 |  News08.07.2019 // Happy Family Day!!! | 01.07.2019 // July 2019 – interesting toy events at a glance01.07.2019 - Children's Day Pakistan 21.07.2019 - Children's Day Cuba, Panama, Venezuela 23.07.2019 - Children's Day Indonesia | 27.06.2019 // Amazon Australia focuses on baby marketAmazon Australia is strengthening its focus on baby products, toys and apparel, after it launched its new 'Baby Wishlist' tool on the site. Launched on 20 June, the tool allows expecting parents to curate a list of desired products which they can share with family, friends and colleagues for an upcoming baby shower or birth. Speaking at an exclusive launch event in Sydney, head of marketing and consumables for Amazon Australia Adeline Tan, said that the tool helps expecting parents in a variety of ways. "It is a really exciting new program especially targeted for expecting parents or those with a newborn. Australian parents are really smart; we're embracing technology in many different aspects of our lives and with that in mind, we want to make life easier for expecting parents." Amazon Australia currently has a selection of 125 million products available for purchase across categories. | 24.06.2019 // Fundamentally Children explores ‘digital divide’ between kids and grandparentsA new piece of research into toys and play habits and exploring the ‘digital divide’ by Fundamentally Children’s Dr Amanda Gummer and Anna Taylor, has been published by the International Toy Research Association. The paper, Connected Grandparents: Are Smart Toys the Future of Intergenerational Play? combines qualitative and quantitative research with grandparents aged 55 to 85, and explores the reported ‘digital divide’ as children are introduced to, and learn how to use, technology from a young age. The findings of the research showed that overall grandparents had neutral, not negative attitudes towards technology, digital games, and smart toys. However, the two generations reported that they rarely played digital games together, as they had little access to multiplayer games which were suitable for both ages and skill levels. During the research, it was found that the children were more likely to put themselves in charge of the digital, screen-based element of the games, while the grandparents preferred the physical aspect (animal themed building blocks). The older participants reported that they liked the sensory aspect of the physical toys, which couldn’t be gained from a screen, along with the increased social interactivity of the game. Anna Taylor, researcher, Fundamentally Children, commented: "The Connected Grandparents research threw up some really interesting results in how intergenerational play can work in a connected, digital era. By bringing together a digital feature with a physical aspect, grandparents and their grandchildren could come together with varying levels of digital literacy to play. "Intergenerational play is a really important part of children’s social and emotional development and we’ll be looking to follow this piece of research up by looking at how games can be designed to suit players with different abilities, as well as what the opportunities are for toy companies to create opportunities for long distance play between the two generations through smart toys." | 20.06.2019 // Influencer Marketing: What is it and what benefits do retailers gain?Chatbots, language assistants, influencers in social networks – digitisation is constantly creating new and innovative digital methods of communication and marketing. Even brick and mortar businesses have seen some significant changes over recent decades. And this in turn has led to new trends in advertising which now comes in digital, mobile and even virtual form. Retailers discovered so-called influencer marketing for their own purposes a long time ago, and they are now exploiting one of the trendiest methods of influencing potential purchasers in their buying decisions. But what is influencer marketing and how can brick and mortar shops profit from these digital opinion makers? WHAT IS INFLUENCER MARKETING?Customers associate valuable products such as fashion, jewellery or electronics with emotions such as happiness or desire. It is these feelings in particular that advertising tries to arouse through appropriate and relevant messages. Ultimately, what customers are looking for is also an exciting shopping experience. So-called influencers can be a great help in this regard. Influencers are people who, because of their strong online presence and their reputation in social networks, are considered to be good channels for advertising and marketing products and services. How can the success of influencer marketing on the Internet be explained? In fact it is a popular marketing strategy that has been in use for decades: Through mouth-to-mouth propaganda, companies create more credibility and can influence exactly how, where and what information potential customers absorb. What happens is simply that customers recommend products to each other. In the social web, it is now entire communities that influence buying behaviour. An uploaded product image on Facebook or Instagram can sometimes influence future sales of a product much more than a lot of advertising campaigns. USING THE DIGITAL REACHThese open recommendations to buy do not only benefit brick-and-mortar retailers. Social media stars or rather influencers benefit from this mechanism, too. A lot of them, after all, have a large circle of followers. And the influencers can use the purchasing decisions of this circle for themselves and for the brand they are promoting. Companies take advantage of the reputation and reach of opinion makers in order to achieve specific communication or marketing goals. Influencers can turn a product or service into a topic of conversation, recommend it to their community and, in consultation with the company, create the appropriate content for the brands presented. These activities are in no way limited to Facebook or Instagram alone. Influencer marketing campaigns can also be implemented via blogs, forums