B. TOYS
I was lucky enough to create this brand from scratch with art director/designer Andrea Becker, toymaker/marketing genius Gisela Voss, and many other incredible people.
“B. You” was the brand motto. Without a media budget, we knew we had to make owned media work overtime, so we used it all—right down to the UPC codes.
Packages told the story and invited moms into a vibrant social media community. Children’s quotes, gathered from these moms, became the cornerstone of the brand, allowing the entire community to feel ownership. A onesie giveaway event went viral, broadening our reach exponentially, while an effective blogger outreach program deepened relationships making this oddball toy company a mom favorite.
A charity component to the branding has helped build more than 50 schools in Haiti and Kenya, where many kids are not so lucky as the ones who play with B. toys.
Along with the broader team I was in charge of concept, creative direction and design of the B. website. The toy company's look is a big part of the brand identity so coming up with ways to stay true to that look in a web-friendly execution took many work arounds, but the finished product looked, felt and even practically smelled like the brand we had developed. See the site here.
Of course, the toy pages had to be fun with toys you could play with on site.
In keeping with the message to kids to Just B. You, the site incorporated a quote maker where Moms could make beautiful, branded art out of the cute things their kids said. These quotes were shared by parents in social media, and by B. in little booklets in each B. package.
The quotes was curated into a gallery on the site.
Crowd-sourced quote booklets showed up in every package.
The packaging was recyclable, reusable and some even reversed to become gift wrap.
PR AND BLOGGER OUTREACH
We were involved in every aspect of the PR right down to buying 347 kitty and doggy stamps that landed one of the B. toys on Ellen.
B. toys launched in Jan 2010. The following year sales were up 30% and they are still growing tremendously. Pretty good for a homespun brand with no marketing budget.