The toys are now available in store.
What could be more exciting as a child than designing your own toy and seeing it being sold in the UK’s fastest growing toy retailer? That is exactly what the team at Addo Play thought when they approached The Entertainer marketing team about a competition idea at the end of 2017.
A few weeks later Addo and The Entertainer launched the Design Your Own Wiggle Jiggle Pet competition during February half-term 2018. During half term, forms were available in store and to download online, with a basic shape for the children to use as a starting point. With over 200 entries in a week the Addo Marketing and Design team had a very hard time choosing the winners. Designs ranged from multi coloured unicorns, to fluffy fish, to farmyard favourites and popular pets.
Part of the process involved speaking to the product development and QA team about how different shapes/tails/weight of plush could affect the movement of the mechanical plush toy. Once a top 10 were chosen it then went to a very democratic vote in the Addo Play head office, and from that vote there were three clear winners – a hedgehog, a dragon and a bumble bee.
Once the decision was made about the winners, the three toys went into product development, and the Limited-Edition Wiggle Jiggle Pets landed in store just before Christmas 2018. The three winners were thrilled to hear they had won, and were even more excited to go to their local The Entertainer shop in January this year to receive their framed designs along with their own Wiggle Jiggle Pets.
Amelia Naylor, product development & marketing executive at Addo, commented: “It really amazed everyone at Addo how creative and inventive the children’s entries into the Wiggle Jiggle Pets competition were. To narrow it down from several hundred to just three was incredibly hard, but it was wonderful to see three children’s designs come to life throughout the development process.”