I would like to salute one of the best toys I ever received as a Christmas present: Silly Putty. Silly Putty is almost a senior citizen. The bouncing goo ball that comes in an egg turned 60 years old this year. Silly Putty was not designed as a toy. During WWII, scientists working for GE were trying to come up with a synthetic rubber to compensate for a shortage in tires. They invented a substance that was pliable and bounced. It also pulled ink from a newspaper onto its surface. It was a failure as a tire, but it has done wonders as a toy. To date, there have been over 300 million eggs of Silly Putty sold.

So how did a failed idea for rubber tires end up being such a great idea as a toy? Like so many good ideas, it can be boiled down to one person who had a vision and a great marketing plan. After WWII, GE tried to come up with a use for the bouncing synthetic putty. They sent samples out to the best and brightest scientists and engineers around the world to see if they had any use for the product. No one submitted any ideas. During this time, a toy shop owner in New Haven, CT, Ruth Fallgatter got a hold of the bouncing putty. She contacted her marketing consultant, Peter Hodgson, who was putting together a catalog for Fallgatter’s store. He added the product in the catalog and the putty sold very well. Hodgson thought he could take the little ball of goo nationwide. Hodgson bought the production rights from GE. He packaged one ounce balls of the product in a plastic egg and named it Silly Putty. He set up shop in a barn, found a local poultry co-op who supplied him with egg cartons for the packaging of his Silly Putty eggs. Hodgson took Silly Putty to the International Toy Fair in New York City in February 1950. All of the toy marketers he spoke with told him to give up. They saw no future for a dough-filled egg. But he saw potential in the product and tried a different approach. He talked his product onto the shelves of Doubleday Book Stores. Later that summer, a New Yorker magazine writer purchased Silly Putty while perusing a Doubleday store. He wrote about the product in August and within three days, Hodgson had over 750,000 orders!

Oddly enough, Silly Putty was being sold as an adult novelty item by retail outlets. Hodgson knew that the real potential for Silly Putty was not with adults. Adult toys have a very short lifespan. He saw the real potential for his product with children. This is where Hodgson made a strategic marketing move. He decided to use a new medium for advertising directly to children: television. He was one of the first marketers to target his audience via children’s shows (The Howdy Doody Show and Captain Kangaroo.) He produced a very simple 60 second spot that helped tip the scales for sales to children. By 1957, 80% of Silly Putty sales were to children age 6-12. His vision and keen marketing instincts paid off. Silly Putty’s brand appeal was being experienced globally. In 1961, hundreds of people stood in line at the Silly Putty display at the U.S. Plastics Expo in the Soviet Union. That same year, Silly Putty took Europe by storm. In 1968, it was included with the Apollo 8 mission to the moon. A classic egg of Silly Putty is on display at the Smithsonian Institute and The National Toy Hall of Fame.

So what is the lesson we can learn from Silly Putty? For one, launching a new product takes a vision of what can be that defies previous assumptions. Peter Hodgson envisioned Silly Putty’s potential, but he had to look past what the scientists at GE, with all of their research and corporate influence, had failed to see. This was not an industrial product, it was a child’s toy. Any new product has to cast off old thinking in order to embrace new possibilities.

Peter Hodgson also understood the value of a brand. He came up with a very distinct package: an egg. He called the product a very catchy and easy to remember name: Silly Putty. He kept it simple, but creative and memorable. He also did not define every little thing that Silly Putty could do. He said it bounced, stretched and picked up images from a newspaper. He let the natural curiosity of people do the rest. He did not over define his brand.

Another lesson learned is that the longevity of a product relies on defining your target market well and being very creative and strategic about marketing to it. If Peter Hodgson had not targeted children with Silly Putty, it’s popularity would have died with every other fad that came about in  the 1950s. He understood how to capture the attention of his long-term market. Don’t waste time and marketing dollars chasing after short term markets. Always put your money in your long-term niche market.

Finally, Hodgson understood the importance of getting your product in the hands of the influencers. He knew that if he stuck with his product and kept pushing to get it into the marketplace, it would sell. He just had to get it into the hands of the right people. He proved that time and again. Pushing his product to Doubleday Books opened doors to the New Yorker article. Kids’ programming on television opened up doors to a brand new market. Showcasing his product in the Soviet Union opened up the European market. He understood that one success can lead to another if you are strategic about getting your product into the hands of the right people.

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www.sillyputty.com/history_101/history101.htm

The History of Silly Putty: www.crayola.com/mediacenter/download/news/press_release_164.doc