Feature - Arts & Craft (Creative Play)

Young at art

Arts & crafts products have been the saviour of many a household during the past couple of years, and companies have used the soaring popularity of creative play to their advantage, identifying trends and play patterns that are set to keep this traditional category way ahead of the curve. Rachael Simpson-Jones finds out more.

Flick through this month's (substantial) feature on Arts & Crafts and you’ll see just how varied this sprawling category has become. Options for today’s kids include traditional activities - painting, colouring-in and dough modelling – alongside rather more ‘cutting edge’ activities such as stop-motion movie making, nail polish design and ice-cream making. Heck, you can even code a robot to draw pictures on your behalf, if you so wish.

What hasn’t changed is the play pattern at the heart of all the products highlighted in this issue. Creative play is considered a vital part of learning and development – and kids absolutely love it. Of course, so do parents and caregivers: who hasn’t turned to this category on a rainy afternoon to entertain a bored child? It’s for this reason that the category has performed particularly well over the past couple of years, when a series of lockdowns drove grown-ups to seek out arts & crafts products like never before. Happily, as we’ve seen in other categories, this level of demand hasn’t slumped: indeed, the situation seems to have reignited a passion for creative play that is keeping sales healthy months after ‘Freedom Day’.

“During the pandemic, the activities category saw significant growth with parents looking for ways to connect with and entertain their kids with activities during lockdowns,” explains Hedley Barnes, SVP International, Spin Master Toys. “Per NPD, our Kinetic Sand brand secured the spot as the No.2 reusable compound property and continues to gain share within the category. This trajectory, while softened slightly, is continuing, with strong consumer interest benefiting the category.”

Sarah Dayus, sales director at Great Gizmos, echoes Hedley’s sentiments, telling Toy World that sales ‘really took off’ during lockdown and are still strong even though things are much more back to normal. She adds: “Parents fell in love with these types of products over the last couple of years. After realising how fun and beneficial they are, they are now searching out other products in this category for their children. Children enjoy sitting at a table and making something they can be proud of, and parents really love getting involved too.”

Craft Buddy, the company behind the hugely popular diamond-painting brand Crystal Art, has found that the addition of classic licences has broadened the appeal of its products to a much wider age-range. The company has amassed an impressive collection of properties in recent years - launches for the second half of this year include L.O.L. Surprise! and Star Wars Crystal Art products – and it’s seen particular success with Disney, as Andrew Welch, head of Marketing, details.

“Licences help us reach an audience that we may not have otherwise, particularly those characters which have multi-generational appeal, like Disney and Peter Rabbit,” he says. “It’s interesting to note that some of our best-selling Disney lines have been classic properties – Winnie the Pooh, Bambi etc. – because these characters resonate deeply with the older crafters who also who buy our products. Our recent Peter Rabbit range of arts & craft products has been a hit with both an older and a younger audience.”

By their very nature, Craft Buddy’s products lend themselves well to display, especially the larger canvasses, so it’s no surprise that Andrew says the type of artwork used for its Crystal Art and Paint By Numb3rs products has a ‘massive’ bearing on sales. He says: “Crystal Art and Paint By Numb3rs both lend themselves perfectly to the use of rich, detailed imagery. This is logical: our products tend to be displayed on walls, desks or gifted, so it’s natural that people will be particularly partial to certain imagery that resonates with them. We’re delighted with the response to our Paint By Numb3rs Collection. We’ve secured listings with a number of our key international distributors and we’re really excited to develop the product range this year, including using some of our key licences on the products for the first time. We were excited to give our stockists, and potential stockists, a flavour of the range at the recent Toymaster and Distoy trade fairs. With our newer Paint By Numb3rs range, all the designs come pre-framed on wooden canvases and include three different sizes of paint brush.”

Last year, Ravensburger launched its own paint by numbers range, CreArt, which itself welcomes new licences for 2022 including Harry Potter, The Lion King, Frozen and Miraculous. Other new sets will be pitched towards adults – clearly a growing sector of the arts & crafts market – with landscapes, pop art and motivational quotes to choose from. Ranging adult arts & crafts products alongside kids’ ones could be a way to secure additional, impulse sales, particularly with parents seeking activities they can enjoy together with their child. One of the nicest things about products such as paint by numbers kits, or anything else with a clearly laid out, step by step approach, is that they allow crafters to create really quite impressive works of art. For anyone who enjoys creativity, but is about as artistic as a piece of washed up driftwood, this is a major draw (pun intended). No-one wants to feel frustrated while they’re crafting, or work for hours only for the end result to be less than overwhelming.

