Doko: Eyes On The Prizes

IT HAD ONLY BEEN a month since Mammoth Brand launched its virtual world toy, Doko, but already users were registering serial numbers from its discs from unexpected places.

“It's kind of remarkable that [the discs] have found their way around the world so quickly—84 countries already,” says Brian Waldman, vice president of marketing for Mammoth Brand, the NSI International-owned firm that markets Doko.

For Mammoth, spreading Doko's diaspora is really the main point—it's not tagged the “World's First Global Trading Game” for nothing. And Doko's initial marketing efforts reflect that, being heavily focused on “dropping” the game's discs—each with a unique serial number laser etched into its side—in random places so kids find them Easter egg-style and, hopefully, then register them at www.Dokodrop.com.

By late June, when Playthings spoke with Waldman and Frank Landi, NSI's president, the game had already corralled more than 5,000 users since its official launch on May 16.

More crucially, the game has been rapidly gaining shelf space in both mass and specialty toy retailers, including Toys “R” Us stores in several major markets and dozens of Learning Express locations around the country.

“It's the easiest sell we've ever experienced, quite honestly,” Landi says. “The challenge really is that it's something so new and so different. It's so much more than just the coin, and that's really where the effort comes in.”

The game's discs are sold either individually for $6.99 (with various accessories) or in a Dekoder set ($9.99) that is used to verify that an individual disc is being registered by someone who has possession of a physical disc.

For the retailers already on board, Doko has an appeal beyond disc sales. Part of the fun of its virtual world is that the points earned playing its games are redeemable for coupons and gift cards for participating retailers, including Toys “R” Us and Learning Express, delivered to Doko players immediately as PDF files they can then redeem in-store.

“As far as we know, Doko is the only place where kids can redeem the points they've earned online for real world stuff,” says Waldman.

Ultimately, Landi says, “We'd like to see several million users bouncing around this thing, creating their own society ... We've got 50 million Doko codes ready.”