Global Toy News

The Chicago Toy & Game Experience

Mary Couzin and her Chicago Toy & Game Group are working hard to make the 3^rd week in November one of the most important weeks in the toy industry calendar…and they are succeeding.  The week, which already features the Toy & Game Inventors Conference on November 17 and 18; the 4^th annual TAGIE Awards the evening of November 18 and the Chicago Toy & Game Fair on November 19^th and 20^th will now include a Social Media & Play conference on November 18.

The new Social Media & Play conference will explore social media and gaming trends and how they fit into the future of the toy and game industry.  I am finding that there is still some resistance among toy industry regarding social media much less social gaming.  So, I consider educational opportunities like this to be a great opportunity to embrace these new paradigms for creating and reaching customers. 

I will be Chicago for all the events and hope to see you there as well.

The End of Cheap Toys??

I had not even finished my first cup of coffee when the words leaped out at me from the bottom of the page.  “The end of Cheap Chinese Goods,” it said, and the headline seemed to loom much bigger than its actual font size.  I took a swig of coffee and read the first sentence: “The great Chinese-led deflation in goods prices may have come to an end.”

I settled down and read further.  What I found was an article, despite the startling headline, that made a fairly reasonable case based upon the belief that China is rapidly losing its ability to produce goods at cheap prices.  As a result, the deflation or at least the drag on inflation that resulted over the last twenty or so years is coming to an end.  The author, Floyd Norris, puts it this way:  “Labor costs are rising in China. Some business is going to other countries, where wage rates are lower than in China. And some product prices are rising.” 

The author uses apparel to make his point and in studying apparel prices it is important to remember that cotton prices spiked late last year.  Even so, with 85% + of the world's toys coming out of China, the point is well taken.  The days of bottomless pricing in China are over.  Get used to rising prices.

Below are some graphs which Norris uses to make his point:

The Disruptive Force of Crowdfunding

Rob Bartel is a veteran designer and producer of video games with Electronic Arts’ BioWare studio. He joins us as a board game correspondent, however, having recently expanded into board game design with Two by Two, 2012 runner up for Best Family Game in Games Magazine's annual "Games 100" Awards. A passionate advocate for the board game industry, Rob helped found two national initiatives - the Game Artisans of Canada and the Canadian Heritage Collection. His newest endeavor is the Famous Games Company, an innovative provider of promotional card games for the sports marketing industry.

Are you familiar with the term crowdfunding? It's a growing movement where people with creative ideas seek advance funding for a project from the general public, usually through a third-party website that mediates the exchange. By connecting innovators and content creators directly to their audiences (and usually cutting out the traditional retail and distribution channels), it's already proving to be a disruptive force in the independent board game scene. As with Apple's app store, I wonder if this indie-driven disruption is part of the impending Tipping Point for tabletop games. Will it continue growing beyond the indie scene and begin to disrupt the established industry?

 

Scaring up some Fun

The popularity of all things spooky and gross seems to increase each year.  This fascination for engaging in activities which frighten us is fed by numerous horror movies, books, television shows and amusement parks.  Zombies, vampires, and the 'undead' seem to be popping up in greater numbers everywhere; even in toy and play-related categories.

According to a recent article in Time Moneyland, one of the top 12 things we continue to buy in a bad economy is Halloween costumes.  This year, Americans are expected to spend approximately $7 billion on Halloween decorations, candy, and costumes and over $300 million on costumes for pets.  Costumes provide a perfect form of fantasy play for young and old alike giving permission to be creative, take on other personas, and to escape the ordinary.  This key play pattern of children, dress-up and role play, is an important vehicle for a child’s expression and emotional development.  Most of us abandon this important form of self-expression as we get older.  Halloween is the perfect occasion for adults to reconnect with their inner child and for kids and adults to play alongside of each other. 

“A History of the World in 100 Objects”

I am a curious person with a love of history and anthropology.  I was therefore drawn to the news that the venerable British Museum had chosen 100 objects from their collection that tell the history of the world.  I enjoyed looking through the list which you can do by clicking here.  I was a little puzzled by some of their choices but to the most part found it to be an interesting list. 

After enjoying it for what it was, a curator’s view of the world, I decided to see how the list looked from a toy person’s point of view.  After all, toys have been with us seemingly from the beginning (whenever that was).  Excavators have turned up ancient dice made out of bones (hence the saying “throw them bones”) as well as tiny wheeled toys.

My first run through of the list disappointingly turned up only two items that could be described as objects that enabled play:   # 38 the Ceremonial Ballgame Belt and #61 the Lewis Chess Pieces.   2% of the total seemed a bit meager so I took a harder look at the list.  What I found were several items that were not used as toys in their inception but were the precursors of toys to come. 

For example, children have seemingly always loved miniatures from lead army soldiers to plastic dinosaurs to the now ubiquitous action figures.  That was why I felt that #8, an Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle; #29 the Oxus Chariot Model and #55 the Chinese Tang Tomb Figures could certainly be seen as forerunners of toys. 

