DreamToys
Toy Retailers Association
1,217 pieces of coverage
151 national hits
The Challenge
To give the annual launch of DreamToys – the UK’s most authoritative list of the year’s hottest toys for Christmas – a fresh lease of life.
Ultimately, the Toy Retailers Association, which represents the likes of Smyths, The Entertainer, Toy Town and hundreds of independent toy retailers, challenged us to increase awareness around the toys, drive footfall into stores, and increase sales.
The Idea
We developed a reinvigorated, three-phase campaign designed to:
- give the campaign longevity and gain traction when consumers were actively searching for gift inspiration;
- create talkability around the toys to increase awareness;
- and, ultimately, drive people to stores.
Phase one, our search for ‘Mini Toy Testers’, saw eight lucky winners invited to London to try out the toys and give their feedback. Engaging video and photography was captured and packaged up to appeal to social-first publishers and drive online shareability.
In phase two, we created an immersive, pop-up venue to which we invited press and influencers for a reimagined launch event. We created a new brand identity for DreamToys with vibrant colours and iconography to better reflect the industry-leading brands, and provided spaces for guests to explore the toys.
Finally, a post-event phase boosted awareness and drove footfall to toy retailers via a nationwide in-store competition giving children the chance to win all 15 toys from the list.
The Results
The campaign surpassed our wildest expectations, delivering:
- 1,217 pieces of coverage (+204% vs KPI) – more than double the previous year’s result, and the highest volume achieved for DreamToys over the last five years
- 151 national pieces (+655% vs KPI) including six in The Sun with a full-page spread, three Mail Online pieces, four in The Mirror and multiple hits across The Guardian, BBC News, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Daily Star and The Express
- 368 regional pieces (+1,739% vs KPI)
- 42 TV hits including a syndicated BBC Breakfast interview with the DreamToys chairman, a segment on Channel 5’s Storm Huntley Show featuring toy demos, GB News and a syndicated bulletin on London Live
- 548 radio hits, with DreamToys discussed on the likes of Free Radio, Absolute Radio, Virgin Radio, Heart, Kerrang, Hits Radio, LBC, and the regional BBC network
The campaign saw organic search spike for every toy on the list. But the dream didn’t stop there.
Toy industry sales data experts, Circana, tracked the DreamToys throughout the year. Data for the 15 toys on the list showed an average sales uplift of +166%. The total toy market sales uplift over the same period was +132% (seasonal average uplift), so on average the DreamToys items experienced 34% higher uplift than the rest of the market for the same period.
42tv hits