Crayola’s new adult product launch is as much a communications test as it is a marketing play.
With Crayola All Grown Up, the 123-year-old brand speaks directly to adults who already color for calm, creativity and self-expression. The challenge, says Ben Thomas, EVP of Marketing and Chief Commercial Officer, Crayola, is to expand that relationship without unsettling parents, educators and others who trust Crayola as a children’s brand.
“One of the opportunities was how do we position Crayola as that lifelong creativity partner,” he says.
Crayola has deep connections with children and parents, but now needs to connect directly with adults in an authentic way. Thomas added this makes the communications strategy really thoughtful and considered.
That starts with who is doing the talking. Crayola is leaning on artists, influencers, and opinion leaders to speak to the brand's adult side, a deliberate shift toward external voices that can show what adult creativity looks like in practice. The goal is to signal that All Grown Up was built for grown-ups from the beginning, not retrofitted from kids’ products, Thomas adds.
Visually, the adult line introduces black‑and‑white styling and packaging that doubles as both a display and a storage unit, but it is framed as an evolution of the brand.
“We haven’t strayed too far away from what makes the brand great—the trust, the authenticity, the color equity, the performance,” he says.
Adults, he adds, will get everything they know and love in Crayola, but in an elevated positioning that they can connect with on their own terms.
Looking ahead, Thomas expects the communications work to continue as the portfolio grows. The team will work diligently to stay relevant with the content they produce and how they communicate it. For instance, the brand is hinting at new media beyond markers, as well as an ongoing investment in new product development, marketing, execution and manufacturing.
We spoke to Thomas more about Crayola’s communication strategy below.
Q: You’ve also shifted toward creator‑led channels for the adult line. How does that support the way you want to communicate with grown‑up consumers?
We’ve created a portfolio and a collection from the ground up for grown‑ups, and we want to talk to them as grown‑ups. Having dedicated social channels where they feel they can interact with the right content, the right tone of message, the right level of excitement for adults is very different to how we engage children on our existing channels like Crayola Create, where we do how‑to videos. The expectation, the tone, and the performance are very different, so we’re really excited to bring that to adults in a more direct, authentic way.
When you see our above‑the‑line campaigns for Crayola All Grown Up…we will create the content internally and serve it through media to the audience. We’re going to use user‑generated content and artist‑generated content. That’s about how we’re authentic, how we connect and help adults rediscover joy through [showing] other adults rediscovering joy.
Q: From a communications standpoint, how do you plan to keep the All Grown Up brand relevant over time?
I was lucky enough to sit in on some interviews recently with some different consumers, and we're going to work really hard to stay relevant [through]our content and in our communications.
We're also watching this space, and we’re probably going to launch some new mediums too.
We have nearly 2 million square feet of manufacturing in eastern Pennsylvania, and around 70% of what we sell in the U.S. we still make in the U.S., so we're going to leverage those capabilities to really grow Crayola All Grown Up.