and other networks. INFLUENCER MARKETING FOR BRICK-AND-MORTAR BUSINESSESInfluencers can play an important role in making the online shopping experience exciting and fun. For example, they may present new fashion collections via social networks such as Instagram and if you see anything you like, you can just click on it and put it into your shopping basket. The GoldieBlox toy brand uses do-it-yourself videos to reach out to mothers and their daughters. The specially developed YouTube series is filmed in cooperation with the relevant influencers. Additional, attractive content can be shared on the company's own channels or on the Facebook and Instagram profiles of relevant opinion makers. And finally, online activities and influencer marketing also include e-mail marketing campaigns that actively encourage parents to buy. Influencers therefore are not just some phenomenon for the benefit of e-commerce companies. They are definitely relevant to brick-and-mortar businesses, too. Retailers shouldn’t miss out on this great opportunity to expand their customer base by presenting products or services in blogs and social networks. Influencer marketing is a marketing tool that brick-and-mortar retailers would be foolish to avoid. The advantages such as bigger coverage for the company's products and services and significantly higher sales are hard to ignore. Closer proximity between the brand and followers creates a greater appeal, more trust and credibility. This helps brick-and-mortar retailers to improve their corporate image significantly. The influencer must of course always fit the image of the product, the service and the target group. This gives companies another effective voice in the social media. | 11.06.2019 // Plastic Versus The Environment: A Threat To The Global Toy Industry?Awareness of the damage caused to ocean life by waste plastic items has risen to the fore recently. This has been an issue for quite some time, but a number of high-profile projects and television series (i.e. Boyan Slat’s Great Ocean Clean Up and Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet) have made this one of the most pressing environmental concerns of our times. Aside from the concern this may cause toy people in terms of the health of our planet and the future wellbeing of our children, it should also be a concern and consideration as such a high percentage of toys are made of plastic or feature plastic in the packaging. Does this mean that the anti-plastic backlash will lead to a major threat to the toy industry? Well for certain, if you were doing a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), you would have to include anti-plastic backlash as a threat to the toy industry overall. In reality though, I am not sure how big a threat the plastic-environmental issue will represent. OCEAN PLASTICS & TOYS: 2 KEY FACTSFirstly, the vast majority of plastic in the oceans is single use plastic i.e. food containers and drink bottles, plastic bags etc. A major secondary source of plastics in the ocean which are harmful to the marine environment are fishing lines and nets. So, if you take a macro perspective on ocean plastic, toys are not a significant factor. Secondly, more than a quarter of the plastic in the ocean is thought to come from ten rivers in Asia and Africa, meaning that the primary toy consuming markets of North America and Europe are excluded from these primary polluting rivers. Now there is a counter argument that several of the Asian rivers run through manufacturing hubs used for toys as well as other consumer products, and that the population moved to those areas along these rivers due in large part to China’s manufacturing sector, however, this is not a direct link to the toy industry. INDIRECT THREATS & OPPORTUNITIESThere seems little doubt that the tides are changing in terms of single use plastic around the world. This should not in itself be a major threat to the toy industry, albeit something we should embrace as consumers and global citizens. There are though, some areas we need to look at closely which may have an impact: - Centralised solutions in Asia – bearing in mind so much of the world’s population is in Asia, and that Asian rivers are a major source of plastic in the oceans, it is quite likely we will see some kind of concerted centralised attempts to minimise single use plastics. This kind of indirect factor has had significant effect on the toy industry in other areas of environmental action for instance where paper mills have been rationalised and redirected in terms of environmental standards leading to increased toy packaging prices.
- Badly conceived or over extensive legislation in the West – anyone who has observed the global political environment in recent times will be aware of the growing propensity for backlash and over reaction. The toy industry en masse needs to monitor the potential negative effect of poorly thought out or over reaching legislation which ends up including plastic toys via careless definitions of product categories etc.
- Transportation and shipping materials from store – clearly the manner in which consumers or direct supply retailers transport toys is likely to change. They are less and less likely to carry toys away in a throwaway plastic bag or other disposable plastic.
- Packaging solutions – clearly throwaway single use plastic packaging is set to be under great pressure in the coming years, and so toy development and manufacturing will have to find more solutions from sustainably sourced paper-based packaging.
- Material developments –the pressure on plastic usage could also be an opportunity for the development of better materials – better in terms of environmental impact, but also in terms of other characteristics. Lego has already made several public announcements on their commitment to sustainable bricks by utilising sugar cane material or derivatives. They also have a corporate commitment to be using a sustainable material en masse by 2030. Hasbro have also announced they will be using plant based ‘plastics’ in packaging starting from 2019.
