote shoot, but this additional content brought more value to Barbie by acknowledging the pandemic, giving viewers a more personal look at DJ Livia all while reinforcing the need to stay safe.

Project: Barbie & the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards (KCA) 2020
Role: Art Director - creative development, pre/post production direction, creation of co-branded assets
Channels: TVC, Instagram
Client: Barbie and Nickelodeon
Press: Ad Age