Spend time with a child and you’ll see the world in a different way. Unencumbered by the restraints of adulthood, they imagine — and reimagine — the world constantly. You see a cardboard box, but they see a spaceship. And then a train. And then a dinosaur.

Hasbro shares that trait with its audience. The 86-year-old toy company knows it can’t let its stable — ranging from in-house created brands like Playskool and My Little Pony, to board games from Parker Bros. and Milton Bradley, to franchises like Marvel Comics and Star Wars — ever be stagnant.

“We need to keep culturally relevant,” says John Frascotti, global chief marketing officer. “We’re continually reinventing and reimagining and reigniting these brands. You can’t let them stand still for any period of time, because that’s how brands go away.”

Frascotti doesn’t even describe Hasbro as a toy maker. Sitting in his office overlooking a courtyard at the Pawtucket, RI, headquarters, he dubs it a “branded play company.”

“We have this incredible treasure chest of brands that have a strong emotional resonance with consumer groups,” Frascotti says. “We see ourselves as marketers of those brands around the world, whenever, wherever people want a TV show, a movie, a toy, a video game, a lifestyle product, a comic book.”

In the case of the gaming brands such as Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, that means a deal with Electronic Arts to deliver games to consumers on multiple digital platforms including Nintendo DS, iPhone and Wii, so they can play any place or any time they choose. And if they want to sit around the kitchen table and have human interaction with a board game, Hasbro still offers that, too.

AUTOBOTS, ROLL OUT

Two of the biggest reinventions of Hasbro brands are happening this summer on movie screens across the country, as “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” introduce two of its flagship toy properties to new generations.

Transformers in particular is a brand that reaches across the ages. The kids of 2009 may first connect with the “robots in disguise” via “Transformers Animated” on the Cartoon Network. Then there are the adult collectors who first played with the toys when they debuted in 1984. Hasbro highly values this passionate demographic, even sponsoring an official annual convention, BotCon, to connect with them.

“A three-year-old loves the brand differently than a collector, and we do activate different strategies to reach them,” says Frascotti. “But the brand is the brand. I think sometimes brands get in trouble when they try to be different things to different people.”

The key, he says, is to be consistent and complementary in all expressions of the brand. In Transformers’ case, that means keeping true to the “more than meets the eye” concept, even with close to 300 licensees.

“The key to a good licensing program is a defined brand strategy — you want to generate revenue and strengthen brand position. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of licensing programs that people chased just to generate revenue. At Hasbro, we’re careful. We wouldn’t put Transformers on something that has nothing to do with the brand, like a line of men’s suits. It detracts from the message.”

And even with Optimus Prime and Bumblebee on everything from backpacks to Burger King cups to underpants, Frascotti doesn’t worry about overkill.

“We all know people who have a connection with a brand, and they want to wear T-shirts and pull bedcovers over their heads and play with toys and video games,” he says. “Brands can live at multiple levels and places in people’s lives. It’s not so much about overkill as consistency. Nobody buys everything.”

Still, with Hasbro reporting sales of $4 billion last year, people clearly are buying something. While the company does maintain an e-commerce site, HasbroToyShop.com, the bulk of sales are still through major retailers like Walmart, Target or Toys ‘R’ Us.

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Retailers aren’t really concerned about channel conflict with either the site or the print catalog “wish books” Hasbro sometimes publishes near the holidays, Frascotti says. That’s because of two main factors: the scope and breadth of those mega sellers, and the fact that Hasbro’s direct operations usually sell at full retail price.

“If anything, it builds the consumer base, as it allows us to present the full depth of our product lines. People certainly buy on the site, but a lot of people use it as reference tool and then go to retail to buy.”

Online, Hasbro is also active in areas like mommy blogs, where they can reach mothers who may be buying Playskool toys even before their babies are born. The company was out in full force at last month’s BlogHer event in Chicago (see page 7) to interact with women in key demographics. And the company also maintains active presences on Facebook for many of the brands.

