Toyworld September 2017

September 2017 Volume 7 Issue 1

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Featuring: Vivid Toy Group, K’Nex, Character Options, Vtech, Jumbo Games, Orchard Toys, John Adams, Ty UK & many more ...

The Team...

CONTENTS September 2017 Volume 7 Issue 1

36 Feature: Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

58 Feature: Radio Control

John Baulch

Publisher and Managing Editor john@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 408 07932 651 207

Mark Austin

Sales Director mark@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 405

Anita Baulch

Circulation and Financial Director anita@toyworldmag.co.uk 01923 711 439

News

Opinion

Features

05 From the Publisher

24 NPD column

06 News

27 Talking Shop

36 Feature: Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

14 Industry Moves

56 Viewpoint

16 Marketing World

90 Allegedly

58 Feature: Radio Control 68 Company Profile: Clementoni 70 Feature: Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

18 Licensing World 30 Fresh

Contributors Rachael Simpson

Don’t miss this month’s special Games & Puzzles pull-out supplement

David Ripley | Jim Hawker | The NPD Group | Mark Buschhaus | Stephen Barnes

Deputy Editor rachael@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 406

Casey Goodman

Editorial Assistant casey@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 406

68 Company Profile: Clementoni

Mark Crowford

Design and Production Manager markc@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 405

70 Feature: Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

toyworld The business magazine with a passion for toys

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Toy World Magazine

Coming September 2017 Anki.com

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from the publisher

John Baulch - @Baulchtweet

elcome to the sixth birthday issue of Toy World. From day one, the support we’ve received from the toy industry has been fantastic, something which the whole Toy world team - past and presenthas really appreciated. During my career I have worked on numerous magazines which covered a variety of weird and wonderful retail sectors (Blinds & Shutters, Paint & Resin News or Brushes International anyone? Thought not…). However, there was never a shadow of doubt that my heart was always in toys – it truly is a special industry on so many levels.

I suspect those of us who have been around the toy trade for a while like to think that we have a reasonable grasp of the way it works. However, the deliciously unpredictable nature of the toy market is just one of the reasons why it’s such a fantastic industry in which to ply one’s trade. All that we think we know can go out of the window in an instant.

Nine months ago, how many people would have predicted the seismic impact which spinners would have on first half trading? Fair enough, we’ve seen plenty of crazes come out of nowhere before, but rarely has something so left-field, so resolutely ‘non-toy’, become such a big seller through the mainstream toy channel.

On the other side of the coin, it would have been a brave person who would have predicted the relatively lacklustre performance of merchandise associated with this summer’s movies, or that each of the ‘big 3’ toy companies would be tracking down at this stage of the year - even Lego, a company which has been on such as incredible run over the past decade that many people wondered whether it would ever end.

They’ll bounce back, of course, along with both Hasbro and Mattel – as will movie merchandise (eventually). When you’ve been in the trade for as long as I have, you’ve seen the pendulum swing back and forth many times.

Equally counter-intuitive is the news that the outdoor category has under-performed in recent months. For once, we can’t even blame that on the good old British climate. Admittedly, the best burst of weather came early, long before the kids broke up from school. Maybe parents were holding back potential purchases until the summer holidays, when the weather – while not atrocious – hasn’t quite lived up to its early season promise.

Perhaps there was a post-election consumer

Toy World 5

wobble in July? Either way, the numbers don’t lie: the outdoor category is down 6% in value and 18% in volume year-to-date, equating to a £12m drop.

With toy sales down £18m so far this year, two thirds of the decline has come from one sector, with action figures also contributing significantly to the drop (£11m down). Even though the overall toy market bounced back nicely in the first week of August (+5%), outdoor bucked the trend by dropping by 20%.

Interestingly, one prominent specialist retailer flagged this trend up to me well over a month ago, observing that the initial burst of good weather hadn’t moved the dial on outdoor toys as he would usually expect. As, indeed, we would all expect.

As a journalist, these kinds of quirks and curveballs are fascinating. A good magazine wants to be able to create content which challenges preconceptions: I won’t lie, my heart sinks when I read an article - whether in our magazine or a competitor’s - which states the blindingly obvious. The way this year is going, expecting the unexpected is arguably the best position to adopt, and these trading anomalies are certainly giving everyone connected with the toy community plenty of food for thought.

Hopefully you’ll find plenty of content in this month’s issue which does just that. With all the chatter about the rise of digital advertising, we focus on the TV advertising market and find that it’s actually in far ruder health than some people may have been led to believe. We’ve also put together an in-depth round-up of the pocket money and collectibles sector; after a stellar first-half of the year, when many retailers have suggested that a huge percentage of their sales has come from the many pocket-money lines fighting for space around the till, can the category maintain its momentum in the second half of the year? In addition, there is a special feature on the Radio Control category, with the rise of the drones taking centre stage. We’ve gone a step further with our coverage of the Games and Puzzles market, extending the feature to a full-blown 56-page pullout supplement devoted to the category.

As I said in my very first ever Toy World ‘From the Publisher’ column, our aim is to deliver a fresh and exciting magazine which has something for everyone connected with the toy trade. Hopefully we’ve shown over the past six years that we don’t just talk the talk. Others may make optimistic claims about industry-defining content; Toy World actually delivers it.

News MGA rises to UK’s 4th largest toy company Toy Fair 2018 95% sold out Toy Fair 2018 is set to replicate the success of the 2017 show, with just 5% of the overall space remaining at the time of writing. The exhibition was almost sold out nearly six months in advance of the show opening on 23rd January, with space in the popular Greenhouse Area already completely booked.

This year the Greenhouse Area has been extended by 80sqm to accommodate the demand for the area and to support the ever-growing talent in the industry. The expansion equates to 16 more stands, which will help the show to support smaller companies looking to make their mark in the toy industry.

The Greenhouse will welcome many first-time exhibitors to the show including Forever Collectibles, Rainbow Eco Products, Added Smile and Bildy.

Nat Southworth, director of Added Smile, a first-time exhibitor to the show, commented: “As a new toy company, Toy Fair gives us the opportunity to be in a location where retailers are focused on finding the next big thing, and the greenhouse area provides a great platform to launch our products.”

The show will also welcome back 75% of exhibitors from last year’s Toy Fair with returnees including Flair, Playmobil, Spin Master, Character Options, and Vivid, plus many more.

Jerry Healy, group marketing director for Character Options, commented: “The London Toy Fair is a major highlight in the calendar for Character Options. The event allows us to cost effectively showcase our entire portfolio to the widest cross section of UK retail possible under a single roof.”

“There are, in addition, many other benefits that come with the show; Toy Fair is the first opportunity to present key lines and stand out products to the media, which generates many further opportunities to explore throughout the year. What’s more as the showcase event for our industry, the London Toy Fair also provides a great place to renew friendships across all sectors of the toy trade.”

CEO Isaac Larian made the announcement via LinkedIn. The post read: “MGA just became the 4th largest toy company in the UK and no 7 in the USA. We are growing high double digit on newness and innovation. USA will catch up with UK soon. Thank you to all the employees of MGA who make this happen every day.”

MGA ended 2016 in 7th position in the UK NPD charts, but the successful introduction of L.O.L. Surprise! in the first half of 2017 has propelled the company up the rankings in recent months.

Independent Toy & Gift Show to move to new May slot in 2018 Next year’s Toy & Gift Show will move from its traditional April slot to the new dates of 1st and 2nd May 2018. Head of toys and childrens’ gifts Miles Penhallow told Toy World: “By holding the show, which is open to all independents, slightly later than in previous years, plaY-room is hoping to boost attendance and make it logistically easier for exhibitors to obtain samples of new products.” plaY-room launched in 2008 and, as well as the change of date for the show, the Independent Toy & Gift Show logo has been refreshed, to mark the company’s ten year anniversary.

With Easter 2018 falling on the dates on which the show was held in 2017, and the Furniture Show taking place on the dates it occupied in 2016, plaY-room seized the opportunity to adopt a fresh approach for 2018.

Miles also shared that “having successfully incorporated a show theme over the last few years, the theme of the 2018 show will be plush.”

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News Mattel sales rise 2% in Q2

Global toy sales up 3% so far in 2017 according to NPD Group Toy industry sales around the world are up 3% in the first half of 2017.

The NPD Group tracked international sales from January through June, and estimates the industry will grow approximately 4% for the full year.

Mexico and Russia were the fastest growing global markets, with toy sales growing 20% and 14%, respectively. Toy sales in the US, meanwhile, saw a 3% lift. Last year, US toy sales grew 5% to US$20.4b.

The collectibles category was a major contributor to the increase, growing by 33% in 2016 to rack up US$1.8b.

The only countries to experience a decline in sales were Australia (down 2%) and the UK (down 1%). Earlier this year, NPD and the British Toy and Hobby Association reported that UK toy sales rose by 6.3% in 2016. That growth brought the UK’s market value to more than US$4.4b for the first time, driven largely by collectibles.

The collectibles market continued to experience double-digit growth (up 15%) in the first half of this year. Growth was helped by the international popularity of MGA’s L.O.L. Surprise, Pokémon cards, and Hatchimals from Spin Master. According to NPD, global sales of collectibles now account for close to 10% of dollar sales in the total market.

The Games/Puzzles category saw the most significant growth with dollar sales up 19%, while the Outdoor & Sports Toys category saw increases of 2% and the fidget spinner craze drove growth in the All Other Toys category (up 10%). Building Sets and Action Figures, meanwhile, both saw declines, down 6% and 9% respectively.

Alpha Animation & Toys announces UK distributor Alpha Animation & Toys has announced the appointment of Kayes of Cardiff as the exclusive distributor of Super Wings to the independent market in the UK. Kayes will also support Alpha’s growing portfolio of brands going forward.

Kayes offers a large selection of branded and character merchandise and pocket money toys via its distribution network to the independent trade. The distributor works exclusively with leading brands, together with its premier partnerships, to form the comprehensive portfolio distributed by the company.

Phillip Kaye, MD at Kayes of Cardiff, commented: “We are very excited by the opportunity to work with Alpha Animation & Toys in distributing its Super Wings range to the independent sector. We feel sure that the comprehensive product selection and variety of characters will appeal to toy shops of all sizes, as has been indicated by the initial interest shown.”

Mark Hyndman, country general manager – UK & Ireland at Alpha Animation & Toys, added: “Kayes is rightly proud of the business it has developed over the past 20 years and, being a key supplier to Toymaster and AIS, is the perfect distribution partner for us.”

The company enjoyed a strong International performance, with net sales up 8%, offset by lower sales in North America.

Mattel’s net sales rose 2% to $974.5m in the second quarter. The performance of key brands Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher-Price remained strong, with each brand showing a double digit increase in the second quarter, and a high-single digit increase year-to-date.

“Our key power brands Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher-Price continued to show strength at retail in the second quarter,” commented Margo Georgiadis, CEO of Mattel. “In addition, we are moving quickly to activate the strategy that we outlined in June to future-proof Mattel and deliver enhanced, sustainable growth over the medium-term.”

Worldwide gross sales for Mattel Girls & Boys Brands were $609.9m, an increase of 10%, driven primarily by a 58% increase in gross sales for the Entertainment business, largely as a result of sales of Cars 3 products.

Sales in the company’s Asia Pacific region rose 16% to $122.2 m in the latest quarter. Mattel is renewing its focus on emerging markets such as China where it has tied up with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Chinese parenting website Baby Tree to set up educational development and learning centres for children.

Net sales in the North American Region decreased by 3%.

newsanalysis When Sinco met Sally Toy World spoke to Sinco Toys’ new sales director Sally Hunter, who recently joined the company from VTech, about how she’s getting on so far.

What prompted the move to Sinco Toys?

Having been in the industry for 20 years, toys will always be in my blood.

I wasn’t looking to move from VTech as I have had 10 very happy years with the company; however, Sinco approached me and after realising how dynamic and entrepreneurial the company is, it quickly became a very easy decision to make.

How has it been so far?

It’s been incredible. My feet haven’t touched the ground; it is extremely fast paced here. Sinco has a lot of projects currently in place, and on the horizon, to ensure that the company is firmly on the map. I am so proud to be a part of this team.

What are you most looking forward to in your new role with the company?

I’m looking forward to building on the strong relationships Sinco has with existing retailers and also opening doors to new opportunities. I’m excited to begin work on building a strong portfolio of product ranges, but mostly I’m delighted to be working with such an incredibly talented and enthusiastic team who want to achieve the same goals for the company as I do.

Can you see any challenges ahead?

Of course - this is the toy industry. It’s unpredictable and ever changing, but if it was easy it would be boring.

What does the future hold for the company?

Sinco has recently become a prominent strategic partner of Disney, offering a stunning seasonal plush range. In addition to that, the launch of collectible brand Worldeez has seen phenomenal success - with YouTube hits reaching 7.7m hits in one week, the demand has been insane. This is just the icing on the cake; there is so much more to come and I cannot wait to share it with the industry.

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News newsanalysis

Toys R Us full-year profits jump despite falling sales

A century of celebration

Pre-tax profits rocketed for the latest full year, but sales dipped amid a competitive market environment. The retailer unveiled an 82% jump in pre-tax profits to £42.7m in the 12 months to 28th January. According to documents filed at Companies House, the retailer’s operating profit totalled £21.3m, compared with £8m the previous year. However, sales fell 4% in the period to £418m.

The UK business – part of the US-based Toys R Us group – pointed to a competitive market environment. It said it hopes to drive both store and online sales by improving its product offering, maintaining product margin, and offering competitive pricing. It also plans to reduce distribution and administrative costs.

At the end of the period, Toys R Us operated 100 stores, compared with 78 the previous year.

While Toys R Us did not specify what has driven the spike in profits, the accounts show its administrative costs were 44% lower year-onyear. Its employee numbers remained the same, but it significantly reduced the amount of money paid to company directors. For directors, remuneration totalled £429k in the period, compared with more than £2m the year before.

The retailer said that, following last year’s Brexit vote, “there is considerable uncertainty in regard to interest rates, currency values, consumer disposable income and consumer spending”. The retailer intends to “adapt as necessary”, but acknowledged that “the full effects of the vote will not be known for some time”. It insists that, despite the uncertain outlook, the company is “well placed” to manage the risks.

Pioneer Balloon Company, maker of Qualatex balloons, is celebrating its 100th year of business this year. To mark International Balloon Month, Toy World spoke with Ted and Betty Vlamis, executive president and vice president of the company, about Pioneer’s expansion into licences and partyware in the UK and how toy shops can benefit from stocking its ranges.

How did you initially get into the business?

Ted: We were looking to start a new business and came across the balloon sector by acquiring the manufacturing plant and customer list of a medical gloves company.

We thought, “We’ve got nothing to lose,” and so we started the business in 1979.

Betty: Everyone thought we were crazy. We started out with just four employees, and now have over 1,000, with manufacturing plants across the globe.

How important is the UK market to Pioneer?

Ted: The UK market is our second largest market after the US, and we have been established in the UK for many years.

Betty: Our largest facility outside of the US is in the UK. The UK market is so competitive, and credit really needs to go to the people in the UK team — the end product is only as good as the team around it.

Hasbro posts strong Q2 results

When was your first foray into licensing?

Betty: It was early in the 80s, as one of the first licensees for Garfield. We moved heavily into licensing in 1999 with the acquisition of the National Latex Products Company.

What is the secret to running a successful business for so long?

The company has reported a 10.6% rise in quarterly revenue, which increased to $972.5m in the second quarter, while net profits climbed to $67.7m, or 53 cents a share, from $52.1m, or 41 cents a share.

Net income attributable to Hasbro was $67.72m, or 53 cents per share, in the second quarter ended 2nd July, compared with $52.11m, or 41 cents per share, a year earlier.

Sales from franchise brands, which make up Hasbro’s most important owned and controlled properties, surged 21% to $545.7m, powered by Transformers, Magic The Gathering, Nerf and Monopoly. Results in partner brands saw sales rising 1% to $230m.

Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s chairman and chief executive officer, commented: “The Hasbro team executed another very strong quarter across the Brand Blueprint. Story-led brands and innovative brand initiatives drove double-digit revenue growth and an increase in operating profit margin.”

“Franchise Brand, Hasbro Gaming and Partner Brand revenues grew year-over-year, and revenue increased across all geographic regions. We entered the important second half of the year with strong consumer momentum, a robust and diverse entertainment slate and compelling new brand initiatives.”

Ted: There are two basic strategies critical to the business. Firstly, don’t base everything purely on price — sell on total value. Total value is satisfying consumer need; price is important, but service and back-up, as well as delivery, consistency, quality, and support are important factors. And secondly - education. If we can teach people how to sell balloons and make them look attractive, they will trust us and keep coming back.

What are your plans for this year?

Betty: This year we introduced partyware into the UK market for the first time. We offer the entire party solution, including licences such as Cars 3, and as a result many independents are now more inclined to work with us.

Prosperous independents are those who diversify product ranges and offer what major retailers can’t. You can buy balloons online, but if a customer wants a special arrangement or balloon bouquet, it’s best if they go in store and interact to get the personal effect. There are birthdays every day of the week, so balloons are a continuous sell, and shops that have a party section will net those additional purchases.

What are the biggest challenges you face?

Ted: One of the biggest challenges is convincing independent retailers that their competition is not major retailers; rather, it’s how they can satisfy the consumer. If they focus on competing with the bigger stores, they will fail.

Retailers need to offer a programme that allows their customers to choose what kind of party they want to put together for their child’s birthday, whether it’s for a young child or a teenager.

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News Wilton Bradley named YoYoFactory UK distributor The YoYoFactory was founded in 2003 by USA based international Yo-Yo superstar YoHans (Hans Van Dan Elzen). His focus was on creating patented technology that would make playing with a Yo-Yo a more enjoyable experience. Wilton Bradley will be sole UK distributor for YoYoFactory’s range of expert Yo-Yos. Hans commented: “We are pleased to announce that Wilton Bradley has agreed to be our new distribution partner in the UK. The UK market is special to us and requires a strong partner who can bring the excitement to the public that Yo-Yos require. Wilton Bradley was the only choice.”

YoYoFactory designs and manufactures the world’s best performing Yo-Yos for professional players, World Record holders, national and world champions. The company also makes Yo-Yos for kids to impress their friends and practise their champion moves. Whatever the level of expertise, YoYoFactory has the Yo-Yo to suit every skill or style.

Simon Hampton, Wilton Bradley’s head of sales and marketing, commented: “We are delighted to be the UK’s sole distributor for YoYoFactory. We have a full product range which will provide a great throwing experience for the beginner using the TenTrick range right up to the high grade aluminium DV888 Yo-Yo or the F.A.S.T 201 to master the classics.”

Science4you sales jump 46% in first half of 2017 Science4you has recorded sales of 5.5m euros in the first six months of the year, reflecting a growth of 46% over the same period last year.

Also during the first half of the year, the company opened doors to 10 new foreign markets: Morocco, Dominican Republic, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Taiwan, Russia and Belarus. The company is consolidating its growth strategy of internationalisation as the external markets already represent more than 60% of the total turnover registered in the first two financial quarters.

Along with the international expansion, Science4you is adding up 6000m2 of floorspace to its factory, representing an investment of 3m euros for the next three years. The company maintains its ambition to close the year with sales reaching 23m euros.

To further expand Science4you’s range of educational STEM offerings, the company is releasing several new lines for Christmas including Glow In The Dark Slime and the Lipstick & Lip Gloss Factory, which will both be released in October.

The marketing plan for these launches includes an investment in TV campaigns and on YouTube.

Artstraws prepares for back-to-school demand With summer drawing to a close, Artstraws has turned its attention to autumn/winter.

Children will soon be returning to school, if they aren’t back in the classrooms already, and their teachers will be preparing cross-curriculum craft activities involving the various autumn festivals and, of course, Christmas.

Autumn/winter is the peak period for the Artstraws’ Creation Station range of arts & crafts. Container loads of craft materials and kits are arriving almost weekly at Artstraws’ Swansea warehouse to meet the demand from both its retail customers and school suppliers. The Creation Station range of clam-shell packaged kits are priced from £4.99 to £6.99 and are ideal for rainy weekends and party presents; the clam-shells enable shoppers to see exactly what they will get in the pack, so there are no disappointing surprises.

Hasbro ends Lionsgate purchase negotiations Talks between the toymaker and film studio ended in early August because of price disagreements, anonymous sources have revealed. It is not clear whether negotiations could restart in the future.

Hasbro has taken several steps to boost its presence in the entertainment business as a way to fuel toy sales. The company operates Hasbro Studios, which produces TV shows such as the upcoming Netflix series Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters. This is not the first time that Hasbro has contemplated buying a movie and television company.

Lionsgate is best known for its work on The Hunger Games franchise. The studio also produced the Oscar-winning La La Land, as well as the Divergent series. Its television shows include Mad Men, Orange is the New Black, and Nashville. Because of its relatively small size and the lack of studios on offer to purchase, Lionsgate is frequently the subject of acquisition rumours.

