Formula Hot Wheels was a new online site for Mattel's cars and stunt tracks. How could we grab kids' attention, drive traffic to the site, and open up a new level of engagement with the brand? We came up with a way to leverage the target audience's competitive spirit and create appointment-to-view advertising that connected on-air and online activity. We knew that Mattel's core audience love to compete. First, we had to win Mattel over to the idea that, while the product itself was as much about individual play and creativity, a race had to be at the heart of the campaign.

The campaign objective was to build awareness of the new Hot Wheels site before and during product launch.

We proposed a series of on-air Race Days: viewers could sign up and battle out through activity on the site then tune into Cartoon Network to see the race results. We brought the concept to life by helping to devise 4 different teams that each reflected a compelling but contrasting aspect of racing and the Hot Wheels brand. A set of ads that generated excitement around the Race Days came next, followed by ads to build up anticipation adding interest to each of the teams and the details of every track. Finally, hourly spots turned Race Day itself into a must-see event!

The Race Days concept has brought thousands of kids into the club - and helped deliver a whole new level of engagement with the Hot Wheels brand. To date, the site has attracted over 13,500 unique visitors - with visitors staying 7 minutes on average, and club members engaging in 16.5 different activities on the site.

We wanted to keep things exciting - and deliver a peak in activity as close as possible to Race Day. This meant an incredibly rapid turnaround time: from midnight on Sunday when online activity was closed, to broadcast the following Saturday. We added extra impetus to the campaign with Hot Wheels sponsorship slots for our Thrills and Spills programming strand too - this turned out to be the perfect match for the brand!