This is the second in a two-part series on the PR surrounding the Tickle Me Elmo craze. Last week we took readers through the process of generating press and dealing with the onslaught of media and the public in the general interested in a red, furry giggling doll.
This week, things get hairier for Tyco and Freeman PR.
Though many PR firms only dream of a runaway success like Tickle Me Elmo, sometimes success creates its own PR crises.
In the case of Tyco Toys, Inc.'s Tickle Me Elmo, that translated into product shortages - which led to consumers buying and then reselling the doll for outrageous sums - and creating an unintended and not entirely flattering PR buzz about the company.
"On Monday following Thanksgiving [1996], the phones were ringing off the hook," said Bruce Maguire, CEO, Freeman Public Relations. "We had a conference call with the president of Tyco Preschool, Neil Friedman, to discuss how to deal with the frenzy."
Freeman prepared a statement so Tyco execs could explain to the press that the company was making the product as fast as it could.
"Our biggest concern was that we would present a unified statement to the press regarding the availability of the product for consumers and charitable donations," said Neil Friedman, president, Tyco Preschool. "We were also concerned with how to increase our production capacity in a short timeframe to ease some of the demand and help satisfy our customers."
In its quest for continued coverage, Freeman worked with USA Today to do a story on the inventor of the doll - something they wish they had postponed.
"If we had known that the frenzy would reach Cabbage Patch proportions, we would have held that story and run it in '97 to sustain the attention," said Ellie Bagli, an account supervisor at Freeman.
The firm, besieged by media requests to interview Ron Dubren, the toy's inventor, prepared him to handle the media before putting him on radio shows or setting up interviews. They familiarized him with the entire story regarding the doll, and not just how the product was invented.
Freeman PR execs also had a delicate, and potentially explosive, conflict of interest.
"What would it look like if Rosie [O'Donnell] is giving away 200 more Tickle Me Elmos, and parents can't find them in the stores," said Maguire, referring to the exposure O'Donnell gave the doll on her show. "We decided we weren't going to give away any more Tickle Me Elmos, unless it was for charity."
By then, the PR firm was receiving between 10 and 15 call an hour requesting dolls and/or information. On Dec. 5, Freeman stopped sending the product out, and also broadcast faxed a Q & A to the media to answer the most frequently asked questions. Knowing Toy Fair '97 was just around the corner, the firm had also started to shift its focus to the breadth of the Tyco line.
The tone of the phone calls to Tyco began to change as well, as angry customers demanded to know why there weren't enough dolls to go around.
Freeman prepared an internal Q & A for Tyco Preschool execs to answer the media's now-edgy questions. Three key Tyco Preschool execs spent the bulk of each day for two weeks answering media questions. At the same time, Tyco execs started getting peppered with questions about their manufacturing operations overseas, as part of a general media focus on overseas toy manufacturers.
"Unfortunately, we had quite a few questions on that, and we did another Q & A on why Tickle Me Elmo was made in China," said Maguire. "It became, 'a toy made in China'. The media built it up and then knocked it down."
Freeman responded by preparing Tyco's president to respond forcefully to those questions, without alienating anyone.
But in late November, Mattel announced it had merged with Tyco, adding another layer of complexity to the firm's PR efforts.
Toward the end of the year, Freeman introduced a new Tickle Me line of products based on Ernie, Big Bird and Cookie Monster characters.
The firm continues to work with producers at the Rosie O'Donnell show to promote Tyco's new line, but it has not had time to fully assess the Tickle Me Elmo campaign in terms of impressions.
"We have more than 15,000 tear sheets we haven't sorted through," said Bagli, while clips of selected TV coverage filled a videotape for two hours.
The campaign has been instrumental in positioning the company in a far different light than in 1994 and 1995, when it was a struggling subsidiary with big losses. "Tyco Preschool is taken more seriously as a toy company," said Maguire. "They are a much stronger company, and the whole line is very strong. They are not perceived as just [the makers of] Tickle Me Elmo." (Bruce Maguire, Ellie Bagli, Freeman PR, 201/470-0400; Neil Friedman, Tyco, 212/620-8366)