The Oreo brand mission is to unleash childlike wonder on the world. But many adults have lost touch with their inner child—leaving them unable to experience the wonder around them. As makers of a cookie that begs to be played with, Oreo saw play as a way to help people reconnect with this essential part of us. Play With Oreo invited people to play with the iconic cookie in new ways, in hopes of opening their imaginations.

Ten global artists were asked to create Oreo portraits based on different ways you can play with the cookie—and soon, giant artworks urging people to “dream”, “rock,” “twist” and more appeared from Los Angeles to Panama to Copenhagen. A digital portrait generator enabled everyone inspired by the work to create their own shareable versions.

Meanwhile, French pop stars Yelle were invited to play with the Oreo brand song; their track became an animated TVC that was translated into over 20 languages. One digital hub gathered all the assets generated globally throughout the campaign—giving the world a place to play together.

The results prove the world likes to play. Sales are up, with some markets such as the UK reporting increases of 50%. The TVC has more than 20 million combined views on YouTube. And the art has been praised in the press and by ordinary people across the social sphere. With impressions nearing 1 billion, Play With Oreo is helping unleash wonder on the world like never before.

Oreo is an established brand in the USA and China, but is an emerging brand in many other markets. In this film, we had to tell an inspiring, brand-level story while still featuring the product in a clear way. Additionally, because the piece was being developed for more than 20 different languages—some of which had to tell the lyric story in a different order—the animation had to be flexible enough that sequences could be swapped or rearranged without confusing the viewer.

The artwork for Bannecker’s “Discover”, along with other artist’s interpretations of “Crunch,” “Twist,” “Dream,” “Roll,” “Rock” and “Dunk” appeared simultaneously in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Brussels. They were immediately noted on design blogs from Germany to India, and the posters were shared across social networks. Most importantly, they inspired passers-by on their daily commutes and wanderings, surprising them with color and imaginative