Mattel shape of play study

Challenge
Create consumer research that not only delivers insights, but also powers a global thought leadership campaign.

MADO partnered with Mattel on The Shape of Play, a global initiative exploring the role of play in people’s lives. As MADO’s research partner, Ubinsights led the research strategy and execution, while working closely with creative and production teams to ensure the insights could also support a campaign-ready documentary.

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Our Approach: Designing research for both insight and storytelling

Play is deeply cultural and often abstract. To begin, we created a shared framework of play, drawing from academic literature, market analysis, and product reviews. This helped align research, creative, and production teams around a common understanding of the topic.

Next, we designed the research with dual purpose in mind: generating insights while creating compelling visual moments.

For example, a traditional card-sorting exercise was transformed into an interactive activity using custom-designed building bricks, turning a data collection method into a visually engaging scene for the documentary.

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What We Delivered

• Designed research frameworks and materials for both quantitative and qualitative studies
• Conducted a 33,000-person survey across 7 countries
• Led in-home interviews in the U.S. and Finland, designed for both depth of insight and cinematic storytelling
• Managed participant recruitment across the U.S., Finland, and China

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The project culminated into a compelling report and mini-documentary. See it: HERE

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