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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23,2013Z-TEK BOWCompany putting new spin on concept of movie tie-in toysBy JOAN VERDONThe Record HACKENSACK. NJ. - A Portland. Ore . toy company and a Totowa, NJ.. marketing agency with a track record for DfOflMinc hit tovs this weekend will he testing a new 'say to reach their target audience forin movie theaters showing The Hunger Games Catching Fire Las* year. Zing Toys, makers of archery -themed products for kids, noticed that its sales surged following the March release of the first Hunger Games” movie, which took in $1525 million on its opening weekend, making it the third-bestThis year. Zing, and its Totowa mar-Relations.ref Ifor the Z-Tek Bow that w.lhiir about J500 movie screens uhi him ts heme shown.lt;n of the filpenedThursday night For a movie that hot like that, everyone's getting to the theater early to get a good seat, so you've got an excellent captive audience nghtthere. said Josh Locr/cl. North American sales manager for Zing. Toy industry expen Jim Silver, editor of toy review website timetoplay-mag.com and other industry publications. said advertising before the Catching Fire screenings is a good idea for Zing. Their hows were really hot last year after Hunger Games' opened. he said Silver said there have been other toy ads in movie the atcrs. but they still are rare.With the movie theater ads. Zing is putting a new spin on the concept of movie tie-in toys. Movie toys traditionally have been images taken from a hit kids' movie, such as “Cais” or Despicable Me. Zing's bows and arrows arc not licensed products and pre date the first Hunger Games movie However, the company is piggy -hacking on the boost the films give to archery, with its heroine ami ace-archer Katniss.Zing, formed six y ears ago. is a relatively young toy company , and it hadn't yet developed the kind of marketing budget to support a national television ad campaign. So after discussions with Freeman - the marketing company that made Tickle Me Elmo red-hot in 1996 - and its media buying firm in January, Zing decided it could get more sales lift by buying what are called two-week flights olcommercial spots at movie theatersThe company only had the budget for Bights at 3500 screens - to be shown at about 30 percent of the movie theaters in the country.Ixverrel said. The commercial will air between Friday and Dec. 5.To measure the effectiveness of the ads. which an before the movie starts. Zing is promoting a text to win toy giveaway at the end of the commercial. The number of texts it receives will indicate how many people were paying attention to the prc-Loerarl said Zing, unlike other toy companies that rushed to make Hunger Games licensed bow-and-anow toys to connect with movie fans, decided against producing a Hunger Games set because Us products were already selling well in stores. At the point when we were offered the license, we were on the shelves. he said, so i wasn't an incremental upside to adding the license.License fees arc expensive and have to he paid up front, hclorc the toys sell, so Zing decided to build its own brand identity. The mechanism on the Zing toys works like a real how and arrow, so you get a more genuine archery feel. Loerad said.
Newspaper Details
Ashtabula Star Beacon
Ashtabula, Ohio, US
Sat, Nov 23, 2013
Page 16
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Clipped by
Joseph L.
USA 16 Nov 2016
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