Brand Profile - Teddy Bears

Deddy Bears on the fright track

Deddy Bears reached 300,000 sales within its first four months and has its second release coming in Q1. Toy World spoke with Gavin Lawler at Innov8 Creative Academy to hear about the formation of this “disruptive” brand.

Innov8 Creative Academy, based in Dublin, was formed in 2018 by Gavin and his wife Aoife. They both had experience in the toy industry, Aoife having previously been a creative director, and were brimming with inspiration. Gavin says: “We were bursting with ideas for new intellectual properties, so we set up the company with a purpose and mission to disrupt the toy trade. We truly believe in our ability to innovate – hence the name. We already had a global network that we had set up over the past seven or eight years, so our plan was to create a product pipeline and start trading in multiple countries.”

During the Covid lockdowns and all that followed, Gavin and Aoife made a strategic decision to “hibernate” and build IP ready to release once the market had stabilised. The idea of Deddy Bears was born during the pandemic, but it wasn’t launched until February this year at the Spring Fair.

Deddy Bears are zombie-like plush which come with autopsy reports describing each character. They are supplied in a coffin, a ‘deddy bag’ or a blind bag for smaller versions. In the first four months since launch, 300,000 units were sold, and now Innov8 Creative Academy ships to 12 countries.

The bears are currently listed by retailers such as Hot Topic, Showcase, Walmart, Giant Tiger, Books-a-million, Tesco, and about 2,000 independent stores. PMS International distributes Deddy Bears in the UK, where the brand had a national rollout with HMV stores. It can also be found in Forbidden Planet, Big W in Australia, and Spencers in the US. Gavin recently signed a deal with Smyths Toy Superstores for the whole of Europe, and Deddy Bears is now available in around 15,000 retail stores globally.

“It’s been one of those situations which we call ‘lightning in a jar’,” comments Gavin. “Innov8 Creative Academy owns 100 IPs. Some of them are great and some of them are okay, but every now and again you just get that one - and Deady Bears was that one. It's a phenomenal brand; it's highly impulsive, has multiple price points, excellent quality and attractive packaging.”

Gavin adds: “It also taps into a trending category; a large part of the brand’s success has been driven by TikTok and Instagram, where it has had millions of views. This whole creepy cute kind of world is where it sits, and we were able to come up with a product which favours that algorithm. I guess it's the world that we live in right now – we saw how Wednesday was the first ever Netflix series to get to a billion views, it's insane.”

Deddy Bears appeals to a broad spectrum of consumers, right through from child to collector, giving it mass appeal. Following the first wave’s extraordinary success, series 2 will be launched at Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg.

The company has also taken steps to license the brand, recently signing a global agreement with Surge Licensing. Other deals have been signed with Just Toy International and Remarkable Brands for licensing in North America.

“We’re incredibly excited,” Gavin says. “It's been a whirlwind. The brand has instant appeal. Usually, you have to wait until a brand settles, after about a year or two in the marketplace, and then start to think about licensing, but we're only four months in. The sales are that strong.”

As the company continues to build on the brand, a Roblox game is in the works and will be receiving beta testing early next year. The ultimate aim for Gavin is to have an animated series created either in long or short form, for which conversations have already begun. He remarks: “We’re just incredibly humbled to be accepted by the toy world and more importantly, toy consumers, and extremely proud of what we've created.”

Gavin describes the category of Deddy Bears as “creepy cute”. “We don't call ourselves horror,” he explains. “We're not Chucky and we don't want to be scary.” The backstory is one of acceptance; about a 14-year-old girl who has trouble at home and finds a Deddy Bear which has been rejected from a factory. The moral of the brand is that everybody has a place.

Despite a little controversy, the incredible response that Deddy Bears has received has confirmed to Gavin that there is nothing too disturbing about the bears. Indeed, he is comfortable with his nine-year-old enjoying them. “As a parent, I believe you have to morally tick boxes as an inventor, and we stuck to our morals with Deddy Bears.” Gavin adds, “We’re unique because we’re not quite horror and we’re not quite plush – we’re somewhere in the middle and I genuinely believe that we operate in that lane very well.”

Deddy Bears has formed a series of partnerships with talented experts to help with its three-year roadmap towards its ambitious sales forecasts. The brand now works with Flavio Fernandes, who previously worked at Hasbro, as an agent in Latin America; License 2 Play is the brand’s partner in the US; Blake Turvey from 360 Sales Solutions is taking care of Canada and Jasnor is a partner in Australia.

Gavin concludes: “The outlook over the next three years is extremely positive, in large part thanks to these incredibly strong partnerships and distribution.”