Touching Base

Keeping in touch

Toy World caught up with leading suppliers to find out how they have found preview season this year. We asked their thoughts on when they might return to physical shows and found out how they are helping retailers prepare for the big reopening.

Samantha Goodburn - Marketing & PR manager, Gibsons Games

We certainly all missed London Olympia and the NEC this year and can’t wait for both events to return in 2022. However, despite being stuck at home we had a very successful show season. We held our first ever Virtual Trade Show in the first week of February. Customers signed up for 1-2-1 video calls with our team, enjoyed a live Q&A panel with our directors, and viewed a raft of newly created product videos we’ve developed to showcase our new releases. Our virtual show was a great way to connect with our customers after so long, and to discuss listings for later in the year.

We plan to attend the AIS Independent Toy and Gift Show in September and hope that it will kickstart the physical shows after so long. We really miss meeting our customers and partners face-to-face, and can’t wait to get back.

We have a special offer on all our games and children’s puzzles this month, ready for the big reopening. With families looking to spend more time off their screens, and to enjoy more traditional pastimes, we hope that this offer will encourage consumers to shop with and support their local retailers when they open their doors again.

Kate Scott - Marketing & business development manager, HoloToyz

Obviously, we would have loved to have attended the fairs this year, but we took part in the Spielwarenmesse Brand New Live Presentation on Instagram which was a hugely positive experience for us. We were very excited to showcase our new range of temporary tattoos, stickers, books and wall decals that come to life via augmented reality. We have been kept busy with Zoom calls and new orders ever since, and it has given us an opportunity to meet with people we would most likely never have come across at the shows, so it’s not all bad!

As soon as we are allowed to leave Ireland and the shows are open, we’ll be back. Spielwarenmesse 2020 was brilliant for us, and we have some big news coming with licences, so we will have some exciting products to share at the next shows we attend. We’re looking forward to meeting and presenting to people in 3D again without having to worry about muting or freezing.

As we are a new brand, our main focus in the months ahead will be on marketing. Influencer marketing is still a priority for us; we will be building our network of influencer collaborations to build awareness, excitement and knowledge about our range.

Ben Hogg - Marketing manager, Vivid Goliath Group

I joined Vivid at the end of the autumn/ winter preview season. It was great to see the variety of ways in which the company presented product to buyers during this unusual period, ranging from an assortment of strong sizzles through to engaging live demonstrations from our showroom, which has resulted in the best presentations we could have possibly offered, and a wealth of information conveyed to retailers. We all miss sitting around the table, showing samples you can touch and feel, and I can’t wait for this to return we move into spring/summer 2022 planning.

We are big believers that the best possible way to show product is at a trade show and we’re look forward to attending as soon as these open back up - hopefully later on this year.

We have a variety of marketing campaigns planned to start over the Easter period, and across the reopening of shops, to help drive consumers back into their local toy stores. We will be TV advertising games for the first time over Easter and running digital and social media for key brands such as Ryan’s World, to support the World Tour range. Digital and social will also be used to announce the latest ranges across Collectibles and Fashion Dolls for Love, Diana. We are also anticipating the arrival of longer and warmer days this month; April is a key period for our Outdoor ranges. These will be supported by TV across Phlat Ball, Wubble and Ryzr as well as our new launches, Hydro Clash and Wubble Rumblers.

Clive Wooster - MD, Geomagworld

We undertook virtual presentations from mid- January this year with pretty much all our major customers. These seemed to be well received and we certainly enjoyed doing them - it was great to interact with buyers again, even if they were sitting in their kitchen (or attic). We limited our presentation time following feedback, and Nikki and I did a double act to communicate all the exciting developments and news for 2021 across our Magicube, Geomag and Mechanics product ranges. This included the fact that two-thirds of our current line is now made using recycled plastics, our new coordinated packaging, some of which incorporates try-me features, and our completely top-to-bottom redesigned Mechanics line for autumn/winter 2021.

We’d love to get back out to physical shows, but we all need to put the safety of our customers and our teams first. I’m not sure early summer is going to meet that criteria, but hopefully things will progress to the point where we can attend shows safely. I’d like to think the Toymaster and AIS shows could be the first ones; we missed talking directly to our independent customers in 2020 and really need to put that right.

During the most recent lockdown, we continued our drop ship programme, which a fair few indies took advantage of. We also have various promotional programmes in place ready for re-opening to make sure shelves are full. Stock availability is a key point – as our manufacturing is undertaken in Switzerland, we’ve had a relatively easy time keeping our stock at good levels in the UK warehouse. If retailers order it, we’ve probably got it.

