Star Power
...helps the toy biz kick start all the hype it can going into Q4
By Cliff Annicelli, Editor -- Playthings, 7/1/2007
A few weeks back, Techno Source held the official introduction event for its eagerly awaited (at least by me) update of the venerable Rubik's Cube, the Rubik's Revolution. By now, I'm assuming that you, being a toy business insider, already know about the Revolution, but in case you don't, here are the basics. It's electronic—instead of spinning its sides to restore its jumbled colors back to pleasingly solid ones like the original Cube, you instead play any of six games (a hot potato game, a Simon-style match the pattern game, etc.) using the light-up center square on each side. If you're someone like me who likes challenging games with simple rules, you'll find it incredibly addictive. (I've been waiting for one to cross my desk since last October and now that it's here, I'm a little worried, frankly, that it'll replace checking email on my BlackBerry as my new diversion of choice. If there's no editorial from me on this page next month, you'll know why. Blame Techno Source!)
What struck me most about the Rubik's Revolution launch, though, wasn't the actual product, it was the event itself. It was at Toys “R” Us Times Square, home to many launch events that we have the pleasure of sneaking away from the office for an hour or two to witness. This particular event, though, was different from the norm. First off, it was held on a Saturday afternoon. More typically, TRU Times Square events occur early on weekday mornings when the store is generally empty—which I'm going to assume is easier logistically on everyone involved. As you could imagine, having the Rubik's event at 1:30 on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of tourist season could be a challenge considering the throngs of shoppers milling about doing their thing while you, as a marketer, try to stage-manage what's really more a public relations event to attract media than something designed to actually educate the audience in the room. Or it could be an opportunity for some actual consumer excitement. Techno Source seemed to be shooting for both, and so it brought in some extra star power—Vanessa Hudgens, one of the young stars of Disney's High School Musical franchise—to make sure both bases were covered. The result, as you could probably imagine, was a lot like Beatlemania. Dozens of shrieking tween girls watched the event, and then a line of hundreds more stretched throughout the store, out the door and around the corner waiting for autographs. That's a heck of a lot of excitement—whether any of it was actually for Rubik's Revolution remains to be seen—but for me it felt like the first flickering to life of this year's “holiday season.” If you want to mark your calendars, the date was June 16.
I'll admit, though, I was already in a holiday state of mind before I walked through the doors of TRU Times Square. Preceding the Rubik's unveiling by three days was the Toy Industry Association's official Holiday Toy Preview, one of those true media-only events that sound like a great idea until you get there and think, “What's missing from this picture?” and realize that toy events without kids are generally pretty dull. Are they useful? Sure. They make for pleasant enough B-roll for the local nightly news. Do they generate excitement and get real consumers to go out and buy what the manufacturers have on display? Of that, I'm not so sure, but I commend TIA for the effort. It is still very early in the toy year (most of what was on display at the preview wasn't even on retailers shelves yet), so here's to hoping TIA's event, and others like it, set the stage for some consumer enthusiasm closer to the actual holiday season. Last year's overall U.S. toy sales figures were flat—an achievement worth celebrating only because it was the first improvement after several years of consistent decline—so I'm in favor of anything anyone wants to try to get 2007 sales up into the plus range. Not every event will be a home run, but the more people that swing for the fences, the better the chances the entire team will win.
In August, we'll make our own modest effort to help set the U.S. toy business up for some holiday cheer. Stay tuned.
