Fisher-Price started the new year documenting the births of the first babies of 2015, getting nearly 2 million views in the first week of its release.
The challenge
How does a babycare brand run a seasonal campaign? At the start of 2015, Fisher-Price wanted to boost brand awareness on the web with a smart and timely video ad.
The solution
The 90-second video by Fisher-Price, “Wishes for Baby,” stars the year's first newborn babies from seven nations: US, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Kenya, Bangladesh, and Poland.
Local film crews at 10 hospitals captured the footage of new moms sharing their wishes for their babies, which include everything from "to be loved by everyone" to being able to go to school and be educated.
The footage was shot "in the early hours of New Year’s Day,” the company said.
“Welcome to a brand new year. The best possible start begins with love,” the video says in its closing scene.
Documentary filmmaker Patrick Creadon and his video crews fanned out over eight cities – Boston, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Bangladesh, Nairobi and Warsaw -- to gather before-and-after footage of parents who agreed to filming the births of their New Year's babies.
The challenging technical work culminated at Boston editing studio Editbar where Mr. Creadon winnowed down the video footage to 90 seconds that airs first today as a paid integration on "Good Morning America."
That version and shorter 30-second and 15-second spots will then run as paid media on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. It will be followed by a social-media campaign on those sites plus Instagram and Pinterest soliciting more parents' wishes and attempting to spark conversations using the hashtag #WishesForBaby.
The results
The ad was an instant heart-warming hit. nearly 2 million people vewied the ad within days of it going live, and the brand got reams of earned media coverage on national and trade press.
The video’s director, documentarian Patrick Creadon, said he was drawn to the project because of his first-hand knowledge of the ties that bind all parents.
“You’re filled with an incredible desire that they have every opportunity in life,” he said in a statement. “Parents are universally connected by the same wish for our children, built upon the same foundation of love. It transcends what we think divides us.”