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Industry Moves Paul Weston steps down as Vivid Group chairman to set up Press Play consultancy Vivid Toy Group has announced that Paul Weston is stepping down as chairman of the business. Paul will continue to advise Vivid specifically on product and licensing opportunities.

In a toy industry career spanning 33 years, Paul was one of the original founders of Toys R Us UK prior to joining Vivid and has ultimately led the business for the last 10 years. His experience of having operated at senior levels on both the manufacturing and retail sides of the industry gives him a unique platform to launch his new consulting business, Press Play, which will advise across the whole spectrum of product development, distribution, licensing and retail.

Vardhan Rajkumar of Privet Capital, the private equity firm which invested in the business in March 2017, will take on the role of chairman of Vivid.

On the decision to start his new venture, Paul commented: “I now feel the time is right to pursue a new direction that will give me greater flexibility in my life, whilst also presenting a new set of exciting challenges. However, I am also delighted to be continuing my relationship with Vivid and its new investor Privet Capital, and look forward to helping them achieve their ambitions of broadening and strengthening the brand portfolio, and driving further international expansion.”

Vardhan Rajkumar added: “Paul has done a terrific job at Vivid and played a huge role in the company’s success over the past 24 years. We are extremely pleased that Paul will continue to work with the Vivid team as we look to take the company into the next phase of growth.”

Paul can be contacted at paul.weston@pressplay.consulting or on 07850 130027.

Lego appoints new CEO

Toy World promotes Mark Austin to sales director To reflect the valuable contribution he has made to the success of Toy World since its launch six years ago, Mark Austin has been promoted to the role of sales director. Publisher John Baulch commented: “Mark has been a key member of the Toy World team from the very start, and I am delighted to recognise the key role he has played in the growth of the magazine over the past six years. Like all of the Toy World team, Mark has enjoyed becoming part of the toy community and immersing himself in this fascinating industry.

His two sons quite like having a dad who works in the toy market too!”

Geomag expands sales team Geomagworld SA has added Graham Crawford to its sales team.

Graham is well known and respected by retailers in Scotland, North East, Yorkshire and Lancashire where he represents a number of leading brands.

Graham will not only be focusing on the Classic Geomag line, but also the newly launched MagiCube range. The Classic range will be supported by a TVC running in October half term and November/December.

Niels Christiansen will take over from Bali Padda, who was Lego’s first non-Danish CEO. It was decided that the British chief executive would move on after just eight months in the top job, with the company saying it had found a replacement earlier than expected.

61-year-old Bali Padda, who became the first nonDane to lead the company when he started as chief executive in January, has been moved to a special advisory role to make way for new boss Niels Christiansen (pictured), the former chief executive of industrial technology company Danfoss.

Lego’s chairman Jorgen Vig Knudstorp said the decision was not a reflection of Mr Padda’s performance, but because the Briton’s age meant that he would not be able to have a long tenure.

Jorgen told the Financial Times: “He has definitely not disappointed us.

Bali knew that I would immediately look for a successor. Both Bali and I thought it would take a long time as it’s not a trivial matter. I was just very fortunate that, relatively early, we found the right person.”

In a statement, Mr Knudstorp said Bali, who has worked at the company for 15 years, played an “integral role in the turnaround” and created a “solid foundation from which to continue to transform the company”.

Niels Christiansen, who is 51 years old, starts as chief executive in October.

Niels commented: “As I look at the challenges facing this generation of children, the group’s mission, to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow is more important and urgent than ever.”

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Marketing World Chicco gears up for Christmas with #12DaysofChicco campaign With Christmas approaching, Chicco is focusing on targeted digital and social media campaigns to promote its range of toys. With a total Facebook following of over one million, the brand will once more be carrying out its #12DaysOfChicco preChristmas campaign, which will run until 12th December.

The campaign will be promoted via Facebook advertising to a specifically tailored audience, designed to reach users beyond Chicco’s existing consumer base. A competition will encourage interaction with the page, increasing page likes and raising brand awareness.

In addition to the #12DaysofChicco initiative, the company will also be carrying out various campaigns in order to promote its new toy lines. In the months leading up to Christmas, Chicco will be hosting promoted Facebook competitions on its own page, as well as placing advertisements on key online parenting channels.

With a focus on the Fun of Development, the new lines are designed to encourage development among children in cognitive, physical and social capacities, whilst providing entertainment.

The range includes two new additions to the Fit ‘N Fun range: the Jump N Fit play mat and Mister Ring. There is also the introduction of Detective Dog, as well as Food Truck 2-in-1.

Lottie Dolls Inspired by Real Kids campaign kicks off Children are to play a permanent role in the inspiration of Lottie products through monthly in-store design competitions, which will roll out from September 2017. The competitions will inspire children to create what they want to see, be, and play with.

Lottie aims to empower kids to be themselves, and the Inspired by Real Kids campaign celebrates the remarkable real girls that have inspired Lottie Dolls, and aims to encourage children all over the world to get involved with the company.

Each month, the company will launch a themed design competition both online and in store. Participating stores will receive a pack with design templates, posters and a product prize to give to a winning customer entry of their choice. The overall monthly winners will have their design made by the company, and, within nine months of selecting a winner, Lottie Dolls will have the product on the market. 10% of the net profits from products developed through the competitions will be donated to charity.

Ian Harkin, MD Lottie Dolls, commented: “Since launching our first product that was inspired by a real child four years ago, we’ve been blown away by how perceptive, imaginative and assertive children are today. The girls who have inspired Lottie dolls empower and support one another and their peers, and it’s been inspiring following their adventures and achievements. This sparked our commitment to having all products inspired by real kids.”

New introductions from Zuru underpinned with media support Zuru is promoting a range of products in the run-up to Christmas including Makya Toy Block Tape, the X-Shot Bug Attack blaster range, the Shnooks plush range and, and the Robo Alive robotic snake and lizard.

Coverage for Makya commenced on 1st September and runs through till 30th November, on TV channels including CITV, Disney Channel, Nicktoons, Pop, Boomerang, and Cartoon Network. In total, 376 TVRs will air for Kids 4-9. The TV campaign will be supported throughout by pre-roll advertising on key VOD platforms YouTube and Roblox, as well as a cinema campaign covering the October half-term period. Search, programmatic display and social media activity will also run concurrently.

The X-Shot campaign will deliver 4.8 opportunities to view for boys aged 4-9, with 192 TVRs airing across CITV, CITVB, Disney Channel, Disney XD, ITVB, Nick, Nicktoons, Pop, Kix, Boomerang, and Cartoon Network, between 11th Sep-1st October, and 6th-26th November. The TV campaign will be supported by pre-roll advertising on YouTube and social media platforms, and search activity will run concurrently.

Shnooks will benefit from a Toys AndMe promotion which will run alongside the TV campaign, with search activity to support as well. 54 Girls 4-9 TVRs will air between 13th-26th November, on channels including Milkshake, NJRToo, Tiny Pop and Boomerang.

Rounding out Zuru’s pre-Christmas TV and digital campaigns will be Robo Alive, with a TV campaign for Boys 4-9 running till 17th September, and recommencing between 23rd October – 12th November, supported by pre-roll advertising on YouTube and social media platforms.

Search activity will also run concurrently.

Toy World 16

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Licensing World Golden Bear’s Something Special master toy licence renewed by BBC BBC Worldwide has announced that Golden Bear is to retain the master toy licence, including games and puzzles, for BAFTA award-winning CBeebies show Something Special. The renewal will cover the UK and Ireland.

Starring BAFTA award-winning children’s entertainer Justin Fletcher, Something Special has been entertaining pre-schoolers and children with special needs on CBeebies for more than 10 years, regularly appearing in the top three most watched shows on the channel.

Barry Hughes, commercial director at Golden Bear, commented: “We are delighted to extend our commitment to Something Special.

We share the BBC’s passion for the programme and the entertainment, learning and inclusiveness it delivers to pre-schoolers and kids of all ages and abilities. The show consistently reaches more children than any other programme in the UK and the toy range has become an evergreen within pre-school licences. We are looking forward to bringing many more Mr Tumble toys to the market in the forthcoming years.”

Carte Blanche prepares for BLE licensee unveiling

Mattel introduces WWE female wrestler dolls

Newly launched brand My Dinky Bear was both a “head and heart decision” for Carte Blanche Greetings, according to a company spokesperson.

Carte Blanche’s head of creative, Fiona Yeoh, commented: “We thought about what love meant to a child, as well as the ways in which they experienced it, and built this into all the creative and product development of My Dinky Bear. This loveable little character is designed to be the huggable, toy-over-the-shoulder that goes everywhere with his owner – imagination and adventure are just as important to this brand as the heartfelt connection is between a child and their favourite toy.”

With product reorders already planned, a raft of licensees lined up for unveiling at BLE, and the launch of plush and licensed merchandise into a major retailer in October this year, the adventures of My Dinky Bear are only just beginning.

A new set of dolls based on some of the WWE’s female superstars was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con. The new fashion dolls, which are based on WWE stars like Nikki and Brie Bella, Sasha Banks, Natalya, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Alicia Fox and Eva Marie, should aid the company in tapping into the WWE fan base, which comprises 40% women.

Stephanie McMahon, WWE chief brand officer, commented: “The launch of the first-ever WWE girls’ product line is a significant moment in the evolution not only of our female superstars, but our entire company. We are honoured to partner with Mattel to provide kids with another way to connect with our incredible female performers, who inspire confidence and strength.”

“At Mattel, we have a deep understanding of how girls play and are proud to be WWE’s partner in bringing the first-ever female superstar fashion doll line to fans,” said Lori Pantel, SVP and GM for Girl’s Toy Box. “This line fits well within our portfolio of girls’ brands by offering unique doll aesthetics with empowering messages.”

Toy World 18

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Copywrite Designs releases new licensed lines

And the brand played on Toy World spoke to Bulldog Licensing MD Rob Corney about the licensing challenges and opportunities presented by the Shopkins brand.

What’s it like to work with a collectible brand such as Shopkins, which has a large number of characters, but no stand out lead?

Bulldog has a lot of experience representing brands with multiple characters, and it’s made a name for itself as an agent that makes collectible licensing successful. GoGo’s Crazy Bones was probably our first major brand, in around 20082009, and we focused on characters that we knew would have the greatest proliferation and awareness among kids.

With a brand like Shopkins, it’s important to identify key characters, rather than trying to be all things to all people. The most important part of identifying a character is to work out which one has the greatest number of touch points with the consumer. We focused very much on hero characters, the ones highlighted through the webisodes. It’s important to remember that the Shopkins collectible series that is just one part of the Shopkins universe. The brand has digital content which has generated millions of views, Shopkins: Chef Club was one of the top selling direct to DVD releases of last year, and there are music videos too. The trick is to make sure you focus on a smaller selection of characters. A proliferation of characters is a key driver of collectibility, but having hero characters is what drives the consumer products programme.

Copywrite Designs has launched a new My Little Pony line. Comprising colouring, sticker and activity formats including a Bumper Play Pack, Sticker Pad, Artist Pad and Colouring and Activity Placemats, the range caters for ages three to seven years. One of 2017’s top selling properties in the UK, with the first ever movie due for UK cinema release on 20th October, the new My Little Pony range is already topping sales charts.

The company has launched a range of Num Noms creative play and sticker items. As Num Noms Series 4 has just launched, Copywrite’s new offering, which features Customising Stickers, Sticker Paradise and a Travel Activity Sticker Tube, is ideally timed. A new range of Copywrite Thomas & Friends creative play items, including Novelty Shaped Crayons, Sticker by Shapes and a Bumper Activity Bag, also launched in August.

Olaf’s Frozen Adventures, a 22-minute short, hits UK cinemas in November. Copywrite is celebrating the release of the animation with new Olaf’s Frozen Adventure tie-in items, including a Carry Along Colouring Set, a Play Pack and a Sticker Fun set, all at stocking filler price points.

You mentioned earlier that you identify characters with multiple consumer touchpoints – can you explain this?

We identify which of the Shopkins characters would have the greatest resonance across multiple categories, and then pick those ones out in the media; the online webisodes, the films etc. We also look at other elements which may influence their popularity – are they cuter than other characters? Do they have a cool name? Are they the right colour, even? Red fruit based characters will always sell better than green ones, something that is true of both apparel and accessories, so we have made sure that a red fruit such as Strawberry Kiss is included in the hero characters. We know that doughnuts are on-trend at the moment, and very popular with children, and therefore D’lish Donut is a hero character. Essentially we are trying to identify and highlight elements that kids enjoy, and that have a significant draw which is both social and entertaining.

New characters are introduced twice a year – what challenges does this present for licensing?

The biggest challenge from a licensing point of view is trying to persuade companies not to constantly change to the newer series in terms of their product releases. The lead times for merchandise versus the timing with which a collectible series is ready for market means that the imagery is often not ready in time. This is not something that specifically affects Moose - this is an issue across the collectibles category. The latest seasons aren’t made available for merchandising until the date for launching it as a collectible is really close. It would be crazy to try and ensure that your licensed ranges reflect the most recent character ranges as you’ll always be going to market slightly later, and the following season’s merchandise will therefore look out of date.

Having said that, Moose is great at forward planning so we can preview the upcoming season. We don’t tend to match the hero characters, but we do match the patterns and the style guide assets to carry the branding through across the series. For example, if there is a rainbow theme then we will work a rainbow theme into the licensed merchandise for that season. This brings familiarity and consistency to the range.

One of the most incredible things Moose has achieved is the constant remaking of the brand, which is why it’s still the No. 1 Girls collectible, and larger than anything else in the market.

Of course, it’s not just a collectible. Shopkins Happy Places is a popular playset brand in its own right, and let’s not forget the doll range. Shopkins has diversified into such a wide area of the market that it continuously offers something fresh and new.

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Trends launches Miraculous colouring bags Trends UK is launching a creative new Scribble Me Miraculous colouring bags range. Licensed from Bulldog and Zag Animation Studios, and created by Maad Toys, the Miraculous bags feature the Ladybug and Cat Noir characters from the No. 1 animated TV series, screening on Disney Channel and Pop. Ideal on-the-go accessories for fans of the show, each bag features Miraculous designs that can be customised and coloured-in with the permanent markers provided.

The range includes a Miraculous Handbag, Miraculous Purse and Miraculous Shoulder Bag, plus the Miraculous Messenger Bag and Miraculous Backpack.

The full line up is available for autumn/ winter 2017.

NPD Insight Branded Toys prop up the UK toy market NPD’s Gabriela Rydzik looks at brand growth and innovation in the UK toy market.

2

016 was an extraordinary year for the UK toy market with +6% value growth driven by TV/DVD/Digital related properties such as Paw Patrol, Pokémon & Shopkins. With a busy box office schedule, many expected that in 2017, movie related toys would push sales up to the next record-breaking level. However, YTD July data shows a different story, with total market sales down -2% in value and -13% in units. Movie related properties have declined this year and TV/DVD/ Digital toys have slowed from +20% growth to just +1%. Only brands continue to grow by +5%, adding +£12.5M to the toy industry this year. Everyone is keen to understand what has driven this brand growth, especially when the Consumer Confidence Index, published by the European Commission, continues to be negative for the UK throughout 2017 and is down by -7% for the second consecutive month in July.

Three supercategories– Outdoor & Sports Toys, Youth Electronics and Arts and Craft - are heavily branded, with a low level of licensing in these areas. However, some of the strongest branded growth is coming from smaller branded areas: in 5 out of 11 supercategories, branded toys are driving growth, while other types of toys are driving value loss.

The category where brands account for just under a third of total sales, but is growing the fastest, is Dolls. With +2% growth in Dolls

this year, brands are contributing +£6.7M in additional sales, despite only making up 28% of the category. Without the incremental sales from Branded Dolls, the supercategory would have seen decline. The best performing Doll this year is L.O.L Surprise! from MGA Entertainment, which launched in February. In just six months, the range sold £3.7M worth of dolls, just under £1M each month for June and July despite only being on shelf in just over half of stores selling. We can only imagine how big L.O.L Surprise! could be with enlarged distribution.

The second fastest growing Dolls brand, adding +£1.9M to the category, is the newly launched Hatchimals CollEGGtible range. Presence on shelves in 88% of stores in month two and three after launch resulted in £1.6m of total sales for May and June alone. However, Hatchimals are not only performing well in Playset Dolls Collectibles, but also in Plush, where since January this year Hatchimals added +£3.4M to the Special Feature/ Interactive Plush subclass.

Across Total Toys, Little Tikes, Nerf and Vtech Baby are still the biggest brands, altogether worth £51M this year, representing a classic evergreen presence on shelf. However, new brands are driving the strongest growth with a third of all branded sales new this year including all three best-selling items: L.O.L Surprise!, Lego Minifigure Series 17 & Lego Technic Porsche.

All price points except £10-£20 contributed to

Document classification: External Use

the branded Toys Market growth. £50-£75 Branded toys is growing the fastest, contributing +£5.3M this year. The uplift in this price range has mainly been driven by Hatchimals and number one brand Little Tikes, which has been driven by Outdoor offerings especially in April.

While movies and TV will continue to contribute to the UK toy market, the strong growth of brands over the last few months has been heavily driven by innovation. With a strong proportion of high value items in Q4, we may see brands continue to growth in the coming months, especially with continued innovation by the branded manufacturers. Nevertheless, TV/DVD/Digital related toys are the ones to watch next year with the growing penetration of the digital space.

Gabriela Rydzik

Senior Account Manager, NPD

Document classification: External Use

Toy World 24

There’s No Other City Like New York and No Other Show Like

Property Progression: Total Property (Brand + Licence)

June 2016 Rank July 2017 Rank

Cars The Movie

#13

#5

The summer movie schedule has been particularly busy this year with four big releases between week 25 and week 28. However, there is only one clear winner with significant peak – Cars 3.

In the single month of July, Cars Movie property sold £2.8M worth of toys, +£1.2M more than in June and rose eight positions in ranking.

•More than 1,000 exhibitors

Document classification: External Use

•150,000+ products including 7,000 world debuts •4 days, 1 location— in the heart of New York City The NPD Group provides global information and advisory services to drive better business decisions. By combining unique data assets with unmatched industry expertise, we help our clients track their markets, understand consumers and drive profitable growth. Sectors covered include automotive, beauty, entertainment, fashion, food/food service, home, office supplies, sports, technology, toys, video games, and wireless.

To monitor what’s happening in the ever-changing toy market, NPD collects point-of-sale information from all major toy retailers. This information, combined with our analysts’ industry perspectives, delivers a comprehensive view of what’s selling and where. We also field over 12m consumer surveys annually to help industry leaders understand why consumers shop where they shop and why they buy what they buy. For more information visit www.npd.com. Follow NPD on Twitter @npdgroup

Toy World 25

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THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE © & TM Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. & The LEGO Group. LEGO, the LEGO logo, NINJAGO, the Minifigure and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks and/or copyrights of the LEGO Group. ©2017 The LEGO Group. All rights reserved.

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Changing seasons As the summer season draws to a close, Toy World spoke to independent retailers to find out how the summer has been for them, what impact Back to School sales have on their store and how they are gearing up for the start of the all important pre-Christmas selling period.

Jane Holtom and Sue Dale Cheshire Toy Shop

Our shop is based on a farm visitor attraction, so the majority of our visitors are those that have come to the site where they can be outdoors, feeding the animals and having fun with their children in the play area. We don’t get any passing trade so we have to promote our shop as a destination.

We run outdoor activities which really boost sales, particularly when the weather is good.

Sales are actually up by about 10% on last year’s July and August (as of 16th August) but July was comparatively better than August. We’re hoping for a late injection of sunshine this year as we always do better with good weather.

In terms of what’s been performing well in our store, it has definitely been a summer of slime. It’s been our top seller in terms of volume, and margin wise it offers a lot too. Even though many parents hate it, pester power usually seems to work when it comes to securing a sale. We mainly stock toys so we don’t see much back to school activity, but the Tractor Ted range does quite well at this time of year, with lunch bags and rucksacks in particular.

If one of our brands has TV advertised lines then we will make sure we stock them for Christmas,

but we don’t actively seek out suppliers or brands based on that criterion. TV advertising campaigns do make a difference in terms of what children ask for at Christmas though, so we make sure we know when products are being advertised, to ensure we are ready with enough stock.

We are still shopping for Christmas although we are pretty much decided on our stock ranges.

However, we have a couple of gaps in our pre-school range which we’ll need to fill very soon. We expect our top sellers to come from Sylvanian Families, Aquabeads, and Brio. We’ve picked our top 10 Christmas toys which we’ve been promoting to our customers from the end of August. We send out a weekly email newsletter, so we start to sow the seeds of Christmas shopping as soon as the August Bank Holiday is over. We’ve also started doing a Friday morning Facebook Live video, updating customers on what’s new and encouraging them to sign up for our email, and we’ll be using this to showcase some of our Christmas lines too.

