Magic Box Toys International is celebrating the outstanding launch success of brand new collectible range SuperZings: Rivals of Kaboom following a strategic 360-degree communications campaign which resulted in sales of more than half a million units within the first four weeks.

Focusing on activity which targeted parents and young children in the UK, the marketing strategy incorporated activity across Magic Box’s social media channels, TV advertising, a bespoke “Show & Tell Superheroes” initiative for 200 UK primary schools, a two-week take-over of popular mum-hub UKMums.tv, blogger engagement, a Twitter Party, a news generation poll resulting in over 200 pieces of media coverage, plus extensive sampling programmes around the UK.

The primary school initiative – SuperZings Show & Tell Super Heroes – was designed for Year One classes specifically to turn the popular “Show & Tell” classroom moment into a much bigger and more engaging experience for five- and six-year olds across the UK. An initial wave of 200 schools received a free pack containing an expert guide for teachers to get the most out of children using Show & Tell, as well as posters, stickers, a specially-created SuperZings Show & Tell Superhero cape and eye mask as well as 20,000 blind bags for children to take home.

In addition, Magic Box went ‘back to school’ and spent the day with children filming a ‘kids say the funniest things’-style video series for use on social media, UKMums.tv and YouTube. The series saw children answer questions such as “Who’s your real-life superhero?” and “If you had a superpower, what would it be?”, with some hilarious responses. The video series has already been viewed more than 25,000 times on Magic Box’s Facebook page alone.

To align the brand with parents and to generate talking points around the launch, a news generation poll of children aged 4-6 years and their parents investigated their opinions on real-life superheroes – enabling extensive media coverage of the themes associated with SuperZings. The news story generated a reach of over 1 million as well as over 200 pieces of coverage including Mail Online and The Huffington Post.

The two-week take-over of UKMums.tv included SuperZings homepage graphics and dedicated page content such as SuperZings Webisodes, 12 blogger reviews, competitions and social media exposure which led to a reach of over 1.3 million. In the second week of the site take-over, Magic Box hosted an hour-long Twitter Party led by five top parenting bloggers in partnership with SuperZings’ retailer, The Entertainer. The Party engaged almost 200 contributors and achieved 3.6 million impressions during the hour. The combined social media activity has seen follower numbers surge across all Magic Box’s channels, has successfully raised awareness of the new collection and has driven sales at retail.

Children have also been getting their hands on SuperZings through extensive sampling within Gulliver’s theme parks and various soft play centres across the country. As well as receiving a SuperZings blind bag with each children’s ticket purchase, Gulliver’s is also including SuperZings in their birthday party goody bags.

Working with key children’s media, Magic Box also embarked on a cover-mounting exercise with titles such as Toxic, Kraze and Busy Time combined with activity pages and competitions. In addition, TV Advertising ran throughout the period across all terrestrial and satellite kids channels achieving over 1250 TVRs.

Commenting on the campaign, Ben Harper of Magic Box Toys said, “We are thrilled by the positive impact the launch has had for SuperZings. Working closely with Playtime PR, our objective was to get SuperZings out there in the hands of parents and children in meaningful and engaging ways, so that we could ultimately create devoted collectors. This was crucial in generating the buzz around launch and the campaign has generated engaging, interactive and exciting content which can be used across multiple media platforms.”

Magic Box Toys International appoints Lisle Licensing as the UK & Eire Licensing Agent for its new collectable brand, SuperZings

Hitting UK shelves this month, the SuperZings are everyday objects brought to life in a fun, comic ‘Hero vs Villain’ rivalry theme. Clad in iconic superhero capes and eyemasks, there are more than 80 multi-coloured characters to collect, each with a matching ‘rival’ which adds a fun new dimension to the collectible mechanic: unwrap a hero orange – ‘Mr C’ – and you’ll want to find his rival, ‘Jack the Juicer’! Discover an ice cube and you’ll need to find the hairdryer!

All living together in Kaboom City, there are 36 regular characters available in two different colour-themes, plus six Silver and two Gold ‘Rare’ and One Enigma ‘Super Rare’ SuperZing. The figures all have their own superpower and profile, use colourful collectible pocket-money-friendly Supercars to get around (eight to collect) and live in cool Hideouts (eight to collect) which can also be used to launch characters into the air.

Lisle Licensing’s Francesca Lisle comments:
“From the second we were introduced to SuperZings, we knew it was an extremely new and exciting toy line which would lend itself perfectly to licensed merchandise.

“With a large number of retailers already on board with the toy line, 2018 is set to be an exciting year for SuperZings and we can’t wait to introduce this brand to licensees and retailers. We are truly delighted to be working with Magic Box.

Ben Harper of Magic Box Toys adds:
“The colourful, comic-book-style world – Kaboom City – that we’ve created with the SuperZings offers an array of great licensing opportunities, so we’re delighted to be partnering with Lisle to ensure every avenue is explored. They have excellent experience in this space and we’re excited about what the future holds.”