Funko’s managing director of EMEA, Andy Oddie, spoke to Toy World about taking to the road.
With a host of products to its name, including its range of stylised Pop! Vinyl collectible figures, Funko continues to go from strength to strength in the pop culture marketplace. Offering some of the fastest times to market in the toy industry, and covering almost every IP in existence, the company is able to cover every relevant property going, be it niche, with a small but loyal fan following, or mass-market, global appeal properties like Star Wars.
Andy Oddie, managing director EMEA, explained: “We’ve been able to acquire licences for just about every piece of relevant IP in existence and translate it into our stylised Pop! vinyl figures. We can develop an item and bring it to market within three months, which means we have a natural marry-up with gaming studios in particular, and our items are always current and on-trend.”
The company is now eyeing up further expansion in the EMEA marketplace, having seen success with a campaign at the Spanish retailer Carrefour; gondola displays featuring TV screens play native animated shorts, produced by Funko Animation Studios in Bath.
“We are spending a lot of time on the road at the moment, delivering the message to retailers across EMEA and increasing our penetration,” said Andy. “The Comic Cons opening up across EMEA appeal to the grassroots fanbase, and we have attended Dubai Comic Con, followed by the Cape Town Comic Con. Within EMEA we are continuing to focus on core territories such as France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Nordics, where growth has been strongest recently.”
Andy added: “As a business, we have become more mature, growing through the types of individuals we are hiring to support us. When we acquired Underground Toys in January 2017 we had around 110 heads, now we are up to around 170. Even in a fun business like toys and collectibles, we need structure and professionalism – and our new faces help us with that immensely.”
To read the full, in-depth interview with Andy in the June issue of Toy World, click here.