Pocket money toys do really well for us, particularly in the school holidays. We recently extended our pocket money display to make it clearly visible from outside the shop – however, we’ve also made sure to keep it close enough to the till that we can keep an eye on it. We also write all our latest pocket money lines on an A-board outside the shop which really helps to bring customers in.

We both see huge value in stocking collectibles as they perform well for us all year round. The Pokémon TCG continues to perform well and we have recently brought in a few blind bags, now that we have the space to display them. We keep a good range of Schleich farm animals and Sylvanian Families baby carry cases, and the baby sets sell well for us too.

It’s hard to predict what the playground crazes

Toy World 27

will be for the new school term, but our money is on all sorts of fidget toys, and we think tactile and sensory toys will continue to do well. However, the country must be saturated with fidget spinners by now. We’d also love to see ‘proper’ playground toys – jacks, French skipping and chalk, for example – make a comeback.

We moved into a bigger unit in March of this year and it’s really been worthwhile. We are now in a more prominent position with outdoor space outside which is great for our Brio play days. We also have a big storeroom which means we can keep the shop tidier and less cluttered, and we’ve created a dedicated packing area for our online sales, which is something we are working on growing. It will be interesting to see how we will perform with online sales this Christmas. We are offering a 24 hour ordering system, but are also concentrating on local orders which we can deliver ourselves same day.

Talking Shop Brendan Will Will’s Toy Shop, Aberdeen Will’s Toy Shop is part of A R Will, which has been in business since 1898.

Will’s Toy Shop has been selling toys for nearly 40 years now. The company was founded as a plumbing and electrical business and last year, a post office was also added to the shop, to help to drive footfall.

In August 2017, we became a Toymaster member, which I think will open up a wide range of opportunities for us, as we’re constantly adapting to expand the range of different brands we offer. Now that we are a Toymaster member, a new introduction for us will be Lego, which I know will be a very popular product for us, because we have not been able to stock it before and are asked for it on a daily basis. I think putties and fidget spinners will also be popular for stocking fillers as

they have been one of the main crazes this year. The crazes this year seem to have come out of nowhere.

Being a Toymaster member will bring different directions in which to further expand and develop our shop; for example, the L.O.L Surprise! dolls from MGA haven’t been available to us before. There are a lot more opportunities such as this, and I think we will be able to attract a lot more footfall than we currently have.

In terms of the Back to School season, it isn’t an area that we have focused on up to now. Instead, we tend to focus more on collectibles, like blind bags and trading cards, however, the Back to School season and the opportunities that it presents is something that we plan to improve on in the future. Being a Toymaster

member will be helpful in keeping up to date with such opportunities.

We want products that will encourage kids to come in on a daily basis, with their parents, wanting to buy pocket money toys. We find that collectibles are good for repeat footfall. One of the advantages that we have, being located where we are, is that there are not many toy shops in Cults - actually I think we may be the only one. Adults and children wanting to buy toys would have to travel if it was not for our toy shop, as there isn’t a huge amount of choice outside of supermarkets, a Smyths Toy Store and Toys R Us, which are a fair drive away.

As well as our store in Aberdeen, we also have a website and online store offering a wide range of products.

Heather Stewart - Wise Owl Toys, Worcester We have had a good summer, and though we haven’t compared takings directly with previous years, the general feeling is that it’s been a successful period for us. The hot weather came before the schools broke up, with the cooler weather since boosting our sales. We’ve had lots of customers coming to the store to pick up products to play with indoors.

Playmobil sales have been strong all summer, and our games are ticking along nicely too. Lottie Dolls are very popular at the minute - parents and little girls love them, and they seem to want multiple dolls and accessories. The dolls have a real playability.

We specialise in left-handed stationery, which brings people into the shop looking for items to take back to school or college with them. We opened The Left Handed Shop 23 years ago, and after five years we became a toy shop as well. The left-handed element of the store is very close to my husband Mark’s heart as we help children with their hand-

writing and run workshops too, which he has been doing lots of interviews about. This brings publicity to the shop as well, which is helpful in attracting customers all round.

I have placed Christmas orders with the companies that need the most time, such as Playmobil, but others are happy for you to order as you go along. As very much an educational toy shop, we don’t focus on licensed and high-profile ranges – I like to keep the shop reflecting us as a concept, and if it’s too commercial it won’t fit in with what we do.

Schleich is a big collectible line for us and we have a lot of children who come in to buy the latest horse or dinosaur. The horses are certainly the most visible range on display as visitors enter the shop, but the farm and wild animals are popular too. Slime and brain putty have been ordered for Christmas, which we haven’t had before but have ordered in time for the half-term to make sure that children know it’s available. The kids are asking for it and so we try and

Toy World 28

provide it – as long as we feel it fits.

Our Wise Owl Wednesday’s activity days have been really popular this year, which I put down to social media. Those attending tell us they saw them advertised on Facebook, or their friend shared it with them – it’s great.

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Tracie Peacock-Quinney Ella’s Toy Shop Wells, Stow on the Wold

We closed our Leamington Spa shop in May as a result of rental increases, but this wasn’t a reflection of a downturn in business. Even up to the end of leaving Leamington Spa, trading was up on the year, and business is going really well. It’s been very busy, and the early heatwave helped, as it has led to people wanting paddling pools and outdoor toys usually we wouldn’t have brought those products out until the start of the summer holidays. As a result, this brought summer trade forward much earlier, which really boosted business for us.

The business began when we were running events around the country and I happened to go to a show one day and realised that there was nothing there for children, so decided that Stow on the Wold would be a great place for a toy shop. There’s been quite a bit of development around the local area and we now have a lot of regulars. It’s also encouraging that people who go off on holiday always come back to us; I’m pleased that we have developed such a good reputation. I feel very lucky with the location we have found, because it has helped us to grow as a company. If we had stayed just at our Leamington Spa location, we wouldn’t have realised the potential that was out there, because this is a totally different market. This branch has really opened our eyes, as we have managed to change things slightly, but maintain our ethos about learning.

When it comes to who buys the toys, we find that it depends on the age of the children being bought for.

The younger they are, the more child-

led purchases seem to be. As children get to around five or six and can be negotiated with, it tends to be parents making the decision because they are able to explain why an alternative product might be better than the one that the child wants. However, with younger children, parents sometimes just buy the toys their children want to avoid a tantrum.

Orchard’s ranges that have been doing well for us and we’ve also recently introduced Skip Hop into the baby range, which has done phenomenally well for us so far this year. We brought it in from Spring Fair in February on a ‘let’s try it’ basis, and were really surprised as it took off. Overall, we’ve reduced the number of products we stock and we’ve picked different products from different suppliers, which has not detracted from sales.

Sales of wooden toys outweighs plush. We have a very limited range of plush; mostly jungle animals, which makes up about 5% of our overall offering. I would say there isn’t really a girl or boy divide with plush and wooden toys, it’s pretty much the same across the board. We do have items such as tool boxes and kitchens, but girls are being bought tool benches and boys are being bought kitchens.

We are looking forward to the Autumn Fair, where we will look for new stock for Christmas. We tend to have a busy summer because of the holiday season, which matches Christmas trading for us. So we see what happens over the summer and then go to Autumn Fair in order to source new lines for Christmas. Some of our suppliers have already told us about certain lines to pre-order, but there’s very little that can’t be got hold of quite quickly nowadays.

I’m always looking for new designs and interesting ideas. We picked up Schleich products from Toy Fair, which we hadn’t stocked before. We decided to take a gamble on the range as it had been totally off our radar, but it has proved to be really popular.

I am also going to be presenting a retail talk at the Autumn Fair for Independents about cash flow, accounts, and saving money.

Mark Buschhaus and Stephen Barnes

Whatever next?

A

Toy Barnhaus

s we write this, we are already halfway through the school holidays, and as usual, the weather has taken a turn. In some ways this is very positive for us, as our stores are located in shopping malls. In terms of clearing our summer stock, let us just say that the mountain is not coming down very fast. Trade is holding up well, even though the finger spinner craze has slowed down now, however the official Zuru Fidget Cube has now become available for retail, and is selling very well. The slime and putty craze has really built up a head of steam, and we are having to chase around for stock. We have had a unicorn in slime, also Hot Wheels cars in slime, and are wondering whatever will be next? All these low price point items are driving customers in to our shops, although they are lowering our average transaction value overall. And talking of all this slime, has anyone spotted Martin Grossman lately? We were delighted to see he had literally put his face on his slime packaging, but we are worrying that fame may have gone to his head…

A licence that hit TV last month and has worked really well for us is Bush Baby World from Golden Bear. We liked it when we saw it at the Toymaster show, so bought into it early and the sales have been fantastic. Another couple of new lines that have appeared in our bestseller lists this week are Laser X from Character Options, and the Fantastic Gymnastic Game from Hasbro. Both of these are selling strongly much earlier than expected, and are worth getting behind in our opinion. The Toy Barnhaus hot tip going forward (do not laugh) is… loom bands.

The Loom Bands Case has risen back into our top 30 in the last few weeks.

As we reach the end of the summer holidays, back to school is an important selling period for us. Sales all come in the last week or so, and the kids going back tends to be staggered over several days. Lunchbags, bottles and backpacks provide great incremental business for us; something we have picked up from our Woolies days.

A major job we are currently undertaking is planning all our stores layouts for Christmas. By the time you read this in early September, we will be starting to move our stores around for the peak trade season. The summer product is replaced by extended footage of games. We time all our Christmas deliveries to arrive in early September, so we have got the range coming in ready to fill the space.

In early September, we will make a quick trip up to the NEC from Autumn Fair.

It is always easiest to go on a Sunday and avoid the traffic. The show is a great final opportunity to pick up any last bits for Christmas, and fill any gaps in the range. As it is a smaller show than Spring Fair in terms of toy companies, we find there are more deals on offer from suppliers, and it is our last chance to look at things until Toy Fair at Olympia in January. Every year that we go, we are never disappointed; there is always something that interests us.

With Christmas at the forefront of our minds, it is still difficult to pinpoint what will be the key sellers this year. We think Hatchimals will still perform well, with the new launches in October along with the ongoing success of Colleggtibles.

The new Star Wars lines are sure to be popular, although we will be more selective with our ranging this year. L.O.L Surprise! dolls continues to be in demand, and we are looking forward to seeing what will be the breakout game this Christmas, after the You Tube inspired success of Pie Face and Speak Out over the last couple of years. Nowadays, a viral video can catapult a product from mediocrity to bestseller overnight. It adds even more unpredictability to the game of predicting the Christmas bestsellers. All part of the fun!

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Fresh

FRESH THIS MONTH:

Each month Fresh sets out to find the latest products that will have toy retailers reaching for the phone.

In September we have new releases from: Anki, Legler, NX Generation, Grossman, Asobi, Character Options and Big Potato.

SmartTheater NX Generation

01455 614936 | www.smarttheatervr.com Virtual Reality is the fastest growing category in the gaming industry, with thousands of free apps and 360º video available on Google Play and Apple Stores. SmartTheater brings style to the world of mobile VR with modern colours and patterns.

SmartTheater is manufactured from light materials with ease of use and comfort in mind, and three models are available. SmartTheater Original is available in nine colours, weighs less than 150 grams, and boasts an industry first anti-microbial nano-silver foam face rest along with superior optics and four-way adjustable lenses. An easy snap-on strap allows quick app switching.

The SmartTheater Quark model is manufactured in polymer materials that mould to the contours of the users face, while the SmartTheater Portal model is constructed from custom made textiles, and is ideal for users who wear glasses.

SmartTheater headsets are supported with app recommendations, game reviews, how-to guides, and more. What’s more, SmartTheater headsets fit all sizes of mobile phone, including plus size phones.

SmartTheater is exclusively distributed in the UK, Ireland and Europe by NX Generation.

Cozmo

Morph

Anki

Asobi

www.anki.com

01706 753 594 | www.asobi.co.uk

Anki has announced that Cozmo, the new robot companion, will be available in the UK on 15th September 2017.

Charming and mischievous, Cozmo is a real-life robot designed with fun and friendship in mind. Cozmo is one of the most sophisticated consumer robots available, developed by a leading team of Ph.D. roboticists, worldclass animators, and renowned game developers.

The more Cozmo gets to know the child and their surroundings, the more skilled he becomes as new abilities are unlocked and free upgrades added. The free-to-download Cozmo app, which runs on compatible iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire devices, comes packed full of exciting content and constantly introduces new ways to play. Cozmo even brings his own toys to the game, and comes with three interactive Power Cubes.

Morph represents the newest advancement in modelling compounds.

A combination of the best elements of other sands and doughs, Morph offers creative kids a completely customisable play experience. The product launched globally in 2017, and UK stock is available now.

Morph holds its shape once it’s been moulded and never dries out. The non-stick compound can be made into balls and bounced, floats and fluffs to three times its original size, and is safe and appealing for young children as well as older kids and tweens.

Colours include Sunburst Yellow, Surf Blue, Atomic Tangerine, Electric Purple, Sonic Green and Ultra Pink, allowing kids to be as creative as they like. The sensory compound encourages open ended play, allowing children to use their imagination in a variety of ways.

For retailers, Morph offers a range of promotional display products including window stickers, hanging signs and in-store play trays, which allow kids to get hands-on with the product. A FSDU option will also be available.

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Cuddles, My Dream Kitten Character Options 01616 339 800 | www.character-online.com The fully interactive plush kitten toy moves and feels like a real pet; she opens and closes her eyes, makes sleeping sounds, nuzzles and purrs, twirls her tail, and feeds from her bowl. On launch last year, Snuggles, My Dream Puppy topped retailer top 10 lists, and subsequently was included in the 2016 Top 12 Dream Toys and labelled a must-have for Christmas.

Mark Hunt, marketing manager at Character Options, commented: “Snuggles, My Dream Puppy quickly established itself as a must have toy in 2016, sales this year continue to be strong and we expect another great Christmas period. The introduction of Cuddles, My Dream Kitten will grow the category and give even more choice to gift buyers.”

“The new Cuddles, My Dream Kitten has exceptional interactive play value; the tech features make the pet so realistic that children can’t help but fall in love. Pair this with the success of Snuggles, My Dream Puppy last year, and we believe that Cuddles, My Dream Kitten has huge potential to be one of this year’s top Christmas toys.”

Dedicated TV advertising started at the end of August along with a digital campaign, parental outreach and influencer activity.

small foot world Firefighter Station Legler +49 (0) 4221 973 0269 | www.legler-online.com Legler’s new small foot world product group offers diverse playtime fun for kids. The range’s individual products complement each other, and, when combined with the many accessories available, allow children to create a colourful play world. All products contain a high percentage of wood, are compatible with all major toy train systems, and offer MSRPs that generate good business margins.

The small foot world firefighter station set is made from a mixture of wood and plastic and features many accessories, including a slide, helicopter, firemen, fire extinguisher, and fire truck, so young firefighters can create their own adventures. This exclusively designed fire station is ideal for boys and girls who love the fire brigade.

Foooty Big Potato 07472 824 526 | www.bigpotato.co.uk Innovative Dutch toy Foooty, the Kickstarter sensation, has officially been released in the UK and indie board game company Big Potato has been named as the exclusive UK distributor.

Foooty is a clever flat-pack toy that can be hooked together to make durable 3D shapes that can be played with indoors and out. The flexible panels can build a football, frisbee, rugby ball, star, rocket and even a giraffe, which are easy to assemble and even easier to deconstruct. The perfect size and weight to fit into a pocket or bag, the product is also kind on the environment as it’s made out of recyclable polypropylene.

Foooty comes in a variety of colours, including red, yellow and blue.

Jean-Pierre Raes, who devised the product, often found himself on holiday wishing he had brought a football: “We always forgot to take a ball for our kids to play. Either it didn’t fit in the suitcase, or we simply just forgot. So I had the idea for Foooty which became a fusion of football, Lego and a Rubik’s Cube.”

Dean Tempest of Big Potato Games discovered Foooty whilst at a toy fair in Germany: “Although it’s not a board game, we fell in love with the idea of a football in your pocket. We’ve been booting Foooty round the office ever since, and expect it to be one of our biggest sellers this year.”

Unicorn range H. Grossman 01416 132 525 | 01416 132 525 Grossman releases its new range of unicorn inspired items, including scooters and light up water balls.

Plush unicorns, figurines and a unicorn that comes with glittery poo are also available. Grossman also offers colour changing Goopy Slime, Genius Putty, UV Brain Putty and Twisty slime, plus the Hatch and Grow Alien Eggs and Hatch and Grow Dinosaurs.

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Feature

Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

Pocket power

The collectibles category remains robust, with the NPD Group reporting that collectible products account for 11% of value sales YTD June 2017, with growth of 29%, nearly treble the share of the market they had back in 2014. Toy World’s Rachael Simpson looks at the category in detail.

C

razes and collectibles present kids with a form of playground currency – the desire to own, and the willingness to swap to attain what they need, combined with affordable pricing, fuels repeat purchases and drives high footfall into toy shops. For retailers, these factors present plenty of opportunities, and the increasing SKU options available, such as boxes, binders, tins and other paraphernalia, present valuable opportunities for add on purchases.

Print collectibles continue to hold their own, offering kids a low cost option with a range of themes to choose from as well as playground swapping value. The Pokémon property recorded a 285% increase in sales throughout 2016, with over 23.6 billion cards distributed worldwide as of March this year. As the biggest sport category in the collectible marketplace, football trading cards from Topps and Panini remain hugely popular. In a recent article from the NPD Group, it was ventured that football trading cards represent a predictable but short-lived craze, for “as long as the tournament lasts and the home nations do well” – something that Mark Hillier, CEO of Click Distribution, has a different opinion on.

“Panini’s World Cup sticker collection will launch months before the tournament actually starts, and long before the results even roll in many children will have finished their collections – I don’t believe it’s a short-lived craze at all,” he remarked. “It’s irrelevant how well the home teams do, though if they do well it’s obviously a bonus. The product is launched early and the marketing for it is intense. I believe that

Panini’s World Cup 2018 sticker collection will be the biggest sticker collection ever launched in the UK.” Rebecca Smith, head of circulation at Panini, agrees that print is still a good option for collectors.

“Panini’s Cars 3 sticker collection is currently the highest volume selling collection in the market. The launch of our Invizimals Trading Card Game has also been a significant success, particularly in the toy channel,” she comments.

Away from print, a number of 3D collectible ranges stand out, such as MGA Entertainment’s L.O.L. Surprise!, Magic Box Toy’s Zomlings, and Shopkins from GP Flair, all of which have been popular enough to warrant a succession of series, while Spin Master, still high from the success of its Hatchimals last year, is seeing positive feedback on its new range of Hatchimals Colleggtibles. MGAE has also recently launched new collectible range, Awesome Little Green Men, for which the company has high hopes.

As with many toy categories, social media has a strong influence on brand awareness and sales.

Unboxing videos on platforms like YouTube can draw millions of views. Kids are also keen to recreate unboxing excitement and this, in part, lead to the development of L.O.L. Surprise!

“The inspiration for L.O.L Surprise! came from the YouTube unboxing phenomenon, and that’s exactly what the toy allows kids to mimic,” explains Andrew Laughton, UK MD at MGA Entertainment.

“The packaging and the excitement of finding something under each of the L.O.L. layers allows kids to become unboxers each time they get a new one.”

Licensed products continue to represent a large portion of the market. In addition to its football trading cards, Panini has seen success with Paw Patrol and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast cards and stickers, and expects the same from the My Little Pony and Disney Princess lines which come out later this year. Licences can also be thanked for extending the lifespan of otherwise short-lived crazes.

“The licensed spinners I’m working with are more expensive than their unlicensed counterparts but are much better quality, which will extend the craze onwards,” says Mark Hiller. “Hot Wheels slime is also popular at the moment, but slime generally is a summer holidays thing. Whether it will last

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into winter remains to be seen, but we may well be surprised.”

In-store display is important, but can pose challenges, as dedicating till-space - the traditional location for pocket money toys and collectibles - isn’t always possible. As one retailer commented: “There is only so much space around the till, and so many options to fill it.” So, how can retailers maximise sales from the collectibles category? Stocking a wide range of SKUs allows retailers to target parents as well as children. While true pocket money toys place children in control of how and what they spend their money on, the higher priced SKUs like display boxes and binders make excellent gifting options for mums and dads.

“To maximise the category’s impact on their business, retailers should place pocket money toys at the front of the shelf to maximise visibility and impulse sales,” advises Rebecca Smith. “They should ensure that they are stocking both packets and starter packs, and continue to stock the range for the full life-cycle of the collection. Our research shows that consumers become habitual in their purchasing patterns, so it’s imperative that retailers support collectibles all year round.”

