Can you fix a toy that isn't broken? That's what a team at Mattel Inc. set out to do with Hot Wheels™. But the digital update they introduced to future-proof the best-selling toy on the planet bombed. The risky decision, however, benefitted the venerable company – just not the way they expected.
So when I was a kid, my brother and I used to take these planks of wood left over from a backyard fence my dad had built, and we created a whole highway system across our backyard with tunnels and bridges.
And it was all for playing city and for racing our hot wheels cars.
They're the fastest metal cars you've ever seen.
Mattel's new hot wheels.
I had, like, this one little white bug, and I had this double decker bus that was so cool and big and red.
But despite the fact that I and everyone I knew had hot wheels, even my kids today have their own sets, this next fact came as a huge surprise.
Hot Wheels is the number one selling toy in the world.
And not just number one in toy cars, but number one of all toys.
Yeah, I had no idea.
But despite the success, the future for Hot Wheels isn't guaranteed.
Because these days, kids aren't necessarily into playing with physical toys like they used to be.
And we had this one video where a kid was describing playing with a playset, and it had like four different tracks that released the cars at the same time, and then you could build around it.
And the kid was describing it as if playing with that toy was a chore.
And he said, you know, imagine doing this for an hour as if it was torture.
At the core of that customer research video from 2016 was a shift in how kids play today.
By the time kids reach eight or nine years old, what used to be the sweet spot for hot wheels, they would rather play video games.
When you're in an industry, and you're the leader in the industry like Mattel is, you've got a consumer that is starting to age out of your core product lines.
You need to do something.
But how do you fix a toy that isnt broken?
Can you make something new out of something old that appeals to how kids play today?