Thomas Randrup - Managing director, Schleich UK & Ireland

Not surprisingly, we felt a degree of apprehension heading into the traditional toy fair season without either London or Nuremberg taking place. Both are key events for us, and traditionally set the tone for the year ahead. Nonetheless, we have endeavoured to mitigate the absence of physical toy fairs in several ways, not least of all the Virtual Preview that was run by our HO team in Germany. This proved to be an excellent way of engaging both our own team and retailers alike, and the innovative use of green screen technology certainly made the product presentations hugely impactful.

In addition, our sales team has been very busy making use of Teams and Zoom technology, taking customers through our 2021 new release programme and marketing plans. These have proved to be very successful means of communication.

So yes, it’s been very strange; we’ve all missed the social side of Toy Fair and meeting up with our retail partners and colleagues. That said, there have certainly been some great learning opportunities too, and there are elements of the virtual content that we will make use of again in the future. Overall, we are delighted with the level of retailer support and ranging, and we are confident of another recordbreaking year for Schleich in the UK & Ireland.

We are encouraged to see the revised dates for the AIS Show, although we’re obviously disappointed to hear of the cancellation of the Toymaster Show - both are very important events for us. Our marketing programme also includes some key consumer events, such as the Royal Dublin Horse Show, so we hope that the second half of the year will see these remain on the calendar.

We have been working closely with our retail partners to ensure that they are as well informed as possible on all our new products, promotions and marketing activity, and that they are adequately stocked up to cope with what we all hope will be a significant level of pent-up consumer demand. In addition, we’re ramping up our marketing efforts to raise consumer awareness of some of our great new products, including a raft of TV and digital activity to help drive even more demand for Schleich ranges in advance of the big reopening.

Kelly Philp - Director of marketing, Mattel UK

It’s certainly been a challenging time; you miss seeing buyers in person and having those face-to-face interactions. Virtual meetings don’t enable buyers to interact with toys, and days and even weeks of virtual presentations proved to be a lot of effort for both them and us. We tried to make our presentations as smooth and as efficient as possible, and used different ways to support buyers, making sure they get all the relevant information they need on our product ranges and marketing plans.

It’s difficult to give any specific date for returning to physical shows. We will have to wait and see how lockdown easing goes and what make sense, along with the government guidelines. Our No. 1 priority will always be the health and wellbeing of our employees as well as our retailers. But, of course, we hope that our return will be sooner rather than later.

Our marketing investment is always on, but we are investing in driving footfall to bricks & mortar stores to support the reopening via a range of activities. We know how important it is to encourage consumer back to high streets and retail parks, and we’re working on some unique and innovative ways to do so using the latest digital technology. This will ensure physical stores as well as the digital purchasing opportunities get our support. We always want to showcase the breadth and depth of our ranges to consumers and support that magical experience of a child picking a toy in store.

Simon Tomlinson - Head of Marketing EMEA, Learning Resources

It’s been a bit strange being at home during January and February, with no London, Nuremberg or New York shows to go to. We really value show season; it’s such an important time to meet our customers, meet new people, discuss the industry and showcase our products. This year, though, we were well prepared for the cancellation of shows and had several measures in place. Firstly, we invested significantly in product videos and presentation software to showcase our products digitally. We also ran several International New Product Webinars earlier in the year which were very well attended by customers across the globe. We also supported the online event solutions presented by Spielwarenmesse 2021 to showcase our brands. Moreover, we’ve invested in our website and have really embraced digital meeting tools. This has resulted in some very positive dialogue with our customers whilst we wait for the opportunity to meet once again face-to-face.

We will return to physical shows when it is safe to do so and we can see a value in attending, but I genuinely cannot see this happening until well into the second half of this year.

We have had an ongoing dialogue with our partners throughout lockdown and very much look forward to seeing bricks & mortar stores open their doors. We’ve seen that many of our partners have vastly improved and upweighted their digital and social offerings due to the lockdown, which means that now more than ever we’re able to work with them on cross platform promotional ideas and messaging, as well as in-store activation and promotions. This has allowed us to plan social competitions that will drive footfall into stores, for example. We’re looking forward to working with our partners in the coming months to really get these kinds of initiatives off the ground.

Mary Wood - General manager UK & Ireland, Tomy

We’ve been delighted with the feedback from the retailers that were able to join us for Tomy’s virtual toy fair, which we ran across the week London Toy Fair would usually take place. We were hearing that retailers were getting a bit fed up with ‘death by Powerpoint’, instead wanting to see product samples even if they were not able to touch and see them in the flesh. Taking care to keep the number of people in the office to a minimum, and making sure that all possible precautions were taken to keep everyone safe, people from either our sales or marketing teams presented live to show attendees. I think we’ve all been missing that face-to-face interaction and seeing actual product, so these sessions worked very effectively. They also ensured that all those presenting worked on being succinct and making the time work for the retailers who attended. We also recorded these sessions for our UK field sales agents and EU distributor team to use, which seems to have worked well. The net result is that we seem to have had earlier decisions on selections, which has put us some weeks ahead of where we would traditionally be at this time of year. This means we are better planned and organised than ever.

