creativity. reimagined.
For over 50 years, Hot Wheels® has been igniting imaginations and challenging the minds of children everywhere. So when the brand’s eCommerce team approached us to deliver an online, interactive experience for its Track Builder system, we were eager to put our heads together and get the adrenaline pumping.
start your engines.
The Hot Wheels® Track Builder system is more than just a toy. It’s a tool that helps kids develop life skills, fuel their ability to innovate and discover new ways of thinking. We wanted to represent that online by showcasing the configurability of track pieces and letting users build unique stunts for a one-of-a-kind raceway experience.
As a long-term partner of Mattel, we were able to easily align our initial designs with the goals of the site: to educate parents on the product, explain the different play patterns, and show how each of the products connect to one another. We also wanted to create something that not only allows the user to customize the design, but that gives them the opportunity to print shopping lists and purchase the product, too.
Before diving into web design and development, first came the fun part: executing the stunts. We worked with the actual product to configure track pieces, test stunts, and gain an understanding of how everything worked together.
stuntin’ is a habit.
Once we had the product down, it was time to begin the digital stunts. Our creative team utilized the Hot Wheels style guide to ensure we were following brand standards, while designing fun, visually different experiences that highlighted each product line. We also implemented elements to keep users engaged—by adding a tutorial, start over, shuffle, stunt path, and randomize button. Each time users added a track piece, the shopping list would update.
Our development team helped us transform these ideas into reality. We wanted to make an interactive experience that could be easily updated in the future, reskinned for additional brands, ported to an additional url, or even localized. We built a single backend “engine” to power the experience, including an admin where all content could be stored and edited.
Instead of limiting the user to one type of experience, we wanted this to be versatile on any device or platform. We focused on desktop-specific factors—like the print and share buttons—as well as mobile-specific factors—like a functioning portrait mode and randomize buttons—to increase engagement and lower bounce rates.
crossing the finish line
Desktop received the most engagement with an average of almost 4 minutes on the site—with a bounce rate of 17%. It also received a hefty amount of organic traffic, indicating that the content effectively showed up in related search results.
Most importantly, we used detailed event tracking to find out which product users chose most often, which buttons were most popular, and how many users printed their product information. This allowed the Hot Wheels® team to continue targeting the right people while allowing us to continue optimizing the Track Builder experience.
We also brought home two awards for the activity: a Silver ADDY and a Gold AVA. You can check out the digital experience here.