Toy Story' Standee a Success Story for Buena Vista

Buena Vista Home Video broke new ground in September with a promotional campaign for the video release of the Disney hit "Toy Story." Besides being the largest marketing event in Disney history, the campaign features no fewer than six tie-in partners."'Toy Story' was the first-ever animated feature created solely on computer," says Andy Siditsky, executive director of creative services for the Los Angeles-based company. "It represented a completely 3-D environment where toys come to life, which is what we wanted to do with our display. I think we succeeded because we really brought the film to life by creating a spectacularly dimensional display using traditional materials."Buena Vista designed a litho-mounted corrugated standee based on the artwork for the "Toy Story" video box, which shows the characters Buzz Lightyear and Woody flying out at the viewer from a bed strewn with other toys. Manufacturing was provided by Phoenix Display, Los Angeles, with the resulting display measuring 40 inches at its widest point by 70 inches high by 17 inches deep.Siditsky says several methods were used to give the display dimension and eye-popping color. "All the characters are separate lug-ons on different levels to reinforce the flying movement," he explains. "Buzz lightyear has a helmet that's a separate plastic piece and has blinking lights, and another character, Slinky Dog, was created in two pieces so he'd be an actual slinky as in the film. Also, we used special inks in addition to four-color process to give the standee the same highly vibrant color that's a trademark of the film."While these features make the display complex in terms of the number of components, Siditsky says it's fairly easy to assemble. The lights and individual elements come preassembled to aid shipping as well as assembly.Besides being multi-dimensional, the unit is multi-purpose. Shipped in mid-September to Blockbuster and other video retailers and music video stores, it was designed to build consumer awareness in advance of the October 29 video release date and to promote purchases at the point-of-sale after that date. Siditsky believes most retailers will leave it up through Christmas because "this movie is so popular and in demand that the video and related merchandise will probably be the number one holiday item this year."Part of that popularity can be traced to Buena Vista's strategy for tie-ins with six other companies that allow consumers to get free merchandise and up to $25 in savings on various products. A coupon booklet in each Toy Story video allows those who buy a specially marked package of Kodak Gold film and one Disney video to get an instant savings coupon worth $5. It also offers mail-in rebates worth $5 each from General Mills Inc., Oral-B Laboratories, Disney and Energizer when consumers buy a specified amount of products from each company. In addition, free "Toy Story" mugs are available by mail from Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. with the purchase of two of the company's products.All six tie-ins are highlighted on the standee.

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