SuperZings Launch Campaign Scoops PR Award
Series 1 Launch named “Integrated Campaign of the Year” at PRCA Dare Awards
The strategic 360-degree communications campaign, which launched Magic Box Toys’ new collectible range SuperZings: Rivals of Kaboom and resulted in sales of more than half a million units within the first month, has been awarded a PRCA Dare Award.
The campaign, created and implemented by specialist toy PR consultancy, Playtime PR, saw off stiff competition to be named Integrated Campaign of the Year at the PRCA Dare Awards, held last week in London. Run by the Public Relations & Communications Association, the PRCA Dare Awards strive to seek out and reward the very best PR and communications campaigns and professionals, and are decided by a panel of highly respected industry experts across six regions.
Ben Harper of Magic Box Toys comments, “We were thrilled with the impact of the campaign. Playtime PR devised and delivered a well-rounded campaign that reached parents and children in a meaningful way, to create devoted SuperZings collectors. It’s great to see their hard work not only delivering tangible commercial benefit, but also being recognised by the PRCA.”
Playtime PR’s Founder & Managing Director, Lesley Singleton, adds, “The campaign was possible because Magic Box were so open to the varied ideas we brought to the table – we never take a formulaic ‘box ticking’ approach, and this shows in the many layers this campaign has, all of which were carefully crafted to complement each other whilst delivering the really interesting messaging stemming from the themes of the range, heroes and villains. The team absolutely deserves the recognition from the PRCA and I am delighted that their creativity and hard work has achieved such an accolade, in a particularly competitive category.”
Focusing on activity which targeted parents and young children in the UK, the SuperZings launch campaign incorporated activity across Magic Box’s social media channels, a bespoke “Show & Tell Superheroes” initiative for 200 UK primary schools, a two-week take-over of popular mum-hub UKMums.tv, blogger engagement, a Twitter Party, a news generation poll resulting in over 200 pieces of media coverage, plus extensive sampling programmes around the UK.
The primary school initiative – SuperZings Show & Tell Super Heroes – was designed for Year One classes specifically to turn the popular “Show & Tell” classroom moment into a much bigger and more engaging experience for five- and six-year olds across the UK. An initial wave of 200 schools received a free pack containing an expert guide for teachers to get the most out of children using Show & Tell, as well as posters, stickers, a specially-created SuperZings Show & Tell Superhero cape and eye mask as well as 20,000 blind bags for children to take home.
In addition, Magic Box went ‘back to school’ and spent the day with children filming a ‘kids say the funniest things’-style video series for use on social media, UKMums.tv and YouTube. The series saw children answer questions such as “Who’s your real-life superhero?” and “If you had a superpower, what would it be?”, with some hilarious responses. The video series has already been viewed more than 25,000 times on Magic Box’s Facebook page alone.
To align the brand with parents and to generate talking points around the launch, a news generation poll of children aged 4-6 years and their parents investigated their opinions on real-life superheroes – enabling extensive media coverage of the themes associated with SuperZings. The news story generated a reach of over 1 million as well as over 200 pieces of coverage including Mail Online and The Huffington Post.
The two-week take-over of UKMums.tv included SuperZings homepage graphics and dedicated page content such as SuperZings Webisodes, 12 blogger reviews, competitions and social media exposure which led to a reach of over 1.3 million. In the second week of the site take-over, Magic Box hosted an hour-long Twitter Party led by five top parenting bloggers in partnership with SuperZings’ retailer, The Entertainer. The Party engaged almost 200 contributors and achieved 3.6 million impressions during the hour. The combined social media activity has seen follower numbers surge across all Magic Box’s channels, has successfully raised awareness of the new collection and has driven sales at retail.
Children also got their hands on SuperZings through extensive sampling within Gullivers, Diggerland and various other kids’ leisure areas.
Playtime and Magic Box are already in the throes of the Series 2 launch campaign which includes a revamped schools’ initiative for the new school year.