Let’s not forget mechanical toys.  Certainly, #76 the Mechanical Galleon was a toy for some rich person.  As the Museum puts it:  “This mechanical galleon …played music, fired its cannons and trundled across the table at imperial banquets.” 

Cementland

Bob Cassilly is the creator of Cementland.  He was the world’s biggest and coolest little boy.  I say "was" because unfortunately for all of us he  died late last month.  You may not have heard of him, although if you are from St. Louis you certainly did.  Bob was one of the most creative play space innovators ever to walk the earth and it was in part because he never lost his sense of childhood wonder. 

Here is how The New York Times described the City Museum he created from an abandoned shoe factory:

In 1983, he bought a 250,000-square-foot building complex housing a shoe factory in downtown St. Louis for 69 cents a square foot. He stuffed it with wonders like a five-story jungle gym partly built from the carcasses of two jet airplanes and a fire truck; a walk-through whale; a rooftop Ferris wheel; a circus; an aquarium; caves; a shoelace factory; what Mr. Cassilly claimed is the world’s largest No. 2 pencil; and a collection of skateboard ramps where children could do everything but use skateboards. It opened as City Museum in 1997.

 A walk through whale; How cool is that! 

He died while working on his latest concept:  Cementland.  Yes, I said Cementland.  It was appropriately being created from the remains of an abandoned cement factory.  His vision included allowing people to throw rocks from the top of the 225 foot abandoned chimney.  As The New York Times described it, kids and adults would be able to “…ride in a boat from the top of a silo along a winding water chute four-fifths of a mile long before dropping into a lake. There would be a castle, mazes of moats, tunnels and perhaps a pyramid. Rusted machinery scattered on the grounds would be set in random motion for no apparent purpose.”

Trucks, Mexico, China and the U.S. toy market

It was a surprisingly small article in the New York Times.  Tucked away under “National Briefings,” the headline read:  “Texas:  First Mexican Truck Enters U.S. Under Nafta.” 

It’s a small headline for a much bigger story, the ability of trucks originating in Mexico to make the full journey to American and Canadian destinations.  This right, like that enjoyed by Canadian truckers since the inception of the Nafta agreement, means that Mexican trucks no longer have to stop at the border and shift to American tractors.

Dallas vs. Los Angeles

 

 

 

 

Where Would you Prefer to Preview Your Toys? 

The Dallas Toy Preview has always been a great trade show for small and large toy brands to come together and preview their upcoming products to buyers from Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, and many other retailers.  This year, the show was very busy and every booth I visited was filled with numerous buyers during the entire show.  I noticed an assortment of innovative products for 2012 and I enjoyed various meetings to discuss our new inventions.

I just returned from Dallas this month and the majority of corporate toy companies did not exhibit in Dallas. You have to ask yourself “Why?” Five major toy companies changed their schedules to show, instead, in Los Angeles close to each of their headquarters. Los Angeles based manufacturers Spin Master, Bandai, Jakk’s Pacific, Playmates, and Mattel all chose not to exhibit in Dallas. I met with these retailers the week following Toy Preview and realized Dallas isn’t such a popular meeting place anymore. Los Angeles has sparked a new unofficial toy preview in its place and many buyers are traveling to the West coast for sales meetings to meet with our Los Angeles-based manufacturers. I thought to myself, why Dallas? Is Dallas really the perfect meeting place for West coast and East coast companies to show their products? Why not Las Vegas? Or how about Los Angeles? In my opinion staying local is far more convenient. So I pose this question to you, Dallas or Los Angeles for your toy preview?

Please help answer my question by answering this poll and I’ll be happy to share my results with you in an upcoming blog:

Would you prefer Dallas, Las Vegas or Los Angeles for Toy Preview 2012?

• Dallas, TX
• Las Vegas, NV
• Los Angeles, CA

Acepolls

More polls: Hotel Atlanta

Streetwars; Playing Outdoors with Adults...and waterguns

I continue to be perplexed by the toy industry’s unwillingness or inability to see adults as end users.  Despite the fact that between 15% and 19% of all games and toys are purchased for adult end use, most toy departments and stores are merchandised and marketed for children.  There are some notable exceptions of course  (Barnes & Noble’s excellent adult game departments and Marbles the Brain Store are two examples) but most stores fail to develop this potentially huge market.  The message to adult end users is:  “This part of the store is not for you.”

If you want to see how much adults love to play, just check out StreetWars.  As the StreetWars website puts it: 

StreetWars is a 3 week long, 24/7, water gun assassination tournament that has already taken place in New York City, Vancouver, Vienna, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Chicago, and Paris…Your (or your team’s) mission is to find and kill (by way of water gun, water balloon or super soaker) your target(s)…If you are successful in your assassination attempt, the person you killed will give you their envelope and the person they were supposed to kill becomes your new target. This continues until you work yourself through all the players and retrieve the envelope with your (or your team’s) picture(s) and name(s). Then you win. Cash…but first live in fear.

