Colouring in for adults became a hot craze throughout the world this year.

That was good news for Crayola. So Crayola’s agency, mcgarrybowen New York,   teamed up with filmmaker and YouTube star, Zach King, to create a campaign that would make the most of the opportunity.

King has 2.3 million fans on Facebook, 972,000 subscribers on YouTube and 3.7 million followers on Vine.

The result of the collaboration is a three minute film, A Hero Draws Near, that stars, Zach King, but also features Crayola’s mannequin from its Easy Animation Studio interactive digital colouring kit.

It has a Toy Story theme – the paper ‘toys’ are King’s coloured-in drawings. The idea is to illustrate how anyone can easily transform their own pictures into stop-motion animation.

Karen Waters, Crayola marketing director of content, explained, “Zach’s brand, as a motivating film magician who is always experimenting with unbelievable special effects and visual stunts, just synced up so well with the benefits and features of our Easy Animation Studio product. Both Zach and the Easy Animation Studio showcase and inspire unexpected ways for kids of all ages to release their imaginations to design and create.”

It will sit inside a larger holiday campaign also created by mcgarrybowen New York for Crayola. This includes a range of kid influencers, demonstration videos, in-store sampling and social media.

Simon Pearce, president and chief client officer at mcgarrybowen New York, commented, “Finding influencers who have a true passion for the brand they’re working with is key. When we identified Zach King, one of today’s hottest creative influencers, as a possible partner for Crayola, we thought it was a perfect fit, as he is loved and followed by millions of people and shares the same passion for creativity and technology as Crayola.”

Credits:
Agency: mcgarrybowen New York
Creative & Production: Zach King Studios