Speaking of driftwood, SES Creative is this year putting its own spin on a trend that many readers will be aware of – stone painting. It’s a simple enough concept – find a stone, paint it, then display it, gift it, or hide it for others to find – but to say it’s taken off would be an understatement. For 2022, SES Creative is hoping to ride the wave by launching the Painting Driftwood set. Each set comes with real wood, paint, feathers, glitter, yarn, glue and instructions on how to create a multitude of fun animals.

Damien Collett, head of Sales – UK and Ireland, tells Toy World that SES Creative possesses several product and brand related elements that set it apart from others in the marketplace. Firstly, everything is designed and made in the company’s purpose-built factory in the Netherlands with zero carbon footprint: everything SES Creative produces is clearly marked as 100% CO2 neutral, which is of major appeal among consumers. The company’s portfolio spans an enormous range of arts & craft products, with over 250 products to choose from, but it is particularly proud to have such a strong range in the pre-school category. SES makes products that are not only fun to use but safe for kids aged just one and above: this includes paint, glue, dough and more, all of which are hypoallergenic and gluten free.

“We have invested heavily in our 1-4 and 3-6 age ranges, as these are areas within crafting that are often under-represented,” Damien notes. “Well over a third of our new 2022 releases are suitable for these age ranges. We’ve also built upon our already popular dinosaur ranges, to offer more activities for children interested in crafting with dinosaurs as we head into peak demand with the new film release later this year.”

Yep, dinosaurs abound this year, across all categories. SES Creative is releasing a range of new dinosaur-themed craft products such as the Casting and Painting Dinosaur World set; ArtStraws will be offering Creation Station’s new 3D Models to Make range, which offers an array of different dinosaur kits; Great Gizmos’ new 3D Mould & Paint range is available in a dinosaur theme and Galt is launching a fun Dino Lights craft set kids can use to decorate their rooms.

Dinosaurs have long been an evergreen toy theme of course, but this year we can expect to see their popularity reach fever pitch thanks to the long-awaited and hugely anticipated release of Jurassic World Dominion, which hits cinemas this month.

Other trends for this year include wellness and/ or mindfulness. Craft Buddy says Crystal Art is well known for being an ‘extremely relaxing, therapeutic hobby’ (I’ve had a go – it is indeed relaxing) and PlayMonster UK is placing a strong focus on wellness with its new Ann Williams craft products: the Empower Flower and the Wall Collage kit. Elsewhere, it’s good to see even more inclusive art lines that let kids draw people in skin tones representative of our diverse society: Little Brian, which earlier this year began selling directly to UK retailers rather than via distribution partners, has introduced its new People Paint Sticks in 12 skin tones, and Crayola has launched a new Colours of the World colouring book, which bolsters the collection of crayons, pencils and markers which hit shelves in 2021.

Aside from dinosaurs, the products mentioned earlier in this piece have something else in common – they all let kids make something permanent. Sitting back and admiring a finished creation provides kids with a sense of achievement, and Sarah Dayus at Great Gizmos says children love making and creating things they can display and be proud of. The company’s Mould & Paint range really taps into this: each kit includes moulds kids can use to make multiple badges and fridge magnets, offering plenty of opportunities to be experimental with designs. Creative Kids, meanwhile, is pleased to be launching its Play-Doh Air Clay range, developed in partnership with Hasbro, which is perfect for creative long-lasting keepsakes such as bowls, pinch pots, keychains and other accessories, and Make It Real is launching two new bracelet making kits - Halo Charms Bracelets and Crystal Dreams Bracelets – which let kids make genuinely beautiful jewellery. Pride aside, craft kits that result in a permanent keepsake also allow kids to create something for gifting to a loved one; something they’ve made all on their own, with love, possibly with a particular friend or family member in mind. Who among us wouldn’t feel touched to receive such a gift from a young relative? Of course, the other option is to keep everything you make for yourself and refuse to share – both arguably have their merits.