They are now moving on to other big outdoor game events.  Rental Car Rally (the logo seems inspired by Hot Wheels) took place in New York on October 21, 2011 and will take place in Los Angeles on June 22, 2012.  Here is how the race is described:

Innovation Keeps the Toy Industry Alive

From the mouths of toy buyers: there is no hot item to drive toy traffic this year - no Zhu Zhu Pets gotta-have-it line, no 'it' item like TMX Elmo to create stampedes. This creates an opening for some exceptional entrepreneurs who might still be able to deliver goods this year.   

One such extraordinary individual and company of note has done just that. 70 days ago they noticed a crowded kiosk in a local suburban 3rd tier market that sold - get this - in middle-America yet, hermit crabs. Live, sticky, creepy, but cute (I guess?) hermit crabs. Do you know how many of these crustaceans are sold as pets each year in the US alone? 40 million! Who knew? Un-freakin-believable!   

So they flew to China, lived in the factory for 40 days and 40 nights, and developed a toy based on this unique and unlikely insight. Miraculously, 70 days later finished goods were landed. Appointments were quickly made with major retailers, the product presented (retailers love it), and orders placed for every piece that can be produced and shipped between now and Christmas.   

Chess and Business Success; they go hand in hand

There is a fascinating article by Dylan Loeb McClain in the New York Times entitled:  “Good at Chess? A Hedge Fund May Want to Hire You.”  It seems that many of the stars of Wall Street and business are also phenomenal chess players. 

To cite just a few of the articles examples:  Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and currently running Clarium Capital is a Chess Master; Warren Buffett is an outstanding Bridge player and D. E. Shaw Group, a hedge fund,  “…lists among its employees a life master at bridge, a past “Jeopardy!” champion and Anna Hahn, the 2003 United States women’s chess champion…on its payroll. 

Talk about “Play Power;” think of the benefits derived from investing in a simple deck of cards or a plastic chess set.  I have long felt that our major retailers do us all a disservice by not featuring games and toys that make us smarter. 

Wal-Mart and the Woman Business Owner

If you are a woman, own a toy company and do not sell your products to Wal-Mart you may want to take another shot.  Wal-Mart announced last month that it is planning to source $20 billion from American businesses owned by women.   The program, called the "Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative,"  will last for five years which means $4 billion per year.  That is $1.5 billion more per year than they are currently sourcing. 

This is a great program for the many women run businesses and one that could mean the difference between continuing or going under for some.  Good for Wal-Mart.

Essen is to Games what New York is to Toys

Rob Bartel is a veteran designer and producer of video games with Electronic Arts’ BioWare studio. He joins us as a board game correspondent, however, having recently expanded into board game design with Two by Two, 2012 runner up for Best Family Game in Games Magazine's annual "Games 100" Awards. A passionate advocate for the board game industry, Rob helped found two national initiatives - the Game Artisans of Canada and the Canadian Heritage Collection. His newest endeavor is the Famous Games Company, an innovative provider of promotional card games for the sports marketing industry.

Followers of this blog will already know that, every February, the world descends on New York City to take part in New York Toy Fair. While similar toy fairs exist throughout the calendar and around the globe, New York remains the largest and most important trade show for the global toy industry (although Richard Gottlieb can tell us if the recent China Toy Expo is beginning to challenge for this role).

As I write this, the equivalent fair for the global board game industry is taking place in Essen, Germany. Internationale Spieltage, or Essen Spiel as it's commonly called, began in 1983 and is now home to over 800 exhibitors from 34 countries. As with America's own ChiTAG, founded and run by fellow Global Toy News blogger Mary Couzin, Essen Spiel throws open its doors to the public, its 44,100 square feet of exhibition space teeming with 154,000 visitors over 4 days.

If you're interested in wrapping your head around the vibrancy and potential of the modern board game industry, Essen Spiel is the trade show to watch. Unlike most North American board game trade shows (ChiTAG being a notable exception), the audience is very demographically diverse - multi-generational, family oriented, with a fairly even gender balance. In short, Essen offers an early glimpse of what I referred to as "the land beyond the tipping point" in my previous When Games Explode articles.

The Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair; an added value

Each year, in January, hundreds of American and Canadian toy industry members migrate to Hong Kong for the purpose of selling and buying toys.  These travelers conduct their business in the various hotel suites and showrooms of Tsim Sha Tsui, a neighborhood in Kowloon.  In these venues, Canadian and American toy companies meet with Canadian and American Toy buyers escorted by Canadian and American sales representatives.  For the most part, they move within and rarely leave this roughly one square mile area. 

Kowloon, where all of this takes place, is just across the harbor from Hong Kong Island.  If one walks to the water’s edge and looks across, one can prominently see the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre; home of the Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair which takes place from January 9-12, 2012.

