Fisher-Price Scores 2015’s First Big ‘Real-Time’ Content Marketing Win

I fully expect the major trend of 2015 will be brands telling bigger, better stories faster than they have before. Some call it “real-time marketing”—I prefer to think of it as brands simply learning how to act like media companies.

And within the first 24 hours of 2015, Fisher-Price set the bar pretty darn high. By the end of New Year’s Day, Fisher-Price released “Wishes for Baby,” a 90-second video created by documentary filmmaker Patrick Creadon and agency Weber Shandwick that featured 10 moms from seven countries—the U.S., Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Kenya, Bangladesh, and Poland—who gave birth on in the days leading up to New Year’s and in the early hours of 2015.

As a 27-year-old single male, I’m far from the target audience for the video, but that didn’t make it any less compelling or touching. The scene is set with the race to the hospital, the preparations of labor, and the future grandparents pacing outside, their swaying steps betraying an overwhelming mixture of excitement and fear. And then, at the clip’s exact midpoint, the mothers start talking about their wishes for their children. “I wish you health and happiness,” an American mother says to her newborn twins. “We’ll take care of the rest.” A Japanese mother wishes for her newborn “to be loved by everyone.” A Mexican mother wishes “that he’s happy, that he plays.”

The accompanying music is like something made for the resolution scene from an ensemble rom-com, and it can’t help but make you smile. The connection to the brand is obvious—Fisher-Price loves baby things—but the video is pure celebration, not salesy.

During a supposed dead time for media consumption, nearly 1 million people have viewed the video thus far. Props to Fisher-Price for getting out of their own way and creating a compelling piece of content so swiftly. Here’s hoping it’s a sign of things to come in 2015.

This post has been updated to reflect that the mothers gave birth on both in the last days of 2014 and in the early hours of 2015.