STILL TUNED IN

But globally, TV is still a very important part of Hasbro’s marketing mix, comprising a sizable chunk of the annual marketing spend. A deal signed this spring with Discovery Communications to create a TV network geared to families and kids will give the company another platform to expand its reach.

“Television programming represented for us a final piece of the puzzle in how we reach consumers,” Frascotti says. “The joint venture with Discovery will be a great delivery mechanism to deliver programming that doesn’t talk down to kids in a cookie-cutter way.”

A certain portion of the programming, which will be streamed online, will be educational, offering behind-the-scenes looks at things like how cartoons and movies (and yes, toys) are made.

Of course, the kids who will tune in to that channel starting late next year are a lot more media-savvy than those who played with the first G.I. Joes back in 1964. “Kids are more sophisticated today, but we view that as a good thing,” Frascotti says. “The smarter kids are, the better for us, because our brands are so powerful.”

Word of mouth, then and now, is a powerful way to reach kids. “When I was growing up it was on the playground,” he says. “Today, it’s text messages, mobile phones, Facebook and Twitter.”

Television is still a very powerful medium to reach kids of all ages, Frascotti says. “But very rarely are kids just sitting and watching TV. While watching television they might have their laptop open next to them, they might be texting a friend. They’re multitasking. They might be consuming nine hours of media in a six-hour span. ”

For media like social networking, Hasbro isn’t looking at short-term ROI, but at a long-range picture. The ROI of more traditional media like TV advertising is a bit easier to gauge, both for Hasbro and its retailers, simply because the established metrics have been around for decades.

While Hasbro isn’t forsaking toy-making relationships with franchises like Marvel Comics and LucasFilms to focus solely on conquering the world with house brands (“Those are an important business to us, we won’t do one to the exclusion of the other,” Frascotti says), the company is forging ahead with more Hollywood deals. A live action Stretch Armstrong movie (a property with “expansive opportunity,” says Frascotti) is in development to open April 15, 2011. Part of that same movie-making deal with Universal encompasses several of the gaming brands. “There’s an opportunity with Candyland, which for many people is the first game they play. And Monopoly’s themes of striking it rich — and losing it all — can resonate with kids and adults.”

This fall, Hasbro is continuing promotional relationships with partners like McDonald’s on Monopoly and Subway on Scrabble. Other ongoing efforts include a Littlest Pet Shop promotion where kids receive a free special edition pet when they collect stickers from specially marked packaging. A “family game night” promotion later this year, involving food and beverage marketers, is also in the offing, capitalizing on the economically driven need and desire of many families to spend more time at home.

Overall, Frascotti stresses that Hasbro wants to get down in the sandbox with its audience, whether that’s using his own kids (16-year-old triplets Katie, Tony and Jessie; and Lily, 10) and their friends as ad hoc focus groups in his living room, talking to moms on Facebook, or holding panels at events like last month’s Comic-Con in San Diego.

“We work really hard to stay close to them and bring a constant curiosity to how they interact with the brand.”

Next page: Sidebar: CMO PERSONAL FILE: JOHN FRASCOTTI

CMO PERSONAL FILE: JOHN FRASCOTTI

CHIEF MARKETER: Were you in the toy industry before Hasbro?

FRASCOTTI: No. Though I feel like my background in an interesting way prepared me for this opportunity. I started out my career as an entertainment lawyer back in the 1980s in Los Angeles. We did work for Paramount, TriStar and Universal, making deals for film and TV properties. Then, for three or four years I did a more eclectic mix of entertainment law work in Boston, representing independent TV producers, artists, publishers like Little, Brown & Co. In the late ‘80s I moved on to Reebok, first as a lawyer and then transitioning onto the business side. I was there for almost 20 years, in two tours of duty. From 1989 to 1999, I did a lot of different marketing jobs, including brand extension licensing and sports marketing. In 1999, I left Reebok to become president of an Internet start-up called MyTeam.com. In 2002, that business was sold to a West Coast concern and I returned to Reebok, where I headed up acquisitions, licensing and new business, prior to running the sports division. I came to Hasbro in January 2008.