I Want My Google Doodle

Recently, Google Doodle became to me what VH1’s Pop-Up Video meant during my teenage years—clever nuggets of culture. In 1998 Google’s cofounders Larry Paige and Sergey Brin played around with the company’s logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man Festival (think witty out of the office message). The following year, the pair asked intern Dennis Hwang to create a Bastilla Day doodle. Soon, Dennis Hwang became chief Google doodler.

Google Doodles typically involve playful redesigns of the company’s logo. Tributes to artists like Roger Hargreaves serve as reminders of the merriment of children’s books and television shows. I consider myself lucky, because, as an adult, I still get to play with many of these icons throughout my work day at The Strong.

On April 2, 2010, Google Doodle celebrated Hans Christian Andersen’s 205th birthday. OKAY, so he’s not around anymore, but readers still delight in his fairy tales including Thumbelina and The Ugly Duckling. Andersen’s The Little Mermaid made an impression on me as a child and into my teenage years. I think most thirteen-year-olds feel awkward in their own skin and long for independence. Jackie Wullschlager explains in her biography of Andersen, “he used speaking toys and animals, and gave them voices, easy, colloquial, and funny, with which children could instantly identify.” It’s not uncommon for adults to relate to the stories too. A copy of Anderson’s The Wild Swan and Other Stories resides in The Strong’s Brain Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play (BSSLAP). In my favorite tale from the collection, “The Wild Swan,” a princess ends up rescuing her eleven brothers from the evil queen. Feminists take heed—girl power!

“Play Power Top 10;” The Readers Give Their Recommendations

I have greatly appreciated the many comments and Top 10 recommendations recieved from readers as a result of the two "Play Power" blog postings.  (To read those click here and here. )They came in as comments to the posts as well as via Linked In and email.   

I have listed all the recommendations below.  Please note that I did not include things like paper, cardboard boxes and sand as they were not manufactured toys.  That will make for another great list of toys that are parts of nature like stick or repurposed like a box.   

So, for now, let’s stay with what we actually make so that we can focus on what constitutes great play value in a manufactured toy. 

Good News for the Toy Industry; Banks Are Lending Again

Money is the lifeline for any industry.  Companies simply cannot grow without it.  Heck, they can’t even fill orders without it.

That’s why it was good to read this headline in The New York Times:  “Banks Start to Make More Loans.”  No, the banks aren’t going crazy but they are starting to open the purse strings.  Here is how the article puts it:  “Despite all the bleak economic news, a funny thing has been happening in the financial industry over the last few months: the banks have quietly turned on the lending spigot.”

What I found particularly encouraging were these words:  “Wells Fargo executives said new loan commitments to small businesses were up 8 percent.”  The toy industry is filled with small businesses both on the producing and retailing sides.  The availability of money means that toy companies can get the money they need for expansion.

Changing The Way We Play – Star Wars Collectables (1977) Part 1

(This series is being published on the Toy and Game Inventor Conference blog and they are just too good not to share here.) 

We've been working with the Kunoichi team over the past year on social media, collateral and our Social Media at Play Conference (website and conference development). They aren't only innovative and insightful, but super knowledgeable about play – all types of play and play history. We thought it would be great to have a series on toys/innovations that changed our industry. Brian Torney weighs in first.

Brian is a writer, consultant, Jedi Knight and Vice President of Kunoichi, a leading transmedia services provider for entertainment brands. A 7-year veteran of the toy, game, publishing and children’s entertainment industries, Brian ideates new and existing brands, connecting storytelling across multiple new and traditional media. These are not the droids you’re looking for.

 Brian: Every so often a product comes along and changes the way we play. In 1977, Star Wars made dolls a bad word.

Behind Closed Doors at the Dallas Fall Toy Preview

The showrooms in Dallas this year were all buttoned up tight - not so open as it was in years past. I'm not sure the reason, but protection against knock-offs was mentioned, and perhaps when a few companies close their showrooms, others quickly follow suit. It makes for a sterile visual environment with aisles of white walls and posters, and very little product to be seen. Times change.

Creative Spaces

You never know when or where the next big idea will hit you. You may be singing in the shower, driving in your car, or sitting at the office. Wherever you are, the types of ideas you generate are often influenced by your surroundings. Whether it's a bustling urban setting with vibrant sights and sounds or the quiet retreat of a rural farmhouse, your work space plays an important role. Immersing yourself in an inspiring atmosphere, one in which you can comfortably spend long hours dreaming, inventing, and working is crucial to reaching your creative potential and should be carefully considered.



Too often, corporations design employee workspaces with a ‘one size fits all’ approach. If you run a creative-based business and you haven’t placed special emphasis on the environment in which your creative team works, this can prove detrimental to your business. A few years ago I paid a visit to a local creative company and was escorted through tight hallways, across dingy carpeting and back into an office worthy of being a broom closet. The battered furniture and atrocious fluorescent lighting were the worst setting for any type of work, let alone an incubator for inspiration and creativity. This uninspired office setting was a slow death to the creativity that could have made this company successful – the company is now out of business. A little paint and some clean, inexpensive furniture might have made a difference and provided inspiration, motivation, and a sense of pride for the employees working there. When an employer shows little or no regard for the environment in which its employees work, they'll feel it, and their response will be manifested in their work.

