Toys”R”Us is embracing a new era after physical stores with a creative video made using AI. It shows a young Charles Lazarus in an old bicycle shop with his dad, then shifts to a dream world full of toys and Geoffrey the Giraffe. This whimsical scene reflects Lazarus’s dreams when he started the company, capturing his vision of dreams coming true.
Kim Miller Olko, Global CMO of Toys”R”Us, emphasized the dual purpose of modernizing the brand while paying homage to its heritage. The video, initially premiered at the Cannes Lions Festival, marks a strategic move in the brand’s efforts to reconnect emotionally with millennial parents who cherished Toys”R”Us in their childhoods and now share it with their own children.
Following its bankruptcy in 2018 and subsequent acquisition by WHP Global in 2021, Toys”R”Us has been reshaping its presence. New flagship stores have emerged, bolstering the brand’s retail and online footprint, now generating over $2 billion in annual sales across 1,400 locations and e-commerce channels.
The decision to employ AI for storytelling reflects Toys”R”Us’s commitment to innovation in brand communication. Miller Olko sees AI not as a replacement for human creativity but as a powerful tool to enhance storytelling capabilities, particularly for subsidiary brands like Babies”R”Us, where AI could streamline content creation involving infants in various settings.
Toys”R”Us Uses AI Video to Refresh Brand with Nostalgic Touch
The creation process involved Native Foreign, a creative agency pioneering the use of Sora, which required meticulous crafting of prompts to guide AI-generated scenes, balancing historical accuracy with modern appeal. This approach aimed to prevent disconnects for contemporary audiences encountering vintage toys and settings.
Despite its debut receiving mixed reviews, with some noting technical challenges and stylistic inconsistencies, the AI-driven narrative succeeded in leveraging the dreamlike quality to mitigate its imperfections. Greg Swan from FINN Partners highlighted that this fantastical approach aligned well with viewer expectations of ethereal storytelling, sidestepping the pitfalls of creating overly realistic, potentially unsettling visuals.
However, the deployment of AI in content creation raises significant ethical and practical considerations, including transparency in training data and the role of human oversight in editing and ethical compliance. As AI tools like Sora evolve, they serve as both a proving ground and a challenge for brands, tech firms, and regulators to navigate the new frontier of digital creativity responsibly.
Ultimately, while the AI-generated video marks a bold step for Toys”R”Us in revitalizing its brand narrative, its success hinges on striking a delicate balance between technological novelty and human emotional resonance, ensuring that the dreams sparked by Toys”R”Us endure across generations.
