Official Playmobil video competition

[playmofire]

This link was mentioned on another board:

http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-GB-Site/en_GB/Link-Page?cid=NextEpisode

I don't know when it first appeared on the Playmobil website, but it was only mentioned on the other board on 14th February and the closing date is pretty  close.

[reylocann]

  and it's only open to UK residents 

[Rasputin]

Hi Gordon

Thanks for the link. I like the prizes " £500 + Prize winner will receive a full Playmobil range every three months and a smaller product offering every month "

I also found it interesting that in their example movie it was with stecks and the old chrome knights. The editing or film style was a shaky camera man 

I did not read the terms and conditions so if it is only open to the UK, good luck and I think all who can should enter

Rasputin "The Mad Monk"

[Martin Milner]

The prize offer is confusing, exactly how many time do you receive the full Playmobil range?

As a UK Citizen I could enter the competition, but having never tried to do a Playmobil video before I don't think I could find the time or resources to try in the next couple of weeks. I wonder how many entires they will get? There are many good videos already on YouTube, which could be entered by their creators if they are UK Citizens.

I get the feeling they've thrown this together very quickly and haven't thought it through, but it's good to see a competition at last, and I hope this won't be the last.

[skypurr]

The prize offer is confusing, exactly how many time do you receive the full Playmobil range?

It does say in smaller print:
"*Prize winner will receive a full Playmobil range every three months and a smaller product offering every month"

Junior at the moment is making a Playmobil video for school so we'll have to see how that turns out
 - videos are beyond my capabilities!  

[Martin Milner]

It does say in smaller print:
"*Prize winner will receive a full Playmobil range every three months and a smaller product offering every month"
 

That's what I find confusing. If I win, how many times can I expect to receive a full Playmobil range? I know how frequently, but not how many times this is repeated.

Also, is the smaller product a repeat of something the winner has already received (i.e. part of the full range) of a bonus item that isn't in the official catalogue?

14.Winners.....

This is the first suggestion that there could be more than one winner. I suspect that they intend this competition to repeat every three months, and that each 3-monthly winner will get the 500GBP, full Playmobil range, and a couple of smaller follow up gifts, and then the baton passes to the next winner. However this is not what the competition rules state.

[Richard]

This link was mentioned on another board:

http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-GB-Site/en_GB/Link-Page?cid=NextEpisode

I don't know when it first appeared on the Playmobil website, but it was only mentioned on the other board on 14th February and the closing date is pretty  close.

Very interesting, Gordon!

Looks like Geobra has hired a UK marketing firm. Maybe Geobra has decided to "attack" the UK as Lego has "attacked" the US ... 

The marketing firm is Chocolate Communications.

Click HERE for a PDF explaining their Playmobil "strategy"

also see attachment for first page

[Martin Milner]

Very interesting pdf Richard!

I had never heard of Chocolate Communications when I was working at my old company (a big London Advertising Agency), but often the smaller agencies can do marvellous work.

They state that Playmobil had done NO PR in the last 5 years. No wonder it wasn't selling as well as they'd like! Playmobil do seem to have that smug attitude that the product will sell itself; sadly not so in today's market, there are too many other products out there grabbing attention.

They appear to be working on a low budget, and going mainly for what I would call a Viral campaign, i.e. getting the word out in papers and magazines, and relying on word-of-mouth to spread the message.

13% increase in sales is very encouraging in a recession, but you wonder how much of that is Chocolate's  particular strategy and how much is just the fact that any advertising will increase sales after a five year lapse.


Now I'd like to see a similar effort in the USA, but is the country too big for viral marketing?

[Richard]

Very interesting pdf Richard!

I had never heard of Chocolate Communications when I was working at my old company (a big London Advertising Agency), but often the smaller agencies can do marvellous work.

I thought of you immediately, Martin, when I saw that Geobra had hired a UK advertising agency. I wondered why they hadn't hired you ...

Seems like that would have made a lot of sense. You were in the UK. You know the UK market. And, you know Playmobil.

Wonder what Geobra was thinking? ... 

... Playmobil do seem to have that smug attitude that the product will sell itself ...

When we first visited Germany in the mid-1980s, we were surprised by the absence of "yellow pages" in the phone book. We were politely told, "If a product is good, and if a service is good, people will know ... we don't have to tell them."

Interesting that they didn't learn from the VW debacle.
Great ads equaled great sales in the US for VW until VW stopped advertising.
And, when VW stopped advertising, the Japs came along and "ate VW's lunch!"

To this day, VW hasn't fully recovered in the US from their "dropped" advertising campaign.

All the best,
Richard

[wonderland5]

Now I'd like to see a similar effort in the USA, but is the country too big for viral marketing?

I honestly don't think so Martin--on the contrary, my teen aged nieces and preschool aged children seem to find out about things they would like to have mostly through viral means--playing at other kids houses and seeing what goodies they have ( we are doing our part to turn kids on to Klickies!) Then there are moms talking to other moms, parenting blogs (a lot of which talk about good toys) and other means.  I think it would work well here!