Summer 1999 Against The Force

Brandweek, Feb 15, 1999 by T.L. Stanley

There will be no surrender. It is the undisputed Year of Star Wars, but rather than step for the inevitable steamroller of Lucasfilm's licensing and promotional entertainment bonanza, companies and toy manufacturers are pulling out the promotional big guns with The likes of M&M/Mar-s, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Subway,

By tapping into evergreens and preschool-skewing properties, they hope to avoid going directly head-to-head, but still not miss out on any crumbs dropped from The Phantom Menace's table.

Around New York during last week's Toy Fair extravaganza, word was that Mattel, Hasbro, K'Nex, Scholastic, Nickelodeon, Disney and The Jim Henson Co. will blanket the fast feeder market across the year, even tying to divisions of Star Wars' global partner Tricon, with properties ranging from classic mainstay Winnie the Pooh to two-year-old Cow and Chicken (see story, page 53). One property, Mr. Potato Head, will get a double dose of exposure via a McDonald's holiday promotion around the release of Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 2, and through McD's archrival Burger King for a fall redux of a successful '98 kids meal program highlighting the one character.

Hasbro has forged an overall corporate alliance with M&M/ Mars that will spread across nearly a dozen of its product lines, from Nerf to Tonka, aimed at boosting candy sales at Halloween and toy buys at holiday while edging around the Star Wars behemoth. The program puts on-pack bursts and in-pack toy coupons in some 65 million packages beginning in third quarter and running through year-end, supported by FSIs and extensive POP. Scholastic's Animorphs will be featured, as will major league sports-based Pro Action collectible figures, G.I. Joe, a Star Wars edition Lite-Brite and Playskool's Sit 'n Spin. The program takes on various names from product to product, such as "Get Overloaded" and "Mystery Toy & Game Chest."

"It's the first time we've done a corporate cross-sell of this magnitude, and the first time we've done a program of this magnitude with the partner," said Elizabeth Gross, Hasbro's vice president of U.S. marketing. "It's designed to increase our awareness going into the key selling season."

TACO BELL GOES BACK TO ANIMORPHS LURE

Returning to the Animorphs well, Tricon's Taco Bell will bow a fall kids meal promotion around the Scholastic book-based property that now is a Nickelodeon prime time series. The two teamed in fail '98 for the launch of the live-action/computer-generated series; that promotion was the first to spread across all Tricon sister divisions. Talks are ongoing about involving Pizza Hut and KFC in the second Animorphs promotion, which is part of an overarching alliance between Tricon and Scholastic. Television, print and POP will support the premiums in kids meals, which will be offered Oct. 15 through Nov. 9, timed for the post-Star Wars period but still allowing room for a holiday entertainment promotion at the fast feeder or a redo of its popular talking Chihuahua premiums.

The Animorphs toy line, shipping from Hasbro at the end of the month, gets a television ad campaign, and Scholastic will continue to boost the property via its in-school book fair.

For an educational boost and a repositioning of its kids meal program, Pizza Hut will link in first and second quarter with K'Nex, the No. 2 construction toy maker, for a "Kool K'Nexions" giveaway with heavy national television ad support and POP. Via a deal through new agency Davidson Marketing, Chicago, some 4 million premiums will be distributed to Pizza Huts, which will give the toys away with its Pizza Playstuff individual pizza meals. The first round, March through May, features separate boy and girl skewing sets; kids can build such models as a butterfly or a rocket. The four different premiums, which interconnect to form larger construction models, also will sell for 99 cents as a self-liquidator for families who buy larger pizzas either at the restaurants or through home delivery, said K'Nex vp-marketing Carl Harrington. A second round in the fall will give away 200 million K'Nexosaurus Jr. models.

MATTEL AND DISNEY GO FOR YOUTH

Mattel and Disney go for the young end of the kiddie pool via a March promotion with McDonald's around Winnie the Pooh, and in the fall with Fisher-Price's Little People. Premiums, in-store POP and media campaigns will support. And for summer, though several weeks after the Star Wars launch, Disney will bow its 37th animated feature, Tarzan, with long-term promotional partners McDonald's, Nestle and Kodak, along with Hallmark, Hanes Apparel, Aqua Fresh, FTD and Quaker Oats. McDonald's Happy Meals will feature an instant-win game on 70 million packages, which will dole out 100 prize packages during the "Wild Summer Values" program. The movie will be preceded by a spring '99 soundtrack single by Phil Collins, released to radio in top markets.

COMING UP SPUDS FOR MR. POTATO HEAD

Hasbro's Mr. Potato Head, after helping launch Burger King's new french fry formula in early '98, will again be stuffed into kids meals in the fall, supported by a national TV ad campaign, $1 coupon for the toy and POP, all to widen exposure for the character around the launch of its Fox Kids television series. The property also gets a boost via the Hasbro/Mars alliance September through December, overlapping its inclusion with other classic and contemporary properties in McDonald's Happy Meals dedicated to Toy Story 2.