Digital Blue Seeks New Horizon in Kids' Toys
Two-Year-Old company touts digital video camera, mini-turntable.
by Kenneth Hein
November 8, 2004 -- Hoping to emulate Hasbro's success with its VideoNow product last holiday season, high-tech toy manufacturer Digital Blue will introduce itself with a $5 million marketing campaign next month for its Movie Creator and Mixman Products. Working age compression to its advantage, Digital Blue is rolling out two products: Movie Creator, a durable handheld video camera that stores up to four minutes of footage; and Mixman, a mini-DJ turntable board.
A TV ad for the former shows kids, ages 6-11, doing karate and another dressed like Jimi Hendrix in his own music video. Voiceover: "So you want to make movies like they do in Hollywood ?...all you need is your PC and your imagination."
"It's for kids who are between playing with Barbie and video games," said Tim Hall, CEO/founder of Digital Blue, Marietta, GA. "Our products aren't just for sitting in front of the TV. We're about getting them out there in the real world."
An ad for Mixman, which targets an older demo, features a DJ who explains, "You're the DJ on the ones and twos." It explains how the device plugs into a PC. The campaign was created in-house. Summit Media, New York made the media buy. POP at retailers like Best Buy and Toys R Us, supports.
Digital also is known for its QX5 Microscope and Zoomshot Binoculars, a long distance digital camera. The success of such products is evinced by Hasbro's VideoNow, a personal video recorder, which logged more than 1.2 million unit sales since it launched last year.
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