Headspace and Star Wars™ joined forces to launch exclusive content featuring the most iconic characters from the franchise, to inspire Disney, Star Wars fans and Headspace users alike to prioritize their mental health by reducing stress and anxiety, get better sleep & instill mindful moments on a daily basis. Written and animated by Headspace, the ‘Find your Force with Star Wars™’ YouTube Series is a multi-episode series following the journeys of Chewbacca™ and his sidekick BB-8™ as they travel across the Star Wars™ galaxy to visit Chewbacca’s™ home planet of Kashyyyk™. Led by Headspace teacher Samantha Snowden, each chapter guides and teaches children and families calming techniques by using beloved Star Wars characters in an animated series to showcase the benefits of mindfulness.
Star Wars™ is a huge and long standing cultural phenomenon, with a global and dedicated fan base including people of all ages. 1 in every 4 internet users are Star Wars fans, and it is one of the most beloved and recognized franchises ever. One of our objectives is to leverage the iconic IP as a way to introduce the vast Star Wars™ audience to mindfulness through Headspace. This new content serves as a resource for parents, teachers, and caregivers to help children navigate and manage their emotions. With the combined forces of beloved Star Wars™ characters and our own teacher Samatha Snowden, we’ll help parents and children learn how to grow their relationship with mindfulness, encouraging members to turn inward and focus on breathing. Using playful animation, music and sound effects, Space to Breathe with Star Wars™ comes to life in one-minute exercises, enabling new and experienced meditators alike to set a mindful tone for the day, without any narration required.
Our teams created an incredible series that was loved by parents and kids alike. Key successes include introducing Headspace to new audiences, providing added value to existing members, driving deeper brand affinity (especially across existing members), and reaffirming how Headspace continues to activate across culturally relevant moments. The ‘Find your Force with Star Wars™’ YouTube Series tapped into universal Star Wars™ fandom & timeliness of 'May the 4th' to secure broad, top tier media interest and promotion, spanning across AdWeek, E! News, CNN, USA Today, Evening Standard & more. We achieved over 500M earned media impressions, over 200 press hits and 100% positive sentiment. Compared to other kids content, Star Wars performed above average in relation to YouTube Kid’s other Special Content Deals. Each Chapter of the series came amongst the top 20 for content starts, and the first chapter was the 7th most popular piece of kids content and also one of the top 10 most watched videos ever created on Headspace’s YouTube Channel. Despite Star Wars™ and Headspace being beloved brands with authority in the kids and family space, we were able to secure promotion within the homepage of YouTube Kids which resulted in incredible viewership of our YouTube series at no cost to viewers.
