Disney, Techno Source 'Tink' Big

Do you believe in fairies? Disney sure does, and its most famed and feisty fairy—the diminutive Tinker Bell—is set to take the world by storm (again), when the first of four new animated films debuts in October. Even better, Disney and Techno Source have collaborated on an innovative new product line that will bring some of the best features of the Disney Fairies' new immersive online world, PixieHollow.com, into the offline play space.

The line—which was previewed last month along with the Pixie Hollow world at a private press launch during Toy Fair—features new Clickables technology embedded in a variety of unique charms, jewelry and other girls' accessories. Each item will unlock special content in the online world of Disney Fairies; offline, girls can trade and collect the charms, and share their online content with their friends in person with a simple touch between accessories.

Overall, the products are meant to bring “the fun of social networking, collecting and trading into the real world” in way that's never been seen before, according to Chris Heatherly, vice president of technology and innovation, Disney Consumer Products.

Creating beautiful collectible jewelry—rather than, say, trading cards, dolls or another type of interactive toy—is an ideal fit for the Disney Fairies' target audience of girls ages 6 to 10, Techno Source executive vice president Eric Levin tells Playthings. “We're bringing the fairy world to life in a pretty unique way,” Levin says, thus Techno Source's tie-in products “should always feel like a very natural extension of what is right for the character, world or brand.”

Techno Source's design mandate, therefore, became, “How do we tie our products in to [elements of the online world] in a way that it is extending and multiplying the impact of those things, as opposed to disrupting or somehow changing those things?” Levin says. “What is the best way for the products to interact with the website so that it's a seamless experience, and yet you are doing things that you can only do with these products?”

Levin is counting on the first wave of Techno Source's Clickables product—which will sell for $4.99 to $29.99 at mass market as well as specialty toy, gift and accessories retailers—to succeed on all counts. It includes the Pixie Dust eJewelry Collection, which consists of a “magical” jewelry box, a charm necklace and three exclusive charms; Tink Friendship eBracelets, which let girls connect their online avatars offline and share other online content; Tink's eCharm Bracelet, a customizable charm bracelet with three themed charms; Fairy eCharms accessory packs; and the Tink and Friends Fly with Me eLCD, a handheld electronic game in which girls can play as their favorite Disney Fairies and earn valuable currency that they can spend in the online world.

As for that online world, much care is being taken to create a multi-tiered experience that will appeal to a wide age range, including the one feature that fairy fans have been demanding: the ability to fly (in the third-person) throughout the fairy world, according to Steve Parkis, senior vice president of Disney Online.

“We're going to have crafting areas and mini games that will tend to appeal very strongly to the 6- to 10- year-old age range, but we're also introducing a concept called “The Wilderness,” which we'll roll out a little later,” Parkis says. While the mini-games will offer girls a casual game experience, The Wilderness will include more dramatic, quest-based, immersive play for older girls, ages 10 to 12, Parkis explains. “We've built a lot of games and we're really focused on the kids and family space, so we understand the differences in all the development stages that a child goes through, and what are the right game play patterns to put in front of that child,” Parkis adds. “That's where the depth of experience of being at Disney really comes in handy.”

PixieHollow.com will also offer a continuation of the Create-A-Fairy function of its predecessor site, DisneyFairies.com, along with offering girls the ability to design and share fairy fashions, decorate their fairy homes, celebrate seasonal fairy events and safely communicate with each other through monitored chat. So far, more than 4.5 million girls have already created their own avatars on DisneyFairies.com, which all will be migrated into PixieHollow.com when that site goes live.

Though those avatars currently are “all dressed up with no place to go,” Parkis says, “the cool thing is, the day that we launch, [girls] can just take their fairies and fly.” Afterwards, DisneyFairies.com will continue to serve as the franchise site, “on which there will be a lot of support for the movies, for the world and for publishing, to make sure that—for a fairy fan—everything that they could possibly want to know about the world of fairy, they can find [it],” Parkis says.

The showpiece for the company and the focus of its efforts, however, will be the Pixie Hollow world, which is being watched closely as the first to utilize Clickables.

Disney is betting on its ability to offer online a depth of story line and character that's unmatched in the industry to position its new Clickables products well in the toy space, according to Heatherly. He notes, “A lot of the toy companies are making just as much of an online experience as they have to make to justify the sale of a toy, so it winds up being a shallow online world that is not as engaging as it could or should be, that doesn't have the story or the character depth or all the things that we can bring to the table.”

Heatherly adds, “If you look at the technology, the scale-ability, the story lines, the guest service, all of these things that [Disney is] really good at in our theme parks and in our moviemaking, we're bringing all these things to the online world. So we think we're going to have the best online world, and we think that's going to allow us to have the best toys connected to online worlds.”

The company is also actively developing its own technology in the toy space, a change from previous years, Heatherly tells Playthings. “We used to be in the business of being a passive licensor … this is Disney saying, 'No, we want to be an innovator, we want to be an inventor … I think it's the first of what could be a very big business, and it's certainly a key strategy for us.”

If PixieHollow.com and its Clickables partnership with Techno Source is as much of success as Disney expects it to be this fall, it will set the stage for additional product lines from Disney following the same model, according to Heatherly.

“We really believe in the investments we're making online, and we're certainly seeing that rewarded with the success of Club Penguin and what girls are doing on DisneyFairies.com online already,” Heatherly says. “We're really excited about what this could mean for our toy line, because we know this trend is hot in toys ... we are very excited about the Clickables technology and actively looking for other places where we can take advantage of it,” Heatherly says.

“I think it's safe to say we're actively looking at Club Penguin and other potential online opportunities, and you may see some additional announcements from us in the near future regarding some of those. We're really looking at where we can come up with compelling product ideas, where Clickables fit well with the concept of the world, and when is the right time to introduce it in a given property.”

For Pixie Hollow, the proof will be in the pixies themselves, the nearly 5 million girls already waiting for access to open up later this year. Adds Parkis, “We need to be very cognizant of the fact that we're telling a story here, and we're really building a world where fairies live. We need to be true to that mission.”