Retailers could also consider hosting swapping events and meet-ups. Not only do these events provide collectibles fans with a way to complete their collections quickly in a fun and sociable manner, but having the fans on-site increases the chances of securing sales of the bigger SKUs and other products – a winwin for all involved.

As the category continues to expand, both print-based collectible and toy companies must jostle to carve out their place within this increasingly crowded yet lucrative market. And for retailers considering where to go next, we end on this sage advice from Andrew Laughton. “Have courage and back the ones you believe in; don’t spread yourself too thin as not everything will work. If you really believe in a range then go hard at it - once they take off, they take off with a vengeance.”

Over the next few pages we take a look at the latest pocket-money toys and collectibles on the market.

BRAND NEW COLLECTABLE RANGES

Feature

Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

Knocking ‘em dead Toy World spoke to Magic Box Toys’ Ben Harper to find out how the company develops its collectible ranges to ensure longevity and success in this crowded category.

Can you give us some history on Magic Box and how its ranges have evolved since the company started?

Magic Box Toys, a family owned and run business with head offices in Barcelona, was formed in the early 1990s. The early years of the company were based around the production of printed products, mainly licensed stickers and trading cards.

Even in those early days, we were looking at ways to innovate. This resulted in Gogo’s Crazy Bones, which first came to market in 1996. Looking back now, we can say that it was a pioneering product for the collectible toy category.

We launched and relaunched different versions of Gogo’s throughout the 1990s and 2000s and sold millions across the globe. The third generation of Gogo’s Crazy Bones, which was released in 2008, took the brand to its biggest ever level. It was a true playground phenomenon – banned in schools, queues out of retailer’s doors, and air freight containers ordered to keep stock flowing. The extent of the success showed the industry that collectibles were an area of huge potential.

Taking inspiration from Gogo’s Crazy Bones, and seeing the gradual decline in print based products, we have now fully focused the business on the creation of our own collectible toy IPs. The creative work is handled in house and our most recent project, Zomlings, has been a great success, with series 6 launched at the end of August 2017.

Zomlings has performed very well in the marketplace – how does the company develop a brand with the longevity for multiple series or generations?

Our early experience with Gogo’s Crazy Bones helped us to understand the importance of having a plan for multiple series of products. Our IP development now focuses on developing a brand over two or three years - we put this in place before we launch series 1. We may adapt things along the way as we learn from consumer reaction, but we have the building blocks ready to go. It’s crucial to be able to add new and innovative ideas with each new series. Consumers and trade partners need to see this progression or they will not come on the journey with us.

How does Zomlings stand out amongst a sea of collectible ranges?

The most obvious is price. A packet containing one Zomling has an RRP of just 50p. This price hasn’t changed since 2014 when we launched series 1. It’s a true pocket money price and an amount that consumers are prepared to pay on a regular basis.

The rest of the range is equally competitive, but the entry level is the real headline.

Beyond the price, Zomlings is a really wellrounded and genuinely collectible concept. Each of the elements that we sell adds something new and fun to the Zomlings Town that kids are collecting.

What role does marketing support play in the ongoing success of the brands, and what do you currently see as the most effective marketing channels to promote your key lines?

Marketing is always crucial and at the moment, in a crowded marketplace, it is perhaps more important than ever. As IP creators, we have to make the customer aware of our brand and give them reasons to seek us out. With collectibles, you need to create demand quickly. We have been able to achieve this over the years using a mix of strategies and we will continue to invest heavily in the marketing of our brands.

How important are your distributors to the success of the brand?

Undoubtedly very important. We partner with Esdevium Games for distribution into the toy trade and we value their support and input. We are a highvolume business, and when sales are going well we need products to be distributed regularly and efficiently.

What is the company planning next for its pocket money and collectible lines?

Zomlings Series 6 launched at the end of August 2017.

This new series takes Zomlings into the future and there are some really fun elements to the latest collection.

Beyond that, we have a new collectible project ready to launch in January 2018. We are incredibly excited about its potential - feedback from sales presentations has been outstanding.

Keycraft 01779 478 078 | www.keycraftuk.com Keycraft introduces its quirkiest product yet – Goobands. The company has spent months on development of the new range, which has been created under the Gogopo brand as a fun and quirky collectible.

The range consists of 27 pots of collectible slime, including two-colour, glitter, shimmer and glow-in-thedark slime. Each of the pots fall into one of eight categories, including Glittigoo, Glowgoo, Throogoo, and more. To increase collectability, every pot comes with a silicone band bracelet around the tub that matches the slime, such as pink glitter, glowing green and two-colour slime.

Goobands have been developed by Keycraft’s team of product designers to appeal to fans of the slime trend. Slime has always been popular, but over the last few months, popularity has increased exponentially. The combined slime and bracelet product has been designed for a high collectability appeal. This will encourage children and their parents to return to stores and make repeat purchases.

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Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

Kidicraft 01282 500 899 | www.kidicraft.com The Stunt Jaxx collectible creatures perform stunts and spins on any flat surface and can be battled against each other in the Stunt Arena. Stunt Jaxx animals are friction-powered, require no batteries and can be bought individually, in twin packs, with a carry-along wristband for transporting to the playground, or with the Battle Arena where children can decide which one performs the best stunts. These monsters will spin the right way up or can be turned on their heads and spun upside down. They can also be stacked on top of one another or on top of the elevated cone that comes with each product. There are eight beasts to collect, including a Frog, Beetle, Dinosaur, Shark, Tick and Bee. With a low suggested retail price, Stunt Jaxx are affordable to collect. To make in-store presentation straightforward, Kidicraft have designed a Floor Display Unit complete with live video screen for easy display in any retail environment.

Cabo Concepts 0800 999 3390 | www.theworldeez.com Since its launch, products in the Worldeez range have been performing strongly within the collectibles category. Worldeez blend fun and imagination into one concept, and the diverse pieces and subtle educational element set the concept apart from other collectibles on the market. Season 1 features eight countries from around the world, with 120 different characters to collect, including limited edition Worldeez wows, and 120 fact cards from Brazil, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Japan, the UK and USA. The two-pack Worldeez product range features a two pack globe that fits into the palm of a hand, and opens with a surprise collectible key to reveal two Worldeez hidden inside. There are also Worldeez Words cards to collect in each globe, providing plenty of playground swapping opportunities.

Also available are 5 and 10 packs. Children use the keys to unlock mega buildings and find the Worldeez treasures hidden inside. The keys can be placed on to a Worldeez charm bracelet, which can also be collected in the range of blind bags which come in three different colours.

Worldeez is backed by a media, immersive marketing and PR campaign, which includes digital media, children’s press, YouTube influencers, TV, cinema, custom website, social, PopJam, Superawesome, mummy blogger campaigns, Nickelodeon as a supporting partner, and the launch of an exclusive Worldeez game.

HTI 01253 778 888 | www.htigroup.co.uk Licensed novelty toys and bubbles from HTI include My Little Pony, Transformers, Cars, Disney Princess, Frozen, Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, Thomas & Friends, Spider-Man, Avengers, and Shimmer & Shine. The range of pocket money offerings includes musical toys, light up balls, twirling batons and bubble buckets.

HTI’s own brand everyday toy portfolio includes toys across all major play themes, from Teamsterz vehicles, Jokes & Gags novelties, B You and My Princess girls’ gifts to Fun Sport outdoor toys, Aqua Shot water guns, bombs and blasters, Pirates, Knights, Groovy Tunes music and more in between. All artwork is regularly refreshed with hundreds of new lines added every year.

New for 2017, HTI’s Alien Invasion range comprises alien grow eggs, fizz bombs, hatchlings and alien blinkers, whilst Creepsterz offers a collection of sticky and stretchy creepy crawlies. HTI’s licensed and own-brand portfolio bubble solutions include assorted solution bottles, wands, guns and play sets. All HTI pocket money ranges are domestically stocked and feature fully branded and merchandised packaging and CDUs. 2017 also sees the launch of a range of new own-brand 4” die-cast Teamsterz vehicles, introducing a new size to the die-cast vehicles market. With die-cast body shells, free moving wheels, moulded underbody detailing and printed graphic details, the range comprises cars and city trucks designs. The extensive existing range of 3” die-cast vehicles is kept fresh with the launch of new designs twice a year, such as a 4x4, Pick-Up Truck, Sports Car, GT Racer, Dump Truck and Cement Mixer.

Toy World 40

Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

Playmobil 01268 548 111 | www.playmobil.co.uk Playmobil has a wide variety of small collectible ranges ideal for pocket money purchases.

The company has recently released 24 new figures in the popular Playmobil Fi?ures collectible range. In the new series, the 12th released since it launched in 2011, children can collect an assortment of figures, including a fairy, baker, knight, and wizard. The surprise factor associated with the range, with the contents of each bag remaining a mystery until it is opened, keeps children engaged as they try to collect all of the new figures.

Another collectible option is the Special Plus Range. Filled with a whole host of different characters, the latest range, which launched in June, contains a Dog Walker, Tooth Fairy, Boy with Go-Kart and many more.

Both Fi?ures and Special Plus are highly collectible and enjoyable on their own, but can also be used with other Playmobil sets to expand creative play options.

Character Options 01616 339 800 | www.character-online.com The latest collectible offerings from Character Options include a new pet plus a wide range of licences at pocket money price points.

Mash’ems and Fash’ems offer children the opportunity to collect, display, and play. The latest licences include Disney Emoji, Cars 3, Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy and DC SuperHero Girls.

An extension of the Mash’ems property, Hatch’ems sees kids hatching squishy dinosaurs. Kids open the egg, push the top, and then watch as a dinosaur hatches and expands in size. Each capsule is blind for an extra surprise element and there are six styles to be collected.

Another pocket money option is the Little Live Pets Lil’ Ladybugs, which scurry about like the real thing. There are 12 different Ladybugs to collect, including two rare styles, and each comes with a baby Ladybug who attaches to the mother Ladybug. Available in a CDU, the Lil’ Ladybugs are an ideal impulse purchase.

The world of Minecraft also offers pocket money options. Recently launched is Series 3, Wave 3 which features five detailed and fully articulated 3” figures to collect. Each figure also comes with its own accessory for fans to build and customise their Minecraft world.

Children can also spend their pocket money on the popular Squishy Pops range, which includes My Little Pony the Movie characters, and Disney Cars.

Magic Box Toys 01403 251 286 | www.magicboxint.com Magic Box Toys has revealed details of Zomlings Series 6, which hit shelves just in time for back to school season at the end of August. With 105 new characters to collect, including six Ultra Rare (silver) and three Limited Edition (gold) Zomlings, Series 6 is supported by a marketing campaign that includes TV, digital, social, unboxings and PR. Series 6 sees the Zomlings transported into the future with new Zom-Mobiles and Capsules, while maintaining the pocket money level price-point.

The new range, Zomlings In The Future, includes blind bag single packs, ZomMobiles – a vehicle plus Zomling (four different Zom-Mobiles with four colour variations), and Capsules containing two Zomlings (three different Capsules with four colour variations).

Fresh for Series 6, there’s also a new Starter Pack, plus a Blister Pack containing four Zomlings and four Zom-Mobiles. In addition, and to complement the lower-priced items, there’s now a wider range of non-seriesspecific toys for Zomlings fans to expand their collection with, such as the Magic Trick School, Pirate and Race Blister Packs and the Crazy School Bus. Zomlings Series 6 is available to order now from Esdevium Games, Magic Box’s toy trade partner.

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Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

Tobar 0844 573 4299 | www.tobar.co.uk As a wholesale supplier of toys, games, gifts and gadgets, Tobar offers a range of pocket money products and playground craze items. Novelties include Squeezy Cat, Mood Rings and Alien Splatter.

Available in pink, blue, orange and white, Squeezy Cat can be squeezed and pulled in all directions, always returns to its original shape and is easily stackable. Squeezy Cat is sold in a range of designs, which will drive collectability.

Tobar’s Mood Rings react to the wearer’s body temperature and change colour to reflect how they feel. Designs include a butterfly, yin and yang, owl, heart, moon, and unicorn. The ring bands are adjustable so they can fit a wide range of fingers.

Rounding out the company’s pocket money offering is Alien Splatter, which comes in a variety of colours. The liquidfilled extra-terrestrial is shaped like a cartoon alien character complete with protruding dark eyes. When squeezed, the figure will bulge and expand in the hand, and when thrown against a wall it will splat and stick to the surface.

H Grossman 01416 132 525 | www.ozbozz.com

Vivid Imaginations 01473 322 000 | www.vividtoysandgames.co.uk Following the new game Disney Emoji Blitz, and As Told

By YouTube content, where fans have notched up over 100 million views, kids can express themselves with Vivid’s Disney Emoji launch range. The range will include the #ChatBubble blind purchase option, which includes two Emoji figures in a stackable mini container, the #ChatPack five figure pack, and #ChatCollection storage tin with exclusive figures. Disney fans can collect their favourite characters from popular franchises Disney Princess, Frozen, Pixar and Classic. Each character has four interchangable Emoji expressions, and kids can look out for the rare and limited edition #Squishi & #Goldi finishes.

Ooshies, squishy mini figures of licensed characters, also double up as pencil toppers. Kids can collect all of their favourite heroes and villains and hunt for the rare and limited edition Ooshies, including gold-plated, sparkle, furry and glow in the dark finishes. Licences include Marvel, DC Comics, WWE, TMNT and Cars 3 with new waves coming through for autumn/winter 17, along with new Dreamworks & Pixar collections.

The new Crayola Silly Scents range of scented markers and crayons allows school returners to share and swap their favourite scents and enjoy the aromas of their markers and crayons, as well as their creations. Scents include cherry, fruit punch, beach, marshmallow and liquorice, plus many more. With more Silly Scents products planned for spring/summer 18 and beyond, retailers are advised to watch out for new scents and an expanded Silly Scents range.

HGL offers many traditional pocket money toys and has noted a particular upsurge in the demand for marbles, resulting in increased sales of approximately 1000% year on year. From Yo-Yos to water wrigglers, from bubble wands to skipping ropes, traditional to licensed, Grossman has something for everyone.

2017 sees the company double its new pocket money lines, including licensed items such as Power Rangers, as well as new Hatch It Grow Alien Eggs. Magic Fizz Pods remain popular, especially Mermaid Magic. HGL offers a wide range of balls, including light up balls which illuminate as they hit a surface, offering options such as fairies, unicorns, trolls, aliens and dinosaurs. On the licensing front, HGL offers bubble wands from Power Rangers and Emoji, as well as the Emoji fun hopper and whoopee.

More designs have been added to HGL’s fidget spinners range, as the craze continues. The company is introducing many new lines, with pocket money items at 2016 prices to help retailers beat the rise in costs.

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Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

Click Distribution 01604 877 888 | www.clickdistribution.co.uk Panini’s FIFA 365 Trading Card Game launched in August with significant promotional support behind it, including a TV campaign that has run from 26th August to 6th September.

Accompanying the Trading Card Game is the FIFA 365 Sticker Collection, which will be available from the end of September.

Other Sticker Collections arriving from Panini include My Little Pony, which will support the movie release on 20th October, as well as Power Rangers and Justice League.

Disney’s Olaf’s Frozen Adventure is coming to cinemas in the run up to Christmas, and Panini will also be supporting this release with a sticker collection.

Topps’ Match Attax launches 28th September and will be supported by a marketing campaign consisting of TV advertising, nationwide sampling, swap shops, press and social media advertising.

Alongside Topps’ Premier League Match Attax Collection is the UEFA Champions League Sticker Collection which goes on sale on the same date. Other key collections include the Shopkins World Vacation, the Shimmer and Shine Sticker Collections, and Star Wars Journey to the Last Jedi Sticker and Trading Cards. This trading card game will launch early September, and the Sticker Collection will launch on the 15th December to coincide with the film release.

Click’s own range of collectible 3D keychains now includes Nickelodeon’s Shimmer & Shine and Paw Patrol. Both properties will soon be welcoming new episodes. A number of other 3D keychains are also available including Disney, Five Night’s at Freddy’s, and many more from Just Toys.

Peterkin 01162 543 645 | www.peterkin.co.uk More than just a toy, Mokuru tests the focus, dexterity and imagination of users. Crafted out of beech wood into a simple yet eye-catching design, players can flip, tip and spin one Mokuru or more.

Designer Masakazu Node has worked hard to create the perfect size, shape and materials for Mokuru, and the toy is now distributed in the UK by Peterkin.

Small enough to fit in a pocket or a purse, Mokuru is ideal for use as a desktop toy or competitive game. Players can refine their techniques until they become a Mokuru master.

Proven to be a hit in Japan and Hong Kong, Mokuru is often played in offices or at home. Beginners can simply tip over the toy, let it flip and catch it with their fingers, or flip it to draw a triangle or square. Once adept at Mokuru, users can progress to using five Mokuru at once with one hand.

Lego 01753 495 000 | www.lego.com Kids can play out their favourite scenes from The Lego Ninjago Movie with the new limited-edition collection of minifigure characters. The collection features two different versions of hero Lloyd and three versions of the villain Garmadon, plus new versions of Nya and Kai. This series includes Kai Kendo, Spinjitzu Training Nya, Lloyd, Jay Walker, Cole, Zane, Lloyd Garmadon, Master Wu, Sushi Chef, N-Pop Girl, GPL Tech, Shark Army Octopus, Shark Army Great White, Shark Army General #1, Shark Army Angler, Garmadon, Volcano Garmadon, Flashback Garmadon, Misako and Gong & Guitar Rocker.

Each minifigure comes with one or more accessories, plus a display plate and a collector’s leaflet.

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Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

Brainstorm 01200 445 113 | www.brainstormltd.co.uk Beebeez from Brainstorm are available in an array of colours. When inverted and dropped onto a hard surface, the rubber gadget pops back up in the air.

Collectible StikBots inspire children to get creative. As well as complete sets, StikBots are available individually so fans can collect them and make stopframe animations using the StikBots app.

The poseable Magno-Z figures feature patented magnetic connectors compatible with any metal surface. There are over 50 to collect, with six colours and nine different characters. They can be used to decorate or accessorise metal objects, and stick together to create jewellery or hair decorations.

Schleich 01279 870 000 | www.schleich-s.com/en The new Pintabian breed has joined the Schleich’s Horse Club collection and horse lovers can use their pocket money to collect the Pintabian Foal, Pintabian Mare and Pintabian Stallion, all of which feature the hand-painted detail that Schleich is renowned for.

Also new for this year is the skewbald Icelandic pony stallion and a chestnut-coloured Haflinger family with a mare, stallion and foal.

Added to all of this is a line-up of new Wild Life and Farm World figures. New animals to collect include the Black Panther, Sloth, Rooster and Labrador Retriever.

For growing collections, Schleich also offers a range of playsets to complete the play experience.

Jumbo Games 01707 289 289 | www.jumbo.eu Jumbo Games’ pocket money offering includes Giant Playing Cards featuring pre-school favourites Peppa Pig, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam, and Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom.

Jumbo’s Giant Playing Cards include 36 super-sized playing cards featuring characters from the programmes across its licensed portfolio. Each pack of pre-school playing cards provides four traditional games to play with friends and family.

The games include family classics such as Snap, Pairs, Happy Families and Chase the Ace, brought to life through childfriendly customisation that puts the focus on the characters from each licensed property.

Golden Bear 01952 608 308 | www.goldenbeartoys.com Golden Bear’s My First JCB range is a colourful, tough pre-school construction vehicle collection based on real life JCB vehicles. Joining the range this autumn are the Muddy Diggers Water Squirters.

Designed to fit into little hands, they feature mud splats that vanish in warm water, making them ideal for use in the bath or in the paddling pool. Available at a pocket money price point, there are three different characters to collect. The Muddy Diggers Water Squirters sit under the My First JCB banner – the company’s top 15 licensed pre-school vehicle brand.

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NEW

NEW

PUZZLES NEW

NEW

NEW

NEW

NEW

Battle Arena

Floor Display with Video Screen

Twin Pack 8 Styles

Watch the o at Promo Vide m kidicraft.co

8 Styles

Wristbands

8 Styles

Kidicraft Limited Tel : +44 (0)1282 505988 Email : sales@kidicraft.com

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Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

DKL Marketing 01604 678 780 | www.dkl.co.uk Hama Bead Small Blister Packs come in six themes. Each pack contains a pegboard, ironing paper and beads. Packs comes in a CDU of 24 pieces, or can be purchased individually.

The Plus-Plus range offers a tube option with 100 pieces. The tubes can be purchased individually or as part of a CDU. The Breyer Mini Whinnies CDU contains 48 assorted pieces in individual foil bags.

Children can seek out the Treasure Horse hidden in the display.

The PlayMais One lines include 70 pieces, instructions and accessories, and can be purchased individually or from CDUs, while the Scentco Scented Stationery range offers swapping opportunities.

Spin Master 01628 535 000 | www.spinmastertoys.co.uk Spin Master launched its range of Hatchimals Colleggtibles this year. Sales have already surpassed expectations and over the next few months retailers can expect further introductions to the popular pocket-money line.