ALTERNATIVE MATERIALS FOR TOYS ARE SURE TO COMESo overall, clearly these are challenging times for the global marine environment, and logically we should expect to see a concerted global backlash against single use plastic usage. However, for the toy industry we should probably expect a more indirect impact, but with some key global players already moving towards sustainable sources, we are likely to see an advancement of alternative materials. We should hope it moves quicker than any legislation which may make such moves mandatory ahead of our ability to implement them. | 03.06.2019 // June 2019 – interesting toy events at a glanceDate Event Location
01.06.2019 International Children's Day Worldwide
01.06.2019 - 02.06.2019 Instant Future BarCamp Nuremberg, Germany
02.06.2019 3rd Annual LIMA Cares Charity Bike Ride – Licensing Expo Las Vegas, United States
03.06.2019 Young Professionals Network @ Rhythm & Riff in Mandalay Bay Las Vegas, United States
04.06.2019 2019 LIMA International Licensing Awards Ceremony Las Vegas, United States
04.06.2019 - 05.06.2019 K5 Conference 2019 – Future Retail Conference Berlin, Germany
04.06.2019 - 06.06.2019 Licensing Expo 2019 Las Vegas, United States
05.06.2019 Women in Toys – WIT Breakfast at Licensing Expo Las Vegas, United States
07.06.2019 - 08.06.2019 ASTRA Certified Play Expert Workshop Pittsburgh, United States
09.06.2019 Children's Day United States
09.06.2019 - 12.06.2019 ASTRA marketplace & Academy Pittsburgh, United States
11.06.2019 - 12.06.2019 Customer Experience Forum NYC – Forrester New York, United States
11.06.2019 - 12.06.2019 ICTI TWO DAY COURSE Ethical Toy Program Essentials Nanjing, China
11.06.2019 - 12.06.2019 Change The Game – Leading Radical Customer Experience Innovation New York, United States
11.06.2019 - 13.06.2019 E3 Expo Los Angeles, United States
13.06.2019 ICTI ONE DAY COURSE Introduction to the Program Nanjing, China
18.06.2019 - 19.06.2019 Annual Business Conference Minneapolis, United States
19.06.2019 Licensing Italia – LIMA Italy, Kidz Global: Kidz Trends Seminars Milan, Italy
28.06.2019 ICTI HALF DAY COURSE Open Forum Shenzhen, China | 30.05.2019 // Play and Tech sector at heart of new direction for Autumn Fair 2019Play and tech will be the topic of focus for the toy industry at this year’s Autumn Fair, as the show prepares to recalibrate and launch its new direction for 2019 and beyond. The NEC show will be unveiling a raft of new initiatives and changes this year, kicking off with a move to the exhibition centre’s Atrium, as part of a ‘re-edited offering’ designed to make connecting suppliers and retailers a smoother process, and showcase products better. 11 curated show sectors will enable visitors to explore the products driving sales throughout the busy Christmas period and on into key selling periods for 2020. All gifting categories have been brought together into one Gift sector, in turn creating the UK’s largest gathering of gift inspiration under one roof. Likewise, the 2019 move will bring together the show’s home and interiors sectors, creating a new sourcing and exhibiting destination for UK and international buyers and suppliers. More than 22,000 visitors, and 1,300 exhibitors are expected to descend on the NEC for the show. New show sectors include: Beauty & Wellbeing, Living, Gift, Greetings & Stationary, Accents and Decor, Everyday, Retail Solution, Fashion, and Play & Tech. | 16.05.2019 // Ukrainians celebrate day of national embroidered shirtToday Ukrainians traditionally celebrate Vyshyvanka Day, the day of national embroidered shirt. It is not an official holiday but is celebrated in Ukraine and abroad by Ukrainians and foreigners who are fond of Ukrainian culture. The action dates back to the initiative of students of the History, Political Science and International Relations Department of the Yuri Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University. Ukrainian embroidered shirt vyshyvanka, along with the Ukrainian traditional Easter egg pysanka, is one of the brightest symbols of Ukrainian culture. Besides, wearing an embroidered shirt, one demonstrates not only its beauty and uniqueness but also confirms belonging to the everlasting Ukrainian cultural tradition. | 15.05.2019 // International Day Of FamiliesInternational Day Of Families falls on 15 May every year and highlights the importance of families as basic units of society. The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed that 15 May of every year shall be observed as the International Day of Families. The day reflects the importance that the international community attaches to families as basic units of society as well as its concern regarding their situation around the world. . . . |
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