I've been part of this fandom for about 15 years now.

In those 15 years, I've witnessed varying degrees of product-specific fan-centric PR by Hasbro.

The original "dark era" was around the time of Energon, the 2003 Universe line and Alternators. Hasbro had their Transformers.com website, which was rather infrequently updated, often had unfinished and outdated information (including bios for later-run Energon toys sporting non-final working names that were quickly changed to the final product names) and a Q&A section that was also infrequently updated and eventually abandoned entirely.

This was also when stolen prototypes from China popped up very frequently on eBay, often beating Hasbro to the punch when it came to "announcing" upcoming releases. Hasbro staffers were whining about fans buying those stolen prototypes and thus "ruining the surprise" for when Hasbro was planning to announce those toys... eventually. If at all.

As time went on, the Hasbro website wasn't always on the ball when it came to new or upcoming toy releases, but at least Hasbro was doing something.

In retrospect, the biggest marketing push with regards to us, the fanbase, started shortly before Revenge of the Fallen. For about two years, Hunter PR was providing relatively frequent and regular updates for participating fansites. This included information regarding and stock photos for upcoming toy releases (usually three months before the intended release). Coupled with (presumably) increased security at the factories, this meant Hasbro was actually able to announce upcoming toys first, and usually with a decent headstart to create anticipation before the release.

Toy announcements happened regardless of whether a big show (Toy Fair, BotCon, SDCC) was due or not. Sometimes toy announcements were held back a few weeks so they could be revealed at those shows, but whenever no show was due anytime soon, Hunter PR just released huge batches of stock photos every few weeks. In addition, there was the quarterly Q&A program with participating fansites. Even though we would make fun of the aseptic corporate PR talk that littered some of the answers (usually when nobody from Hasbro's Transformers team could be reached to provide a more in-depth answer), at least we got the feeling something was happening.

Over the past few years, I have witnessed Hasbro cutting down their marketing more and more. Sure, they have that infrequently updated Hasbro Pulse website, a Facebook page and all that crap, but mostly we'd just get some random "Here is a funny image of Bumblebee" or a promotion of the latest big budget mass retail toy Hasbro wants to promote. Consistent marketing of ongoing retail assortments is almost nonexistent at this point.

It gets worse: With prototype leaks being a rare sight these days, and Hasbro limiting official announcements of new upcoming toys almost exclusively to shows (Toy Fair, BotCon, SDCC) these days, there have been quite a few instances lately where new toys suddenly appeared at retail (either in the US or internationally) with little to no fanfare whatsoever (called "stealth releases" by some people). And while some fans have actually gone on record in the past that they long for the days when they would walk into a store and see a toy they didn't even know existed, this is actually terrible from a marketing standpoint. You want people to get interested in your product before you release it. If your product is available for purchase and nobody knows about it, how many "impulse purchases" are you banking on?

Even in cases where Hasbro did solicit upcoming new toys to retailers in advance, there have been a lot of instances where those solicitations were text only, completely lacking images, even though images should have reasonably been ready by that point. In some instances, I got the impression that Hasbro's marketing department wasn't on speaking terms with the distribution department anymore, since Hasbro would sometimes "announce" toys at a show even though those very toys had already been found at retail by people prior to the show.

So am I the only one who thinks Hasbro's marketing has taken a turn for the worse since 2010?

 

Has it taken a turn or is is more like getting pushed to the back seat due to Star Wars and how popular it is? I was wondering the same as you but I thinking they were focusing on Star Wars now to make the easy money and as it appears Star Wars is more popular then TF's.

 

I blame the movies.

Seriously, everything is about them. We had that Starscream slip in RID and yet we've got that stupid TF5 banner a year before the film is even due?

 

You are completely spot-on. The toys are still great, but more and more it just feels like Hasbro is counting on the movies to sell their toys and for the fans to "figure it out" through forums like this one for the non-movie toys. I loved Combiner Wars and I feel like it really could have been a bigger hit if it had some sort of regularly available media (other than the comics, which was more of a shoe-horned tie in) to go alongside it and promote brand awareness. The shows are basically advertising for toys, after all. Machinima or whatever really doesn't count as its coming out right as the line is dying and frankly looks to be pretty low quality.

 

No, you're not. I've been trying to make it as a retailer for the last five years so I follow the distribution channels closely. So much of what Hasbro does is a complete surprise.

Products often just appear in stock with no preorder period. Or, as was the case with Fort Max, I received the solicitation mere hours before BBTS had their's (and they went almost straight from zero to in stock - I mean like morning preorder and evening in stock) and weeks after he was showing up abroad. Fort Max is the most glaring example but the entire Titan Wars line thus far has been that way. Needless to say, even chain retailers in this area don't have anything yet.

Hasbro is also frequently soliciting solid cases (a welcome policy change)...and then either cancelling them almost immediately or dragging the release date out one month at a time for months. This is across all of their major brands - TransFormers, Star Wars, Marvel Legends, etc. It's wrecked havoc on my ability to plan, having money locked up for months or having to scramble to purchase a surprise. For as much as they cost, in both dollars and lost opportunity, it's absolutely not worth the effort.