Hatchimals Colleggtibles come inside small, speckled eggs. Children hold the egg and rub the heart on the shell; when it changes colour from purple to pink, the egg is ready to hatch. Kids then gently crack the egg to discover the Hatchimal inside, with its glittery wings. There are over 70 Hatchimals Colleggtibles to collect in season one, with ultra-rare species to seek out.

A collector’s map introduces kids to the home of Colleggtibles, with landmarks like Giggle Grove, Lilac Lake, Fabula Forest and more. Also available is the One Dozen Egg Carton, containing 12 surprise Colleggtibles that can be stored in the pink container.

The Hatchery Nursery playset, with its Hatching Tree, features 35 places to play and display, including a spinning mobile, shower, slide and swings - room for an entire collection.

In addition to these new product introductions, Hatchimals Day will take place on 6th October 2017.

Epoch making toys 08435 574 062 | www.sylvanianfamilies.net.uk Epoch has introduced new and improved Aquabeads Mini Fun Pack and Mini Sparkle Pack which are ideal pocket money buys. The sets come complete with everything kids need to get started on their Aquabeading projects; a layout tray, template sheet, sprayer and over 200 beads are in each pack.

Aquabeads has also expanded its Theme Refill category with new refill products including the Tea Time Set, which has over 330 beads.

The Sylvanian Families range offers retailers ideal pocket money purchase options, including the Baby Carry Case sets. Each set contains a Sylvanian baby, a bottle or dummy, plus an additional accessory, all within a transparent carry case with handle.

Toy World 50

Learning Resources 01553 819 380 | www.LearningResources.co.uk Playfoam, the squashy sculpting material, is an ideal solution to mess-free creative play. The sculpting beads are non-toxic and never dry out so designs can be shaped, squashed down and started all over again. There’s no preparation with Playfoam and, thanks to its non-stick formula, no cleaning up. Designed for ages three and above, Playfoam is available in a variety of themes and sizes from POP displays to pocket money priced packs.

Playfoam Go! features an illustrated travel-sized container including eight colourful Playfoam bricks.

Nine compartments keep colours separate and offer a space for colour mixing.

Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

GP Flair 0208 643 0320 | www.flairplc.co.uk Glimmies’ new Rainbow Friends collection has additional features to discover. Not only do the figures light up in the dark, but the light also changes colour when they are placed next to one another. At a pocket money price point, the single blister pack is an ideal entry point into the collectible range.

Shopkins is now in its 8th series. The World Vacation theme has seen the Shopkins and Shoppies go globetrotting, and children can join their adventures with the collectible packs, playsets and Shoppies dolls. They can also collect and connect the room capsules from collectible packs to create a city skyline.

Also from the world of Shopkins is the Cutie Cars range which offers 37 Shopkins themed die-cast cars, each with their own matching mini Shopkin.

The key Single Pack line has 24 styles to collect across four different car models.

A new Putrid Power theme has been introduced for Grossery Gang Series 3, and with it are 150 new characters to collect. Grouped into seven sub-gangs, surprise packs containing special big mouth biters and metallic clean team editions are also available.

Another line under the Moose umbrella of properties is Despicable Me Mineez, an ideal offering for fans of the film trilogy. There are 75 characters to collect, to drive repeat purchases.

Added to all of this is a range of blind bags from Just Play which have one of 12 characters hidden inside, including characters from the Emoji Movie range.

The heritage In My Pocket range includes new animals with the Jungle themed blind bags. PJ Masks and Lion Guard blind bags are both refreshed with new characters to collect.

With decades of success behind it, the Original Slinky remains a cult classic as well as a strong pocket money option, and can be juggled from hand to hand or watched as it tumbles down steep slopes or stairs.

Funrise 01908 555 640 | www.funrise.com As master toy licensee for Luna Petunia, Funrise has created an assortment of collectible figures scaled to fit the mini playsets and larger Deluxe Treehouse Manor playset. With all the main characters to collect, these 8cm figures will be available in single or double blister packs.

The Tonka Tinys range of vehicles continues to grow with new styles packaged in signature blind box garages. Tonka Tinys are also available to collect in three packs, containing two on-display vehicles and one hidden vehicle. Also in the collection is the die-cast assortment of 1:64 scale vehicles including a Tow Truck, SWAT Car, and Vintage Bike.

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Jazwares 0203 598 5119 | www.jazwares.com Jazwares has launched a new Roblox toy line that brings to life the digital game. Inspired by some of the most popular games, characters, and developers in Roblox’s user-generated universe, the launch follows Roblox posting its highest monthly player count in December.

Reflecting the imaginations of the game’s users, the selection of playsets and characters is based on the creations of some of the most popular community developers, including a range of core packs that include a figure, accessories, and a collector’s checklist.

Characters include Circuit Breaker, the Blox-breaking android; Captain Rampage, who keeps his mateys close, but his treasure closer; Mr Bling Bling, with his flashy smile and sharp suit, and Tim7775, Redcliff Paragon - the enchanted Knight of Redcliff who descends upon Robloxia to do battle in the great Kobloxian war.

Animal Jam, created in partnership with National Geographic, is an online playground for kids who love animals and the outdoors. The toy range brings this digital world to life with collectible pets, plush and playsets. Included in Jazwares’ new Animal Jam toy collection are vehicles for the pets to enjoy, as well as customisable Dens, and the Series 2 and 3 collectible Adopt a Pets, which come with accessories to mix and match across the entire range.

All toys come with codes to unlock exclusive content in the online game too, and so appeal to existing fans of the digital world as well as attracting new players.

Pocket Money Toys & Collectibles

Trends UK 01295 768 078 | www.trendsuk.co.uk

MGA Entertainment 0845 0533 333 | www.mgae.com MGA Entertainment has created and launched several collectible brands into the market, including L.O.L Surprise! Dolls and, most recently, Awesome Little Green Men. L.O.L Surprise! Dolls have launched Series 2 for autumn/winter, following a sell-out Series 1. Combining unboxing with the anticipation of surprise, each of the product’s seven layers reveals a different treat, including emoji sticker, accessory, and the L.O.L. Surprise! Doll.

The launch of L.O.L Surprise! Dolls involved channelling activity through influencers as well as a three-stage event launch in London. Over 1.6m video views were generated across the digital landscape, including two videos with YouTube’s Tiana from Toys AndMe. Awesome Little Green Men is a military collectible that combines blind-boxed soldiers and vehicles with a gameplay experience. The three SKUs, Blind Bag, Starter Pack and Deluxe Battle Pack come with characters boasting different stats - users are encouraged to build the strongest troops to win the battle - with Battle Packs featuring everything needed to start.

Each blind bag comes with one figure, one dog-tag chain, new recruits poster and a game guide. The Deluxe Battle Packs also include a vehicle and additional dog tag chains and characters. Awesome Little Green Men is being launched in the UK with full PR and TV support, including influencer campaigns and footfall sampling. Awesome Little Green Men Blind Bags represent box crates, and the Deluxe Battle Packs show characters in the vehicle for strong shelf presence.

Wilton Bradley 01626 835 400 | www.wiltonbradley.co.uk The yoyo has been around since 500 BC, but since then the tricks have grown more impressive and the tech behind the toy has improved. Now, Wilton Bradley has joined forces with YoYoFactory to act as UK distributor for its line of yoyos. Whatever the level of expertise, YoYoFactory has a yoyo to suit every skill level or desired style. The TenTrick range is ideal for beginners, while the high grade aluminium DV888 Yo-Yo, or the F.A.S.T 201, are suitable for the more experienced yoyo-er.

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Trends UK is launching a new range of slither.io toys available from Q3. The slither.io blind bag collection includes collectible bendable slither creatures, including rare and ultra-rare options. The bendable slithers also come in a three pack with two mystery slithers. Rounding out the line are Mystery mini Slither.io that come in hexagonal pots, blind box bendable hanger keychains, and 8” bendable slither.io plush.

Zing Toys’ Every Day Play range includes new skill toys. Metal Chucks are new to the Thumb Chucks range. Looking like solid metal, the Metal Chucks are still soft to play with. Tumblstix challenge users to balance and catch the cylinder smoothly during 360 degree rolls and 180 degree flicks, while the Zing Ring, a ball on a string and a catcher ring, puts coordination to the test.

Klixx is a chain link of coloured widgets that snap together with a click, small enough to fit in a pocket yet versatile enough to be worn as a bracelet.

Finally, Zing Toy’s stackable spinner range features coloured LED lights.

The EDP range includes two blade Spinzipz, and three blade Spinbladez.

Panini 01604 877 888 | www.paninigroup.com Following on from the success of its first two collections, Panini has introduced the new Fifa 365 Adrenalyn Xl Trading Card Collection for 2018, which launched at the end of August.

The collection features special and original content including a selection of the world’s best teams and clubs including Europe, the Americas and Asia, more players, dedicated info with exclusive sections and special cards, new artwork and design, and the online challenge: by entering the code on the back of the cards, users can play, collect and trade.

There are a total of 468 cards in the collection, including special, foil and transparent cards. Collections can be kicked off with a gold starter pack including a collector’s album, game board, and 18 trading cards plus a limited edition card. New for 2018 is an extension of SKUs. In addition to standard packets and starter-packs, the collection will feature a multi-pack (five packets and a limited edition card), plus two lines of tins; pocket and classic, again with exclusive limited edition cards. In addition, the collection will feature premium packets which contain a mixture of regular, special and limited edition cards, plus a premium gold packet, featuring a premium packet, two exclusive premium gold limited edition cards and a further exclusive card for the online challenge. Each gold packet is mounted on a backing board.

Panini’s FIFA 365 Adrenalyn XL Trading cards will be backed by a TV advertising campaign, in-store FSDUs, extensive POS, and covermounts on Strike-It! magazine.

Tel: +49 (0) 4221-97302 69 service@legler-online.com

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08/08/2017 16:48

Viewpoint Amazon threat or opportunity?

Jim Hawker Co-founder of Threepipe agency: a team of PR, social, content, SEO and paid media experts

A change is gonna come

David Ripley David is currently EMEA category director for Toys, Nursery, Sporting Goods & Pet Care at Groupon. His long career as a toy buyer has included stints at a number of the industry’s largest retail accounts.

I

t’s rare that a day goes by that I don’t have a conversation about Amazon. Way back in 2000, I was fortunate to have spent a year working at Amazon and to have seen the embryonic stages of what it was to become. Clearly it was a very different business back then, and I don’t think many (other than Jeff Bezos) would have predicted what it has become.

Amazon is both a huge opportunity and a huge threat for so many businesses. Just see the downward swing in a competitor company’s share price when Amazon announces its impending arrival. The positive share bounce that Amazon enjoyed, combined with the losses of its competitors when it announced its acquisition of Wholefoods practically paid for the whole deal. I would certainly be shaking in my boots if I were at Hello Fresh at the moment.

Interestingly though, the main drive for Amazon to purchase Wholefoods was not just to enter the grocery sector but to purchase the distribution centres that Wholefoods owned in metropolitan locations.

T

he Summer media circus was dominated

by Sky’s campaign for the seventh series of the globally successful and ever popular Game of Thrones.

The show has built a huge global fan base after airing the first series in 2011 and, for such a large franchise, I am surprised that there is not more licensed product to support the level of interest from the 18+ market.

From thrones to frowns (sorry) with the performance of the main entertainment summer blockbusters: Spider-Man, Despicable Me 3 and Cars 3 have failed to live up to their hype and anticipated consumer product sales - despite the build up and marketing dollars spent, all three have failed to score highly on toy sales.

Maybe after many years of summer

Amazon’s core prime membership is affluent urban professionals and these distribution centres will allow Amazon to deliver products faster, to an audience that keeps on spending more money with the company.

More and more of our client conversations turn to Amazon and they are very wide ranging, from how they can re-balance sales away from Amazon, to better understanding the company’s media ecosystem and how they can work across it to drive incremental sales.

Just in the last week we have seen huge product innovation announcements with the launch of messaging services and a social product that looks very much like Instagram. This of course is all on the back of a huge year in which Amazon has completely dominated and driven the voice search market through its own hardware development, with Alexa, and started to push own label more aggressively.

Only a relatively small estimated $1.5 billion of media spend goes Amazon’s way, compared to $79 billion to Google and $27 billion to

blockbuster saturation we are seeing the general public switch off from the standard marketing hype as we reach the tipping point of alternative screen viewing.

Toys R Us wisely hedged its bets with a mix of Cars and Power Rangers on its feature wall, and judging by the NPD data for July, backing Power Rangers, which was released in cinemas back in March, appears to have been a smart bet. With the growth of ‘on demand’ viewing, it could be that customers are choosing not to frequent their local cinema for the short period that a movie is screened and as a result it is taking longer for brand awareness and the subsequent demand for product to feed through into commercial sales.

For any toy companies failing to meet their minimum guarantees on

Toy World 56

Facebook. However, this looks set to change.

Agencies are starting to respond by creating dedicated Amazon teams and offerings, which makes sense to me. Working with Amazon is very different to every other platform and the pace of innovation requires dedicated thinking. The amount of money being spent directly with Amazon Media Services is rapidly increasing and unlike Google, Facebook and Snapchat, the company was nowhere (visible at least) to be seen at the recent Cannes festival, where other media companies were falling over themselves to court agencies and brands.

Amazon does things differently, and looks set to be the first trillion dollar business. Who will stop it?

The only threat that people are now predicting is the US Government, as it becomes more concerned about the monopoly of power the company has across multiple sectors.

Love it or loathe it, you have to be impressed with it.

movie licences, I am sure there will be some interesting conversations about how licensing companies should be driving increasingly fragmented and smarter marketing campaigns to provide improved support to licensees in the future. For those interested in the future state of TV, viewing a report by the Statista Bulletin ‘The (uncertain) future of traditional television’ is a very insightful read.

Perceived change is the reality and we live in an age of declining viewers, increasing media fragmentation and a desire to drive efficiency through aggregation - now there is a challenging paradox for the media experts and marketing departments around the world.

9248 Drago & Thunderclaw 9247 Astrid & Stormfly

9249 Eret with 4-Shot Firing Ballista

9243 Berk Fortress

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9246 Hiccup & Toothless

9245 Gobber with Catapult

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Feature

Radio Control

Automatic pilots

With the Radio Control peak selling season approaching, Casey Goodman speaks to suppliers to find out what this year’s key trends are, and how new technological developments are influencing the category.

T

he Radio Control category has long been a staple of the toy market, but the sector has received a major boost in recent years through developments in the drone area.

When drones initially came onto the retail market, they were predominantly targeted at professional, adult enthusiasts, and the eye-wateringly expensive models seemed far more at home in tech retail channels than the mainstream toy trade. Fast forward a couple of years and there is now a new generation of drones, many of which are far more toyetic and suitable for a younger demographic.

One supplier which has gone down this route is Bladez Toyz, which announced a partnership with Mattel for a new Hot Wheels RC Bladez Drone Racerz range earlier this year. Keiran Peoples, European sales manager for Bladez Toyz, told Toy World: “Our Hot Wheels Drone Racerz offers something new to the category, giving the consumer a product which has much more play value than just a general RC flying toy or car.

The 3 in 1 play element gives Hot Wheels fans the full experience of speed with an RC Car, the thrill of racing on Hot Wheels track, and the excitement of Drone Racing. The line-up for 2018 includes a new price entry Racing Quadcopter, a feature pack off-road RC that works on all terrain, as well as in the air and on water. We will also be introducing real Racing Drones, with our new Hot Wheels Stingray, which will come with launch ramps and racing gates.”

Keiran also believes that FPV (first person view) and VR (virtual reality) will become increasingly prevalent within the Drone category, driven by the rise in popularity of Drone Racing. Keiran added: “This gives us great scope to extend the Hot Wheels Drone Racerz range with new

developments using FPV/VR coming through for 2018.”

Market leading radio control supplier Spin Master has also extended its range to encompass cutting-edge drone technology. Ranjit Dhutti, senior brand manager for Air Hogs, told Toy World: “FPV Drone Racing will deliver huge excitement to the category, driven by DR1, which has proven itself as a legitimate contender in the competitive racing sports category with a growing international fan base. This autumn, DR1 and Air Hogs are encouraging kids to share their races and experiences through the record and share function of the product. Drone racing is a budding sport, and Air Hogs will bring compelling content to kids of all ages on traditional TV, digital, and social channels to help extend drone racing beyond its community. Every kid interested in drones needs a starting point.”

Ranjit also explained how consumers are always on the lookout for products which are a bit different from the norm and take RC to the next level: “Suppliers are always looking for the best way to satisfy the speed, stunt, and adrenaline consumers are looking for – the key is to deliver it in an original and exciting way, incorporating the latest technology. We’re very excited about our race programme this year, as it incorporates FPV, which we know kids are excited about. With our Air Hogs DR1 drones, we have created starter drones and a graduated system of products that let kids race and fly at high speeds, but are still accessible. We’ve also teamed up with some of the best drone pilots, to teach kids how to race, perform fun stunts, and make the most of a course. Any real-world environment can become a race course and we encourage kids to be creative and build their own courses and obstacles to fly through.”

There are plenty of other exciting developments

Air Hogs Thunder Trax by Spin Master

Toy World 58

in the drone sector: Alpha Animation, which has long been a force in the radio control category in the US and Asian markets, has entered the UK with a selection of innovative lines, including the Drone Force range, led by the eye-catching Angler Attack.

Vivid has launched the Sky Viper, while Toy State is also aligning with the excitement around drone racing with its official Drone Racing League range.

With all the latest advancements in the drone area, it is easy to forget that more traditional lines still account for a huge swathe of the radio control market; big box vehicles at competitive prices and licensed versions of iconic vehicles will never go out of fashion. In this area too, there is plenty of scope to deliver action and excitement in a fresh way; a particularly innovative new launch comes from Wilton Bradley, whose Monster Smash Ups will be TV advertised in the run-up to Christmas.

Encapsulating timeless elements of vehicle play – Monster Trucks combined with a good oldfashioned ‘smashing things up’ vibe – the line received a great reaction when it was unveiled at Toy Fair, and the ‘race, smash, eject and rebuild’ play pattern is bound to prove popular with its target audience. A.B.Gee offers a broad selection of radio control items to suit every taste, all of which are featured in a comprehensive 28 page catalogue which can be downloaded from the company’s website, while Toy State’s iconic Nikko brand celebrates 60 years of success in the radio control arena this year.

And look out for Spin Master’s Air Hogs Thunder Trax, which seamlessly transforms from a tank to a high performance boat - which child could fail to be impressed?

Over the next few pages, Toy World highlights a selection of the new radio control lines which will be entering the market over the coming months.

Radio Control

Tobar 0844 573 4299 | www.tobar.co.uk

Little Tikes 08450 533 333 | www.littletikes.co.uk

Tobar has an exciting range of radio control vehicles for 2017. Lines include the RC Street Trooper Scorpion and Desert Rebel Volkswagen Beetle, which the company predicts will be big winners this year.

The RC Street Trooper Scorpion is a remote control three-wheeler bike with a rising tail and compact dart launcher. With just a touch of a button, the Street Trooper Scorpion can shoot up to five soft-tipped darts at any opposing target. Children can press the transform button again to return to bike mode.

Another new line is the Desert Rebel Volkswagen Beetle.

With full function radio control and real coil spring suspension, these themed vehicles are what the survivors of a future conflict rely upon, being tough enough to endure survival in the Badlands.

Following the success of My First Flyer, the brand new safe and easy-to-use My First Drone is suitable for pre-school children and above. The drone is directed though a simple, one-touch remote control to land, turn and stop, plus advanced auto-hover technology will keep it suspended in mid-air for easy flying. This is all supported by a heavyweight TV campaign. My First Flyer remains a popular choice for pre-school children and above. It is the only helicopter for pre-schoolers that flies, turns, and lands with a one-touch control, making it easy to use for the youngest fliers.

Little Tikes Wheelz unveils a unique range of fast and fun vehicles, supported by TV advertising, including the new Tyre Twister Lights.

Like the original Tyre Twister, the brand new Tyre Twister Lights is powered by a RC car. The vehicle goes back and forth, spinning 360 degrees, doing back flips, all with flashing light and sound action.

Children can also enjoy racing the RC Bumper Cars 2pk with a friend, as they drive the easy-to-steer remote control to crash into their opponent and launch the driver into the air.

Vivid 01483 449 944 | www.vividtoysandgames.co.uk

Wilton Bradley 01626 835 400 | www.wiltonbradley.com Launched at London Toy Fair this year, Monster Smash-Ups are three high speed rebuildable RC Trucks: Viper, Raptor, and Rhino, which can be used alone and together.

Each truck has a tilt-turn movement with realistic suspension, and a high speed of up to 15km/h. When the trucks collide, the driver launches from the ejector seat. Whatever the impact, the trucks are rebuildable, so can be crashed and rebuilt time and time again.

