Littlest Pet Shop: Volume 5

Establishing an Ownable Creative Strategy

When Hasbro Entertainment & Licensing initially asked us to develop a new creative strategy for the Littlest Pet Shop lifestyle licensing program, we knew we needed to do more than our typical market and trend research to establish a new, ownable “visual hook” for the brand. We realized that a successful creative strategy must transcend trends, rather than being based on one particular trend. It must be flexible enough to accommodate any trend, while maintaining its own creative aesthetic.

This thinking led to the formulation of our new pre-design research process, which we call “brand deconstruction”.
We identified three successful lifestyle brands that rely on an ownable creative strategy to differentiate themselves at retail. We deconstructed each brand to uncover its visual hook, then leveraged the findings to establish the rationale
to support our creative strategy development.

DNA from a Paw Print

The paw print has always been part of the Littlest Pet Shop’s heritage. However,
it was always interpreted in a literal manner, never conceptual. Our new creative strategy: establish an iconic depiction of a paw print, standardize its proportions, then infuse it – either overtly or subliminally – into every design asset associated with the licensing program. It can be an integral part of a badge design, hidden in
a pattern, or used as an accent or signature. The result? The paw print becomes
the new visual brand DNA through which all licensed products will be immediately identified as Littlest Pet Shop.

Trend Research

We identified many common trend themes across a variety of consumer product categories appealing to girls, ages
6 – 9. Projecting what would still be relevant to the target audience over the next year, we narrowed these themes down to four – Collegiate/Athletic, Positive Attitudes, Earth Consciousness, and Glamour. We then developed names for each theme, while making reference to Littlest Pet Shop and the new paw print creative strategy.

Design Assets and Product Concept Development

Badge designs and step-and-repeat patterns (see slides above) were developed for each theme, along with a handful of consumer product concepts from a variety of categories, to inspire licensees and help them envision how these assets might be leveraged as they develop their Littlest Pet Shop product lines.

Style Guide Design

Our solution for the style guide introduces licensees to the new creative strategy, letting them know that Littlest Pet Shop is now “all about the paw print”. We created a custom die-cut outer sleeve, a spiral bound booklet with tabs for each section die-cut to the shape of the paw print, a separate disc sleeve and disc labels.

The PAWsabilities are endless!

The refreshed Littlest Pet Shop lifestyle licensing program is better poised to compete in the marketplace, whatever the trend theme may be. With its new visual brand DNA and a creative strategy upon which the brand can build and evolve, licensed products in any category will now be immediately identifiable as Littlest Pet Shop. The PAWsabilities for this program are endless!