Special Feature - DreamToys

Sweet dreams are made of this

Major new changes have been announced for DreamToys, arguably the most authoritative, industry-wide predictive list of what items will be the most sought after each festive season. Toy World caught up with Paul Reader, chair of the DreamToys selection committee, and Natasha Crookes, director general of the Toy Retailers Association, to find out more.

Paul Reader

Natasha Crookes

One of the only things left unchanged for this year’s DreamToys is the month in which it takes place – November. The 7th and 8th of November, to be exact, with the first of the two days reserved for media and the official DreamToys list kept under strict embargo until day two. When it comes to the dates for the annual event, it’s very much of a case of ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Tash says the early November timing works for retailers and suppliers alike, providing the opportunity to really get stock moving ahead of the big day, as well as mainstream media outlets, which tend to get tied up elsewhere the closer to Christmas they get.

So, onto the raft of changes made for DreamToys 2023. Last year’s venue, the Bastion offices in central London, was appropriate for the post-pandemic comeback of the event, but this year the organisers feel the event requires a little more room to breathe. Goodenough College in Mecklenburgh Square, Bloomsbury, central London, offers just that, with the Grand Hall hosting the main event and smaller breakout rooms offering opportunities for interviews, filming or writing up stories. There will also be dedicated influencer areas, available only to carefully selected influencers who will arrive towards the end of the day, and an area for photographers requiring plain backdrops. The new venue also provides plenty of scope for those companies that made the list to create their own assets and PR communications against the festive backdrop of the fully-‘Christmassified’ Grand Hall.

Perhaps the biggest change is to the DreamToys list itself. Historically, there’s been a Top 12 list of toys and games accompanied by a longlist of 72. Paul, who’s sat on the DreamToys selection panel for many years, says it’s always been a struggle to whittle down a list of several hundred to just 12 ‘winners’, and that panellists have long wanted the final selection to encompass more suppliers and more toy categories. So for this year, the Top 12 becomes a Top 20and the longlist has gone altogether.

“As always, the selection panel - which is made up of key retailers and members of the Toy Retailers association - will work very hard to choose what it believes are the biggest toys for Christmas, but we’re choosing 20 this time,” explains Paul. “We’ll also be presenting the story behind each choice, which will create strong angles for media coverage and allow suppliers to push that message out to consumers in their own marketing.”

Creating a story explaining each selection is a genius move, and an element some have felt has been lacking in recent years. The journalists that attend DreamToys usually aren’t toy experts. Guiding them towards topics to talk about in their reporting will result in much higher quality coverage for the suppliers that make it into the Top 20 and will help consumers decide which of the toys and games are best suited to their needs.

Selection for the Top 20 list will get underway in early September. Those chosen will be notified under NDAs by the end of the month, giving suppliers enough time to organise samples and get to work on assets they can use across the two days to really showcase their product (or products, as the case may be).

“With the list this year being a Top 20, the Grand Hall at Goodenough College will have 20 individual spaces on offer to showcase the chosen finalists,” says Natasha. “With a little guidance from us, companies will be able to dress their bespoke space as best fits their toy or game, creating an impactful display that still allows the chosen product to speak for itself. On top of this, we’ll also have a main display of the full Top 20 selection, dressed and ready for photography and filming.”

The DreamToys committee will also be laying on additional spokespeople this year, so that all the toys and games in the Top 20 can be represented to the media as fully as possible. It will also work with suppliers to ensure the spokespeople convey desired messaging about their product. The aim is to create as much fanfare as possible.

And if all these changes weren’t enough, the DreamToys logo has also been reworked, becoming more of a stamp of approval that can be used in marketing and on packaging, which will appeal massively to suppliers.

Paul adds: “DreamToys has long been the biggest, best, most respected list of the best toys for Christmas. Of course, we all have to remember that it’s a predictive list – the only person who really knows what’s what is Father Christmas himself (and no, I’m not referring to Gary Grant).”To find out more, contact Natasha Crookes on n.crookes@toyretailersassociation.co.uk.

The new venue: Goodenough College in Bloomsbury

The new venue: Goodenough College in Bloomsbury