The re-chargeable battery allows up to thirty minutes run time, and each Monster Smash Up comes complete with a driver, charger, RC controller, flags, cones, and decals to customise the truck.

Wilton Bradley is TV advertising the line extensively from October onwards, supported by a full PR campaign scheduled for the fourth quarter using influential bloggers, children’s, and traditional media.

Autumn/winter 2017 sees Vivid launch Sky Viper, the US brand, coming to the UK for the first time. An all-encompassing drone brand, Sky Viper gives children the chance to experience high-performance drones at accessible price points. With the customisable Flight Assist controls, children can tailor the challenge to suit their ability; from one-touch auto-take off, hover and land, to fully manual flight controls.

Children can perform stunts, including flips, barrel-rolls and spins, at the touch of a button with the Sky Viper Stunt Drone.

The Sky Viper Streaming Drone lets children take to the skies, streaming and recording HD photos and videos direct to a smart device or Micro-SD card (sold separately). There is also the Sky Viper Streaming Drone w/FPV, using a first person view headset, where children feel like they’re flying on-board. Finally, the Spider Drone, official merchandise for the Spider-Man: Homecoming movie, lets children fly just like Spider_Man with an exact replica of the drone featured in the movie.

Sky Viper will be supported with a strong marketing campaign, encompassing a range of TV, digital, and online activity targeting kids, teens, and adults across a variety of platforms.

Toy World 60

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Radio Control

Spin Master 01628 535 000 | www.spinmastertoys.co.uk Spin Master’s Air Hog range sports some of the most exciting product in RC this autumn with the introduction of two new DR1 Race Drones and the Air Hogs Thunder Trax to its ever-expanding portfolio.

Air Hogs promises retailers the hottest drones supported by partnerships and marketing activity to support sales towards the Christmas selling season.

Drone racing careers begin with the agile DR1 Micro Race Drone.

Beginner and advanced modes and easy-to-use features make this drone ideal for indoor racing. The tough frame and easy stunt button provide the ultimate indoor drone racing experience, allowing children to fly it in any space.

Children can get even closer to experiencing professional drone racing with the Air Hogs DR1 FPV Race Drone. This high-speed drone has authentic first person view (FPV), and can race and perform flips at high speeds with an easy stunt button, and can live-stream the race with the 150-degree wide angle camera view. Its durable crash resistant frame and ease of use features (auto takeoff and landing) mean anyone can race like a pro.

Air Hogs Thunder Trax is an all-terrain amphibious RC vehicle which can be seamlessly transformed by the push of a button from tank to highperformance boat.

Its strong rugged build quality can tackle any environment in any season. Thick treads maintain control on grass, gravel, mud, water, and even snow. Remote 2.4GHz communication puts children in control, and easy USB charging puts them back on the road faster.

Simba Smoby 01274 765 030 | www.simba-dickie-group.de/en Following the Cars 3 film debut, Simba Dickie’s movie range has a full range of radio control cars including Lightning McQueen and new characters from the film, starting with the 1:32 scale to 1:24 scales.

At scale 1:24, the RC Turbo Racers include Lightning McQueen, Cruz, and Jackson; all available with full driving function, a turbo speed function, and multi-directional control.

The RC Feature Ultimate Lightning McQueen is 1:16 scale, complete with light and sound effects, a drift function, donut spins feature, and smoking function. 1:16 RC Ultimate Jackson Storm and Cruz are also available.

Transformers: The Last Knight hit cinema screens earlier this summer, and Simba also launched a range of die-cast, radio control cars, and feature mechanic. Robot Warriors include light and sound and can transform from vehicle into robot form.

Toy State 01274 765 030 | www.toystate.com The new year will mark Nikko’s 60th year of success as the largest toy-grade radio control manufacturer in the world. Nikko’s radio-controlled toys are tested under the harshest conditions to ensure they have the quality and endurance to keep up with the most extreme demands.

Nikko’s Elite line brings speed and high performance. With Nikko’s Special Function line, children can experience the latest in innovation. From amphibious vehicles to exclusive gyro technology, kids can perform unbelievable stunts and tackle almost any terrain. One of the line’s highlights is the Psycho Gyro, which features exclusive Gyro Stunt technology. Children can spin, drive, and stunt on one or two wheels by just pressing one of the controller buttons. The high grip tires allow for high performance traction both indoors and out. Children can take full control and create extreme stunts with 360 spins. Or, they can choose the VelociTrax, which features a full-function remote control action with fast and futuristic styling. The 360-degree spins and ultra-maneuverability allows children to race through most terrains and over obstacles. Nikko licences include Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Citroen, and Volkswagen, as well as proprietary designs.

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Radio Control

Alpha Animation & Toys 00353 673 800 | www.auldeytoys.us Drone Force is the first line of RC Drones designed specifically for the younger flight enthusiasts, aimed at children aged 8+. The core DNA of these creature-inspired drones is a durable, Exoskeleton cage for maximum crash protection, they all feature easy-to-use controllers with intuitive buttons and levers, as well as auto, one touch takeoff, and landing for the beginner flyer.

The collection consists of four lines, and leading the range is Morph Zilla. This ape inspired, multi-functional drone delivers innovative design and functionality. It can drive in ape motion before morphing into action and flying in drone mode. Simple to use, capable of transforming between drive and fly mode in just one click, the Morph Zilla can also perform acrobatic stunts via the stable and intuitive flight control.

Other products include the Angler Attack, which features breathing and flash lighting luminescent LED and glow effects, lighting up in flight and creating an amazing appearance when flown in low light. The Stinger, an insect looking drone, is perfect for indoor flying, with its lightweight and safe design.

Another key product in the collection is Vulture Strike, a distinctive blue drone that is capable of dual missile fire and can launch missiles in flight using its infrared targeting.

While many advanced drones have cameras and complicated wi-fi enabled features, Drone Force is designed so children get the feel that they are using a cutting-edge drone, but one that is easy for them to use and play with right out of the box.

Bladez Toyz 02392 658 259 | www.bladeztoyz.co.uk Hot Wheels RC Drone Racerz officially launches this month with the Drone & Vehicle Set landing in stores and offering Hot Wheels fans 3-in-1 vehicle play with everything they need to fly, connect, and drive.

Compatibility with Hot Wheels track is a bonus with this innovative new range, as players are encouraged to create stunt challenges and video to share on social media.

An addition to the Drone Racerz line-up is the fast to learn and fast to fly Stingray Racing Drone. At 14cm in size, this easy to fly drone features top grade technology, altitude control, auto hover, take off and land, and comes with impact resistant and safe protected rotor blades.

The set also includes two racing gates and a launch station for added flying fun.

More Drone Racerz items, including accessory sets to drive collectability, are in development for 2018. Drone Racerz will be supported in the run up to Christmas with online marketing and PR to target Hot Wheels fans.

Elsewhere in the Bladez RC portfolio, new characters are being introduced into the Star Wars inflatables collection ahead of the release of The Last Jedi, including the first ever Stormtrooper and a new version of bestseller R2-D2. A 1:1 scale BB-8, sitting at 67cm tall, is also now available so children can have their own life size droid with sound effects whizzing around their home.

Fans of Despicable Me 3 can choose from radio control inflatables of Tom, Mel, and Fluffy.

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Radio Control

A.B.Gee of Ripley 01773 570 444 | www.abgee.co.uk A.B.Gee has a range of Remote Control cars, drones, helicopters, boats, and buggies, all carefully chosen to give the maximum amount of fun for both the complete novice or a more advanced user. The 1:8 scale Slayer Buggy can reach a top speed of 20km/h, has independent suspension, full function 2.4Ghz remote control, a super tough poly-carbonate injection moulded body, and a powerful 7.4v Li-Po rechargeable battery, suitable for any budding off road racer.

A.B.Gee also offers a comprehensive range of 1:12, 1:14 and 1:18 scale, featuring famous branded models from Rastar like Ferrari, Bugatti, Audi, Bentley, Range Rover, and more.

The company also has its own exclusive brand: Rotorz, featuring a range of high quality, easy to fly drones, again available in a variety of sizes.

These feature packed drones are all 2.4Ghz and come with LED lights, HD video cameras, 4GB SD card, six axis gyroscope stability, and a clever auto return feature.

With years of remote control experience, A.B.Gee’s range of retail focused products is backed up by excellent customer service, and low carriage paid charges.

Jazwares 0203 598 5119 | www.jazwares.com Distributed by Jazwares, the WowWee CHiPPiES are playful and interactive RC puppies, available from October 2017.

Children can pet their heads for different reactions including sniffs, barks, puppy kisses, and even a sneeze. They can also use the remote control to make the CHiPPiES dance, sing, chase their tail, or tell them which way to roll.

CHiPPiES can explore rooms on their own, or guard it from intruders using their sensors, and they can even sing together as a pack. The CHiPPiES are smaller in size than the original CHiP robot dog, and feature bright LED eyes, posable hind legs, along with playful sounds and animations. CHiPPiES are suitable for children aged five years and up.

Trends UK 01295 768078 | www.trendsuk.co.uk Trends UK is introducing the new action robot Xtrem Bots range in the UK. Already a huge hit in Spain, The Xtrem robot range comes with a wealth of features as well as lights and sounds.

Suitable for ages five and up, the Xtrem Bots are operated with a remote control or hand gestures. Animated LED eyes express personality and the robots’ moods. The robots are easy to have fun with straight out of the box, and they also have more advanced programmable features, teaching input and output skills, and ensuring there is longevity of play. The Trooper Bot even shoots five darts out of its movable arm. They all offer value for money at affordable price points.

Available from September 2017, the Xtrem Bots range includes Smart Bot, Spy Bot, and Trooper Bot.

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Company Profile

Clementoni

The Italian Job Clementoni was established in 1963, when company founder Mario Clementoni decided to introduce a previously unknown product to the Italian market - the board game. The goal that has guided the company’s activities for over fifty years is to help children learn while having fun – a fundamental principal which it still adheres to today.

Clementoni is now firmly established as a leading European toy company, which has seen its turnover grow by 50% in the past six years. Strongly oriented towards the international market and at the same time deeply rooted in its home territory, it recorded a consolidated turnover of 188m Euros last year, of which 55% was generated by exports. With 500 employees in Italy and more than 80 abroad, the group currently has sales offices in UK, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Poland, Turkey, Benelux and an operating subsidiary in Hong Kong.

Managed by the second generation of the family, all of the children are involved in pivotal roles: Giovanni Clementoni has held the post of Group CEO since 2002, Stefano Clementoni deals with the Asian subsidiary, Pierpaolo Clementoni is involved in product development through the Advanced Research department and Patrizia Clementoni manages the HR department. A qualified group of managers, led by general manager Guido Vingiani, has worked closely with the family to formulate a strategic plan which has enabled the company to achieve more than a decade of growth.

80% of total production still takes place in the factory in Recanati, in a facility of over 50,000 square metres. Thanks to Clementoni’s considerable experience and know-how in paper and cardboard products, the company has implemented a strong reshoring approach which has enabled it to bring home numerous production processes previously outsourced to the Far East.

In recent years Clementoni has introduced a wide range of educational games, created, designed and developed by the in-house Research & Development team, which consists of more than 60 young researchers. The company holds firm beliefs in this approach, investing more than 3% of its turnover in this area.

Toy World spoke to UK country manager Shahbaz Khan to see how 2017 is shaping up for Clementoni and what lies ahead in 2018. the plans we have this year, we are confident we can continue our growth in the UK and become one of the strongest branches of the group.

What do you put this performance down to?

We have built a solid presence across three main categories - Infant, Science, Puzzles - which is translating into a strong performance. As a business, we have invested heavily in product development, as well as supporting new and key lines with additional TV, consumer and social media activity. Acquiring strong licences is important to us and we are proud to have launched product ranges based on popular licences such as Paw Patrol, Trolls, Num Noms and Shimmer & Shine. Our commitment to retail is paramount and we have worked strategically with core retailers to build our business, and to support their partnership with us, which has led to significant growth.

How has the UK operation expanded this year?

How has business been for Clementoni in the UK and across Europe this year?

Clementoni is performing well across Europe and we expect to finish the year with a positive result compared to last year, in line with our expectations at the start of the year. The UK is one of the strongest-performing subsidiaries, with growth of 20% versus last year, which is fantastic considering the conditions of the market and the strong numbers we posted last year. With

We have expanded our team to five people in the UK, with a dedicated sales force which allows us to give more time and support to our customers. We have also put in place a backoffice team to improve our overall operations and service in the market. We are already looking to add to the team in 2018 as the business grows.

Due to this expansion, we moved offices earlier this year, allowing us to incorporate a full showroom and provide easily accessible premises to welcome our customers.

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Which product categories are you focusing on?

The three main core areas for us are Infant, Science and Puzzles. This year we have expanded our STEM range to include educational products, which is already enjoying a great response. We have bought STEM into our pre-school range for the first time with DOC – our Smart Educational Robot. DOC provides a great way for children as young as four to learn the basics of programming, within a fun and interactive game-play. At a highly competitive £29.99 price point, Doc is also fantastic value for money. Our Interactive Globe, which launched in 2016, continues to be a bestseller, proving that educational products are one of the company’s strong points. Infant lines under our own Baby Clementoni brand are performing exceptionally well; we now have branded bays and dedicated areas within store purely for our interactive infant toys. Product Development is key here - we always ensure our products are jam-packed with educational features to satisfy parents, but also with fun activities which the child can enjoy solo, or with their mum or dad.

How do you stand out in these competitive sectors?

I believe we are an appealing supplier as we operate in a variety of different categories, but also because we specialise in these sectors with strong investment in product development and marketing support. Our innovation is exciting and due to our development being in-house, we are able to keep our price points competitive across all our ranges. We also work very

closely with our retail partners to build strong relationships, which helps to strengthen our position.

What role does character licensed merchandise play in the Puzzles category?

Clementoni is in a strong position in the puzzle sector; in addition to our own-brand products, we are also able to invest in key licences. We understand the importance of a strong licence, especially within the puzzle market; it adds another dimension to the range. Puzzles make great gifts, so adding a character to a puzzle makes it an easy purchase. Also, because the child knows the characters so well, completing the puzzle can be less challenging as they know what they are looking for.

Which licences have performed well for you in 2017, and which properties do you anticipate will be strong in the run-up to Christmas?

I believe PJ Masks, along with Paw Patrol, will be the big licences this year. Paw Patrol continues to perform extremely well for us and Trolls continues to deliver good numbers. Despicable Me 3 has performed well on the adult puzzles and we expect interest to build as we move into the festive season. Num Noms and Shimmer & Shine are brand new licences for 2017 and both ranges have got off to an encouraging start. Marvel and Star Wars have a lot of investment in the coming months so I am sure these ranges will also perform well in the market.

The UK team:

How important are strong retail partnerships to your continued success?

This is vital for us, as I believe we are able to beat our competitors not only on price and product, but also our perception as a flexible and collaborative supplier. We have worked hard from day one to build strong relationships with our retail partners and I believe this has been pivotal to our success.

Francesca Foxley

What plans do you have for Toy Fair next year?

We are looking to invest in a bigger stand for 2018, in line with our growth and also to accommodate new developments coming through. We will continue to focus on the three core categories of Infant, Science and Puzzles – retailers will see new lines added to each category for 2018. There will also be further additions to our STEM educational product line next year.

We are really excited to have been able to secure more space for 2018 and I believe this will help us showcase our ranges and give a new perception of Clementoni’s strength in the UK market.

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Debora Coppari

Jordan Kay

What are your key aims for 2018?

We will look to grow further in 2018 and continue to build our business with our core partners, as well as expand our distribution with new accounts. I truly believe we have set the foundations in the UK to allow us to have a long and sustainable presence in the market.

Feature

Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

Know your TVRs from your elbow Despite the increasing move towards digital advertising, TV campaigns still play a vital role in targeting kids and their parents in the approach to Christmas. Rachael Simpson takes a look at the Q4 TV advertising sector to see what the future holds for this marketing platform.

C

ommercial TV viewing is declining, with YTD impacts down 20%. A damning statistic, perhaps, but look closer and the picture is not as fuzzy as it would first seem. TV sets are still very much the focal point of a modern Brit’s living room, and we still watch, on average, over three and a half hours of broadcast television a day, though this is down from its peak of just over four hours during the recession – more money to spend means more reasons to get out of the house. Live TV remains the biggest component of viewing figures, comprising 86% of BARB (the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) reported broadcast TV viewing.

“TV allows children to have comfortable, passive downtime, without the burden of too much choice,” explains Nicole Ducasse, kids’ controller at ITV. “In addition, parents can allow their children to watch children’s TV channels, safe in the knowledge that the content will be age appropriate and brand safe thanks to the strict rules around TV advertising.”

As a marketing tool, TV is unrivalled in its ability to reach mass audiences, and children are no exception, with commercial kids TV still reaching approximately 87% of children aged 4-9 each month. According to figures provided by Dean Weller, CEO of Generation Media, in the last four available weeks (26th June-23rd July), commercial children’s channels delivered circa 85% reach of the Girls 4-6 audience, and circa 65% of Boys 10-12.

TV advertising is particularly useful for targeting kids aged 4-9, the core audience for the majority of toy companies. Media stalwart Mike Frost explains: “TV for 4-6 year olds is as successful as ever, as at this age they are watching more TV than other kids. Above six, they get their first tablet or phone and go digital.

From ages 8-10 they are really starting to disappear fast, and from 11-15 they are watching much more adult programming and are almost lost to kids TV programming entirely.”

The expanding emergence of digital as a marketing platform (and the hype that surrounds it) has led to the increased fragmentation of marketing budgets across industry as companies try to cover all the bases. The toy market is currently relatively conservative in its use of online communication, with the toy industry online ad split around 10-15% due to the continued importance of TV and its low prices; however, many expect this to rise slightly in the years ahead. Budget

Contributors splits vary by advertiser and completely depend on individual campaign objectives. When asked what budgeting splits they see from day to day, our contributors ventured varying figures of between 1040% dedicated to online, with Arena Azure stating that around 10-20% of its clients’ spend goes towards digital campaigns. “I do expect this to rise to circa 30% within the next five years, but it will always depend on the brief,” says Matthew Smith, head of AV for Arena Azure.

Dean Weller is of the opinion that online spend will grow commensurate with better measurement of the children’s audience, stronger daily and weekly reach, lower measurable prices and the decline over time over broadcast/linear TV’s dominance. “At Generation Media we are heavily investing in insight to provide our clients with the best possible means of embracing the changes,” he says.

Meanwhile, research from the IPA’s latest effectiveness study revealed that a 60:40 ratio of brand building to activation is optimum for business growth and success. “TV advertising is getting more effective and that’s thanks, in part, to the internet,” explains Nicole Ducasse. “TV and online video work in synergy and the most effective campaigns use a combination of both. What we would argue is that one channel’s media’s budget should not be sacrificed in order to satisfy another. All appropriate media should be invested in to help create an overall successful campaign and drive engagement. All of our clients need to work to a cost efficient model, and at the moment TV is still the first point of call for this.”

When looking at cost, digital advertising remains comparatively expensive when held up against TV, with the average price paid for a digital impression up to five times more expensive than that of regular TV. And paying this much more is no guarantee for success; if a digital ad doesn’t result in a direct sale, Mike Frost asks, what’s the point of it? “Retailers are generally more impressed by TVR numbers than digital impacts,” he says. “The jury is out on whether digital is as powerful as everyone thought it would be.

YouTube and other platforms have to be tested, and those tests have to be comprehensive to show clients whether or not an advert has actually created a sale.

If this more expensive platform isn’t generating sales, then it isn’t working.”

So will the growth of digital ultimately result in the death of TV? Probably not. TV advertising is cheaper than it has been for 20 years and therefore remains a

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Dean Weller Generation Media

Nicole Ducasse ITV

Matt Smith Arena Azure

Feature

Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

very cost effective way to generate sales – and, at the end of the day, without sales there would be no budget for advertising. Whilst certain areas of the TV realm need to evolve, the majority of those in the know consider it far from dead.

“TV is not going anywhere - it’s going everywhere,” states Nicole Ducasse. “TV is the most effective advertising medium. It generates the most profit, creates more sales and consistently outperforms everything else. TV stands head and shoulders above other media in driving business results and there is a mountain of research to prove it. Viewers appreciate that TV offers a fair trade off: high quality shows in a trusted environment in exchange for some time watching ads.”

Nicole continues: “Although children have access to a wide range of devices, TV is still the most commonly used device, with over 9 in 10 watching TV. Broadcast commercial TV channels, so this excludes the BBC, are watched by 90% of

children every week, and what’s more is that the reach is undiminished in a decade. Children’s linear viewing has declined over time; however, reports of this have been exaggerated, as nonTV set viewing, which skews heavily to younger people, is not yet included in BARB’s figures. In terms of effectiveness for brands, TV advertising is proven to be the most effective form of advertising by every major study. CITV is still the UK’s biggest commercial linear channel for its attractive target audience of children 6-11.”

