Pieces Fit Together
Toy manufacturer LEGO again
proved its ingeniousness with its innovative channel-mix for
this year's launch of Bionicles Phantoka.
As well as the usual suspects of free to air TV, pay TV, online,
and magazines, this year they are have also connected with live
gaming pioneer, Laser Skirmish.
The campaign for Phantoka -- a
game that involves building miniature LEGO battle robots is
aimed at reaching 7 to 16 year-old boys and girls.
First launched in 2001, Bionicles
have been a big hit for LEGO, since they realised that kids in
this fast-paced modern world wanted something cool to play with
beyond building blocks. The
Phantoka or "Spirits of the Air" continue the Bionicle franchise
for the 8th year.
To leverage the concept of "Team
up & Battle for Power" gamers were invited in a national TV
campaign, to enter a competition to win a live game with Laser
Skirmish.
Laser Skirmish is a perfect fit,
being a live computer game that is focused on team play.
Further, LEGO's Bionicles franchise turned a toy into a story,
thereby highly increasing its emotional bonding to the product
and its integrated marketing campaign made it possible to tell
that story through a broad media mix and movie-like execution.
This parallels Laser Skirmish games as they often have a story
inside the "shoot-em up" mission. This
month, the campaign is planned to go into full swing, with
animated and Macromedia Flash banners going up on sites
including Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon.
LEGO also launched a
comprehensive TV campaign on both free to air and pay TV
channels. This was complemented with print media, specifically
kids' focused media, such as K-zone.
"This co-branding campaign helps
to differentiate the Bionicles launch," said Laser Skirmish,
Marketing C.O. Nicole Lander. "It targets tween and teen boys
perfectly."
Spending was not disclosed in the
effort, but sources close to the campaign say it is LEGO's
biggest budget campaign this year. Experts estimated that LEGO
spent six-figures on the similar Spybotics launch, so this gives
you an idea.
This is not the first time LEGO
has added value to their campaign via co-branding. Bionicles
action heroes have previously allied with Nike to form "Bionicle
by Nike" running shoes.
Such efforts point to the
relative strength of cross-media marketing of kids-oriented
brands -- especially games.
Call today to book your party:
phone 1300 666 559. |
