Creative Kids tells Toy World why its new trend-led Nano Crafts arts & craft range is a line that’s destined to stick around.
Toy World spoke to Creative Kids’ CMO Daniel DeLapa, Licensing and PR/Marketing manager Michelle Rodrigues Hawthorn and UK MD, Grant Gie, earlier this month about the major new range of crafting kits based on social media sensation – nano tape.
A few months ago, while shopping in a Japanese toy store, Daniel DeLapa inexplicably came across a huddle of kids gathered around a display filled with rolls of tape. Intrigued, Daniel took some of the transparent, double-sided, heavy duty sticky tape to his hotel and began researching a) what it was, b) what it did and c) why the kids in the shop seemed so excited by it. The tape, he discovered, was nano tape. It’s used for hanging pictures, sticking down rugs and securing decorations in place. As for why kids would love it, well…fold it over, fill it with water and slime or glitter and sequins, inflate it, paint or draw on it, and you’ve created a squishy pet, a boba-tea shaped charm, a fishbowl, a kawaii miniature milk carton – really, anything you can think of.
Nano tape has become something of a viral sensation online: at the time of our interview with Creative Kids, the hashtag #nanotape had over 1.6b views on TikTok alone. Knowing his company had to act swiftly, Daniel’s all-night brainstorming session in Japan resulted in the launch range outline of what is now Nano Crafts, with samples following within two weeks. Within eight weeks of conception, wholesale buy-in of the Nano Crafts range had significant placement and product was being air-freighted to customers.
“I don’t want to sound cheesy, but it genuinely feels like we’ve stumbled upon something historic here,” says Daniel. “Every kid we’ve shown this to has been left open-mouthed with amazement. We’ve never moved so quickly on a product or with such urgency, which goes to show how excited we are about it.”
For the Creative Kids team, Nano Crafts is a reflection of the company’s ethos and strengths in the competitive toy industry. Daniel notes that while innovation and speed to market are integral to the success of any company, within the toy industry, trends and crazes makes these qualities particularly important. Getting in at the ground level of an emerging trend doesn’t only allow you to ride the wave at the beginning, but also secures the residuals and cements your place as the leader when that trend ultimately becomes a category: think Spin Master with Kinetic Sand, Hasbro with Play-Doh, or Rainbow Loom with rubber band bracelets.
To read the full Nano Crafts feature, click here.
