Tag Archives: Ken

Wonderful Walt Does It Again

Big Time Marketing Sales for New Movie

Cars 2 is due out at the end of next month with a bit of a difference. For Cars and Toy Story lovers alike, the six-minute bonus will surely delight. All of a sudden, viewers will be privy to their buddies from Toy Story giving an appearance. Toy Story 3 characters will “romp and joke about Ken and Barbie’s failed attempts to hitch a ride to Hawaii inside their owner Andy's book bag.” This is a good marketing technique. The plan is that it will “keep sales humming for merchandise.” Toy Story franchise as it is already brings in more money than mega characters from Disney such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Winnie-the-Pooh. Indeed, anticipated retail sales from Toy Story 3 merchandise is sitting at $7.3 bn.

Clever Tactics

The new movie, Toy Story: Hawaiian Vacation is being hailed as Disney’s attempt to work with how Americans love buying all these movie-related goodies, such as lunchboxes and toys. According to former president of Nickelodeon Film & Television Entertainment and founder of Worldwide Biggies Albie Hecht, “showing those shorts is a super-smart strategy for Disney…It’s a way to extend the characters and the brand without its fans waiting two or three years for a new movie.” In addition, these shorts are enabling Pixar to provide the consumer with “great entertainment experiences while prolonging the brand’s relevance.” It’s going to be screened a little more than a year after the release of Toy Story 3, which is just in perfect time to remind people of how much they loved Buzz and Woody. Costing an estimated $6m to produce (for the short), it seems like the returns are going to be worth it when looking at how much the film grossed in worldwide ticket sales alone ($1.06bn, rendering it Disney’s “biggest animated film ever”). There are additional Toy Story shorts in the planning stage as keeping these characters in the limelight seem to just make good marketing sense. On Thanksgiving weekend when The Muppets premiers, another Toon will be played too.