Nickelodeon Toys With a Mega-Display

Kids who love the Nickelodeon network will have a field day at Toys "R" Us stores this fall. To introduce 70 new products to its line of network-tie-in toys, New York-based Nickelodeon created the Toy Factory. A whole display section rather than a single display, the Toy Factory features interactive elements for kids with the help of moving signage, lights and sound effects. The new products bring Nickelodeon's four-year-old toy line up to 150 items. Toys range from action figures to Nerf products, radios to party goods, books to computer games -- all carrying the Nickelodeon name.The backbones of the Toy Factory are four 36- to 48-inch-long adjustable toy-store shelving units, which are set up in the four corners of a 144-square-foot space, forming a rectangle with an aisle down the middle and openings on all four sides. This is the "factory." The entrance, in the middle of one of the long sides, is formed by a "U" shaped sign that is a litho label mounted to Fome-Cor. It arches across the ends of the two fixtures and attaches to the tops of each shelving fixture. The arch and all the shelf-top signs are animated to look like a factory with Nickelodeon-style-pipes and pumps blurting green "goo," battery-operated moving gears and clock hands. Illustrations of popular Nick cartoon characters like Ren and Stimpy are included in the signs, hanging onto the pipes and playing around with the machinery. The battery-operated signs are designed to last for the 10-week run of the promotion without having to be changed.Smaller standard display pieces can also be used in the factory. For example, on a special endcap holding new Aaahh!!! Real Monsters action figures, moving figures and sound effects from the characters catch kids' attention as they walk by. Kids can also get a hands-on feel for certain toys, such as personal radios and computer games, at special demo stations set up on the shelves. From the ceiling hangs a blow-up blimp that says "Nickelodeon" and pulls a "Toy Factory" banner. It plugs into a ceiling outlet and revolves. Brightly colored stickers of footprints and "goo" squirts are scattered across the floor."We used the floor all the way up to the ceiling for this display," says Lisa Marks, vice president of marketing and brand management for Nickelodeon. "We set out to do breakthrough merchandising" that would bring the Nickelodeon brand and characters to life for kids, she adds. Toys "R" Us was chosen for a partner, as was FAO Schwartz. Although FAO Schwartz stores have carried Nickelodeon boutiques in their stores since 1993, this is the first display of this scale for the toy line, according to Marks.Nickelodeon's in-house creative team worked with Schizo Designs in New York to create the program. All display elements were manufactured by Los Angeles-based Two Palms Marketing Designs.The Toy Factory debuted in the feature space of all 618 Toys "R" Us stores with great success in August. Nickelodeon created an integrated marketing program to support Toy Factory, including commercials on the Nick network, print ads, in-store radio promos and back-to-school flyer promos at Toys "R" Us stores. "We are very excited about this program and think it has the potential to set a new standard for the types of entertaining merchandising environments that are created at retail," said a company spokesperson.

Nickelodeon Toys With a Mega-Display

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