Russ Berrie — Seapals
Client:
Russ Berrie
Industry:
Consumer Products / Connected Toy Platform
Engagement Type:
New Product Line Launch — Integrated Physical + Digital Experience
Russ Berrie wanted to launch a new toy line that went beyond the physical product — a connected experience where the toy was the entry point to a digital world. The challenge was designing both the product concept and the digital platform from scratch: a physical toy line, a virtual world (seapalsworld.com), and a seamless connection between them — all built to work for children, distributed through mass retail, specialty stores, zoos, and aquariums, and launched as a coherent brand experience.
Seapals was an early proof of concept for what is now standard thinking in connected consumer products — that the physical object and the digital experience are one product, not two. Designing that integration requires thinking about the platform before the product.