If you've ever been interested in what goes into the actual marketing and branding of an iconic character or other massively popular kids product line, then this may be the article for you. Brian Goldner is president of all of Hasbro, but this article focuses on his management of the Transformers, what with it being their 25th anniversary, the new movie and all the expanded toy lines and comics and what not. And for all of uor old-timer complaints about how the movie robots look like mindlessly milling about pieces of metal scrap, there's no denying the success of the redesigns and rebranding.
According to Hasbro, Transformers generated $487 million in sales in 2007 (up from $100 million in 2006). Needham estimates revenue from Transformers in 2008 at $395 million and $585 million in 2009, a 48% increase, representing 14% of total revenue, significantly larger than Star Wars and Spider-Man.
Goldner recalls his original discussion with director Michael Bay prior to the first Transformers movie about making the brand come to life. "Michael wanted fans to second guess and be able to look into any parking lot wondering if any of the cars could be Transformers," Goldner says.
"It's a very simple human story," he adds. And, it's all about "more than meets the eye," a phrase Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) uses when answering his high school heartthrob when she asks what he's like. The phrase has also become the basis for product development and promotions.
The rest of the article's here, but be warned - it's interesting, but a lot of the phrases are pretty solidly "inside baseball."
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on Mar 4th, 2009 at 9:39 am
While I'm not thrilled with the robot designs used in the movie, my biggest complaint is that too much time was spent on the human characters. Oh, and the secret government agency that came out of nowhere.