Slinky is celebrating its 70th birthday this year, and Alex Brands is looking for fans to post a video of themselves or their kids singing the Slinky Jingle (See video below). For every video posted on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the #SlinkyDay70 hashtag, Alex Brands will donate one Slinky toy to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, with a maximum donation of 1,000 Slinky toys.
Alex Brands Celebrates 70 Years of Slinky with Video Contest
August 22, 2015 By
Toys “R” Us Supports Athletes Participating in Special Olympics 2015 Summer World Games
July 27, 2015 By
The Special Olympics 2015 Summer World Games are underway, and Toys “R” Us employees throughout the greater Los Angeles area are volunteering at the 10-day event. Company volunteers are on hand to encourage and cheer on athletes as they reach personal victories in a variety of sporting activities.
Toys “R” Us Launches Fifth Annual Campaign Benefiting Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
May 29, 2015 By
Toys “R” Us Inc. will launch its fifth consecutive fundraising campaign to benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for childhood cancer. Beginning this Saturday through July 31, monetary donations will be collected at all Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores nationwide and online at toysrus.com/alexslemonade.
TIA Creates Social Media How-To Guide for Sharing the Genius of Play
April 16, 2015 By
As part of The Genius of Play campaign, the Toy Industry Association (TIA) has kicked off an industry-wide social media initiative to open a dialogue with parents and raise awareness about the developmental benefits of play. TIA suggests that the social media posts range from encouraging kids and parents to engage in imaginative play, such as arts and crafts and dress up, to asking parents to share how toys and play helped their children reach important developmental milestones.
Zuru Bunch O Balloons to Launch Experiential Marketing Campaign, Plans Big Splash at The Color Run
March 31, 2015 By
Last year, Bunch O Balloons raised close to $1 million, thanks to a highly successful Kickstarter campaign. Now the product, already launched by Zuru Toys, will make its promotional debut with a guerrilla and experiential marketing campaign this spring. In addition, Bunch O Balloons is expected to receive widespread support across retailers in anticipation of summer.
Q&A with Mattel: Social Media, 3-D Printing, and More
March 20, 2015 By
The Toy Book (TTB): In what new ways are you using social media to correspond directly with consumers?
Mattel: We engage with consumers across all brand and corporate social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as retailer sites, like Wal-Mart and Kohl’s. At Mattel, we have a fully functioning reporting and engineering team dedicated to understanding what the consumer is saying and turning that data into actionable improvements for both our manufacturing and design process.
Q&A with Tony Norman, Co-Founder, President and CEO, Innovation First International
March 16, 2015 By
The Toy Book (TTB): How do you use 3-D printing in your R&D? Do you plan to incorporate 3-D printing into your consumer offerings in the future?
Tony Norman (TN): We have three commercial-grade 3-D printers at Hexbug headquarters that run pretty much continuously. Design is iterative, and our 3-D printers enable us to engage in rapid prototyping. This rapid prototyping allows us to get real working samples out to focus groups quickly and frequently, so as to gather feedback and make the necessary changes prior to starting production. This highly accelerated production process significantly reduces our time to market and sets us apart from other toy companies.
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Outfit7 and Toyze Team Up for 3-D Printable Talking Tom
November 18, 2014 By
Outfit7 Limited has signed a licensing agreement for its Talking Tom and Friends franchise with Toyze, an app store for 3-D-printed customizable game characters. Users will be able to customize Talking Tom and Friends characters into 3-D models, share their creations on social channels, and bring them to life as 3-D-printed toys.
Talking Tom is currently available on Toyze’s app at both Google Play and the App Store.
Toyze offers two options to model and produce toys. First is the free app for 3-D customization: The company’s intuitive, in-app 3-D editor allows users to personalize characters in 3-D view, add accessories and attributes, play with poses and sizes, and build their collections. Once completed, users can share their creation via Facebook, Instagram, and email with friends and family.
Users will also be able to [Read more...]
Boon Hosts Social Media-Based Contest in Four Cities
April 5, 2014 By
![Boon [CMYK]](http://toybook.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BoonLogo.jpg)
Got plans this weekend? This past April 1, it appeared that toddlers had taken over Boon’s social media pages, and while that turned out to be an April Fool’s joke, many of the random photos posted by Boon are part of a larger social media game. Indeed, photos found at Boon’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest pages contain “clues” about specialty retailers in the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles areas.
Details on how to decipher these clues have been posted in videos on Boon’s blog. Through Sunday, any fans in those cities who figure out the clues—and subsequently check-in at the specialty retailer in their city on Foursquare—will receive a discount code for 20 percent off Boon products.