At the other end of the spectrum, a huge number of arts & crafts ranges open the door to replayability. Spin Master’s Kinetic Sand is one. The brand’s steady popularity and growth, paired with positive online reviews and a strong social media presence, has helped solidify the brand as a quintessential childhood activity compound in households around the world. In autumn/winter 2022, Kinetic Sand is further expanding the sensory arts & crafts experience with the launch the Kinetic Sand Swirl N’ Surprise, the most hands-on approach yet to Kinetic Sand art play. This play set lets kids create beautiful sand art using the new tools and two pounds of sand, before simply putting it all away, ready for next time. Reusable compounds are the order of the day for Flair, too, which this year is releasing two major new Plasticine sets thanks to a new licensing deal with the British animation studio Aardman: the Plasticine Shaun the Sheep Model Maker Farmyard Fun set, and the Plasticine Morph Animation Maker.

Vivid Goliath’s Crayola Washimals range fully embraces the ‘scrub it out and start over’ line of thinking, as kids can wash each cute pet clean after they’ve finished decorating it, let it dry, and then start over. According to Emma Weber, Marketing and Licensing director at Vivid Goliath, Washimals has been in the market for over five years and has sold over 1m units, with strong growth seen not only in the UK and Europe but also in Crayola’s domestic market, the US. She explains: “The key to the success of Washimals is the continued research into new themes to refresh the pets and play sets whilst keeping true to the brand values of creativity, personalisation and the washability, so you can do it all again. The core of the play pattern is certainly about the freedom to design and wash again and again, but we also offer entry price point packs which give children plenty of choice over which pets they’d like to keep and display, and which they’d like to gift.”

“The US is hugely committed to this brand and has invested significantly in it, not only in product development and new themes such as Dinosaurs but also in fantastic webisode assets,” Emma continues. “These webisodes will truly immerse our fans in the world of Washimals via entertaining short stories that introduce the pets as different characters. And the development into new technologies, such as pearlescent paint, fragrances and washable stickers for our autumn/winter Super Salon, introduces continued innovation and fun new ways to play with the range.”

At SES Creative, the primary consideration when creating a new product is less about whether the end result is to keep or not, and more on simply ensuring they are fun, safe and contribute towards a child’s development. The majority of SES Creative’s craft sets offer a self-contained project that is suitable for the age range within which it sits. Sets for kids aged 1-6 promote the development of basic and fine motor skills, while older children can get hands-on with more advanced tasks that provide a sense of accomplishment.

The company is celebrating its landmark 50th anniversary this year, and to support its ongoing growth in the arts & crafts market is investing heavily in further warehousing to support product availability. Damien notes that while supply chains continue to remain vulnerable, he and the rest of the team is optimistic that having products manufactured and available locally will continue to be one of its biggest strengths. “Our customers are looking for suppliers with good availability, a strong sense of product safety and environmental responsibility,” he says.

With a product range so perfectly suited to in-store display, Craft Buddy is keen to supply its retail partners with finished Crystal Art or Paint By Numb3rs artwork, completely free of charge, that show off the brands in their full glory and catch the eye of shoppers. The company also offers a variety of point-of-sale solutions to support its retail partners, from FSDUs to shelf-edge strips and window stickers. Andrew Welch also makes it clear that Craft Buddy is very receptive to retailer feedback – stockists are encouraged to have an open dialogue with the team regarding marketing support, POS solutions and even product ideas that would most benefit them – while on its social media channels, the company enjoys a very responsive, loyal and engaged following. Competitions and social media campaigns drive both brand awareness and traffic.

Setting itself apart from many others in the category, Great Gizmos’ arts & crafts products have a very ‘gifty’ look about them. The company’s designers have created colourful, stand-out packaging that kids and parents want to pick up and buy, and the level of thought that goes into each kit has resulted in what Sarah Dayus describes as a ‘very loyal’ customer base.

“We always feel our products do best when sitting together in a display,” she says, when asked how retailers can make the most of the company’s brands in-store. “The colourful packaging of the kits complement each other and really catch the eye of the consumer. We actively support our retail partners with promotions, in-store display aids, competitions and more, and we’re always adding to the range – continually injecting newness to keep consumers coming back.”

Spin Master, meanwhile, continues to work closely with its retail partners to deliver inspiration through its toys and imagination through its installations. This includes the delivery of bespoke retail executions developed alongside key licensing partners such as Universal, Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Paramount. Hedley Barnes says Spin Master is also investing substantially in custom out-of-aisle activity including gondola ends, FSDUs and pallets, investing in permanent fixtures for key brands, and ‘amping up’ in-store sampling and product demonstrations across several brands. He adds: “We work hand in hand with retailers to establish product exclusives and collaborate closely to ensure we complement and support retailers’ tentpole marketing initiatives, including with social and influencer campaigns.”