Toy News

Barbie’s 12th DVD movie Barbie and The Diamond Castle will have its earliest ever release on 8th September maximising sales opportunities for retailers. The ultimate princess fairytale with a modern twist, the movie features a fantastic contemporary pop soundtrack. A beautiful range of dolls and play sets will also be available from August to enable little girls to bring the movie to life. With over 40 million DVDs sold worldwide since 2001, the latest movie will benefit from an extensive marketing programme including a number of break-frame initiatives.

Celebrity Endorsement
Mattel has signed actress and singer Suzanne Shaw to lend her vocals to the main credit song, Connected, which will feature on heavyweight national radio advertising. Shaw will also take part in extensive PR activity including TV, radio and national press interviews along with a dedicated online campaign featuring broadcast interviews and behind the scenes footage of her, which will be seen across all online news and gossip sites.

DVD Promotion
In another first, Barbie has created an instructional singing and karaoke DVD, which will be given away free with Princess Liana dolls. In the Barbie Sing Like A Star DVD, celebrity voice coach and star of TV’s Any Dream Will Do Zoe Tyler takes viewers through over 40 minutes of tuition and karaoke versions of the songs from the most popular Barbie movies. The DVD also contains a special Connected music video starring Suzanne Shaw. With singing a popular activity for today’s girls, the instructional DVD offers consumers a fantastic value added promotion. Specially-created eye catching retail FSDUs, will ensure strong visibility and stand out in-store.

TV
A heavyweight TV campaign will feature four different creatives, over 2,000 TVRs and will reach over 89 per cent of girls aged 4-9 years old.

PR Support
An extensive PR programme will include drop offs of Connected with key radio and TV contacts, placement of Zoe Tyler’s singing tips and a comprehensive competition campaign with national, TV listings, mums’ and girls’ press to ensure maximum exposure and visibility.

Still To Come…..
This Autumn the brand gears up for six months of break-frame campaigns designed to deliver the Barbie message to consumers in an innovative and interactive way.