• by Shankar Gupta , January 25, 2005

On the eve of the kids TV advertising upfront, toy maker Mattel announced plans to market its new BattleX toy line largely on the basis of an online game, as well as a series of animations produced and hosted by online game producer www.Shockwave.com.

The game, which hit stores earlier this month, will go live on Shockwave's and Hot Wheels' Web sites Tuesday, and features the toys, which are futuristic combat vehicles that battle in a competitive arena setting. Players can upgrade their vehicles' weapons, fight other contestants, and participate in bonus rounds. The play of the computer game closely matches the play of the physical toy, said Doug Wadleigh, the vice president of marketing for Hot Wheels. "What [Shockwave has] been able to develop closely matches the toy play," Wadleigh said. "With a new segment like BattleX, kids will be able to understand the toy play without us having to pump out million of dollars in TV advertising."

The strategy is a telling one, because marketers like Mattel historically have launched new toy lines primarily on the basis of heavy TV advertising schedules.

In addition to the online game, Shockwave also produced a series of four brief animations that tell the back-story of the video game and toys, and feature a young BattleX pilot struggling to make it in the futuristic sport.

"The animations help us bring the actual product that brings the toy that kids are going to be playing with to life," said Nicole Fortner, the director of national sales for Shockwave.

The first two animations will be hosted on Shockwave's Web site, and will be incorporated into the TV advertising portion of Mattel's campaign, set to begin in mid-February. The other two will be teased on the site and released later.

In addition to being available on the Web sites, the game and the animations are also available in DVD-format packaged with the toy itself.

Talks for the online deal began about six months ago, Fortner said, when Shockwave approached Mattel with an offer to promote their toys.

"We went to them and positioned ourselves as a one-stop shop for things like content for their site, television commercials, and for their place-of-purchase packaging," Fortner said.

This is Mattel's first foray into online games as a way to promote their toy line. Wadleigh said that because kids are starting to watch less TV, Mattel was looking for another way to reach out to them. "We're always looking for a way to attract an audience through other ways besides TV."

Mattel felt that Shockwave was the ideal partner for that mission, Wadleigh said, because they've already built a market with the older demographics in Mattel's sights--the BattleX line being targeted at boys ages 7 to 8.

"Sometimes Mattel's Web sites haven't been able to get the audience size to be as significant as we want," Wadleigh said. "As a result, we were looking to partner with sites that can strengthen our activities with that older age group."