Headspace, the global leader in meditation and mindfulness, alongside Sesame Street, the leader in early childhood education, came together in 2020 to create a way to teach kids how to use mindfulness techniques to better understand their feelings and relate to the world around them. Through the launch of their Monster Meditations animated shorts, the two companies aimed to teach the fundamentals of mindfulness early in life, especially at a time like this, when children and families are experiencing higher levels of stress and anxiety.
A collaboration between Headspace and Sesame Street was a natural fit between two leading brands. Sesame Street works with industry leaders across social-emotional learning and Headspace’s social impact strategy is based on empowering teachers to integrate mindfulness into the classroom. Both teams aim to create impactful content that provides their audience with the tools they need to lead a healthier life.
Once the two teams confirmed their collaboration, Sesame Street and Headspace worked to develop the series of six animated shorts for Monster Meditations, each one roughly three minutes in length. These shorts featured animated versions of the beloved Sesame Street Muppets having feelings of frustration, impatience, being overwhelmed, nervousness, disappointment, and excitement. In each one, Headspace co-founder and former Buddhist monk, Andy Puddicombe, guides the monster through various breathing and sensory activities and other mindfulness techniques to better manage relatable, everyday scenarios.
Monster Meditations launched in April of 2020 via YouTube Kids on a bi-weekly basis, as a way to combat stress and anxiety during challenging times brought on by the pandemic.
Examples of the shorts include:
Cookie Monster impatiently waiting for his cookies to bake. Andy introduces a fun game called “I-Sense” to teach Cookie Monster patience.
Elmo is having trouble sleeping because he wants to play. Andy teaches Elmo a wind-down activity to help him relax and fall asleep.
Monster Meditations was wildly successful and garnered the attention of media, educators, parents, caregivers kids across the world, receiving 100% positive sentiment. The six videos have been viewed over 25M times, garnering 175M impressions, and 380K hours of viewing. In addition, the episode Goodnight Body with Elmo, was the 3rd most viewed video on Sesame Street’s YouTube channel, of all videos released this year and has over 10.5M views. The series also secured 225 media placements nationally. It not only provided children with a greater sense of calm and clarity, but also helped cultivate compassion, creativity, and kindness.