Both Mike and Dean also drew attention to the opportunities that the BBC would present for TV advertising if ever it went commercial, an eventuality that Mike doesn’t think is wholly wishful thinking. “If the BBC went commercial tomorrow we would all be ecstatic,” he enthuses.

The commercialisation of the biggest digital platforms would also be a boon for advertisers; experts from within the industry think it likely

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that Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Instant Video will both accept paid-for advertising content in the future. As Dean Weller notes: “Amazon and Netflix are tough adversaries but also potential partners with deep pockets - partnerships with the old guard and the new are likely.”

While on the topic of such online behemoths, Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, announced earlier this year that digital advertisers have become the biggest investors in television advertising, spending 8% more in TV compared to the previous year. In addition to Amazon and Netflix, TV’s largest advertisers now include the likes of Facebook, Google, Just Eat, Compare The Market, and Confused.com, amongst others. If digital giants are turning to TV advertising to promote themselves, then what does that say about the strength of TV? With the arguments put forth that TV advertising still offers the most effective way to reach kids,

Feature

Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

what can companies do to ensure their campaigns actually work? Mike Frost is of the opinion that a campaign should consist of a minimum of 300-400 TVRs in order to be credible. “Retailers like Smyths, Argos, and The Entertainer want these sorts of TVR numbers, and advertisers need to be able to show, on paper, that they have those figures scheduled into their campaigns,” Mike says. Additionally, he notes that 300 TVRs planned in for Kids 4-9 are more valuable than TVRs aimed at older children, because of the difference in viewing figures mentioned earlier.

Repetition certainly seems to be the approach that VTech has gone for, stating in a recent release that 96% of children aged 4-6 will see one of its 15 different television commercials at least once, with 86% seeing a commercial more than four times. The company is also depending on its parental targeting, adding that 93% of housewives with children up to three years will see a VTech commercial at least once, with 79% seeing a commercial more than four times.

Dean Weller largely agrees with this approach, though he stresses the need for quality as well as repeated messaging. “Gone are the days of generating plans with the highest TVR levels at the lowest cost to satisfy retailer demands,” he says. “It is absolutely vital that any TV campaign delivers the depth and breadth of coverage required to initiate a purchase decision. In a competitive environment, seeing a TV ad just once is not enough. Similarly, driving high frequency on a small scale channel delivering low reach may not be effective. TV has to work harder than ever to prove its effectiveness, so getting this balance right through the correct channel selection is absolutely vital.”

As Dean has explained, it’s not just the opportunities to see that influence a campaign’s success, but also their quality and the impact of the message. There is a consensus that creativity in the kids’ space has declined in recent years, according to Mike Frost, along with the amount of money being spent on advertising campaigns.

“The creative element is more important than the media element – a poor advert with great media simply won’t work,” he says. And if the quality of advertising messages is not improving, this, in turn, will have a knock-on effect on their impact.

“Creativity speaks volumes when you look at what constitutes a successful campaign, not just the ad itself but also the placement and how you extend the marketing message beyond advertising,” offers Nicole Ducasse.

To further maximise the impact of a campaign, Matthew Smith suggests that agencies be brave and endeavour to do things differently. “Suggest a range of time lengths, and test the days of week or peak only campaigns as part of a continuous testing and learning media landscape,” he advises. “Companies also need to ensure that all the elements are aligned throughout the media channel mix so there is consistent messaging and targeting throughout.”

“Being clear on who the target audiences are is critical,” adds Dean Weller. “The benefits of TV measurement and reporting mean that campaigns can be extremely targeted and efficient. At a

minimum, being specific to the age sweet spots and gender, will allow agencies to build campaigns that ensure the old adage of right place, right time, right message can be adhered to as cost effectively as possible. There is also a lot to be said for creating engaging TVCs that deliver stand out in a cluttered environment.”

Research has shown that kids will absorb an advert in its entirety the first time they view it.

Because of this, a company may be wise to create four or five variations of its adverts, even if these differences are relatively subtle, rather than creating just one advert and running it for the duration of the campaign. In doing so, that same child could be targeted repeatedly with a slightly different message each time, increasing the impact of what they are watching, and also increasing the chances that the product shown will end up on their Christmas list.

Of course, Christmas advertising campaigns aimed at kids don’t necessarily have to end at Christmas. Epoch is extending its advertising campaign into January to capture pocket money spends during the sales season on items that complement the products the company is advertising, namely it’s Aquabeads and Sylvanian Families collectible and pocket money ranges.

With the January sales now comprising a key period in many consumers’ shopping plans, it will be interesting to see how this approach works for the company.

Looking to the future, it seems clear that change is coming in many areas of TV advertising. So many households across the globe have taken on VOD (video on demand) subscriptions that the current generation of children are referred to as VOD natives - familiar with content being available on their terms, the antithesis of the broadcast TV schedule - and so advertisers should benefit from complementing their linear campaigns by working with VOD platforms.

“Universally, VOD platforms will need to be included in TV plans as part of the agreed channel mix to reflect audience viewing habits,” advises Dean Weller. “This will require a shift in the industry’s criteria for judging the success of a VOD campaign. Traditionally, a TV impact is not judged on its ability to deliver clicks. Why, therefore, should a VOD impression? It is an additional benefit, but may not be its core objective.”

Both Mike Frost and Matthew Smith also think that linear TV needs to invest in new programming to ensure there is less repetition.

“If the government insisted that other people outside the BBC had to spend more money on kids programming it would bring back other viewers,” says Mike. Milkshake has

Toy World 74

already committed to this as well as investing in digital with a new YouTube channel, according to Matthew.

Matthew also sees Sky changing in the future.

“Eventually Sky will see at least half their TV impacts on a programmatic model,” he ventures.

“It remains to be seen what will happen in the kids market with privacy laws preventing this but they could still sell TV by impressions per spot on a contextual level to maximise their revenue rather than letting 0 rated spots go unrewarded.

As technology advances, all saleshouses will be traded on this model. I also expect there will be further consolidation of saleshouses.”

For now though, what tips do our contributors have for companies looking to run campaigns?

“Collaborate with broadcasters to explore all creative avenues above and beyond TV spot advertising,” advises Nicole Ducasse. “Measure the short and long term effects of your campaign to truly understand what TV is delivering for your brand, and finally, ensure your data sources are reliable.”

Matthew Smith emphasises the need for data analysis. “Constantly be analysing data. With the landscape changing along with kid’s channel audience profile, it is imperative that you follow and interpret the latest data. Be bold and brave too - test new platforms and strategies and report the results; if it doesn’t work try something else.”

The advice from Dean Weller is to be unique.

“Firstly, clearly define the campaign objectives and ensure all parties are working towards delivering the same, agreed, goal. Secondly, go beyond standard audience definitions (e.g. Children, Housewives with Children, etc.). Your product is unique, and TV measurement allows for the creation of plans that reflect this,” he says. “Lastly, embrace digital online platforms (where cost effective to do so) such as VOD to extend reach and enhance ROI.” We’ll leave the last word to Matthew, though.

“Hold your nerve,” he says. “If you have looked at the data, and you know what is happening, then there is no need to believe the hype of any untrue popular beliefs such as TV is dead – it’s not.”

Over the next few pages we take a look at the preChristmas TV advertising campaigns planned in this year by companies from within the toy industry.

www.geomagworld.com

Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

Worlds Apart 0800 389 8591 | www.worldsapart.com With TV advertising campaigns having already started and running until December, Worlds Apart will showcase a host of products, including new games Spin to Sing and Woofy Whoops, as well as SelfieMic and a number of GoGlow night lights.

The pre-Christmas media plan amounts to over 4000 TVRs and includes advertising campaigns for seven lines in total: Spin to Sing, Woofy Whoops, SelfieMic, My Little Pony GoGlow Magic, Disney Princess GoGlow Magic, Spider-Man GoGlow Pal and Cars Lightning McQueen GoGlow Pal. Of the seven TV advertised lines, SelfieMic and the My Little Pony GoGlow Magic Night Light were advertised during the pre Christmas period in 2016 and were successful at retail, while the other five lines are new products being introduced this year.

Worlds Apart’s debut in the Games category will be marked by new games Spin to Sing and Woofy Whoops which will be TV advertised from September to December. The TV campaigns will run alongside a digital advertising campaign, as well as influencer partnerships.

The company has also invested in TV advertising on its night light brand, GoGlow, with four lines in total being advertised between July and December. The move to a more toy-like design, combined with compelling TV commercials, has proven successful in past seasons. Worlds Apart will look to replicate this success with TV advertising on its newest Cars, Disney Princess and Spider-Man SKUs, combined with digital marketing to parents.

Interplay 01628 488 944 | www.interplayuk.com Interplay launched its My Fairy Garden TV campaign in late July and, over the coming months, will continue to deliver over 1800 TVRs in total for the year in UK and Ireland.

Interplay has created two TV adverts for the brand, to feature all products in the fastgrowing range. Adverts are being aired across satellite and terrestrial TV stations including Channel 5, Disney Junior, Nick Junior, Tiny Pop and more, and will be further supported with digital and print media.

TV campaigns will continue to support Interplay’s FabLab range with 600 TVRs, focusing on the Style Lab, Hair Lights and Nail Art as well as the newly launched Glitter Tattoos and Sparkly Nails Mega Pack. This campaign was launched in late July and has already delivered positive results for the brand.

Interplay is launching two new brands this year; Fuzzikins Craft (750 TVRs) and My Mermaid Lagoon (900TVRs) and will support these brands with TV campaigns on all major kids’ TV channels and a sponsorship campaign with Nick Junior. From September right through till December, these campaigns will deliver a high level of awareness for these brands with an average OTS of over seven.

Ravensburger 01869 363 830 | www.ravensburger.com Ravensburger will support key games and puzzle categories with a £1m TV advertising campaign, starting in mid-September and continuing into December. The targeted campaign will be screened across the UK and Ireland, and features six different TV advertisements focusing on seven different children’s/family games, plus 3D Puzzle Shapes and 3D Puzzle Buildings.

Two 3D action games, Funny Bunny and Penguin Pile Up, are relaunched this autumn, and both will be supported by a 650 TVR campaign. Disney Eye Found It!, the hidden picture game in which everyone can take part thanks to the 6’ long game board, will also appear in a 480 TVR campaign. Both campaigns start in September.

Hot on the heels of the award-winning Bugs in the Kitchen is the newly launched Buggaloop, a game where the Hexbug NanoV2 scuttles up and down 3D loops, emerging when players least expect it. Bugs in the Kitchen and Buggaloop will be backed with a 685 TVR campaign commencing in October.

Award-winning Scotland Yard and Labyrinth continue to perform well and are popular with families wanting traditional yet clever game play for all ages. These games feature in a 515 TVR campaign, commencing in October.

TV support for the 3D Puzzle range is divided into two separate campaigns. Shapes will feature different designs of the Sneaker, Minions, Vanity Boxes and Pencil Pots, and the classic puzzleballs.

Buildings highlights both recent additions and existing designs within this innovative range of landmarks.

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Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

Vivid 01483 449944 | www.vividtoysandgames.co.uk Vivid’s TV and digital campaigns will support AniMagic launches Fluffy Goes Walkies, the newest version of this feature plush, as well as Penny My Curious Puppy. Disney Emoji, a new way for fans to collect and play with hundreds of Disney and Pixar Emoji characters, launches in September bolstered by a TV campaign starting in October. Other supported launches include Arakno, the interactive arachnid, Care Bears, Flip a Zoo, Flip Zee Girls, Ooshies, and Sky Viper, the US’s No. 1 selling drone range.

Drumond Park will be showcasing 14 games from its children’s portfolio including new games Gassy the Cow, Sharkbite, Snotcha, Pandemonio, and King Pong. Seven games from the adult and family portfolio will also be supported including Articulate, Logo and Rapidough as well as new launch Bang On. New game Who’s The Dude? will be supported by a comprehensive digital and social led marketing campaign, including advertising across Facebook and Snapchat, influencer videos with UniLad, and advertising across a variety of online and digital platforms.

From new additions in My First Crayola to Colour Wonder, Crayola’s new product launches will be supported in the lead up to Christmas with TV advertising campaigns and supporting digital activity aimed at both kids and their parents. Colour Pops, the Colour Wonder Light up Stamper and the Silly Scents Scent-sational Marker will all be TV advertised from October, alongside the Twirl ‘n’ Whirl Turtle.

Mattel 01628 500 000 | www.mattel.com Mattel continues to support key items for the festive period with TV campaigns. Key Barbie segment Dreamtopia will focus on new kingdom Sweetville. There will be TV support for the Barbie Dreamtopia Sweetville Princess Doll, Carriage and Castle. Key products that will feature on TV for Barbie Dolphin Magic including lead doll Barbie Dolphin Magic Snorkel Fun Friends and the new vehicle Barbie Dolphin Magic Boat. Also new on TV for autumn/winter 17 is Barbie DreamHorse, Barbie’s most interactive pet companion yet. Further campaigns include the Barbie Camper and new Barbie Newborn Pups.

TV campaigns for Enchantimals will support dolls, playsets and vehicles, while DC Super Hero Girls will benefit from coverage of the 12” Action Dolls Assortment. Hot Wheels campaigns will focus on the Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage Playset, the new Hot Wheels Roto Revolution Trackset, plus the Hot Wheels Track Builder Stunt Bridge Kit. Disney Pixar’s Cars 3 Florida Speedway Playset and Movie Moves McQueen will also receive TV support.

Key licences supported by TV include the new Justice League Mega Cannon Batmobile Vehicle and the Justice League 6” Action Figures, as well as the WWE Tough Talkers 6” Figure Assortment and Ring Playset.

Thomas & Friends introduces My First Railway Pals with the Destination Discovery track set. Further campaigns include the Super Station, the first ever set compatible with Adventures, Trackmaster, Wooden Railway and Minis engines. The TrackMaster Scrapyard Escape set will also be TV advertised.

Imaginext’s new DC Super Friends BatBot Xtreme will be a key TV driver, along with the RC Mobile Command Centre and Power Rangers Megazord.

Fisher-Price’s character brands see TV support for Blaze and the Monster Machines Animal Island Stunts Speedway, Shimmer & Shine Magic Flyin Carpet, Octonauts Midnight Zone Gup-A, Go Jetters Jet Pad headquarters and Toilet Train Bing.

Epoch making toys 08435 574 062 | www.sylvanianfamilies.net.uk Epoch has secured 4,500 TVRs (targeted at girls 4-9) across both the Sylvanian Families and Aquabeads brands.

The adverts focus on best-selling and newly launched items. Epoch is extending the advertising campaign into January to capture pocket money spends during the sales season on items that complement the advertised products.

There are several Sylvanian Families adverts, including a 15 second segment focused on the range’s hero product, the Cosy Cottage Starter Home, stitched with a 15 second Christmas-themed advert focusing on Beechwood Hall – a larger home and seasonal bestseller. A second advert highlights a couple of new flagship products, with two 15 second segments stitched back-to-back, featuring firstly the Starry Point Lighthouse and secondly the Ballet Theatre.

Epoch will be using at least 1,500 TVRs of the 4,500 secured on its craft brand Aquabeads. This 30 second advert will be split into two 15 second segments.

The first segment will be a more general branded commercial highlighting the key starter product in the range, the refreshed Beginners Studio, while the second segment will focus on the new Deluxe Studio and the Disney Princess Playset.

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Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

Tomy 01271 336 155 | www.tomy.com Tomy will kick start its Christmas marketing drive with TV campaigns for collections including Tomy Toomies, Aquadoodle, and Tomy Games.

The company will support the new brand identity for its toddler and bath range Tomy Toomies, as well as its Foam Cone Factory, with a strategic TV campaign beginning in November. The 20 second advertisement will be shown across leading kids TV channels delivering 160 TVRs. In addition, Tomy will continue its partnership with Made for Mums, delivering around two million impacts to a relevant and prequalified audience. The brand will also launch VOD (video on demand) in the run up to Christmas, giving over 300 million impressions.

Aquadoodle will be another key driver for autumn/winter, with TV advertising running from November and an expected delivery of 160 TVRs. Tomy will also launch an online video to complement its TV advertising campaign, featuring an interactive Aquadoodle mat which will allow consumers to play and draw on the Aquadoodle unit.

Tomy Games will benefit from additional TV support with activity planned from August which will deliver nearly 750 TVRs through the key Christmas sales time. Tomy will air separate adverts supporting the launch of new releases Fizzy Dizzy Hippo and Phil The Fridge, as well as Greedy Granny. Tomy has also created an online video for Tickle Me Feet which launches in October and will deliver 550,000 views.

Alpha Animation & Toys 01923 804 599 | www.auldeytoys.us In the run-up to Christmas, Alpha Animation & Toys will deliver a marketing plan and media strategy that includes branded TVCs, digital and social media initiatives.

The company aired its first TV advertising campaign on Super Wings in July, showcasing the World Airport Playset and the Transforming Vehicles. TV will continue in September ahead of targeted Facebook and Instagram activity which launches at the end of September through to the beginning of November.

This autumn has seen the launch of RC brand Drone Force. Alpha supported the launch with a TV campaign that played out across 12 key channels during the summer months to create early awareness.

The ongoing multi-media campaign also sees a collaboration with SuperAwesome, with a branded microsite hosted on Cartoon Network. Additional digital media is also planned across key sites including Bin Weevils. To complement this activity, YouTube will be used as a platform to reach kids with bespoke video content through tailored targeting to ensure high reach and relevancy.

A late Q3 introduction, Wave Racers will benefit from TV screentime in September following the launch at retail. The range will also enjoy three bursts of TV in the run up to Christmas.

Furthermore, Alpha will be adding to its advertising schedule with Infinity Nado. Following a summer of instore demos and TV advertising, the battling brand will enter December with the aid of further TVRs.

Geomag 07831 886 997 | www.geomagworld.com Geomagworld presents the new Geomag Classic Colour range with updated colours and packaging. The company has relaunched the line with the new Colour 2017 sets, a range of colourful new models that caters to the tastes of today’s children and parents.

Geomagworld will also be launching a renewed Panels line. The system, which uses spheres, rods and geometric panels to create constructions, will be reintroduced in an updated version, with new colours and piece numbers. Additionally, the new boxes will also display an important feature of the Geomag Classic portfolio line, the STEM logo.

Geomag Mechanic is a new magnetic construction system. Mechanics extends the classic toy by adding new mechanical elements that give kids new opportunities to play. Moving the system by hand, or with a mechanical knob, starts chain reactions caused by magnetic attraction or repulsion.

The Colour, Panels and Mechanics ranges will be supported with a six week 188 TVR campaign, throughout October, November and December.

In addition, a fully immersive blogger campaign, which commenced in August, will continue to take place throughout September.

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Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

Golden Bear 01952 608 308 | www.goldenbeartoys.com

LeapFrog 01895 202 840 | www.leapfrog.com

Golden Bear is focusing its TV advertising spend around its hero lines for Christmas 2017. Following an initial burst of activity which saw strong sales from launch, Bush Baby World will benefit from a new TV advert which will go live during September. This new TV advert will focus on Princess Melina and the Shimmies, and will feature on channels targeting children aged five to nine.

A new concept for children, Bush Baby World centres on the plush Bush Babies, which feature a patented system that enables children to wiggle the eyes and waggle the ears. There will be a further commercial created to promote the Dream Tree Playset, which will go live in October.

The company’s new arts and craft line, Paint-Sation will be advertised on TV channels targeting children and parents during October half term.

Finally, the Mr Tumble Something Special range will also have TV advertising support, with an advert focusing on the Mr Tumble’s Fun Sounds Musical Car airing in September. The TV advertising plans across all brands are part of multifaceted campaigns which also include digital, marketing and PR activity.

LeapFrogs’s advertising activity kicked off in July with a TV campaign for the LeapStart Interactive Learning System. The second of five bursts commenced in August, and TV will continue through to November, with over 1200 TVRs expected. 20 second TV adverts will be placed on key dual viewing channels to target both parents and kids, whilst a digital campaign will target over four million mums.

Earlier this year, in July, LeapFrog’s new Scoop and Learn Ice Cream Cart was introduced to over 300,000 mums through Takumi’s Instagram influencer network, and the role-play range will be on TV from August to December with four bursts of 20 second commercials and over 900 TVRs. The TV activity will be complemented with video on demand as well as a digital campaign.

Three bursts of 20 second TV commercials will continue to showcase LeapFrog’s family of first tablets for kids and its latest licensed content.

With over 950 TVRs planned, this will begin in September and run until the end of November.

Schleich 01279 870 000 | www.schleich-s.com/en

Just Play 0208 643 0320 | www.justplayproducts.com

Schleich UK is gearing up for a successful Q4 with a comprehensive media strategy.

