Mattel – Reinventing traditional gaming
How does a board game create a hype online - without the Yolo?
The Challenge
Mattel is among the leading game manufacturers with one of the strongest game portfolios in the world. With the goal of expanding the market positioning of the Evergreen Scrabble in Germany and making it accessible to a younger target audience, RCKT is supporting the SCRABBLE Team Germany with marketing the game to the target group of millennials and gen Z. How are we doing that?
The Solution
We engage with the target group and create renewed relevance with these two approaches: RCKT is developing three new game editions with regional dialects to generate attention and a new sense of identity. We are also launching a digital campaign that uses the language of the target group and meets them where they are: on the digital playing field.
The new influencer market strategy for SCRABBLE Germany
In 2019, Mattel and RCKT launched their collaboration with the goal of creating a new market strategy for SCRABBLE, with one of the core undertakings being the development of new game editions. SCRABBLE has established itself as one of the most popular word games in the world, however our data analysis revealed that there is now a new and much more visual target audience in our sights. This meant we had to put a new twist on the game with exciting designs to reach this target audience. Using three new “SCRABBLE Dialect” editions, we implemented our insights and brought them to market: a Bavarian, Berlin and Cologne edition. We brought the unique charm of the local language into our packaging design and brought on board influencers who can each identify with one of the dialects. In Instagram stories and posts, they presented, explained and promoted the new editions in an entertaining way.
The new market strategy’s success
Working with micro and macro influencers generated over 1.29 million impressions and received a ton of positive community feedback through nearly 15,000 interactions. With an above-average conversion rate of 2%, the sales target was exceeded – after 2 weeks, the games were already sold out on Amazon. We also ran Amazon banner ads customized to the special editions, which resulted in nearly 6,000 link clicks. All together, counting the social media ads and PR measures, these strategies led to more than 55 million impressions during the campaign.
