• by Larissa Faw , October 31, 2016

Wonder Workshop, maker of robots Dash and Dot that use coding skills to make them move, light up, dance and speak, is launching its second national ad campaign to coincide with the holiday season.

Developed with agency Hub Strategy and Communications, the creative centers on the concept of the Tiger Mom, a parent who pushes her child to excel academically above all else. In one spot, an ambitious mom brags about her child's coding skills learned in Switzerland while her friend looks on with amusement and suggests instead she use the robot to teach coding skills. The spot ends with the girl saying "mom, that looks fun" with the mom responding, "That is what makes it wrong honey."

“There are a whole bunch of parents out there that want their kids to be the best at everything—they’re called tiger parents. So we created a ‘tiger parent interventionist’ as our spokesperson,” says DJ O’Neil, co-creative director, Hub. “In our TV and radio, the tiger parent interventionist approaches the tiger parents and offers Dash the robot as a nice solution. Dash teaches the kids to code while they are actually playing and having fun. So, you get a win for the tiger parent, and a win for the kid.” 

The integrated campaign - consisting of television, streaming radio, and digital components - will run nationally with a particular focus in San Francisco, Austin, Minneapolis, Nashville, Seattle and Boston.  The digital portion of the campaign launched on September 19, 2016 and included a custom partnership with Ellen DeGeneres, She Knows Media, and ABC Freeform. TV and streaming radio debuted on October 31, 2016 and includes women-friendly stations such as ABC Family, HGTV, Bravo, USA, and Lifetime. The campaign will finish its run on December 25, 2016.

The Hub first started working with Wonder Workshop in June. In late July, the San Mateo, CA-based start-up raised a Series B round of $20 million. Introduced in 2014, Dash & Dot robots are used in more than 8,000 elementary school classrooms, and are sold in six major retailers in the U.S. and Canada including Apple stores, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us and Amazon, in addition to the Wonde

r Workshop website.