As the festive season approaches, the Horse Club collection will benefit from a digital campaign on the Pop Fun platform. A fully branded microsite featuring London Toy Fair Best New Toys winner, the Mobile Vet Van, will help boost awareness of this hero line. Added to this will be promotional TV space for Horse Club on the Pop Fun channel.

Also featuring on Pop Fun this autumn is the Schleich Dinosaurs range, which will be presented on a branded competition site for children to interact with. The site will also promote the new Large Skull Trap.

In the run up to Christmas, a full month of activity scheduled on the Tiny Pop platform will create over a million impressions for the Wild Life range.

TVRs will also be delivered through promotional space on the Tiny Pop television channel, creating additional reach for the brand this autumn.

GP Flair’s Just Play division is kicking off its pre-Christmas marketing activity with a TV advertising campaign designed to ensure brand awareness is at its highest for Christmas.

PJ Masks will be a priority for Just Play this autumn with 1000 TVRs expected between now and December. As well as adverts promoting the figure and vehicle assortments there will also be a new advert for the PJ Masks HQ Playset. This playset looks just like the version from the show, and includes the control centre with lights and sounds.

A new advert will be airing for the new Lion Guard Rise of Scar playset, promoting the product as a Christmas gifting option. A total of 700 TVRs will air for Lion Guard, with adverts for Leap n Road Kion, the Training Lair, Pride Lands Playset and Hyena Hideout included in the campaign.

The Mickey and the Roadster Racers and Minnie’s Happy Helpers ranges provide role-play choices for Christmas. Each will feature in TV advertising as Christmas nears, with at least 950 TVRs to be delivered across the two ranges.

Just Play will combine these campaigns with print and digital activity.

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Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

Sambro 08458 739 380 | www.sambro.co.uk This year sees the first pre-Christmas TV advertising campaign from Sambro following the successful back-to-school campaign that aired in August.

The new TV adverts will support the launch of the much anticipated Sesame Street range for which Sambro is the master toy licensee. As well as classic Sesame Street toys including Tickle Me Elmo, the range also features innovations that have become synonymous with Sambro’s licensed collections. Commencing in September, the TV campaign will span all kids TV channels and support key retailers.

Rainbow Designs 01329 227300 | www.rainbowdesigns.co.uk Paddington 2 premieres in November, and will also be appearing on the small screen in exclusive adverts for Rainbow Designs’ movie range of feature plush toys.

The movie range includes two new feature plush toys for 2017; Dancing Paddington and Cycling Paddington, both of which star in the new range commercial that will air autumn/winter 17 with 500+ TVRs. Dancing Paddington swings his hips to the beat of the music, and comes with his blue toggle coat which can be reversed to reveal a calypso-style shirt, while the new Cycling Paddington cycles around on his red bicycle.

Jazwares 0203 598 5119 | www.jazwares.com Jazwares and WowWee have a heavy-weight promotional campaign in place for the Fingerlings Monkeys. Running until Christmas, the campaign includes TV advertising, sponsored content, YouTube promotions, retail partnerships and PR campaigns.

The Fingerlings TV campaigns, delivering in excess of 1000 TVRs, will run across kids and lifestyle channels, promoting the monkeys and playsets to the key 4-9 year old and family target audience. Online sponsorships will also place Fingerlings content on platforms including Disney Channel and YouTube.

Distributed by Jazwares, WowWee’s Fingerlings product range will further expand in autumn with playsets including the Fingerlings Monkeys Bar and Swing Playset, and the Fingerlings Jungle Gym. For WowWee orders, please contact Jazwares.

Character Options 01616 339 800 | www.character-online.com Several commercials will air in the lead up to Christmas for Character Option’s Peppa Pig master toy range, with the hero Peppa’s Family Home playset starring in its own advert. Also featuring in the Peppa Pig TV campaign will be the Peppa Pig School Daysinspired collection. As part of the cross-category Play-days brand theme, the Schooldaysinspired range will be part of a wider licensor supported pre-Christmas marketing effort.

The School Bus, Classroom Set and hero plush ABC Singing Peppa will all feature.

Another pre-school brand which will star on TV this autumn is Teletubbies. The 8” plush are now available in a party version to celebrate the brand’s 20th anniversary, and added to the line are the new plush Tiddlytubbies.

The Ben and Holly Thistle Castle Playset and The Royal Limousine will see hundreds of TVR’s delivered from September to November, and Stretch Armstrong’s rival VacMan will make his TV return this autumn with a full schedule of commercials. Stretch Armstrong and Vac-Man will also benefit from promotional space on the Kix TV channel throughout September.

In addition to these campaigns, Character is bringing the Snack Attack Scooby Doo toy back to TV, along with Cutie Stix, Oonies, Easy Braids, Little Live Pets, and more.

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Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

Simba Smoby 01274 765 030 | www.simba-dickie-group.de/en Simba Smoby is readying itself for the Christmas season with a TV campaign for Cars 3.

As the company’s hero line for Christmas, the Cars 3 Turbo Racer scale 1:24 will benefit from a full schedule of TV advertising this autumn. Added to this is a six week programme for the Cars 3 roleplay commercial. Retailers can rely on increased awareness of lines including the Mack Truck Simulator, Workbench and V8 Car Seat, as the pre-Christmas advertising campaign runs to mid-December.

In addition to TV advertising, Simba is also running a full cinema campaign for the Cars 3 range.

Playmobil 01268 548 111 | www.playmobil.co.uk This Christmas will see Playmobil continue its TV advertising investment with an extra push in the run up to the festive season. New for 2017, sets including exclusive licensed products Ghostbusters and How to Train Your Dragon will be the focus of this national campaign across children’s TV channels.

Playmobil’s ranges have already been hitting TV screens throughout 2017, with new product launch promotions for Knights, Pony Farm, Police, Romans and Egyptians, and Cruise Ship. During the run up to Christmas, sets such as Summer Camp, City Airport, Princess Castle and Children’s Hospital will be airing on screens across the UK, as well as the new licensed products - Ghostbusters and How to Train Your Dragon.

A total of 17 product ranges will feature in this year’s advertising schedule, across both the UK mainland and Ireland, and on all children’s TV channels, including Milkshake, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network.

Bandai 01489 790 944 | www.bandai.co.uk Bandai UK is delivering a comprehensive marketing plan that includes TVCs and sponsorship on key kids’ networks throughout the run-up to Christmas.

Ranked by NPD as the No. 1 Action Figures brand July YTD, Power Rangers it is in a strong position for the new Ninja Steel series, which launched on Pop on 4th September. The heavyweight campaign running from July to December includes three TVCs for the Deluxe Ninja Megazord, Deluxe Battle Gear, which includes the Ninja Blade and Ninja Star Morpher and the Lion Fire Fortress Zord in 30 second formats. Power Rangers sponsorship will also run across October and December on Pop. In addition, Bandai will be TV advertising key lines from animated female heroine Miraculous Ladybug. The Fashion Dolls and Action Figures are featured in their own 30 second advert, which involves scenes from the show being recreated with the toys.

In addition, the Compact Caller and Feature Figures feature in their own 30 second advert.

Engino 0800 988 7068 | www.engino.com Engino is repeating its existing successful TV commercial for Christmas, which shows the versatility of the Engino range and highlights what a little imagination can achieve.

The campaign highlights that Engino offers kids the opportunity to make whatever they want for Christmas. Whether it is a kangaroo, a dragon, bridge, or a motorcycle, the options are endless. With Engino sets, from the 30 in 1 motorised sets up to the 120 in 1 set, kids can improve their building skills and put their designs into motion.

Creative children can construct animals, vehicles and buildings, and the Engino app for IOS and Android devices allows them to play with 3D models on line. They can see how the models come together piece by piece, and then challenge themselves to make the real thing with their Engino parts.

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Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

Re:creation 01189 736 222 | www.recreationltd.co.uk

Wilton Bradley 01626 835 400 | www.wiltonbradley.co.uk

Re:creation’s new launch Mimic Mees Talk Back Zoo hits TV screens in adverts promoting the characters’ voice playback feature. The Bright Light Pillow and Stretchkins plush will also benefit from TV exposure, as will the RazorX Cruiser lithium-powered electric skateboard and the Power Core range of electric scooters.

In the run up to Christmas, Wilton Bradley will be promoting its Monster Smash Ups line. Advertising will begin in October and run through to mid-December on channels including Boomerang and Cartoon Network.

The company’s TV advertising campaign will present kids with over 4.2 million opportunities to view.

Trends UK 01295 768 078 | www.trendsuk.co.uk Trends UK will be supporting its Peppa Pig ELAs range and science toys like the Discovery Planetarium.

Megableu Games will benefit from TV campaigns for new launches Tumball, Beat the Flush, Creepy Hand and Ghost Hunt Evolution.

IMC Toys 01904 720 908 | www.imctoys.com

KD UK 01727 827 194 | www.kdplanet.com/uk

This autumn/winter IMC Toys has committed over 18,000 TVRs across a range of its products.

As master toy licence holder for Disney’s Mickey and Minnie, IMC Toys has committed over 6,000 TVRs to the key items within this range. Investment has been made on Mickey’s Garage, Minnie’s Happy Helpers House and the Speed Race Super Training Tracks.

Furthermore, there is TV investment in lines such as My Interactive Friend Micky, and Minnie and Minnie Fashion Dolls. These lines will be promoted by a range of 10 and 20 seconds spots over Q3 and Q4.

5,500 TVRs have been planned for IMC’s Club Petz range. This includes TV advertising for new lines Lucy Sing and Dance, Bianca and Blu Blu the Baby Dolphin. Alongside these new lines there will be continued investment on lines such as Yo Yo Panda and Lola, Lucy’s little sister.

IMC’s Baby Wow, Cry Babies and new Bloopies doll ranges will also be supported by a TV campaign. Over 5000 TVRs will be invested into Crawl and Play Charlie and Cry Babies, as well as new products Baby Wow Chatty Emma and Bloopies.

This Autumn/ Winter IMC Toys has launched three additions to its Play Fun brand - Boom Ball, Speedy Doc and Alien Vision. Having secured over 3000 TVRs there will be continued promotion of these new products as well as Chrono Bomb over Q3 and Q4.

In the run-up to Christmas, KD UK will be delivering a marketing plan with a media strategy that includes branded TVCs, digital and social media initiatives across its key lines.

Kurio will be part of a marketing campaign throughout Q4 2017.

TVCs will start from end of September with over nine opportunities to see, along with national family cinema advertising reaching over 5m families. KD UK is also investing in digital marketing for the Kurio range with plans to roll out adverts across gaming sites, apps, social media and YouTube. Key focuses in the range will include the new advanced Kurio Watch 2.0 with its interchangeable strap, and Kurio Snap, the portable photo booth for kids.

The advertising campaign for KD UK’s new patented Gesturebotics technology drone Aura will start from October, across key children’s and adult channels with a minimum of nine opportunities to see. The advert will be airing across channels aimed at reaching the target audience for a total of seven weeks. Aura is a fusion of fantasy and reality using patented Gesturebotics technology, transforming human gestures in to telekinetic commands via its wearable Glove Controller.

From the KD Games portfolio, KD UK will be airing a new advert promoting the family games Trumping Trudy and Balloon Bot Battle. The adverts are due to begin in October, with plans to run throughout November and December. Trumping Trudy is full of suspense, flies and funny sounds, whilst Balloon Bot Battle is an action-filled game where players pop balloons in fights and challenges.

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Pre-Christmas TV Advertising

Brainstorm 01200 445 113 | www.brainstormltd.co.uk

GP Flair 0208 643 0320 | www.flairplc.co.uk

Brainstorm is investing in more TV advertising than in previous years, with the launch of its new games range, including Big Beard Battle, Igloo Mania, Dynamite Dare and Safe Breaker supported with pre-Christmas TV bursts. In addition to the games range, Brainstorm continues to support its expanded StikBots range, which now features StikBot Pets.

Addict a Ball will also be TV advertised, while key product campaigns will include My Very Own Solar System, the T Rex Projector & Room Guard, and the 2 in 1 Globe Earth & Constellations. The Aqua Dragons in Space campaign will demonstrate how the product differs this year.

GP Flair is kicking off its pre-Christmas marketing activity with a TV advertising campaign to ensure brand awareness is at its highest for the Christmas rush.

With the recent return of Ben 10, Flair will be giving centre stage to its new master toy line in the run up to Christmas. 1500 TVRs will be delivered throughout the season, with separate commercials for Action Figures, the Deluxe Omnitrix and the Rust Bucket Playset.

A total of eight Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TVCs will air this autumn. From the Turtles Animation range, the Sewer Lair playset, Shellraiser, Build ‘n’ Battle role-play sets and the Action Figure range will benefit from screen time. The new Micro Mutants will feature on TV screens nationwide, as well as adverts for Half Shell Heroes. With 650 TVRs in total for the Turtles property, Flair is ensuring the range is in the strongest possible position during the holiday season.

Grossery Gang Season 3 launched last month, and the TV advertising campaign will promote the range of 150 new characters to collect. In addition to the collectibles are the new Action Figures and Garbage Truck.

Two commercials for Despicable Me Mineez will air this autumn, one featuring the 75 collectible figures, and the other focused on the new Fizz Surprise. 400 TVRs will also be delivered as part of the Messi Training Range TV advertising campaign.

VTech 01235 546 810 | www.vtech.co.uk Autumn/winter 2017 will see a strong media presence from VTech across all popular channels, aimed at both children and mums. VTech is airing fifteen different TV campaigns in the run up to Christmas, showcasing the company’s key products.

VTech Baby will introduce new ranges to its portfolio such as the 5-in-1 Stroll and Grow Trike and the Pop a Ball lines. All will be supported via PR activity, ATL and BTL support. With sponsorship for the Tiny Pop Birthdays feature renewed for another year, viewers will see the characters from Toot-Toot Drivers, TootToot Animals and the Toot-Toot Friends six times a day, seven days a week.

Meanwhile, the Kidizoom range is coming to Pop in October and November with weekend afternoon sponsorship throughout those two months from 12-6pm. This will ensure longevity while covering the full sell through period, including October half-term. With programming on Pop appealing to both boys and girls, the full Kidizoom range will be showcased including Duo, Action Cam, Selfie Cam and Smartwatch.

From VTech Baby to the company’s older ranges, the media will not only span traditional TV, but will see innovative sponsorship and partnerships, a variety of non-spot activity, and a strong online presence with PR support.

Funrise 01908 555 640 | www.funrise.com Funrise plans to deliver Christmas campaigns for heritage brand Tonka and the new master toy range for pre-school licence Luna Petunia. The Luna Petunia campaign will be centred on TV advertising throughout November, with a considerable number of TVRs to be delivered.

Creating additional awareness and providing key interaction with the Luna brand and toy range will be digital activity on Tiny Pop during late October.

This activity will include a fully branded microsite, advertising banners and TV drivers. The TV advertising and digital campaigns will be supported by a other marketing and PR activities including kids press advertising, competitions, parental outreach and YouTube unboxing.

TV drivers for Tonka are due to be delivered during October and November in the build up to the holiday period, in addition to digital advertising which will deliver substantial impressions. The digital plan includes a fully branded microsite on the online Tiny Pop network which will be accompanied by pre-roll activity across Superawesome’s kids’ network.

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TV companies have apparently breathed a collective sigh of relief over recent weeks, as viewing figures have improved significantly as a result of the awful weather. Having faced months of declining viewing figures, this will at least provide some respite. Every cloud (literally)…

Allegedly

Sainsbury’s is apparently planning to cut 1,000 head office jobs – management consultant McKinsey has been brought in to draw up what is delightfully referred to as a ‘headcount reduction plan.’ Thousands of Asda workers are also facing redundancy or a dramatic cut in their working hours after the retailer posted its worst annual results since the Walmart takeover. According to reports in The Guardian, Asda has begun a consultation with over 3000 employees in 18 underperforming stores, singled out as overstaffed relative to their current sales performance…

While these consultation processes are underway, there have already been changes at Tesco, some which we know about, others which will no doubt come to light soon. What we do know is that Rachel Wakley will be leaving Tesco to join Warner Bros, while former head of buying for toys & nursery Dawn Lavalette has moved to a new category management role within the food division. John Hex, who took on Dawn’s role during her maternity leave, will stay in the position.

Among other people leaving the toy team are Jason Gower, who headed up merchandising, and rather surprisingly, John Driscoll. There is no official news on John’s replacement thus far, although I believe an announcement is imminent. I’m sure John will find a new opportunity soon, he will be a great asset to the right company…

I also hear that Llyr Lewis is to leave his role at Pixar in California to return to the UK. No news yet on where he’s going, but it must be a great opportunity to tempt him back from the sunshine state to return to the UK when it is under six feet of water…

Amazon has finally been attempting to do something about the prevalence of questionable merchandise on its site.

Whether this was prompted by a recent Watchdog expose on dodgy spinners - which in fairness did focus primarily on eBay - it is difficult to say. However, the fact that spinners appear to have borne the brunt of the cull suggests it may have played a part. In my mind, I picture it thus: finally acknowledging it has a responsibility to adhere to the same rigorous safety and copyright standards as every other legitimate retailer, The Amazon Dubious Products Panel has met and ruled that certain products do not come up to scratch, removing the offending items from its site forthwith.

Except, apparently, that isn’t quite what has happened: along with many dubious items, some perfectly legitimate items – and in some cases items that have nothing whatsoever to do with spinners – have been caught up in the cull. It’s almost like the whole process was handled by a machine rather than a human. Funny that…

It has also emerged that Amazon saw a 50% fall in the amount of UK corporation tax it paid last year, while recording a 54% increase in turnover for the same period.

Maybe HMRC should introduce a Dubious Returns Panel of its own...

The Independent Toy & Gift Show will be moving from its traditional April date to a new slot at the start of May, taking it to within two weeks of the Toymaster show. Perhaps the close proximity will make it easier for suppliers to organise both events almost simultaneously - it will certainly help with the availability of samples. plaY-room will start selling stands in October, so we’ll find out then what impact the new dates will have…

Toy World 90

I was also interested to see Argos running a ‘3 for 2’ promotion at the end of July. Is this the earliest ever? It may or may not be, but I do wonder whether promotion fatigue may become just as much of an issue as movie fatigue; it’s getting like the never-ending DFS sale out there at times. I can only imagine that this was a test to assess how reactive certain lines are to multi-buy discounts - unless this new generation of parents are a lot more organised than we were in my day (not to mention brave enough to spend big bucks based on what their child says it wants for Christmas five months ahead of the big day). Or maybe the next announcement will be that Argos is officially bringing Christmas forward?

Stranger things…

Argos’ strategy of cutting back on the number of stores stocking printed catalogues has met with significant resistance from consumers; Argos’ twitter feed and Facebook page both provide ample evidence of customers’ reaction to the news that their local store no longer offers catalogues. For many people, online is simply not a replacement for print. It’s not just consumers either: one toy supplier went to his local branch to see how his product looked on page, only to find they weren’t holding catalogues there and he would have to drive to another store 15-20 miles away to pick one up. While he was there, he heard three people ask within 30 seconds where the catalogues were. Whatever Argos’ management may feel (or hope), it seems that people aren’t ready to let the catalogue go just yet….

Over in the USA, Toys R Us has been up to its old tricks: eagle-eyed Star Wars fans spotted product from the new The Last Jedi movie on sale a full month before the official embargo date, turning ‘Force Friday 2’ into ‘Farce Friday’ in an instant. Not that they have ‘previous’ in this area or anything. With the New York post publishing an article which quoted several analysts citing ‘Star Wars fatigue’, the big question is to what extent the new movie will reinvigorate the franchise. Suffice to say that expectations are rather different to where they were a couple of years ago, but maybe a dose of reality might not be such a bad thing all round…

In fairness, it’s not just Star Wars. Talking to several retailers in recent weeks, it seems that toy sales based on this year’s crop of July movie blockbusters have struggled to live up to the hype. Perhaps there were just too many big movies released in too short a time frame. In the past, four major movies would have been spread across a whole year; they arrived in a little over four weeks this time round. A combination of movie overkill and sequel fatigue seems to have diluted sales; while none of the properties have bombed by any stretch of the imagination, and some categories have been respectable (Transformers core line and Cars diecast seem to have performed well), nothing has really hit the dizzy heights. One retailer professed to being “exhausted” by the relentless movie schedule, and admits he will be reducing the number of movies he backs next year. He was particularly worried about franchises where there is not enough time between movies: not only is too much stock still left in the market place, but he believes too many parents are reluctant to buy yet more toys based on the same property.

It’s obviously different for older tweens and teens / adult collectors who are buying for themselves, but in his opinion, there are too many big movies in too short a space of time, too many are over-licensed and he isn’t surprised that a bit of fatigue is setting in. Maybe the fact that 2018 isn’t a big year for movies will be a blessing in disguise: perhaps a year’s break from an over- abundance of blockbusters will help rebalance the market and rekindle enthusiasm for 2019’s releases.

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New Release

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