Crayola believes every child should be able to creatively and accurately color themselves into the world they see around them. Crayola began its inclusion journey back in 1992 by launching the first multicultural crayon pack featuring a collection of crayons representing different skin tones. Over the years, the brand acknowledged the need to modernize the pack to meet the growing diversity of today’s world by increasing representation within creativity. Crayola’s objective was to completely reimagine their 8-pack crayon set and turn it into an inclusive pack that celebrates the colors of the world, in partnership with major influencers and diverse figures in the beauty industry.
We partnered with beauty industry expert Victor Casale, former R&D director at MAC Cosmetics and current CEO of MOB Beauty, to understand the unique process of creating skin-toned color crayons. Crayola and Casale created a plan, modeled on the makeup industry’s foundation development process, coalescing skin tone shades and undertones. This research and development process developed over two years, resulted in a global palette of 24 colors that authentically reflects the full spectrum of human complexions.
To launch the Colors of the World crayons, the team leaned into the principles of credibility, authenticity and transparency to communicate the message of inclusion. We knew that the Colors of the World crayon launch needed a meaningful and momentous moment, so we landed on May 21, the United Nations World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. We hoped the product launch would foster a dialogue and advance the development of inclusion within creativity.
To mark official launch, we announced Colors of the World on Good Morning America, followed by a full-court-press of influencer, blogger, and media relations, all driving to Walmart.com and Crayola.com for presale and product ordering.
In addition to getting the product in stores and on shelves, we also set out to engage kids in a meaningful and authentic activity using the crayons. A key insight we gleaned during our stage gate Colors of the World research was when we asked teachers how they would use the Crayola Colors of the World crayons in their classrooms, they resoundingly told us they would use the new crayons in conjunction with diversity, inclusion and self-portrait exercises. Most often, self-portraits are used to help build self-esteem and self confidence in kids. With this learning, we created the "Draw your #TrueSelfie campaign which integrates the popularity and commonality of taking selfies with families and kids sitting down to draw self-portraits. And what better way for kids to represent themselves within their #TrueSelfie than with the Colors of the World Crayons!? We created a gallery at Crayola.com/worldcolors and gave families a choice of frames and galleries within which to showcase their self-portraits. The Crayola #TrueSelfie gallery celebrates all the beautiful, unique and creative truly representative and inclusive selfies.
Colors of the World answered a real need in the marketplace and the response was resounding. To date, the launch has resulted in 2.7 billion impressions, 1,014 placements and celebrity social advocates like Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Aniston, Holly Robinson Peete and Kristen Bell.
As of July 2020, the campaign resulted in 2.4 billion media impressions, 2k email notification requests for crayon availability on Crayola.com. Additionally, 54,800 crayons and 13,000 coloring books were sold resulting from the Walmart.com limited time Pre-Sale.
By the end of 2020, Crayola sold 1.5 million units for a total of $3.7 million in sales. For the back to school season, the Colors of the World 32ct crayon was the #2 selling crayon at Walmart, second only to the base 24ct crayon pack.
