The Skylanders franchise has generated over $1.5 billion at retail so far, and this Christmas looks to be another sales milestone for the latest installment, Skylanders SWAP Force. This holiday is different, though, as competition enters the picture. The [a]list daily caught up with Activision’s Josh Taub, senior vice president Skylanders, to talk about the marketing of Skylanders this year.

Competition is already here as Disney Infinity has launched its line of toys that work with its video game. Disney Infinity has the advantage of huge name recognition for its Disney characters, but Skylanders has created a loyal following since its introduction. Toy Giant LEGO is entering the toy-game crossover market as well next summer, with its LEGO Minifigures Online series of toys and games. This holiday will be a competitive one for Skylanders, and the competiton will be heating up even more next year. Activision isn’t standing still, though.

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg proclaimed that the Skylanders marketing campaign would be bigger than last year’s campaign, and Taub confirmed this. “We’re proud to say that the Skylanders SWAP Force marketing campaign is the biggest in the franchise’s history,” Taub said. “While we can’t provide specifics on the size of the investment, when we bring our products to market, we focus heavily on leveraging consumer insights and testing, which in turn help us create the best game possible, as well as guide our marketing efforts to the scale that we’ve executed thus far.”

Taub couldn’t reveal specifics of the budget, but he did discuss the scope of the marketing effort. “This year, we continue to drive massive support for the launch of Skylanders SWAP Force which will be backed by a multi-million marketing campaign reaching kids and their parents through TV, digital, retail and PR channels,” Taub said. “Our retail support is stronger than ever with marquee placement, innovative programing and increased synergies with the licensed partners.”

There will be an air war going on with TV commercials and social media efforts, but like most wars this battle will be won on the ground. The retail presence is going to be critical to driving sales, and Activision is gearing up to win at this level. “On the retail side, we’ve increased our space by 30 percent this year where we focus on newly redesigned interactive displays which let families experience our newest innovation — dynamic swapability,” Taub explained. “Fans will be able to place toy packages on the Portal of Power and watch them come to life on the video screen, which demonstrates the magic of the Skylanders experience. This truly is our biggest and best marketing effort yet, and our retail presence is the strongest it has been since the beginning of the franchise.

Toys are usually purchased by parents, and it’s often a buying decision that’s shaped by in-store displays. The sheer number and variety of Skylanders characters can be a selling point, as it demonstrates the popularity of the brand. Increasing the shelf space for Skylanders means a larger visual impact for the brand when parents or kids are looking around the store for something of interest. Interactive displays are important to help potential buyers understand how Skylanders works, and to show off individual characters as they appear in the game.

At first glance you would think Skylanders is a product aimed at young boys, but the demographics of Skylanders may not be what you’d expect. “Our core demographic for Skylanders is kids ages 6-12, both boys and girls, but our research indicates that the game skews more to boys,” Taub noted. “While we don’t specifically target girls with our marketing, we know the strong female Skylanders characters are fun to play for both boys and girls. We really are seeing the franchise appeal to entire families — we frequently hear anecdotal evidence of parents playing alongside their kids, which we think is a testament to the sheer breadth and fun of the game experience.”

With a new set of characters this holiday and an aggressive marketing campaign, Skylanders is set to have a merry Christmas. What lies beyond that “The future of Skylanders is incredibly bright,” Taub said. “Our innovation pipeline is very strong and fueled by world-class studios. We continue to be committed to delivering polished and fun experiences across all platforms including everything from Wii to 3DS and PS4.” The broad platform reach of Skylanders, which even includes PCs and mobile games, is an important part of the brand’s success. Almost every household has access to at least one of the platforms that Skylanders supports.

Activision is paying attention to such details in order to give Skylanders every chance for success. “We’re focused on ensuring kids and families have a great experience right from the start whether it’s as simple as having an extra-long cord for the Portal of Power, to enabling our signature ‘toys with brains’ to be cross-platform, to offering a library of 100+ toys — including all toys from previous games — that work in Skylanders SWAP Force,” said Taub. “We are very optimistic that Skylanders will continue to deliver the magic we created when we first pioneered the genre, and continue to innovate at every turn.”