It’s very hard to answer any questions on physical shows right now. Personally, I am really struggling to see how, until a very large number of people have been vaccinated in the UK, it can be practical and/or safe to attend physical shows. Then, even if most people are vaccinated in the UK, could an event such a Nuremberg Toy Fair even take place when people from literally all over the world are gathering? If other countries’ vaccination programmes are not as advanced as ours, then an event such as this is hard to envisage. The other side of the show situation is that we were able to save a significant amount of money, time and resources by not attending some events. We’re now asking ourselves how best to proceed in 2022. We want to support the UK toy trade, and always will - it’s just a question of how best we can do that. I am sure our thoughts will evolve over the coming months.

I think the No. 1 priority for the reopening of non-essential retail is to ensure once our customers can open, we have the stock to support them. Logistics has been one of the biggest challenges for our (and I am sure everyone’s businesses) so far this year. Between the lack of containers, rocketing container costs, surcharges on deliveries and Brexit it’s not been easy, but we have worked hard to mitigate the negative impacts of these issue we so we can support retailers in the best way possible as they open their doors.

Alison Downie - Global licensing & brand director, HTI Toys

We’ve found this preview season to be challenging due to the restrictions on face-to-face meetings. However, our customers have been extremely supportive whilst we have been working online. Our virtual showroom tours allowed our product team to work closely with HTI’s account managers on new product presentations, creating a winning team with a great depth of knowledge.

HTI has made considerable investment into its ranges; as a team we’re confident that our product offering is as strong as it has ever been, and we have received some incredible feedback from customers reflecting this belief. We are therefore really looking forward to the launch of our new items online and in stores this autumn.

Guidelines have been changing frequently over the last few months but, taking into consideration the vaccination programme and government planning, we are hoping that this will allow our team to attend physical shows later this year. Ultimately, we will be returning to shows in line with other companies from within the toy industry. The latest we have heard about is Distoy, which will now take place in autumn. We’re looking forward to meeting our customers again in person and have a very positive outlook for the remainder of this year and beyond. We do feel that the platform for shows may change over the next few years, with more companies now making use of virtual environments.

We are working with our retail partners on an individual basis to give support for the highly anticipated re-opening of non-essential stores. Our sales team has had several discussions with buyers to ensure stores will be fully stocked and ready to meet demand.

We understand that children may not have been able to visit a physical shop with their parents for a few months, meaning the first visit to a store will be an exciting one, whether it be a grocer, toy specialist, discounter or independent. We have worked hard with merchandisers to ensure the products on the shelves are engaging and stand out at a time when this is more important than ever.

To help build momentum, we plan to work with parent influencers, gifting our key lines for this Easter for them to review. We will also showcase new items on our social media channels, tagging retailers in posts with the aim of driving sales in-store. In addition to this, the marketing team has produced new digital assets including imagery and demo videos of our new items, which will be provided to retailers and promoted via our social channels.

Heather Welch - International brand manager, Edx Education

The preview show season so far has been dynamic despite being grounded. It’s allowed us to get around the world without getting on a plane and opened up lots of new opportunities to build partnerships and communicate with more suppliers and consumers. The past 12 months have sped up digital developments within the industry and made the world an increasingly connected and accessible place, which has been great for brands like us.

We anticipate the return to physical shows won’t fully get underway until 2022. This year is likely to be a balance between physical and digital shows. Yes, the world is getting phygital. The nature of physical shows has changed dramatically and there will be aspects of this new normal which are likely to stay. We now have amazing digital tools that allow us to talk to suppliers and consumers, and these are well worth embracing as we move forward. Until physical shows are back in full swing, we are enjoying building a digital base, developing products, and working with our fantastic international Edx Education teams and suppliers.

We have been in contact with many retailers ahead of reopening to acquaint them with all the new educational toy ranges Edx Education is introducing to the market. Based on the positive reception so far, we are looking forward to a successful 2021.

Building on the back of the digital learning boom, Edx Education has also been developing more online tools and resources that extend and complement our ranges, further fostering children’s creativity and learning ability the way they learn best - through play. These digital enhancements will greatly benefit our retail partners, all of whom are now able to offer their customers added value.