My Top 10 List of Toys with “Play Power”

In my last posting I wrote about the pleasure a child can still derive from the least expensive of toys, the Balsa Wood plane.  I decided to come up with a list of the top toys based upon “Play Power,” the greatest amount of joy you can get out of a toy for the least amount of money.    I used this formula:  Play Power (PP) = Joy + Durability / Cost.   Here is the list: 

1. Rubber Ball
2. Jump Ropes
3. Jack Rocks
4. Yoyo
5. Magic Slate
6. Cap Bomb
7. 8 ct. Crayons and color book
8. Water Balloon
9. Toy Parachute
10. Balsa Wood Airplane

Here are some more that did not make my list:

"Play Power"

I was invited to a child’s birthday party a couple of weekends ago.  The child’s family and friends are affluent so, as you can imagine, there were some very nice and expensive toys given as gifts.  What particularly caught my eye was the Lego Star Wars Death Star which sells for $399.99 (isn’t the .99 kind of beyond the point once you get past $99.99?).

With all of this abundance, I was delighted to see that someone with more modest spending power had given a balsa wood airplane as a gift.  I think they bought it at a Dollar Store and I sat there mesmerized as the birthday boy spent an enormous amount of time and joy throwing the plane around the yard.  Pound for pound and penny for penny, it was absolutely the best play value at the party if not the most fun.  In fact, I would call that much fun for that little money "Play Power."

Balsa wood planes were certainly the delight of my childhood.  They never lasted long.  Hit the street nose

Entering the Chinese Toy Market

While in Shanghai, I was conversing with one Chinese businessman who said what I was thinking.  “Don’t think you can quickly or easily figure out the domestic toy business in China.  It is extremely complicated and changing rapidly; plan on it taking time.”

I think that that is good advice but I am not sure there is going to be time to learn first and act later.  I think those who want to penetrate are going to, so to speak, “have to learn on the job.” 

Why, because things always move fast in China and there are others who are in the game already.  Though the exhibitors at the show were primarily Hong Kong and Chinese based toy companies, Hasbro, Mattel, Hit and Disney all had large exhibits.  To my surprise and delight, Alex also had an exhibit.  Good for them.  Who knew they were working to penetrate the Chinese market? 

 

Jumping Through Fire and Achieving Your Social Media Goals

I have been training for the Long Beach Half Marathon, so I decided to enter an obstacle race on the beach. It sounded fun to run on the beach, it was only a 5K race so I thought no problem. I regularly go 4 to 5 miles on hills and this was flat, and a few obstacles ...How hard could this be? Well let me tell you, there is a big difference between jogging on loose sand that moves from under your feet the minute you step on it, compared to a nice hard surface that stays put as you jog along. Then add to that crawling under nets, moving through bungee cords, running through waves, making your way through giant beach balls, climbing through holes in walls and my favorite jumping over fire, then plunging into an ice cold pool. What could be so hard? Okay, I admit I was crazy to think this would be easy but I really didn't realize how hard it would be till I started running down that beach with my feet slipping on the sand.

As I was struggling to jog in the sand and trying not be the last person in the Beach Palooza Race, it hit me, many people approach social media the way I approached this race. It would be easy to hire a 20 something employee to set up your Facebook & Twitter, make a few posts and consider that all will be well, that you don't need help, and you have it all covered. If you just add some social media to your marketing plan, how hard could it be?

If your fan base doesn't increase, people don't share your posts, and you are not reaching new and old customers, what went wrong? Why does a fan page like Zappos acquire over 168,000 fans and you only 200? How can you keep up with all the updates and changes on Facebook? It feels like running in sand everything is twice as hard as you thought, and once you feel you are on solid ground, things change again!

The Shanghai Experience

Shanghai is a beautiful city with a Sci-Fi feel to it.  The skyscrapers, like in New York, are plentiful.  Unlike, New York, however, they have enough space between them that you are able to take in the entire building with one look.

And what buildings; the Jin Mao Tower looks like something you would find after your spaceship landed in the largest city of another planet.  Another building, for which I have been unable to find the name, is a sky scraper consisting of tier after tier of Ionic columns.  It looks like what the Greeks would have built if they were building the Parthenon today.  The Pearl Building, when lit up at night, literally looks like a giant toy.

The city is immaculately clean, the highways are broad and everything looks new with the exception of the historic Bund area which was where the Europeans used to live in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Greetings from Shanghai and the China Toy Expo

Greetings from Shanghai!  I am about half way through my trip to the China Toy Expo and am finding it in equal parts:  Fascinating, informative and challenging.

Here is why:  For starters, this is not the Hong Kong experience.  The Toy Industry has been going to Hong Kong for so many years that it feels like home.  The city’s 100 years as a British colony, its relatively manageable size, its toy show’s international orientation and its high degree of fluent or near-fluent English speaking makes it a comfortable experience for foreigners.  In fact, there are sometimes so many westerners on the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui that it feels like New York.

