It’s been another busy week of travelling, starting in Turkey with a flying visit to the country’s largest toy company Dolu to see its impressive new factory, and ending yesterday with a retail tour around London with the Mattel team. We spent a packed morning looking at the amazing activations for Barbie across leading stores of every shape and size, from specialist toy retail to high end department store, from fashion to grocery. We’ve been writing about it for quite a while, but it is great to see first-hand just how impressive the retail rollout is.
It has to be said that what Mattel and Warner Bros have achieved is nothing short of remarkable; they have created an incredible presence across every retail channel, without any retailers complaining that their competitors have been given preferential treatment. Literally, everyone’s a winner. Every store we visited had adopted a different approach, the only commonality being that each activation worked for that particular retailer. I suspect that is partly because Mattel and Warner Bros worked closely with individual retailers to find out what they needed and develop bespoke activations, which meant that retail operations weren’t all given identikit presentations.
I also get the distinct impression that Mattel and Warner Bros focused on the positive contributions that licensees and retailers can make in building consumer engagement, in marked contrast to certain movie-driven entertainment companies, who seem more interested in telling partners what they can’t do or say, often imposing draconian restrictions at every turn. Ultimately, licensees and retailers are far more than just a sideshow to the main (movie) event, they play a crucial role in delivering the excitement – that much was evident as we went from store to store yesterday. And if that wasn’t enough, we were ferried between destinations in an eye-catching Barbie cab, which had people taking pictures and selfies everywhere we went.
Even Sainsbury’s Argos has thrown themselves into the world of Barbie with gusto, with an impactful Barbie-themed section prominently placed right at the front of 64 stores. It was reminiscent of the way grocers used to operate a few years back, when it arguably felt like they had greater passion and enthusiasm for toys, and it even had shades of the old Woolworths movie launch activity about it. This was exactly the kind of initiative that I thought the Argos acquisition might bring to Sainsbury’s, and I hope it gives them the confidence to do more of the same with other brands in the future.
If early results are anything to go by, I suspect that is likely – indeed, it isn’t just Sainsbury’s Argos, I gather that many retailers have seen a very significant upturn in their Barbie business in recent weeks, both for the core Mattel range and licensees’ products too. To see well-shopped fixtures and retailers struggling to catch up on stock levels is welcome during the height of summer in any given year, yet alone after the period of economic instability the UK has been grappling with.
Thankfully, it does appear that the UK’s economic challenges may gradually be waning – they haven’t completely disappeared by any means, but there are signs that things are gently heading in the right direction, and toy sales have arguably held up better than some had expected over the summer. The prolonged spell of good weather in June clearly helped, and Barbie mania has nudged us a few more steps down the right path in July. I am hoping that the release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie next week will give another boost to retailers – I am very much looking forward to seeing the movie at a preview screening this weekend, before it opens to the public on Monday. The third quarter isn’t traditionally a crucial one for the toy market, but there should be enough bright spots this year to make the next couple of months a positive lead-in to the main season.
Elsewhere this week, despite it being the height of summer, there have been several notable toy and licensing industry moves to announce; former Hornby COO Tim Mulhall has joined Rubies as UK CEO, while I gather that Alpana Virani will shortly be leaving Universal to take on a new role at Netflix. Meanwhile, over in the US, the news that Richard Dickson has left Mattel to join fashion retailer Gap as COO came as something of a surprise to many. I also understand that Neil Bandtock recently parted company with Canal Toys here in the UK, while the German CEO of Playmobil, Steffan Hopfner, has announced that he will be stepping down from his role on Monday after eight years in the role and 26 years in the company.
We’d also like to wish Brainstorm’s product director Rosanne Kenealy all the best in her retirement, having stepped down at the end of June after 35 years in the toy trade. Rosanne was a key member of the buyout team which took control of the business in 2003, and as Nick Saunders so eloquently put it: “We have to remember that without Rosanne, there would be no Brainstorm.”
We were also sad to report that one of the Smyths brothers, Liam, passed away recently at the tender age of 60. Our condolences to his wife and sons and, of course, the rest of the Smyths family.
Finally, keep a look out for the August issue of Toy World, which will be landing on desks early next week. We’re already well into work on our September 12th birthday issue, so get in touch now if you’d like to be involved (there is still time…just – details here). The edition will be published on 1st September, just as the toy market starts to transition from the lazy days of summer to the all-important autumn winter season. I would argue that this summer has been a decent one for the UK toy market, but Q4 is always where the fun really starts for the toy community. And having seen the first Christmas top 10 toy list released this week (John Lewis takes the award for being first out of the blocks this year), you know that we are not that far away now.