CM: Growing up, what was your favorite toy?

FRASCOTTI: I loved board games, especially Monopoly, because the whole family could play and it put kids and adults on a level playing field. From a child’s point of view you were totally empowered. You were a kid and didn’t have your own money and had to follow the rules — but when you played Monopoly you could beat any adult at the table. Another favorite was G.I. Joe — I had a lot of the action figures and vehicles. I’m not really a collector, but when I came to work here my parents dusted them off and gave them to me. And I also loved playing in the dirt with Tonka trucks.

CM: Curious that these are all Hasbro brands.

FRASCOTTI: That’s interesting, isn’t it?

CM: What’s your favorite toy as an adult?

FRASCOTTI: I love Nerf Blasters. On 09/09/09, we’re launching the Nerf N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 — without reloading, you can shoot 35 darts (see photo on page 16). And like with Monopoly, when I play Nerf Blasters with my kids they feel like they’re on a level playing field. I also love Super Soakers in the summer. Maybe I’m a little aggressive by nature.

If you want to take the pulse of promotion, ePrize CEO Josh Linkner will tell you to look to Florida. With a history of some of the strictest regs for the execution of games, contests and sweepstakes, the Sunshine State is often used as a barometer of national brand campaign frequency. In 2005, ePrize registered more programs in the state than any other agency.

As the company’s name suggests, the work leveraged the burgeoning popularity of digital marketing. EPrize has seen its net revenues skyrocket 305% to $26.2 million last year from $6.5 million in 2003, largely due to the millions of dollars migrating from traditional media to interactive promotions.

To keep up with the demand, ePrize has doubled its sales force in the last two years, hiring hard-working employees who are aggressively building organic growth as well as working the phone lines. Last year, 72% of the agency’s revenue came from additional business from existing clients and 28% from new business.

“We’ve been pretty aggressive,” Linkner says. “We’re not sitting back waiting for an RFP.” Growth, coupled with some notable campaign work (the agency ranked No. 8 this year in creativity), landed ePrize in the No. 3 spot on the PROMO 100 for the second consecutive year.

Toyota looked to ePrize to differentiate its Scion brand and to generate excitement around three new models. A key goal was to collect consumer data to drive referrals and sales. The Scion eDecoder Sweepstakes was born, sending 1.5 million eDecoder game pieces into the marketplace via print ads, events and street teams. “It’s an interactive way of getting people involved,” says Adrian Si, interactive marketing manager for Scion. “For us, if we’re going to connect with [our 18- to 34- year-old target], it’s through the Internet.”

Si says ePrize’s strength lies in its willingness to push the envelope.

Sweepstakes players held the game pieces up to a computer to find out if they had won a prize, including a 2005 Scion. Three versions of the eDecoders and Web pages were created around three models. Players entered their cell numbers to find out by text message if they had won a weekly prize. Visitors played 800,000 times and Toyota captured profiles on 92,000 registrants as well as 40,000 mobile numbers. Players visited the sites an average 7.4 times. The cost per participant was less than $4. Cherry Bomb Inc., Hermosa Beach, CA, hosted that main Scion site and SMS service was provided by Mobilicious, Los Angeles.

“If I can get a consumer to come online and translate from an anonymous shopper to a registered permission-based relationship, that becomes marketing gold,” Linkner says.

The Pleasant Ridge, MI-based agency has just over 210 employees with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and London.

EPrize’s client roster includes Coca-Cola, Yahoo, Dell, ConAgra, General Mills, Hershey’s, Procter & Gamble and Harrah’s, among others.

EPrize won a 2005 EMMA from PROMO for its work on the Crest Apprentice promotion. It also was instrumental in launching the first annual Interactive Promotions Summit, held in March in Las Vegas.