Our main campaign objective was to introduce Nerf’s Elite 2.0 Motoblitz Blaster to the Nickelodeon audience and generate large-scale brand awareness, and amass 30M overall impressions across Nickelodeon channels. We knew that in order to guarantee high performance on our platforms, the creative would need to feel aligned with our editorial content, and organic to what our viewers are used to seeing. As an extension of the NFL Slimetime linear show, our series needed to be football-themed even though the Nerf Blasters are not, so we needed to make that connection while keeping the content active, funny, and appealing for our audience.
Drafting off the growing trend of families gathering to watch football, we tapped father-son duo, Terry Crews (former NFL athlete and comedic powerhouse) and Nickelodeon star Isaiah Crews to create football-themed challenges highlighting the Nerf Elite 2.0 Motoblitz CS-10 Blasters. The campaign spanned Nickelodeon's ecosystem via in-show integration, sponsorship, custom branded content, and social drivers, meeting our fans everywhere they are.
Inspired by Nickelodeon classics like Double Dare, we created a football training camp-inspired target practice course. Obstacles were informed by football drills and scenarios but modified to utilize the Nerf Elite 2.0 Motoblitz CS-10 Blasters. For example, our talent found open receiver targets by blasting darts through wacky waving arm inflatable defensive linemen, mimicked a running back drill by “stiff-arm” blasting defensive targets, and blasted six darts at once through the uprights using the Motoblitz functionality. In order to make it more fun for talent (and capture authentic joy and energy), father and son competed for real and we crafted alternate endings to account for any winner/loser/tie scenarios.
Terry and Isaiah also played comedic announcers Buck Manly and Dart Deskfield, as they gave hilarious play-by-play of their own action on the field. These characters constantly upped the humor and reinforced important information about our core product, the Nerf Elite 2.0 Motoblitz CS-10 Blasters.
Within our branded content, we enlisted fan-favorite talent, infused Nickelodeon humor native to our platform and expected by our fans, and ensured our promotion of Nerf’s blasters shined via organic storytelling, all while representing their brand ethos.
This year we were once again able to surpass our impression goal, amassing 12.8M impressions, 5.6M video views and an engagement rate of 10.3% between our two custom YouTube episodes. Our Hasbro Nerf clients were thrilled with the process and content. Due to the success that we had last season, Hasbro was on board and championing our plan to bring their brand to life again through our storytelling like only Nickelodeon can. Continuing with a balance of athleticism, comedy and style truly embodied their brand ethos, we were able to contract former NFL player, Terry Crews, and Nickelodeon Talent, his son, Isaiah Crews. They had so much fun last year they had to do it again! Their energy and dynamic shine through in each video. Their natural father-son competitiveness and humor made these videos fun for kids and adults alike to watch over and over again.
