{"id":9860,"date":"2016-04-06T06:33:38","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T10:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation\/"},"modified":"2016-04-08T17:19:16","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T21:19:16","slug":"richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Dickson On Mattel’s Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

CANNES: In a keynote speech at MIPTV, which was followed by a Q&A with World Screen<\/em>\u2019s Anna Carugati, Richard Dickson, Mattel\u2019s president and COO, talked about creating engaging content and success strategies at the company.<\/p>\n

Dickson accepted the MIPTV Brand of the Year Award ahead of his keynote at the market in Cannes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMattel was built on content and media,\u201d Dickson said of the 70-year-old company, founded in a garage in Southern California as Mattel Creations. \u201cI believe our best days are ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

At its inception, Mattel was \u201cinventing revolutionary new ways for kids to play. Mattel\u2019s founders understood that in a world where kids were increasingly engaged by media, toys would have to tell engaging stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Television advertising was a key focus for Mattel in its early days, a risky move given that the medium was still in its infancy. \u201cMattel created the first television advertising for kids, rooted in kid-targeted stories that brought these toys to life. Mattel Creations has always been content optimized. These were open-ended brands that could continuously evolve and live in a wide range of environments and scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickson went on to note that the company became comfortable with its success and repeated what worked. \u201cWe essentially devolved into a packaged-goods company that made toys, losing that entrepreneurial, creative invention that started the company. The 30-second commercial for kids that was so innovative at the time became so much a part of our culture that we could not look beyond it. Our media became focused on tonnage, rather than innovation. Mattel essentially lost its way for a little while.”<\/p>\n

Dickson was enlisted to \u201ccreate the next chapter of innovation at Mattel.\u201d The process began with understanding what made Mattel great in the first place.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s media revolution, kids are able to \u201cdiscover and make choices\u2026. Kids are naturally suited to a media-intensive world. They\u2019re natural actors. They\u2019re eager and able to find solutions. They are passionate about media and storytelling. And today they can curate their own experiences and configure their own worlds. This is the first generation of kids who think and play like producers. They expect their toys to come to life in every dimension: on TV, online, in apps, in games, in theme parks and movies. That\u2019s creating a whole new universe of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickson continued, \u201cWhen kids choose toys today, they\u2019re essentially casting characters for all the stories that they connect with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before a brand can capture the creative potential of media, \u201cthe brands must be healthy and relevant. To be honest and candid, many of our brands weren\u2019t ready until now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickson went on to showcase examples of how Mattel has reinvented its key brands, including Barbie. \u201cWe introduced new Barbie dolls with unique skin tones, 14 different facial sculpts, 18 different eye colors and even more hair styles, hair colors and fashions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company also developed Hello Barbie, which \u201canswered girls\u2019 requests to have an interactive conversation with their doll.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Barbie\u2019s figure changed, a move that made headlines across the globe. \u201cWe have tall, petite, curvy, joining the classic, original Barbie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, there\u2019s a line of Barbie dolls inspired by \u201cmodern heroines,\u201d with one based on Misty Copeland coming out this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cInnovations like this brought new relevance and attention to the Barbie brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickson said that because \u201crelevance must be cultivated daily, the immediacy of media and content will play an even greater role in managing all of our brands going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that the company also had to devise new strategies to make the Fisher-Price brand relevant to Millennial parents. Hot Wheels is also evolving, Dickson said, into a \u201ccontent-intensive play system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019ve been reinventing these brands one by one, we\u2019ve also been carefully studying the media landscape, we\u2019re evaluating our resources, our talent, we\u2019re carefully considering what\u2019s working for others, what\u2019s working for us, what\u2019s not working, what\u2019s emerging? Where can we invest, enhance and innovate?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickson discussed the creation of a unified global content arm, Mattel Creations. \u201cIt\u2019s perfectly reflecting our new perspective on content as well paying homage to the heritage of that original content revolution 70 years ago in that garage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussing Mattel\u2019s plans for the future, Dickson said that the company is making the consumer its top priority, \u201cconnecting them to the unique purpose of each one of our brands more directly and meaningfully. We\u2019ve invited our fans to inspire us and co-create with our brands.\u201d It is also \u201capproaching content holistically\u201d and \u201clooking across our portfolio for opportunities to connect our brands to each other and of course to the journey of childhood.\u201d Dickson said Mattel also wants to \u201ccontinuously discover new ways to extend our content beyond what\u2019s familiar, beyond long-form TV formats and animation models.\u201d Another key priority is partnerships. \u201cMattel is much more collaborative and advantageous than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following his keynote, Dickson was joined on stage by World Screen<\/em>\u2019s group editorial director, Anna Carugati. She began the Q&A session by asking how Mattel is providing beloved brands and characters on digital platforms and mobile devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids are early adopters,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re incredibly savvy. It\u2019s incredibly important for companies like ours, which are about traditional play, that we integrate our content into storytelling on digital mediums. We need to be where our consumer is. Any brand today needs to be where their consumers are. And their consumers are everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carugati spoke about her own memories of her first Barbie and asked Dickson about the thinking that went into the recent changes to the iconic doll. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of secret sauce behind the Barbie brand. But there\u2019s no doubt that it\u2019s very difficult to keep a fashion doll relevant for 57 years. Part of Barbie\u2019s history, if you look back at it, is she was always a reflection of what was happening in fashion and pop culture. If you look at Barbie over time, she\u2019s a really interesting historic way of looking at what was fashionable, what was going on in the culture. We tried to inspire girls to imagine that through their drive they could be anything. What we\u2019ve done today is embrace the DNA of the brand. What makes Barbie relevant today? She needs to look like what women look like today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about his message to international content creators interested in working with Mattel, Dickson said, \u201cWe\u2019re not shy and we can\u2019t do what we do on our own. Those days are long gone. We are embracing creativity in our own house and with open arms out in the community. We put as one of our most important strategic goals to be best-in-class partners. What we can do at Mattel with the resources we have and the instant connection from a global perspective\u2014distribution, content, marketing, media, product development\u2014it’s astounding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a keynote speech at MIPTV, which was followed by a Q&A with World Screen\u2019s Anna Carugati, the president and COO discussed creating engaging content and success strategies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":9883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[271,1008,1057],"class_list":["post-9860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-mattel","tag-mattel-creations","tag-richard-dickson","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nRichard Dickson On Mattel's Transformation - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Richard Dickson On Mattel's Transformation - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a keynote speech at MIPTV, which was followed by a Q&A with World Screen\u2019s Anna Carugati, the president and COO discussed creating engaging content and success strategies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-06T10:33:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-08T21:19:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/04\/Kids-Weekly-new-e1460150172315.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"415\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"285\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation\/\",\"name\":\"Richard Dickson On Mattel's Transformation - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-06T10:33:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-08T21:19:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/richard-dickson-talks-mattels-transformation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Richard Dickson On Mattel’s Transformation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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