Crayola’s “Color Yourself Into the World” won the Iridium Effie at the Global Best of the Best Effies virtual celebration on Dec. 6. The award recognizes the most effective campaign in the world. Nike was the inaugural winner of the new award in 2021.
Crayola needed a unique campaign to emphasize its belief that every child has the power to create their place in the world by coloring themselves into it. Dentsu teams developed the strategy to launch Crayola’s new Colors of the World product – 24 specially formulated crayons to mirror and represent 40+ global skin tones. The campaign went beyond the traditional single-sided story of diversity to expand strategy and to focus on the wider issue of inclusivity by allowing children to become more visible both on paper and in the world.
The work, created in partnership with GOLIN PR, also won the Global Grand Effie Award in the Product/Service Launch category, and previously won a Gold Effie at the 2021 Effie Awards U.S. competition.
A “Draw your #TrueSelfie” campaign was also created to combine the commonality of taking selfies and drawing self-portraits. Crayola’s online gallery let families customize their portraits and celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of representative and inclusive selfies.
“The dentsu team possessed a personal passion for the new colors of the world skin tone crayons and as a result the strategy and campaign the team brought forth was not only spot on and filled with passion, but also conviction, significance, fervor, and acclamation for self-expression like never before,” said Mimi Dixon, Brand Equity & Activation with Crayola, in a previous release.
Upon launch, Crayola’s website received 2,000 email notification requests for Colors of the World crayon availability—and 58,000 crayons and 13,000 coloring books were sold in a limited-time pre-sale partnership with Walmart.
