Born out of the success of the young-adult series, Hunger Games, and Jennifer Lawrence's fierce portrayal of heroine Katniss Everdeens's skill with a bow, Hasbro launched Nerf Rebelle. Rebelle is a line of Nerf foam-based toy blasters, bows, and Super Soakers designed specifically for girls.
Young people were identifying Katniss as a role model, an unassuming hero with signature strengths of perseverance, bravery, love, judgement, and teamwork. This series broke from the traditional male catered film and fiction model by placing women and girls' passions and problems at the center of the action. Hasbro saw an opportunity to expand their Nerf offering by focusing on girl power through team and fantasy play.
I was asked to create an advertising campaign for Nerf Rebelle
Research shows that physical activity enhances the psychological health of younger adolescent girls. According to The Dove Self-esteem Project, “If your child is exercising regularly, they’re likely to feel better about themselves and their body.” Self-esteem is important for increased self-efficacy and leadership skills, protecting against depression, anxiety, and loneliness. “It will always be difficult to prevent girls feeling insecure, but by encouraging ‘tween’ girls to speak their opinion and believe in themselves, we could lead to more confident and independent girls in the future.” Aleesha Badkar for GoodToKnow.co.uk, October 5, 2018
Meaningful engagement
I felt if Nerf Rebelle was truly about girl empowerment, then we should follow our own brand promise. For this campaign, we partnered with 14 and 15 year old female directors Lily Eliana Walsh and Claire Jantzen to create original content.
Resonates with our desire to have the courage to take risks
Working closely with the production company Adolescent Content, we created a Long-form film (above), a series of :30/:20/:15 product focused TV commercials, and released a “Making of” YouTube video featuring a behind-the-scenes look into the process to further engage fans.
During casting, I was struck by the fearless athleticism when the girls demonstrated their gymnastics abilities. These acrobatic moves embodied our call to action and were featured in an epic game of capture the flag. We also partnered with the music house Found Objects to create an original anthemic track. The long-form film directed by 15 year old Claire Jantzen, was the perfect format to drive awareness and generate excitement on digital and social media channels.
This was a multi-pronged approach, using traditional :30/:20/:15 TV spots to highlight new product features.
14 year old Lily Eliana Walsh directed the Super Soaker spots balancing the campaign's empowerment tone with the seasonal product features.
The campaign continued through Instagram and YouTube with more inspiring content and calls to action for continued engagement.
While we were making the content, we had cameras capture footage from casting sessions, meetings, and on location. This was combined with one-on-one interviews Claire conducted of the cast sharing what Girl Power means to them. These were candid and kept the brand message clear and honest.
This is the part where I should tell you about all the earned media coverage that followed.
A 12 billion dollar company entrusting two tween girls to direct a campaign with a complicated series of web and TV assets for what has been traditionally a male brand is newsworthy in and of itself. But the articles and interviews never happened.
When it came time to put together the PR effort, the ad agency executives and clients lost their nerve. The story was buried by their inability to lead through a moment of innovation and break from the usual work processes.
Creative News takes courage
It takes determination and you have to believe in what you're saying. About a year later, Claire Jantzen was asked to join a team of 8-17 year old kid creators to direct Target's Back to School campaign. Many, many, headlines followed.