In response to the brief and inspired by the findings from the social experiment, Los Papelnautas (The Papernauts) was born: the first series imagined by kids, for kids, originally produced for Discovery. A micro-series in which the characters dreamed up by the children that participated became the protagonists of their own adventures.

The opening sequence of the series showed kids having fun with books and toys in a library, reinforcing the primary communications objective of fostering creativity and imagination through reading and playing. As the kids left the library, the characters in their drawings and in the books they read came to life and embarked on adventures of imagination themselves.

We worked with a unique style of stop-motion animation using paper, which added an element of realism when the characters came to life and playfully represented the combination of reading, playing and imagination central to McDonald’s communications strategy.

To create synergy, scale and continuity with McDonald’s strategy and executions, we developed a full media ecosystem to engage with parents and kids. First, we created market-specific short form content based on the social experiment which showed the kids’ creative process, as well as the interviews with their parents and the psychologists who worked with them. At this early stage, we were planting the seed among our audience that, when used together, books and toys help to foster creativity and imagination in kids. This content served to generate intrigue for a bigger payoff – the premiere of Los Papelnautas a few weeks later – a 3-part micro series on Discovery Kids in which the characters came to life on screen.

The content was distributed on TV as well as digitally on Discovery Kids platforms including its YouTube channel, online content platform (www.discoverykidsplay.com) and was promoted on the channel’s Facebook fanpage

• 3.4MM books sold with Happy Meals in Latin America in less than a year, with 70% of the stock sold within the first months

• The content generated for the campaign achieved almost 15.4MM views across Latin America

• Los Papelnautas episodes over-delivered the channel’s average in all main markets in the Kids 4-8 target. Among Women 25-49, the series outperformed the channel average in key markets.

• Over delivery across markets and demos reached up to +247%

• Online video views reached +2.4MM on Discovery Kids platforms

• The branded content campaign on Discovery Kids impacted +11.6MM people across platforms throughout Latin America