Mattel has been eager to find ways to make its brand franchise more popular around the world with brand sponsorship. Now Soft Play is creating larger-than-life FisherPrice™ and Thomas & Friends™ play areas. Sponsors have the opportunity to connect their brand with these beloved characters.

Soft Play has teamed up with Mattel’s FisherPrice™, one of the world’s leading infant and preschool toy manufacturers, to design soft play area attractions at shopping and lifestyle centers worldwide. The new indoor play areas feature characters from brands like Thomas & Friends™, Little People™, Toy Box and more.

Thomas & Friends™ train characters are some of the most popular mall play area features, and include climbing, sliding and sound FX elements to entertain small children.

What’s the value of connecting a sponsor brand with a Mattel brand? The New York Times recently reported on Thomas the Tank Engine’s expanding world. With more than $1 billion in annual retail sales, Thomas the Tank Engine and his locomotive pals constitute one of the world’s largest preschool toy and television franchises. Created in 1946, Thomas has charmed generations of boys and girls by teaching gentle life lessons.

Local and national brand sponsors like consumer package goods, hospitals, financial institutions, museums, zoo and car dealerships, now have a unique opportunity to leverage this value and sponsor the uniquely themed play areas.

And if sponsors are looking for more diversity and to engage with millennial and Hispanic consumers, Mattel has recently given Thomas 14 new friends, with origins from India, Brazil, China and Mexico, and four female trains.

Contact Jeff Evans to learn more about sponsorship opportunities for Fisher Price and Thomas & Friends custom-themed play areas.