I don't know how much of it's due to a change in PR firms or the stark reality of having just a small handful of employees in Pawtucket coordinate overseas design and production (that's shifting all over, from China to Vietnam to India) of toys that don't cost a nickel apiece anymore and all of the logistics problems that go with that. They really operate like somebody living paycheck to paycheck, missing this deadline or that deadline by a couple of days and slipping further behind with every passing month.

 

How do we know this still wouldn't happen even if the movies weren't that strongly focused on nowadays?

 

Because it all goes back to Goldner. Who can't even fucking remember Bumblebee talks in RID in an interview, because he somehow got to be CEO after the first film and ever since Hasbro has been lurching toward trying to be a fucking media enterprise rather than toys.

 

I dont think it has anything due to leaked images, I think the brand name is stronger than ever and probably needs little lift from traditional marketing methods we've grown accustomed to ie-commercials, toy shows, magazine ads, promotional giveaways etc. I think Hasbro believes it can move *anything* under the Transformers banner by dint of being within its hugely popular franchise.

 

But what does any of that have to do with the leeked info and images lately? I'm sorry but that's coming across as pretty bitter.

 

I fear for the future of the brand when they just phone this stuff in like this. If I wasn't on these boards daily I would never have even known about combiner wars or Titan wars.

 

What about the East side? Where bigger things are happening in the world? Did it grow?

 

I have found that in the last few years Actualy after the golden era after what happend with the first edition line i seen main line toys get alot less focus and more cut backs something must of happened around then because the cuts have hurt toy lines.

I have seen people pick up star wars and transformers and turn around and say what is the point i can buy better toys secound hand, you know the sad thing they are right espelly with r.i.d15 and yes ive brought a few and tryed them, then gave them to my son...

 

Because media is more popular than toys.

 

The CEO? As in, more or less head of the whole company? Given that, it seems understandable to me that he might not be up to date that the most recent cartoon isn't following the high-profile movie's example, since he's supposed to managing almost everything that goes on in the company, and I doubt he has much direct contact with the people working on the cartoon beyond some causal reporting to know deadlines are being met. They probably don't go to him directly to get approval for every single decision.

 

It doesn't have to be from him directly. Given the success of the Baymovies, which he was involved in brokering, the overemphasis on those movie elements undoubtedly came from his people or Hasbro reps wanting to please him. And furthermore the cutbacks in regards to toy budgets and design as well as moving away from toys and towards empty hollow failures like the Hub and other brand name multimedia strategies has to come from the top.

 

Marketing has changed over the last few years everywhere, Hasbro is just one of many companies that has learned that you don't need to hire an expensive PR firm when a Facebook page run by some interns and free videos on YouTube will bring in the exact same results.

 

Since i became a collector i have been thinking Transformers could be several times bigger than it is if Hasbro had better communication with retailers, had a better worked out marketing strategy and pushed their product more in general.
It's not right that there are toystores where there is virtually no current product on the shelves.
If retailers do not buy in new product because of shelfwarmers Hasbro should do marketresearch to better advise retailers and better distribute the product instead of dumping a box with Alpha Bravo's (for example) on them, thinking they'll buy in more come the holidays.
Hasbro should promote productawareness among targetaudiences and parents and develop a long-term relation with distributers of fiction, merchandise and toys over the world.
Its brands should be more present in the streets, shops and homes as well as the internet.

But what do i know.

 

I agree, actually. I think marketing begins and ends with every movie. When RotF is over with, marketing resets for DotM. When DotM is over, AoE starts into production. The alternative sublines are afterthoughts, generally only highlighting the showcases of the likes of Metroplex, Fort Max or Hypersurge Optimus.

 

It's not as simple as just "Have a better relationship with retailers." Toys are on the wane, tablets and smartphones and video games are appealing to children more and more. While toys may be a huge part of our lives as adult collectors, they're not a huge deal to retailers. And now more than ever the retailers are in charge, deciding what they want to sell. You can't just push product on them, it's like if someone pushed product on you that you didn't want to buy.

Everything you said at the end? That was exactly what things were like eight years ago. But the simple fact is toys aren't as big a market as they used to be. And yet toy companies are still expected to turn a profit each year by investors. The market is notably diminishing yet they're expected to grow exponentially.

 

Fansites are the marketing for Hasbro. There you go. Not a happy answer but why would they pay someone to do what a fan site does very well and for free.

I agree with a lot of points folks made. Marketing begins and ends with a movie release. Yup. Sadly but true.

Toys are also on a decline because of other forms of entertainment. Revenue is expected to continuously rise but that's an impossible task. Toys will never go out of style but the number of dollars that go towards them has decreased because of competition.

Marketing isn't what it used to be and that does suck. I wish Hasbro had a better system of marketing and selling of product. Remember during the AEC days when a new episode of Super Link would air in Japan and the next day the new character introduced in the episode would appear on shelves at retailers? I know that's impossible in the US but they could tighten things up. Ambiguous release periods suck.

But at the end of the day, there is no monetary incentive for Hasbro to improve any of these things. I don't think it'll actually drive up sales. Hardcore and semi-hardcore fans follow fansites and actively pre-order stuff or hunt regularly for new stuff. Takara needs to be more proactive because of how their market is set-up. Its just not the same in the US.