Company Profile - Tomy

Ahead of the game

Following a year which saw unparalleled sales resulting from the unprecedented situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it was very much anyone’s guess as to how the Games category would fare in 2021. Tomy, then, is understandably pleased with its astonishing performance in Q1 and Q2, which has set it up for an even bigger and better 12-month period than it enjoyed in 2020. Rachael Simpson-Jones paid a visit to the company’s head office, and sat down with Mary Wood, general manager UK & Ireland, to find out more about Tomy’s upcoming releases, marketing plans and strategies for the year ahead.

“Tomy was very fortunate to have an exceptional 2020, due to the fact it has a strong presence in the categories consumers were seeking,” Mary tells me, safely distanced at the other side of the company’s expansive games showroom. “In the UK, we had the best year we’ve had in a decade, which was surprising but obviously satisfying. Our performance gave us the momentum to enter 2021 on very strong footing; when we previewed selections for customers for autumn/winter, we were doing so off the back of some great sell-through. Nothing was overstocked, and retailers were very receptive to what we had to say. We’re trying not to be too overenthusiastic – we knew it would be hard to have as good a year on Games as we did in 2020. However, our numbers are solid and we have strong listings across the board, meaning it may well, incredibly, be even better this year.”

Brand loyalty has always been a key factor in the toy space, but even more so over the past year. During the pandemic, we saw consumers lean into brands they know and trust, and Tomy benefits from having several big brands in its portfolio. Within the Drumond Park portfolio, this includes No. 1 adult game Articulate, whose sales have doubled since the pandemic began. The introduction of Logo Second Edition marks the first time in over a decade that a new Logo game has arrived on the scene; in terms of volume, the follow-up game is expected to achieve even higher sales than Articulate. Tomy’s Pop-Up Pirate has been its No. 1 Kids Game for the last few years and appears in no danger from being ousted from its top spot, while Screwball Scramble Level 2 will be TV advertised this year for the first time, with aim of bolstering the success of both the new game and and its predecessor, the original Screwball Scramble.

Mary tempers her optimism for Q4 with a warning that stock levels might scupper even the best laid sales forecasts. Like most other toy companies that source from the Far East, either in full or in part, container availability and pricing is a significant challenge for Tomy. Although container rates are being managed by the company’s diligent logistics team, cost pressure is still being felt, and notice of what is going into a container and when has been slashed from a few days to mere hours, in some instances, making it much harder than it would ordinarily be to plan autumn/ winter TV campaigns. At the end of the day, the big winner this Christmas might not be who has the best products, but who has the most stock.

Luckily for Tomy, all its card- and board-based games, and the entirety of its Drumond Park range, are made in Europe. CoOperate, which should prove popular with fans of Articulate, has already arrived in the UK, along with Best of… Kids and Best of… Sport & Leisure, the two new titles from the Best Of… range, and Logo Second Edition. That said, when we met up Mary was waiting to hear when some of Tomy’s new games would make it on to containers from the Far East, though the belief was that they would arrive in good time for the key Q4 season. When it comes to shipping, it really does seem as though everyone is in the same boat. And while it’s reasonable to assume that Brexit may have impacted Tomy’s European manufacturing, it seems that Tomy’s logistics team has once again risen to the challenge. A temporary warehouse was established in the UK to ensure product supply, mainly of games, wasn’t interrupted. The decision proved fortuitous during the pandemic, because it meant Tomy had a ready supply of some of the most sought-after products available and ready to go.

“There’s no point spending money on advertising, be that digital or TV or anything else, if you don’t have the stock,” replies Mary, when asked how stock shortages might impact Tomy’s pre-Christmas marketing efforts. “The ways of communicating with consumers are massively diversified. TV is still important but equally so are other mediums. Picking the right ones is challenging, but influencers are a big part of the marketing space now too. Sampling is great, but again, there’s no point doing it unless you have stock in the market. We’re having to monitor very closely where stock is coming in, and we’ve pushed back a couple of campaigns where the timing hasn’t worked.”

