"Storytelling is integral to everything we do"

That is a quote from the late Hasbro executive Brian Goldner. See Toy Executive Pushed Industry to Be Big-Screen Powerhouse by Paul Ziobro of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Brian Goldner believed toys should have a leading role in Hollywood.

A rising star at Hasbro Inc. just a few years after joining the company in 2000, Mr. Goldner was making trips to California to pitch studios, producers, and others on a big-budget, live-action movie based on Transformers, a toy line of transforming robots the company launched in the 1980s.

Mr. Goldner waxed poetic about the franchise’s characters and lore. When he was done, he often heard laughter, or silence, his colleagues have said. Hasbro, at the time, made toys for movies like “Star Wars”—not the other way around.

He eventually got buy-in from film director Steven Spielberg, who signed on as executive producer. The six Transformers movies have logged more than $4 billion in box-office sales world-wide, overcoming doubters—including some inside Hasbro—who advised him to stay away from Hollywood. “I don’t think I abided by that very much,” Mr. Goldner had said."

"He pushed Hasbro far beyond toys and deeper into entertainment using a strategy to build bigger audiences around Hasbro’s brands through storytelling. That, in turn, would drive sales of toys, merchandise and more. During his 13 years as CEO, Hasbro’s market value nearly tripled.

“Storytelling is integral to everything we do,” Mr. Goldner said in 2015."