Most might flinch when pairing a wholesome family brand with an R-rated fugitive thriller. Toys “R” Us Studios, however, saw nothing but upside in “Roofman.”
The film — a true account of a prison escapee holed up in a North Carolina big-box store (guess which) — was hardly what Kim Miller Olko would call “the most positive, family-friendly story.” Yet the Toys “R” Us Studios president was enthused by the prospect of a feature-length spotlight, no matter the tone — and she grew even more gung-ho once her cross-promotional offers to Paramount came back with a polite no thanks.
“We went on social media and launched what we jokingly called a harassment campaign,” Olko quipped during her opening MipJunior keynote on Saturday. The strategy had two goals: to rattle the studios into paying attention and to reassure consumers that a present-day Roofman wouldn’t actually be able to hide in a modern store. The gambit paid off, culminating in a social media event where Channing Tatum fielded questions live on Instagram from an actual Toys “R” Us.
“We were very excited,” Olko said. “The promotion we’re getting is incredible.”
The strategy reflected the showman’s flair Olko brings to her role as Toys “R” Us CMO. She honed those chops over more than a decade as a senior executive at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, overseeing one of modern media’s most startling reboots — transforming the domestic impresario into an improbable Sports Illustrated cover girl and an affable foil for Snoop Dogg.
Since 2021, Olko has sought to do the same for a retail brand now under the wing of WHP Global and repped by mascot knows as Geoffrey the Giraffe.
Without breaking any major news—though she did reveal that the studio’s live-action feature already has an undisclosed writer and international star attached—Olko used her opening keynote to spotlight the company’s media relaunch. Introducing the new tagline, “Same Magic, New Method,” she explained how Toys “R” Us plans to transform decades of goodwill (“every millennial was a Toys ‘R’ Us kid,” she noted) into a nimble, modern licensing and media strategy — centered, of course, around a brand mascot with a famously long neck.
“I thought it was really, really lucky that now I had a giraffe that didn’t talk,” she laughed. “After you work for a major celebrity, it was nice to have a moment of silence.”
Toys “R” Us has since built a new backstory for its mascot — giving him an exact age (“I did a lot of studying and [found that] Elmo’s three and a half. So I figured if Elmo could be three, then Geoffrey could be nine and a half”) and a precise birthday that partners could leverage for a retail bonanza each Oct. 17. Now, Olko’s primary goal is to give Geoffrey the media presence he deserves, securing 1.1 million followers on TikTok and carving out his own spot in the Manhattan skyline for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The studio will continue its digital push with new episodes of the YouTube series “Geoffrey Vision,” while teaming with Nickelodeon to reformat content from the “Geoffrey’s World Tour” travel series into an interactive game show. Olko also defended the company’s use of AI, partnering with OpenAI on the first-ever Sora-created brand film, which premiered at Cannes Lions last year.
“That really launched a very big conversation around whether this was good for content or not,” Olko said. “Toys ‘R’ Us Studios isn’t becoming an AI studio, but we definitely have it in our toolbox.”
