What Will 2022 Bring? We Don't Know, but Zoltar Does

In 2016, a strange machine began appearing on the sidewalks of Manhattan. It was a tall wooden cabinet with glass windows, and inside, wearing a red tie and orange toupee, was the All-Seeing Trump, an animatronic character that predicted America’s future in the form of “misfortunes.” “When I’m president,” the automaton crowed at passersby, “we’re going to have a terrific nuclear war.” Reactions to the plastic presidential candidate were mixed, and the machine probably didn’t influence many votes. But if this political stunt (funded by anonymous Trump opponents) did engender a common response, it was a vague degree of familiarity: The All-Seeing Trump was actually just a variation of Zoltar. Do you know the diviner of which we speak? Well, he certainly knows plenty about you. There are some 2,500 of him all over the country, usually in arcades, casinos and carnival midways. Zoltar is a bearded soothsayer in satiny robes who, for a dollar, will greet you in his heavy Slavic accent, wave his hand over a crystal ball and tell your future in the form of a printed card. At the dawn of each new year, prognostications become the unavoidable media fare, making it a great time to talk about Zoltar—for he is not just a mystic, but a fine marketer, too. Zoltar (full official name: Zoltar Speaks) hails from an outfit called Characters Unlimited. The company makes a wide variety of animatronic characters, though there’s little doubt who butters the bread. “There are people that want a pirate or a sea captain fortune-teller. Or they want Natasha and Esmeralda or a Merlin,” company founder Olaf Stanton told Adweek. “But 80% of the fortune-tellers that go out of here are Zoltar.” Stanton began selling promotional dummies with plaster heads to businesses in the 1980s, having decided that his marketing degree wouldn’t lead to an interesting job. A chance meeting with an “inventor and gadget guy” at a trade show enabled him to make his figures move. Laugh if you wish, but the gimmick worked. Stanton’s customers “would write a nice letter saying how much this has increased their business,” he said, and how “having this talking cowboy or sea captain out front of the store enticed people to come in.” By the mid-1990s, Stanton had put his characters inside a coin-operated cabinet so customers would pay to hear the dummies talk. This early line included a fortune-telling pirate and a swami. But not Zoltar. Like millions of Americans, Stanton had seen the 1988 Tom Hanks movie Big, which featured a creepy but powerful fortune-telling machine with that name. But, fearing IP infringement, he didn’t dare get near it. Only later, in 2006, did he check to see if Zoltar had been trademarked—and was gobsmacked to learn that it hadn’t been. Today, Stanton sells some 150 Zoltars a year—at $8,900 a pop. As for the Trump machine, nobody seems to know what became of it. Well, except Zoltar, of course. Pop open a Zoltar Until recently, Stanton’s idea of a Zoltar merchandise line didn’t go much beyond mugs and T-shirts. But thanks to a meeting with the execs at Jones Soda, Stanton has gone big—and Zoltar’s gotten into augmented reality. The craft soda brand introduced a limited-edition run that, through an app and camera phone, allowed a Zoltar on its label to tell consumers’ fortunes via a short video. “Zoltar was an ideal fit because he is instantly recognizable,” Jones Soda CEO Mark Murray told Adweek. “Everyone wants to know their fortune even when they know it’s coming from a machine. These factors provided strong shelf appeal. Even if you don’t know our brand, you know Zoltar, and you’re going to pick up that bottle of soda to check it out.” The foreseeable future Olaf Stanton sold promotional dummies to small businesses (1) before adding animatronic capabilities and developing the fortune-telling Zoltar (2), who spits out 55 different fortunes via printed cards (3). Technically speaking, Zoltar made his debut in the 1988 movie Big (4), but that fortune-telling machine was just a prop. Zoltar has proven himself highly adaptable, be it as a mock-up of Donald Trump (5) or a featured guest in a 2019 Liberty Mutual spot (6).

Perspective

What Will 2022 Bring? We Don't Know, but Zoltar Does

The famous coin-op mystic flexes his marketing muscle in augmented reality

Robert Klara

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Robert Klara