Toys "R" Us Grants Holiday Wishes

Toys “R” Us reinforced the spirit of the holidays through two seasonal cause campaigns.The retailer reteamed with former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O’Neal for the third straight year to benefit the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, this time in a “Shaq-A-Claus is Coming to Town” campaign. The chain's own Toys “R” Us Children’s Fund launched the campaign with a $250,000 donation. U.S. Marines visited stores Nov. 3-4 to promote the campaign, while email blasts and a home page ad helped kick off the effort in mid-October. Stores collected consumer donations of new, unwrapped toys via dump bins through Dec. 4. Monetary donations are being accepted on Toysrus.com through Dec. 24 on a webpage containing a video and photos of O’Neal (with more than $2.9 millon raised as of Dec. 16, according to the site). Weekly circulars continue to promote the effort.Toys "R" Us first worked with O'Neal in 2009. (See "Toys 'R' Us Has 'Magic' in Mind" in Related Articles.) He retired at the end of the 2010-2011 NBA season. Meanwhile, the toy retailer pledged a $1 store gift card (up to $50,000) to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for every holiday "Wish List" created by consumers from Oct. 12 through Nov. 5. The Wish List program, which continues through the season, lets consumers create lists of gift ideas on toysrus.com, then share them with family and friends on the site or via email.Shoppers also can make lists in stores using hand-held devices to scan product barcodes. Information kiosks positioned near store entrances carry “Wish List” booklets offering gift ideas organized by age and gender; barcodes accompanying the featured items can be scanned for inclusion on the lists. Upfront standees carry QR codes that link to toysrus.com for more information.The Toys “R” Us Children’s Fund donated $275,000 to Make-A-Wish at the outset of the campaign. Email blasts and circular features began promoting the campaign in mid-October.Once the cause effort ended, the retailer continued plugging the program through a "Win Your Wish List" sweepstakes running Nov. 6 to Dec. 10. Entrants had to create a list containing at least one of the retailer's "Fabulous 15 Toys" (which include BeatBots LLC's My Keepon and Mattel Inc.'s Monster High dolls). One grand-prize winner received a $2,000 store gift card; four runners-up got $500 cards. Bryn Mawr, PA-based Realtime Media Inc. handled. Online banner ads and email blasts supported.

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