What Happened
Toymaker Mattel has announced a partnership with Amazon to create four live-action specials based on its American Girl dolls. Amazon may also produce a new kids series starring those dolls if the specials prove successful with the audience on Amazon Prime. This is not the first time a streaming service has ventured into kids content. Last year, Amazon Studios greenlit six pilots of kids programs, while Netflix expanded its kids content lineup with three new original series last week. Similarly, HBO struck a deal with Sesame Street for an exclusive window on new episodes last year.
What Brands Need To Do
Today, consumers have increasing options to avoid ads across all media types. It is getting harder for brands to reach their audiences when content consumption has shifted away from traditional TV to ad-free subscription services. This Mattel-Amazon deal provides a great example in how brands can develop branded content via partnerships with content creators to reach audiences that are otherwise unreachable.
Source: Engadget
Header image courtesy of americangirl.com
