• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, July 23, 2024

Hasbro, which re-introduced Furby last year, decided the toy needed a first birthday party. So it created a New York City activation fit for a ‘90s-era icon, leaving footprints in wet cement, paint and glitter on city sidewalks. Hasbro says the glittery blitz, powered by social media, earned 450 million media impressions.

The “Furby Wuz Here” effort focused on weird “good deeds,” intended to stop New Yorkers as they walked by, and included giant Furby footprints left in cement, paint and glitter on sidewalks. It also “upcycled” objects, like lamp posts and bicycles, in brightly colored fur. And Hasbro gave one crib an extreme makeover with lava lamps, disco balls and plenty of fur-lined objects.

Hasbro also launched a new series of Furblets, exclusively on Amazon, and a Furby graffiti takeover of Amazon lockers.

The idea was to “bring Furby’s mischievous nature to life, both in person and digitally,” says Kim Boyd, president of global brands and franchise management at Hasbro, in an email to Marketing Daily. “Furby’s mischief is sly but playful, so when people see a giant glittery footprint in Herald Square or a pastel fur-wrapped bench in Elizabeth Street Garden, they have this curiosity. The campaign is about playfully nudging people out of their routine and rediscovering their surroundings through Furby’s perspective.”

She says the benefit of this kind of activation – compared to more conventional ad campaigns – is the integration of digital and physical in ways that can catch the eye of the city’s hard-to-impress pedestrians. “New Yorkers are known for seeing all sorts of oddities around the city and never thinking anything of it.”

While Furby and the Furblets are still loved by kids, this effort tapped millennial nostalgia, she adds. “But even Boomer and Gen X parents have fond memories of Furby’s original run.”