LEADER

July is the month where toy and film worlds collide as the eagerly-awaited Barbie movie finally arrives in cinemas, after what seems like an interminable wait.

The long-mooted project was first announced as far back as 2009 and is now in its third incarnation at a trio of different studios, as first Marvel and then Sony both held options, explored the possibilities, paid for scripts, treatments and endless rewrites and investigated all sorts of different actors in the lead role.

Mattel must be breathing a sigh of relief that it has finally hit paydirt with the project, and it does appear as if it will have been worth the wait. For after all those rewrites, the early word is positive and the film has got fans clamouring to see it.

Where it seems to have succeeded – with the movie itself –is in marrying the different potential audiences. There’s the older, kitschier crowd drawn in by some of the talent involved – millennial favourite and the thinking person’s crumpet post-Drive Ryan Gosling as Ken, Margot Robbie as Barbie herself, American indie cinema wunderkinds Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach on writing duties with the former also directing. These will be drawn in by Warner’s expansive marketing and clever promotional partners tied in to the film, as well as the knowing winks from press junkets that everyone, filmmakers and the audience, are in on the joke. And elsewhere, there’s the younger audience, child fans of Barbie, fans of Mattel’s product. These are the core fans, the ones who will buy not only Mattel’s product, but much of the licensed gear out there, too.

Beyond those two key groups, there are scores of other sub-sets, many of whom Warner appears to be winning over.

The studio’s marketing campaign is impressive, with scores of partners, both promotional and for licensing, and it is embarking on a global PR tour to take the stars and publicity machine to territories around the world, The global nature of journalism means relentless coverage for the film worldwide. the number of teachers, in 100 schools, who worked with iChild and Leapfrog to look at the latter’s educational toys. They carried out product testing as part of the research to see if they would recommend

Hollywood badly needs a hit, with a slightly flat summer box office for blockbusters, the latest Spider-verse instalment aside, the success of Barbie is essential not just for cinemas, but for the licensing business too.

Barbie’s big box office, which looks more than likely and many analysts believe will happen, will give a real lift to the toy sector. In the kind of me-too world that Hollywood executives inhabit, they are probably already rushing to diarise meetings with toy companies to see what they can turn into movie magic.

Some of summer’s successes thus far have been toy-related – Transformers Rise Of The Beasts has performed solidly and seemed to bring with it some of the critical acclaim that has been missing from recent Michael Bay Transformers outings, moreover it tantalisingly teased a future collaboration in the end credits that will make for huge toy news in the coming years, while the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles iteration is also shaping up to be another summer hit.

In a time when superhero movies are stuttering, at least in audience reaction, then toy movies could become even more in favour, and, moreover, create a double-win scenario for toy retailers.

We’ve covered one of those big summer theatrical releases, specifically its toy product, with a look at Character Options’ special event to launch its range of toys based on the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film in this issue of TnP, alongside all your usual favourites and special looks at tech toys, STEM and plush - three key sectors.

There’s also an exclusive interview with the man now installed at Asmodee to head up both its purchasing and marketing teams, Greg Stanton.

We hope you enjoy the issue and enjoy the summer, especially going to the cinema to sample some of the summer blockbusters.

Leapfrog product to parents. A whopping 96% said they would. Leapfrog added that the learnings will help the company formulate its key marketing messaging for the brand in the upcoming Autumn/ Winter marketing campaigns for 2023.