Eight new games due to launch for autumn/winter will build on Tomy’s current Games portfolio. The titles comprise a healthy mix of adult, family and kids’ games, and span Tomy Games, Drumond Park and French company Zanzoon, a distribution line. CoOperate, billed as Articulate’s ‘wilder, louder, more collaborative cousin’, is expected to be a slower burn than some of the kids’ games; TV advertising doesn’t have the same impact with adults, Mary explains, and sales tend to be condensed into the last few weeks of the year. That the game is from the makers of Articulate will go a long way in ensuring success, however, and Tomy is leveraging this any way it can for the launch. Some 300,000 CoOperate surprise sampling games will be included in Articulate and Logo boxes this year, giving consumers a little taste of what the full version offers and hopefully turning players of those games into purchasers of the new Drumond Park offering. And speaking of little tastes, 2021 also sees Drumond launch The Magic Oven Baking Game, a baking-themed game which challenges players to make and bake apple pies without burning a crust which is ‘magically’ added to the pie during cooking.

Best of… Sport & Leisure follows the same format as other titles within the range, just a different topic, so uptake will be high among existing players. Best of… Kids, meanwhile, takes that format and makes it kidfriendly, just as Articulate Kids has done for Articulate. Mary explains: “If you have a best-seller, whether that’s Scrabble or Monopoly or Articulate, a kids’ version is a good way to extend the line.”

Three of the eight new games are from Zanzoon, which specialises in electronic games and therefore brings a tangible point of difference to the range. The gameplay of Word Fever is reminiscent of a TV game show, Mary says, while the Friends Interactive Quiz will tap into the hype for the smash American sitcom in the year that saw the cast reunite for the first time ever for Friends: The Reunion (AKA: The One Where They Get Back Together). Suitable for a slightly younger audience is Super Magic Jinn, a fun interactive guessing game with voice recognition technology. This game has already sold tens of thousands of units worldwide, but has never been sold in the UK, making it a particularly exciting addition to the marketplace.

Rounding out the autumn/winter 2021 launch slate is a major new member of the Pop-Up family – Pop-Up T-Rex, based upon the $5b global franchise Jurassic World. The game is part of a wider licensing partnership Tomy enjoys with NBCUniversal; readers will be aware that the dinosaurs have already made their way into the Toomies pre-school range.

“Because they are first and foremost good games, and because we had such an overwhelmingly positive 2020, our new games will enjoy the wide distribution the rest of our portfolio does,” adds Mary. “Not everything will work of course - no one is that lucky - but there’s some excellent opportunities out there and we’re well-placed to take advantage of them.”

Tomy’s internal 2022 previews will commence this month, ready for external ones from October onwards. While retailers have opened their doors to consumers, the general feeling Mary and her team is getting is that many are not yet ready to resume in-person meetings with suppliers. Tomy is therefore holding virtual previews with the aid of a professional film crew and all the latest mod-cons. Retailers that would prefer a face-to-face meeting are, of course, more than welcome. Spring 2022 will see Tomy launch four new titles - Best Of… Sport, Best Of… Food, Best Of… Kids and Logo Second Edition - from its popular mini-games range, which were reformatted and repackaged last year. The games are perfect for travel and include different questions, making them a great add-on line for existing players. Autumn/winter 2022, meanwhile, will welcome new games from Drumond and Zanzoon, with six titles in currently in development from Tomy alone. On top of these, between 5-10 carefully selected brainteaser games from Tomy’s new Fat Brain range will also be available, following the acquisition of the privately-held developer, marketer and seller of toys, games and gifts in 2020. Speaking with Mary, it’s evident that Tomy’s full-throttle approach to the Games space isn’t slowing down, and that the company is being very careful not to introduce anything that has the potential to cannibalise anything else.

When looking at retail support for its games, Mary explains, Tomy looks at the top line marketing activity for each title and then works with key retailers to develop programmes that work for them. Smyths Toys, for example, is strong on social media, as is The Entertainer, so efforts lie very much in this space. Indies benefit from Toymaster catalogue support and promotions that work with their format and needs.