Shanghai, unlike Hong Kong, is huge.  It does have an outstanding highway system and rapid transit but for a first timer it can seem daunting.  English is spoken here but not as fluently and by not as many people as in Hong Kong.  This can make getting directions and making yourself understood at times a challenge.   Finally, there were very few westerners attending the show.

Having said that; I have found the show to be a truly mind altering experience. Unlike the Hong Kong show’s export orientation, this is a show for Chinese buyers.  As a result, it provides a visitor like me a window on China’s domestic market.   As importantly, it provides an opportunity to experience a different side of China and by doing so become better educated on this country’s culture and society.

I have had the opportunity to speak with a number of distributors and manufacturers who have been extremely kind in teaching me about the Chinese consumer and the Chinese toy market that serves him and her.

I want to thank May Liang (Executive Vice President China Toy & Juvenile Products Association) for overseeing an excellent show and wonderful banquet.  I have to tell you, if you have never been to a banquet in China you are missing something.  Between the entertainment and the food, we all had a night to remember.

Direct Response Television - Kid Targeted Products - Cracking The Code

Direct Response Television is one of those phenomenons that are an unavoidable part of modern life for anyone who watches television.  Yet, few of us know much about the nuts and bolts of actually preparing and running one not to mention whether it is something that makes sense for our products.  That is why I asked Robert Yusim, the leading expert on direct response in the toy category, to write a blog about it.

Rob began his career working directly with Raymond Kives one of the founders of K-Tel and Quality Dino Entertainment. In 2006 Rob crossed over into the toy category and started Spin Direct, Spin Master Ltd's DRTV division, with the launches of Rocket Fishing Rod, Moon Sand, Storm Launcher and Reflex Heli. Over the past 5 years Rob has launched or licensed over 100 toy product campaigns in the US, Canada and UK. In 2010 Rob launched Product Counsel to provide complete turnkey DRTV services to clients in the toy industry.  

Recently, I spoke on a panel at the major Infomercial/DRTV Trade Show, known as the ERA Show, which was held in Las Vegas. The topic of my panel was “Obliterating The Myth That Kid’s Products Don’t Sell On TV.”

One of the questions asked was incredibly insightful and I thought that it was worthy topic for my monthly article. The question…  “After so many marketers have tried and failed to target a demographic that cannot purchase on their own and that do not have credit cards, how did you crack the code to get DRTV for Kid’s Products to work?” I’ll let you know how I answered the question momentarily but first some background…..

Starry Heavens: A Life-Size Board Game at NYC's Museum of Modern Art

Eric Zimmerman is a game designer, artist, academic, and writer who has been working in the game industry passionately for more than 16 years creating dozens of games of all kinds, from massively multiplayer online games to physical games designed for galleries and museums to card and board games. He has taught at schools like MIT, NYU, and Parsons School of Design.  In addition, he's written about game design in books like Rules of Play, co-authored with Katie Salen, considered a standard textbook for game design. I met Eric some years back at a get-together I host during NYTF not knowing his amazing background at the time. It is his most recent work that I asked him to share with us - his recent collaboration with architect Nathalie Pozzi at the Museum of Modern Art. Reviews of this work include The Observer, The Paris Review and The New Yorker. He agreed to share his experience with us – thank you, Eric!  

Eric: “I have been working as a game designer for almost 20 years – since I finished grad school – and I’ve always tried to find strange and interesting places within the game industry. For nine years I ran Gamelab, a company that created online games like Diner Dash before the term “casual games” existed. I’ve made MacArthur grant-funded games for kids, created dozens of real-world conference games played by hundreds or thousands of players, and this fall I have a game coming out for Xbox Kinect I designed with Deepak Chopra.

The Rise of the 3D Printer; an update

 
 
If you purchase the “Thing-O-Matic” 3-D printer from MakerBot, you too will be able to print out doll furniture in your own home.  That’s according to a New York Times article “A Machine That Gives Shape to Your Ideas."

The MakerBot 3-D printer offers the possibility of manufacturing products in the home almost as easily as printing a document with an inkjet printer. The company’s Thing-O-Matic machine moves in three dimensions to spray layers of colored plastic to form objects, some quite intricate. Do-it-yourselfers are already selling 3-D printed products like custom dollhouse furniture

As you know, I have been predicting that the toy industry’s game changer is going to be the 3-D printer.  3-D printers, as the name suggests, print out plastic, three dimensional objects.  The fully assembled

Selling through an iPad

 
 
While I was in Dallas I saw lots of iPads being used by salespeople.  I was interested in how these devices can be used to enhance the sales process.  To find out, I asked Kristal Bergfield, Vice President of Business Development at StoryDesk,“a company whose products can help create an iPad app that will convert ink and paper catalogs and presentations into iPad versions.”   If you would like to know more about StoryDesk you can click here to contact Kristal.