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Jordan Sullivan - Director of Fun, Waboba

Preview season this year has obviously been very different, but it’s simply forced us to pivot and adapt to the situation. Knowing that we wouldn’t be seeing our customers in person, we set up a virtual showroom and scheduled video meetings to showcase our products. We also created a new product sales kit to send customers, allowing Waboba to still show off its new items and make a strong impression. But we miss seeing everyone and being able to play with the new toys together in person.

Hopefully we’ll return to shows at the beginning of next year, once the pandemic is under control and vaccine distribution is widespread. We want to make sure it’s safe not just for us, but everyone else too. Unfortunately, we do not foresee Waboba attending any physical shows this year.

We know the retail reopening dates are not yet set in stone, but we have worked closely with our UK distribution partner, TKC Sales, to ensure that we’re ready to support our retail accounts as (and when) they reopen with plenty of stock of our best sellers and newest products. We’re fortunate in that we offer a great range of outdoor recreational toys, which are still in high demand because outside is the safest place to play. We’ve expanded our product range considerably over the last 12 months, with the introduction of new beach toys like volleyballs and footballs, backyard toys, an ecofriendly series called Rewild, plus the Wingman Pro and Airlyft flying toys. Our retail partners have a lot of fresh, innovative and fun Waboba products to choose from, ready for a busy spring and summer staycation season.

Debra Tiffany - Marketing manager, Brainstorm

It has been a busy few months. We invested in upgrading our showroom so that we could host meaningful video meetings, and at the time of writing I’m pleased to say we have seen just about all our key UK and ROI accounts. We’ve also held many meetings with export retailers and distributors. We are very lucky to work with a great team of sales agents which has been presenting to the independent trade, sometimes with our support from the showroom. We realise that many customers enjoy the freedom to self-select their ranges, so we have invested more in our website too. We created video demos for most key lines which remain in situ at www.brainstormltd.co.uk, which let customers see our products in action at any time. Knowing we wouldn’t be able to present to the many media contacts who come to the shows, we also offered a virtual toy fair for press which was very well attended. Despite the above, it just hasn’t been the same as meeting up in person; we have really missed that.

We are scheduled to attend the Harrogate Home & Gift Fair in July and of course we will support the Play-room show with its revised dates. We have our fingers crossed that these events can go ahead; the team here is definitely ready to meet with customers and our wider circle of trade friends face-to-face.

We have stock, including new items, POS and our marketing machine at the ready. The reopening of retail very handily coincides with a scheduled push on Aqua Dragons, StikBot and KlikBot, the campaigns for which have TV advertising at their heart. All will feature on the small screen for 16-days throughout the Easter period in the UK and ROI.

Simon Newbury - Managing director, Orchard Toys

The past few months of previews have certainly been different, I think we would all agree. While we missed having the face-to-face contact with our customers that we so enjoy, our Virtual Toy Fair was a great way to catch up with retailers online. At times it has been challenging trying to show off all the wonderful attributes of our products over a video call, but we’ve been getting creative and making it work.

We’ll be returning to physical shows in the autumn now, starting with the AIS Show in September. The whole team is already really looking forward to being able to meet with our customers in person once again. After that, we can then get geared up for January/February 2022, when global travel will hopefully be permitted.

Now there is light at the end of the tunnel, we can sense a little more excitement for the year ahead from our retailers. We extended our Virtual Toy Fair, which allowed us to continue discussions with our customers about how best to support them when they reopen. The extension meant more retailers were given the chance to learn about our new lines, to place an order, and to take advantage of our exclusive show offer, which was extended on all qualifying orders for the month of March. As a result, our retailers have plenty of fresh stock ahead of reopening in the coming weeks.

Scott Clarke - Account manager, Rex London

It’s been over a year now since we’ve been to any physical trade shows. Of course, many organisers have transitioned to digital fairs which we’ve been delighted to take part in, as we’ve launched some really exciting new products this year. We have also released two trade catalogues (in three languages), showcasing these new products and best-selling collections - the spring catalogue is still available to download on our trade website. The demand for these has been really positive in lieu of the usual show season. None of this compares to meeting our customers in person, though.

There’s still a lot of uncertainty regarding the roadmap out of lockdown, especially regarding travel to Europe. We’re expecting (and hoping) our first show will be Spielwarenmesse in July. We’ve been attending for many years now, and we’re really looking forward to visiting Nuremberg in the summer, all being well.

Following feedback during the early part of the pandemic, we have started a Stockist Spotlight feature on our social channels and email newsletters, to showcase our amazing retail partners across the world. The response to this has been great, so we will continue to work with our trade partners on these. In terms of preparing for the big reopening, we’ve made sure to keep as well stocked as we can, including investing in many new products so our customers have plenty to choose from, whether their business is a small independent shop, gallery or museum, or department store.