Invention of a New Toy Technology
How new ideas permanently changed the trajectory of a 40-year-old brand.
The Idea
Our team was challenged to explore if it would be possible for a smartphone to power additional functionality in a toy.
The expectation was that we would use pre-existing light pipe technology to transmit a single color from the phone screen to the toy, but I knew a significantly richer experience could be created. By using lenses and mirrors, rich animations from a phone’s screen could be projected onto the surface of the toy.
When explanations of this idea to others were largely met with skepticism, I knew I had identified something special. I taught myself ray-tracing software to prove out the concept and help convey the optical assembly to my engineering counterparts in Asia.
Once the first functional prototype arrived in our office I thought the technology would speak for itself, but people were not particularly enamored by generic animated GIFs being displayed on the surface of the toy. I needed to demonstrate how special and personal this experience could feel.
I designed a demo app that not only suggested many possible games that could be played with the toy, but most importantly animated its facial expressions. This immediately resonated with my colleagues who now realized the potential behind this idea. We quickly applied for and have a patent pending on this invention.
The Innovation
While this projection technology enabled a groundbreaking smartphone-augmented experience, the toy was still required to deliver mechanical pull-back functionality out of the box.
The only way we could deliver this functionality at the time was to use a gearbox, which was expensive and would leave no budget for the projector. To prevent the projector from being removed I would need to design a significantly more affordable way for us to deliver pull-back functionality.
The band-powered propellers on balsa wood airplanes came to mind, and I immediately began proving them out for this application. After many prototypes of various methods of band-power, we decided on a twist-based mechanism with nylon clutches which was affordable enough to keep the integrated projector within the budget.
The Final Stretch
This promotion was primed to introduce two new technologies in a single Happy Meal toy lineup. A breakthrough optical projector had been integrated into every toy, and movement was being powered by a reimagined mechanism. Together these innovations would bring this charming property to life in a way never seen before.
Then the movie was delayed 2 months.
With our toys launching long before consumers had even heard of these characters, the performance of this Happy Meal was expected to be subpar.
We could not have been more wrong.
The Results
The Happy Meal App received over 1 million downloads in the first month alone - a 6,000% increase compared to previous program windows.
App Downloads in First Month
In the App Store, the Happy Meal App went straight to #1 above all other family apps for the first week
Even though the promotion launched 2 months before the movie's release, restaurant sales STILL saw a 20% lift.
The Impact
Innovations in this toy program drove such unprecedented levels of success that they permanently altered the course of upcoming Happy Meal toys.
Bands
Delivering powered physical movement at such a low price has enabled pull-back & wind-up functionality to be implemented in significantly more toy promotions.
On subsequent Happy Meal programs I developed this technology even further, bringing it to full parity with our traditional gearboxes.
This innovation has now become our new standard for powering movement.
Projectors
Bringing our toys to life through digital integrations has made the possible experiences of each product infinite – limited only by the digital content.
Following this program’s success I immediately developed and pitched a roadmap to integrate this type of experience into upcoming programs, which are now beginning to debut.
This digital integration has been such a sensation that it led our company to expand their infrastructure and build out a new team of over 50 new employees.