Today’s gift and home sales reps have a cool job – they get to work with fun products and talk about them to retailers.  But showing those products in the best light can be challenging. Some find PowerPoint presentations, brochures and catalogs to be boring. And, well, it hurts your back just thinking about carrying all those samples around all the time.

The iPad can help with all of that.  I have found it to be a great storytelling – and sales – platform.  Here’s why I think so:

1. It’s the best way to showcase a product line or lines.

You have great products. Give them the staging they deserve. Not only is an iPad light weight and portable, it allows you to showcase your products in a beautiful, interactive way that will allow you to tell your story and hold people’s attention. You’ll be talking with the client, not at the client.

2. You can close deals on the spot. The iPad (with the right app) is uniquely capable of letting you take orders and get a signature on the spot. Send it directly to your sales coordinator. Shorten your sales cycle.

3. You can deliver a consistent brand message. When sales pitches are locked into an app on the iPad, management and legal can have 100% confidence that everyone is delivering a consistent and approved message. What’s more, changes can be made centrally and pushed out to the entire sales force instantaneously, making things easy for everyone.

4. Use an app to present, and then let the app be the “leave behind.” Include in your follow up email a link to download your company app. Use that as a communication and sales channel to strengthen ties with to your customer.

So, sit down with an iPad and tell your story and close the sale.

Playing to Win: Gamers Help Create a Scientific Breakthrough

For a few hours a day, over a period of ten days, a group of gamers has gotten together to play an online puzzle game called Foldit. Recently a group of 12 to 15 of them conquered the game. Happens all the time, right? Not like this.

In a paper published last month in Natural Structure and Molecular Biology crowdsourcing was used to predict the structure of a protein. From the paper:

Following the failure of a wide range of attempts to solve the crystal structure of M-PMV retroviral protease by molecular replacement, we challenged players of the protein folding game Foldit to produce accurate models of the protein. Remarkably, Foldit players were able to generate models of sufficient quality for successful molecular replacement and subsequent structure determination. The refined structure provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs.

In layman's terms, this "retroviral protease" helps the virus to spread. By cracking the code of how such a protein is put together, scientists can more easily design drugs that can attach to it, like a key to a lock, leading to breakthrough drugs that could stop the virus from spreading.  The significant part of this particular project is the fact that the protein in question was a very complicated "AIDS-like virus found in Rhesus monkeys." Yes, video game players found the solution to a protein puzzle which had eluded scientists. Stop and think about this. Collaborative play can help science fight diseases like AIDS.

Now most of the "gamers" at play on this University of Washington project are also scientists who used a protein-folding computer program called Rosetta to solve the puzzle, according to this article at MSNBC, but here's the fascinating part: According to the published paper, most of the players on the team which solved the puzzle "have little or no background in biochemistry." The MSNBC article quotes one of the key players as saying, "The team members come from a wide range of backgrounds, chiefly scientific or IT [Information Technology], although our best player is from neither."

The importance and value of collaborative play is being recognized outside of the toy box in which many want to try and confine it. Play is not something that's only for the young or the frivolous. Play can solve big problems. Big words that can be backed up. I've never been more excited about the power of play!

I've been asked to give the keynote speech at the 2nd Annual Symposium for USC Physical Sciences in Oncology Center next week. The team there has long recognized the value of collaborative play. The Physical Sciences in Oncology initiative has established scientific teams and individual scientists from the fields outside biology, including physics, mathematics, chemistry, and engineering to examine cancer using approaches that have not been followed in cancer research to date. They use novel conceptual approaches (i.e playful, creative thinking) to get results. Of course, I will be sharing this incredible gaming project in my talk, but I'm quite sure the team at USC has already devoured the findings with enthusiasm. After all, they're already thinking outside the toy box.

 

Heading to Shanghai

 
 
I am very much looking forward to visiting Shanghai and the China Toy Expo which will take place there from October 12-14.  My interest falls into three major areas:

1.    Shanghai the city

I have been to Beijing, the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong but never to Shanghai; the largest city in the world.  The city, over the last couple of hundred years, has seen difficult times but also times when it was one of the most important global economic centers.

Today, Shanghai is a major world center for finance, culture, technology and shipping.  In fact, it is the biggest container port in the world.  Just getting from the airport to the hotel should be an adventure so wish me luck.

2.    Shanghai the business center

By attending the China Toy Expo and its sister event, the China Kids Expo, I will have the opportunity to meet toy industry business leaders and find out about their intentions.  With their vast reserves of capital, do they plan to invest in western toy companies in the same way that Li & Fung decided to purchase Technosource?  Many up and coming toy companies are cash starved and would benefit from some deep pockets.  Their decision could make a big difference in what the European and American toy markets may look like over the next few years. 

