9 minute read
Special Feature - The Toy Association
New Toy Association president says “Bring it on!”
In late May 2024, Greg Ahearn was named president & CEO of The Toy Association, the US trade organisation representing the toy industry. Bringing to the role significant experience from both the supply and retail sides of the fence, his appointment has been widely hailed as a wise choice for the association, which is now preparing to move forward and evolve with the ever-changing market. Toy World’s John Baulch and Rachael Simpson-Jones caught up with Greg to find out his strategy for the months and years ahead, and why he feels identifying opportunities, not issues, is crucial to the success of the industry.
When we spoke to Greg, he’d been president & CEO of The Toy Association for just 30 days. Although he’s very new to the role (he tells us that so far, he’s worked out where in NYC is best for a quick lunch and which office webcam is the correct one to look in for calls), he’s hit the ground running, engaging in significant outreach with the association’s members and partners and beginning to formulate his vision for the future.
‘Raised in the toy industry’, Greg is an experienced and highly respected figure. Following a number of executive positions at companies including Mattel, Hasbro and LeapFrog, he then spent 12 years with Toys R Us. Unlike some previous Toy Association presidents, Greg has a background that gives him enviable insight into the inner workings of the toy industry; to use his golfing term, he has course knowledge. He possesses a strong understanding of what drives the toy industry, which avenues of exploration could be opened up by technology and what the individuals within it both need and want. And while this is clearly a huge advantage for someone coming into the role of president & CEO, he’s not the only one at the association that knows a thing or two.
“The team here is fabulous,” he tells us, highlighting how impressed he has been to discover the wealth of existing knowledge and experience already present within the association. “The Toy Association covers a huge amount of ground globally - from the regulatory work we do in DC and other states (such as bringing about recycled materials legislative change in Pennsylvania) to our Communications and Events teams. The work we do, the amount of people we have here, and the scale and magnitude of the sectors we’re involved in – honestly, it’s pretty mind boggling.”
The Toy Association does a lot of different things, and it does a lot of them very well. Greg says its global regulatory and advocacy work, which takes place at state, federal and international levels to try and create a consistent level of standardisation, is ‘second to none’ (though naturally very challenging). On the Events side, he highlights the association’s ability to bring people together for networking and B2B opportunities such as the New York Toy Fair, which, after a hiatus, returns to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre in 2025 from 1st-4th March.
All this being said, Greg is not blind to the fact certain elements of the association’s work could be improved. The LA Fall Preview, for example, stands to benefit from enhancements that could make it more valuable for retailers, licensors and other partners, as well as more efficient for visiting manufacturers and buyers. To this end, the Toy Association will be in LA for the first time ever this year, spread across four floors of a building situated right in the heart of the toy district, from which it can learn from the event and its visitors – what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to change.
“I know from my time on the manufacturing side how important it is that the Toy Association works to serve its members and partners, whether that’s via the information we disseminate, our partnerships with bodies such as Circana, or by helping emerging companies access crucial resources such as information on licensing or breaking into international markets,” Greg explains, noting that he dislikes the term ‘small’ to describe businesses. (Side note: Greg worked at an emerging company called OddzOn, which made Koosh Balls, and keeps one in his office as a reminder of where he came from.) “In this role, I have the chance to sit down with emerging and midsize company leads, as well as the large ones, and find out what they value about their membership as well as which areas we could improve upon. There’s nothing like talking with people one-on-one.”
Thanks to his time in the toy industry, Greg already has a good relationship with many of the people he’s speaking to, which is helping him accrue honest feedback with which he can action meaningful change. Early on, he’s already come to realise that what people really want is for the Toy Association to be a ‘unifying force’ that offers a collaborative environment in which the industry can come together.
“This is an industry based upon relationships,” he says. “When I was considering this job, before I was lucky enough to actually land it, someone told me: ‘You have to understand – associations are a little bit different to the corporate world you’re used to’. The corporate world is very hierarchical, but associations are much flatter: you have a board of directors and a number of members, over 850 in our case, of all different shapes and sizes. You have to think and act in a way that takes into account everyone’s voice and point of view.”
