THE BIG INTERVIEW FUNKO
Something for every fan
With its broad range of appeal, Funko is in a solid position despite the pandemic and global uncertainty, as Malcolm Ottley, VP of Sales EMEA, explains What’s your career background? After 10 years in the toy industry with Hasbro, within a number of senior roles in both the UK and Germany, I was given the opportunity to join Funko in Sept 2020 at an incredibly exciting time; to help lead the EMEA sales team into the next phase of their growth journey.
Tell us a little bit about Funko. Everyone is a fan of something, and at Funko we have something for every fan. Whether you are eight or 80, our USP as a business is our wide product offering, newness rolling in monthly across a multiple of genres, and our products spread
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Funko isn’t like other ‘toy’ companies. The average age of our fans is mid30s, and our products are largely sold to be collected
Fact! Over the course of the pandemic, Funko launched its own direct to consumer business - www.funkoeurope. com - to extend its reach to its current consumer base
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across several categories. We are a ‘one-stop’ shop for all your crosscategory needs.
How has trading been in the past 12 months? The biggest plus for me since joining Funko is the incredible demand for our products from consumers and fans.
What opportunities has the pandemic created? While it was a difficult time for all, the pandemic presented an opportunity to step back and assess the business and make some changes in a number of key areas, which should ultimately benefit our partners and consumers in the longer term. We launched our own direct to consumer [DTC] business - www. funkoeurope.com - during this time, which has extended our reach to our current consumer base. From a fan engagement perspective, company-wide, we leveraged virtual platforms to create fun and immersive fan experiences when in-person events weren’t possible. You’ll continue to see those virtual elements going forward, as they’ve been tremendously popular with our fans - and successful for the company.
Covid put paid to movie releases for some time - how did you handle this with such a large part of your business being related to film licences? Our business thrives on evergreen content, meaning that about two-thirds of our product assortment is not tied to big theatrical releases. For 2022, we have a fantastic opportunity to support big tentpole programmes with a now-packed movie release calendar, but that will be incremental to that core strength in fanfavourite evergreen content.
Apart from Covid, what’s the biggest challenge and opportunity facing toy retailers? It’s worth reminding readers that Funko isn’t like other ‘toy’ companies. The average age of our fans is mid-30s, and our products are largely sold to be collected. We have a DTC channel and extensive wholesale partnerships across a broad set of channels and product categories. We’re not immune to global uncertainty, but we feel pretty good about the business we’ve built, both in the UK and as a global brand.
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