Special Feature - MGA

Unboxing MGA

Toy World’s Rachael Simpson-Jones sat down with Pamela Justice, head of Marketing UK & Ireland at MGA Entertainment, to get an overview of 2024 and delve into some of this year’s most significant launches, including the latest Yummiland, Pixel Petz and GrossMos brands.

First up, how has 2024 been for MGA –what kind of position is the company (and its brands) in as we head into the golden quarter?

We know it’s been a challenging year for the industry as a whole but at MGA Entertainment, we’ve worked hard to ensure we are delivering on newness, value for money and competitive pricing – and that focus has certainly put us in a good position for a strong Q4. We ended the SS24 season with our strongest monthly results in June, and we’re already tracking incredibly well for Q3.

We know that parents, gift givers and consumers generally are doing their research and want added value with everything they purchase. With a range of new and innovative products across all of our current and new brands, we have delivered on that throughout the season. For example, earlier this year, we launched our lowest-priced fashion doll, the Rainbow High Swim & Style doll at £14.99 and the results were fantastic. Our L.O.L. Surprise! brand has maintained its very competitively priced £9.99 offering and our product launches for the festive season are filled with added play value and innovation.

What can you tell us about your big Q4 launches? How do these fit into the MGA portfolio and what sets them apart from existing lines?

We are incredibly excited about the new products we are launching this season, both from our key brands and some new ones. The launches are testament to our investment and focus on innovation.

L.O.L. Surprise! continues to go from strength to strength, selling more than 53.8m toys to date. We’re currently gearing up for the launch of our first-ever Tween movie on YouTube Kids this month, the L.O.L Surprise! SkateDance Movie. Reflecting the movie storyline, we’re launching the new L.O.L. Surprise! Tweens Costume Surprise fashion doll – which offers, perhaps, the most innovative unboxing experience we’ve ever developed. As the original unboxing children’s brand, L.O.L. Surprise! is all about developing new ways to unbox – and we can’t wait to see fans' reactions to this new offering.

MGA’s Miniverse continues to grow as a hot new collectible brand. We’ve partnered with Warner Bros to bring a range of lines themed around iconic films such as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. We know these partnerships will tap into new levels of fandom and bring the MGA Miniverse brand to a whole new kidult audience. Perhaps most excitingly, with our Harry Potter line, we’ve extended the play pattern to outside of our famous balls. With the MGA’s Miniverse Make It Mini Class set, fans will get over 100 pieces to build a mini replica version of the Potions Class from the film series. In addition, we’re partnering with Sanrio to launch a licensed Hello Kitty line; a partnership that had huge success for L.O.L. Surprise! last year and we’re sure will be just as popular for MGA’s Miniverse.

We also have three new brands launching this season, which are set to be hugely successful. Yummiland combines children’s love of collectibles, fashion dolls and cosmetics by matching make-your-own lip gloss with scented dolls. Pixel Petz provides a unique twist on the traditional pet toy by offering a digital pet experience that children can design, customise and play with. Perfect for any child that loves dinosaurs, slime and surprises, GrossMos is the ultimate dino brand, with products including collectible parts hidden in slime and a flying hand-controlled dinosaur.

How will MGA be supporting these launches in terms of retail activations?

We know that our products are best experienced in real life, because of the level of play, creativity and customisation. As such, we have invested heavily in in-store demonstrations, experiential shop-in-shop areas and live events. We’re also focused on creating points of sale that capture consumers’ attention and ensure our products are brought to life on the shelf. In addition, we’re ensuring we support all our key retailers with online content, with strategic YouTube and Meta campaigns that focus on driving retailer sales.

Tell us about this year’s marketing efforts? Does your approach to 2024’s festive campaigns differ at all from previous years’, or have you just gone bigger and better?

Instead of going bigger and better, this year our emphasis has been on being more focused and strategic, making our budgets work harder and supporting the innovation that we are launching.

We know we’ve got some big hitters for Christmas that will be top of the wish lists and create impact. In our Rainbow High brand, there’s a new tentpole theme of Rainbow High Winter Wonderland Fashion Dolls. Fans of the brand will love the combination of innovation, creativity and fashion offered by this line. Since launching in 2022, Rainbow High has established itself as one of the UK’s must-have fashion dolls, becoming both a top Fashion Doll and leading Fashion Doll Property.

We’ve also got a line of products from new brands including Yummiland, Pixel Petz and GrossMos, including digital Corgis and Dalmatians to care for, a truck in which to make lip gloss and a flying dinosaur that escapes from the jaws of another. One product that we are particularly excited about – and is already making the festive top toys lists – is the Little Tikes Story Dream Machine. Bringing storytime to life, the Little Tikes Story Dream Machine is an innovative, portable projector that is both an early reading support and sleep solution.

At 55 years old, Little Tikes is one of our most iconic brands, with a range of famous and beloved products such as the Cozy Coupe (of which a staggering 23m have been sold globally) and Turtle Sandbox. We know the Little Tikes Story Dream Machine will become an instant classic to add to the list. It’s already had huge success in the US and we’re expecting the same here.

In addition, we’ll be launching a range of specific seasonal products in time for Christmas. On MGA’s Miniverse, we have partnered with an iconic Christmas movie that is guaranteed to delight fans of all ages. With such strong product lines, we’ve been able to focus all of our marketing plans and spend to ensure we are tapping into the right platforms and messaging to get strong results.

As we’re all aware, the marketing landscape continues to fragment and arguably become more complex. How do you go about deciding in which channels to place your brands?

As the social media landscape grows year-on-year, we know it’s increasingly important as a channel to reach both adult and family audiences. The media landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years, and we’ve found it’s essential to get the balance of traditional versus digital right, depending on the audience we want to reach.

We know that more and more children are on digital platforms and our focus on creating engaging and unique content is paying off across many of our brands. For L.O.L. Surprise!, we are focused on both child-specific platforms such as YouTube Kids and also targeting parents through social channels and podcast partners. For those brands aimed at kidults or older audiences, such as MGA’s Miniverse, it’s very much about creating viral content and working with TikTok influencers, as well as developing hardworking campaigns across YouTube and Meta. Our strategy is very much about knowing our audience and creating the right content on the right platforms to meet them where they are.

How do you feel Christmas will be this year, both for MGA and for the toy industry as a whole?

We can’t wait for Christmas – the countdown is on. We know it’s been a challenging year for the whole industry and that consumers are more focused on how much they spend and looking for value for money. We’ve worked hard on our product lines to ensure we are delivering on innovation, added value and pricing and this has put us in a great position. We’re also investing in our support for retailers, and we know that on-shelf promotions are also paying off. All-in-all, we’re very optimistic for this year’s festive season.

Looking forward to 2025/Q1, are you optimistic for the year ahead?

We’re optimistic for next year as many of our brands, old and new, go from strength to strength. The product pipeline for next year is very exciting, bringing newness and strong themes across all our key brands. On brands such as L.O.L. Surprise!, MGA’s Miniverse and Little Tikes, we’ve got some huge householdname licensees coming that are guaranteed to be big news. And as ever, we’ll have some top-secret new launches. Watch this space…