The Launch of SuperZings
In A Nutshell…
How could we instigate and implement a strategic 360-degree launch that would drive awareness and prompt sales of the brand-new pocket-money collectable toy, SuperZings?
Approach
Collaborating with appropriate partners and organisations often helps drive a brand when the story feels ‘newsworthy’… But what is the story?! To create news which SuperZings could own, and an entire campaign that would engage parents, we conducted research with 4-6 year olds to discover their views on “real-life superheroes”. The fact that many of them put their parents at the top of their list of people that they thought were superheroes made a great news hook for parenting and consumer publications.
Execution
Key to the campaign was reaching the target audience through channels and storylines that would really resonate with parents. To that end, we chose to build – from the ground up – a SuperZings classroom Show and Tell initiative.
This novel approach would allow the brand to take ownership of an overlooked classroom moment in a meaningful way. Creating the initiative involved handling not only the outreach and sign-up process, but also the fulfilment and follow-up. What’s more, it also allowed tangible access to SuperZings toys through a partnership offering creative learning… We sent an initial wave of 200 schools a free SuperZings pack containing a guide to help teachers get the most out of each Show and Tell. Also inside were posters, stickers, a selection of product from 20,000 blind bags and a specially-made superhero eye mask and cape.
What’s more, we also negotiated and secured a two-week take-over of UKMums.tv, with a SuperZings homepage and bespoke content including webisodes, downloads, competitions, blogger reviews, social-media exposure and editorial showcases. The second week saw us stage an hour-long Twitter party led by five top parenting bloggers. We also facilitated the involvement of The Entertainer toy shop to drive sales directly from the Twitter party.
As part of a social-media content drive for use on the UKMums take-over, we spent a day in school filming a series of ‘Kids Say the Funniest Things‘ style videos. With Fun Kids Radio presenter Bex Lindsay hosting, the pieces saw children answer questions such as “Who’s your real-life superhero?” and “If you had a superpower, what would it be?” The results were predictably unpredictable!
In addition, we worked with key children’s print media including Toxic, Kraze and Busy Time to run activity pages and competitions while rolling out an extensive sampling programme within Gulliver’s theme parks, and various soft-play centres across the country. As well as handing out a SuperZings blind bag with each children’s ticket, Gulliver’s also gave product away in their birthday-party goody bags.
Results
200 schools signed up for the SuperZings Show & Tell Superheroes initiative – allowing us to distribute 20,000 product packs to the target audience. The children’s video series has more than 25,000 views on Magic Box’s Facebook page alone.
Over 200 pieces of media coverage relating to our news generation poll of children – including Mail Online, The Scotsman, The Huffington Post and AOL – had a reach of over a million people. The UKMums.TV takeover included 12 blogger reviews, competitions and social-media exposure which led to a reach of over 1.3 million. The hour-long Twitter party engaged almost 200 contributors, garnering 3.6 million impressions. Product sales exceeded more than half a million units within the first four weeks of availability.