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Brand Profile - Tomy Games & Drumond Park
Boxing clever
Toy World caught up with managing director Mary Wood to hear how Tomy Games’ strong Drumond Park partnership keeps its adult games offering thriving alongside the company’s popular action games.
Tomy began distributing for Drumond Park five years ago, a partnership which allowed both brands to branch out into new areas. Even before taking on Drumond Park, Tomy had a strong presence in the kids’ games sector via classic favourites such as Pop-up Pirate, which was No.1 in the category, Screwball Scramble and Greedy Granny.
Meanwhile, Drumond Park was a top competitor in adult games, an area of speciality which Mary explained is difficult to make successful. Drumond Park had the No.1 and No.2 spots in adult games with The Logo Board Game and Articulate, respectively. It was therefore the perfect fit for the companies to collaborate, giving each other their decades of experience in their respective sectors, in order to deliver a games portfolio which caters to all ages.
Mary explained: “Adult games is a specialised area of the market. It's not easy to launch an adult game and make it successful – it requires a lot of investment and patience. If you look at the Articulate game and the Logo family of games, they have been around for years and years. The reason that they have been successful is they've been nurtured over many years and there's been a lot of investment in media to support them. It's not for the faint hearted.
“The other big challenge with adult games is that sales come very, very late. About 50% of the sales will be in the last few weeks before Christmas. When you consider a game like Articulate sells 80,000 units a year – and it’s similar for Logo – it’s quite a logistical challenge to manage stock levels ready for those last few weeks of the year. These games have been consistent, perennial sellers, firstly because they’re excellent games which are really well designed by Drumond Park, but also because they've been supported over the years. Tomy has invested heavily in the brand to make sure it stays relevant and in the front of people’s minds.”
Tomy and Drumond Park believe so strongly in Logo and Articulate that they have continued to bring out extensions of those games. Articulate Christmas and Logo Best of Christmas have created successful add on sales for festive season; and Logo Best of Kids, which was released three years ago and is continuing to grow year by year, is a great introduction to the brand for children. This year, Tomy will be introducing Logo Bingo, at a lower price point to the original game, which Mary believes will give even greater opportunities to more retailers.
“Many retailers traditionally see excellent sales from established games, but there's also a number that struggle to thrive in this very competitive market and we think Logo Bingo will be a really good introduction for them,” she explained. “It comes at a lower price point and is easy to understand and play, but still has the Logo magic about it. It’s quite a late launch, but we expect it to do well.”
Tomy and Drumond Park now work hand in hand to create new products. Drumond Park leads the product development, but Tomy has regular meetings with the team where all parties pitch ideas and agree on the final decision. Launches don’t follow the same pattern as Tomy Games’ children’s titles, due to the differences in the adult games market.
Meanwhile the Tomy Games division has two new games launching this year. Pillow Bash is a fun word game where the loser gets bashed with a pillow; and Word Poppers is a word game which will pop up all the tiles when the timer runs out. Tomy puts a significant amount of investment behind its new launches and these two games have already tested well with children.
With a plan to branch out into a new category – social and party games – Tomy has also added The Game of Saying ‘Huh?!’ to its portfolio. The game originated in Japan where it was extremely successful and Tomy is now presenting it to the UK, France, Germany and the US. Mary anticipates the game will need time to build a following, and Tomy has therefore has only brought in a small amount of stock, but the team has high expectations for its future. The German and English versions of The Game of Saying ‘Huh?!’ will be exhibited at Essen Spiel this October.
The news doesn’t stop there, as the company’s games business is set to expand further, thanks to another new partnership that has just been agreed. “With growth in the Games category being a key objective for Tomy, we are delighted to be partnering with the very creative and successful Netherlands-based Identity Games team,” Mary adds. “The deal sees Tomy become a lead distributing partner for Identity Games in the UK, having won the rights to sell two of its key new games: Battle Royale and Medical Mysteries. Both games will launch in early 2024 and open the door for Tomy to build strength in the Strategic Games category. These innovative and intriguing games will complement Tomy’s 2024 line up, and with high profile marketing campaigns supporting them, will bring new consumers to our retailers’ shelves and websites.”
In response to changes in the market, Tomy will begin its Christmas advertising earlier than usual this year, from September. The team is constantly working with its media agencies to make sure that Tomy has the right mix of media. “Every year is different,” explained Mary, “because consumer viewing patterns are constantly changing. It’s a combination of linear TV, cinema, advertising, social media and digital, and it's all about trying to get the right balance. TV viewership is significantly dropping, but is still really important, particularly for adult games. We are constantly watching the EPOS data that we get, and reacting to it where we see something working.”
“It's been an interesting few years for the Games category since Covid,” commented Mary. “We saw a huge leap in sales when everyone was locked down and looking to entertain themselves and their children. They turned to brands that they knew and felt safe with, like Tomy and Drumond Park. Then in 2022, people were understandably spending money on other things like going out and about so that was a tough year for Games and Puzzles. This year, it's a whole different set of circumstances from a macroeconomic perspective, so it will be very interesting to see how it all pans out.”
The big question is where consumers will decide to spend their money this Christmas. Mary believes that shoppers will focus on price and promotions. She added: “That’s why we’re putting investment into support for retailers to create as much consumer demand as possible, while also providing price promotions at key times. I expect consumers to seek out brands they trust, or products with great reviews. The challenge of bringing in the right level of stock, in a timely manner., remains. I don't think games sales are going to come any earlier; if anything, they'll be later and more intense. We need retailers to support titles by taking in stock in good time, because they won't be able to keep up with demand if they try to order in the last weeks of the year.”
