Hot Wheels

It’s been a number of years since Hot Wheels used original Canadian-specific creative. With no brief from the client, no budget and no deadline, Ogilvy decided the timing was right for something new.

The agency suggested a strategy shift: Mattel should talk to parents, rather than kids. A campaign should reach out to fathers, not sons, with the idea being to reacquaint men with their inner child and introduce that inner child to their kids.

Given the green light, Ogilvy created images that forced viewers to connect the dots to find the “invisible” car in the ads, like, for example a pair of women’s high-heeled shoes positioned to look like a ramp. In that process, men would reconnect with a time in their lives when anything could serve as a launching pad for their toy cars. The Hot Wheels logo was discreetly placed at the bottom of the ads.

In addition to magazine and poster advertising, the images have been traveling across the country on Mattel’s 18-wheeler truck fleet for almost a year. The agency has also received many ramp ideas from nostalgic dads.

Seems the creative also connected with sentimental judges. The campaign was shortlisted at Cannes and the One Show, and picked up two Bronze statues at the Clios. It also helped pick up more Canadian Hot Wheels business for the agency.