The aim is to make every game work for everyone, and to avoid placing dependence upon a particular retailer. Spreading the business as far as possible is preferable. In-store events and activations currently aren’t part of the 2021/22 marketing plan; it’s easy to spend a lot of money for a modest return, and feedback indicates that floorspace is still a concern. Retailers wary of taking in FSDUs are unlikely to benefit from a play table dedicated to just one game. The company is, however, looking into the opportunities offered by games cafes, as ‘unlocked’ Brits seek out social experiences and activities. Tomy has also invested heavily in improving and expanding its online assets including demo videos, something consumers appreciate now more than ever. Such videos are also hugely helpful during retailer previews, as discovered since early 2020. They don’t need to be ‘completely glossy’, Mary stresses; those with a homemade feel can offer more authenticity and relatability than ones that appear to be highly manufactured and edited. Striking the right balance and tone is key. Claire Ridley, head of UK Marketing, is currently working with Tribe to this end. Founded by Aussie TV and radio host Jules Lund, Tribe is a self-serve marketplace that connects brands and agencies with social media micro-influencers to offer a cost-effective and highly efficient way of getting a brand out there among consumers. Tomy has picked a number of products across its whole portfolio, and Tribe’s influencers are now creating content that provides an organic and authentic view of each. It’s a modern solution to a very old problem – placing product in front of potential purchasers.

I wanted to know what else has changed in recent years and put this question to Mary. “Not so many years ago, Pie Face was on the market,” she replies. “Pie Face was a gamechanger; consumers who had never before bought games found themselves picking up a copy, so it introduced a wealth of new players to the games aisle. In response, a huge number of companies also jumped into the Games market, when previously they had no presence in it. The category was flooded with new products, many of which were very gimmicky action/reaction games, and consumers reached saturation point. Since that Pie Face peak, a number of manufacturers have found it hard to compete and have ultimately walked away, which has left the ground clear again for those that were always there. The strongest brands, such as Drumond’s Articulate, have been a mainstay throughout.”

Mary continues: “Look at the Family Games category, which is very hard to break into. There’s Monopoly, Scrabble, Pictionary, all decades old but still going strong. Kids Games remains the easiest way to enter the marketplace, while it’s very difficult to be successful in Adult Games. You have to invest a tonne of money to do well. Media costs are very high, and it takes time to bed in. You can launch a kids’ game and be successful with it in one year. Tomy launched a game called Fill Your Pants in 2020, a relatively low cost-of-entry game with limited tooling which was TV advertised, simple to play, and available at an attractive price point. It completely sold out. Adult games are a completely different kettle of fish. While there’s not necessarily a tooling cost, there’s a very heavy A&P costs due to the slow build. It’s an ask in the current retail environment for stores to stick long enough with an adult game for it to bed in properly. It can take two or three years. But if you have a successful Adult or Family game on your hands, such as Articulate or Logo (or Monopoly or Scrabble) then they’ll be a games powerhouse for a long time, particularly if you can get it into stores internationally. Look at all the variations of Monopoly that are available. That’s the beauty of a successful game. We’ve got Articulate Christmas, Articulate For Kids, Articulate Fame – you can really start to push that brand out further each year. It’s just getting there first that’s the challenge.”

As mentioned at the start of this piece, current forecasts suggest Tomy’s 2021 Games performance will be even better than 2020. Since April, the company has seen a shift away from online and back into bricks & mortar retailers, and some of Tomy’s non-games brand have enjoyed an unexpectedly strong start to the year as a result. Indies have thrown all the support they have behind Britains, for example, Tomy’s replica tractor and farming brand, meaning that the brand’s 100th anniversary year should be its best yet. In fact, Tomy’s indie business across the entire portfolio has recently overtaken all its other customers, a testament to the importance, dedication and experience of this group of retailers – and why companies shouldn’t hesitate to support the independent sector. Campaigns calling on consumers to support their local businesses and visit their nearest high streets will almost certainly ramp up again for Christmas, meaning the coming months could (and should) be very good indeed.

“I saw a report the other day that said 26% of all UK sales across all industries are currently made online,” notes Mary. “That’s more than in previous years, though it’s reduced since the height of the pandemic. It’s very convenient to buy online. There are clearly certain types of retailer finding it hard at the moment, such as some department stores. We don’t know what the retail landscape will end up looking like, but Tomy will always support a broad number of retailers and retains a very strong independent retail base. We’d hate to ever be in a situation where we need to depend on just one or two retailers. It’s good to have a diverse retail base in the same way it’s good to have a diverse portfolio – you spread the risk that way. And for us, this approach is definitely paying off.”