When it comes to leadership style, Greg is all about managing through influence. He wants to foster connections based upon shared industry goals – no mean feat, considering the huge disparity in the size of some of the Toy Association’s members and the number of conflicting views inherent in a membership that large. For Greg, though, what some might see as a hurdle is just another opportunity.
He says: “You want to have all the voices in the room with you, and we do. We’re a conduit for all sizes of members and I want people to know that through us, they have a voice. Sure, you can’t make everyone happy, and I am definitely going to have to get used to that fact, but people should know they have a line into me and into the association, and we will continue to improve on this moving forward.”
We asked Greg what challenges the US toy industry is facing at the moment that he feels the association can mitigate. Events/trade shows is one – or rather, the number of them across the globe, which can leave some companies scratching their heads about where best to invest in a presence. To overcome this, the Toy Association is keen to help members understand which events offer the best opportunities for deal-making and networking while simultaneously raising awareness of the value of community and industry celebration. Greg tips his hat at the London Toy Fair, organised by the British Toy & Hobby Association, and Spielwarenmesse, organised by Spielwarenmesse eG, as examples of trade events done right – ones that move the dial, as he puts it, from ‘Should I go?’ to ‘I need to go!’
He also wants the association to further tackle regulation, legislation and standards across the US and beyond. This can currently be extremely cumbersome for companies to get to grips with, particularly the emerging companies of whom Greg is so fond. He wants to simplify and streamline regulation for the association’s members, which he believes will enhance the proposition and value it offers.
“I like to keep things simple, distil things to the most basic common denominator,” he adds. “In this role that’s: what’s happening? What can we impact on as an association within an industry? And how do we then home in on those things to bring about tangible benefits for our members? Of course, it’s not actually simple. It says easy and does hard. We’re going to be spending time together as a leadership team here at the association to work out our priorities for the months and years ahead, from the basics we’re already good at to the other areas of the industry where we could bring about change. When you walk out of a room, that’s when the real work begins. The chance to have a lasting, positive impact on an industry I love so much was a huge draw to me coming into this role.”
Greg was also drawn by the opportunity to contribute towards the vital work of The Toy Foundation, the Toy Association’s industry charity. The Toy Foundation (TTF) supports children’s hospital programmes and engages in international crisis outreach. Through its annual Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards, it also raises hundreds of thousands of dollars which go to good causes and oversees the distribution of toys through The Toy Bank. Working alongside Pamela Mastrota, executive director of The Toy Foundation, Greg wants to bring the full force of the US industry to bear behind TTF and propel its philanthropic efforts to even greater heights. He’s not a newcomer to charitable work of this nature. Previously, he was involved in Toys R Us’ Childrens’ Fund, something he’s enormously proud to have been a part of.
“I got to see first-hand the positive impact we could have on the lives of children because of who we were and the access we had to consumers so we could raise awareness and generate funds,” he says. “I see the same opportunity at The Toy Foundation. We just need to rally the toy industry behind it, build out those relationships with manufacturers and licensors and get them involved in the charitable aspect of what we do. Then I think we’ll see both the association and TTF having an even greater impact than they do today.”
It's clear from speaking with Greg that he’s got a lot to do: a lot of challenges to face, a lot of new avenues to explore, a lot of good, positive change to oversee. But he’s not daunted by it; again and again, he reframes the situation to highlight the opportunities within, the possibilities he sees. He’s both an optimist and a pragmatist - and the US toy industry arguably needs both.
“There’s a lot still for me to learn and there are so many great things the association is involved with, but there is always more to do as well, on behalf of both the industry and its members,” he finishes. “I can’t change the world in 30 days, but we’re definitely thinking big while tackling the day-to-day minutiae. I’m excited to see what the Toy Association will undertake next.”