 

Dallas 2011; the End User Experience

 
 
The TIA puts on a well-managed show and as in past years the staff of the Dallas World Trade Center was extremely cordial and helpful.  That simply can’t compensate for a showroom numbering system that continues to be a challenge and a show directory that only includes a part of those who are exhibiting.   All of this results in frustration and lost time. 

The numbering system was improved over last year but even those who work for the WTC seemed at times perplexed in finding showrooms.  In addition, the directory understandably only lists those who pay to exhibit at the show.  As a result, those companies who choose to show in permanent showrooms are not listed. 

I understand that those who pay a hefty rent to the Dallas World Trade Center don’t want to pay an additional fee, particularly in tougher economic times.  On the other hand, it seems neither fair nor

Innovation, fun put the wraps on holiday season

          

 

 

 

 

     What will be wrapped and ready under the Christmas tree or nestled near the menorah this holiday season?

          From the look of things at this year's Time to Play Holiday Showcase, those toys that make the final cut will not only have to satisfy kids' cravings for all things cool, collectible, quirky and technologically savvy, but meet gift-givers price-value expectations.

          It comes as no surprise that price will figure significantly into purchasing decisions during the fourth quarter as retailers and toymakers alike come to terms with demographic trends such as "permanent frugality" and are devising ways to capture the spending dollars of these permanently frugal consumers.

          Classic play patterns, kicked up a notch with innovative twists and turns, was one strategy woven throughout many of the new introductions. A personal favorite of mine was MEGA Puzzles' 3D Breakthrough Puzzles which unites the traditional flat-art jigsaw puzzle with real 3D technology. The background of either an easy, moderate or advanced two-dimensional puzzle is constructed first and then specially-designed clips are used to construct unique cardboard pieces into 3D components. Once completed, the eye-catching puzzles such as Spider-Man, hot air balloons and wolves can be displayed on the wall, mantel or tabletop.

          Toymakers also gave fans of social media standouts a new way to interact with their faves. Annoying Orange and the Talking Kitchen Crew are being featured on plush, clip-ons and collectibles from The Bridge Direct Inc. A TV show is currently in production; a broadcast partner will be announced shortly. Online UK imports Moshi Monsters make an appearance on a line of exclusive figures from Spin Master at Toys "R" Us for 4Q, while Angry Birds plan to perch on shelves with a Knock on Wood game from Mattel. The virtual world of Poptropica also heads to retail with customizable figures, 6-inch figures, plush and a 30-inch deluxe inflatable blimp from Jazwares.

          Technology, both simple and complex, was spotted along the aisles with i-Star Entertainment debuting FyrFlyz, a spinning toy  on a string that creates unique lighted patterns and challenges kids 8 and up to perform tricks, shows and expand their imagination. Another fun and challenging toy is the updated 20Q electronic game from TechnoSource. A new feature button allows players to skip a question as well as an undo button if players change their mind.

          Richer technology can be found on the InnoTab which marks VTech's entry into the tablet market and combines reading, educational games, creative activities and a rich collection of applications for kids 4 to 9 years old.    Upping its educational focus yet another time, LeapFrog debuts LeapPad, which is a personalized learning tablet for kids ages four and up complete with more than 100 learning games and apps, an on-board camera and video recorder. Kids will also enjoy playing with Oregon Scientific's Barbie Touch Screen Fashion Tablet which includes writing recognition, USB downloadable game content and touch screen.  

        

National Treasures

Over the past year, I've been using my Canadian Gamer blog to raise awareness among retailers here in Canada about the local stories behind so many of the wonderful games on their store shelves. I'm constantly surprised by how few retailers are aware of the Canadian connections behind popular mass market games such as Trivial Pursuit, Yahtzee, Bakugan, Crokinole, Quarriors, Villa Paletti, and Things, let alone the flurry of Canadian-designed and -published games active in the hobby market.

Dallas the Toy Show; my review

 
 
I am heading home after a good trip to Dallas for this year’s Fall Toy Preview.  Overall, I would judge the industry to be emotionally recovered from a burst of pessimism in the early summer.  It appears that retail sales have been trending up the last two months and as a result so are the moods of the toy industry. 

Trying to eyeball attendance at this show is, however, challenging because it is spread out over multiple floors.  This means that you may be on a floor that appears nearly empty while there is a lot of activity one level down. 

In order to make an estimate I considered food court lines (shorter than last year) and available dining

QR Codes and the future of…well…everything

 
 
I had just gone through the long process of redesigning and printing my business cards when it suddenly hit me.  I had not included a QR code. 

What is a QR code, you may ask?  It is that square, odd looking bar code you have been seeing lately.  It allows the transmission of everything from your physical address to your web address in the blink of an eye.  All you need is a smart phone.  Take a picture of the code and the information transfers.

Are my business cards now an old school way of exchanging information; well, not yet but probably

Geena Davis' First Global Symposium on Gender in Media

 
 
I was one of the few fortunate men in attendance at an overflow crowd for the “The First Global Symposium on Gender in Media.”  Put on by the “Geena Davis institute on Gender in Media,” the conference brought together an impressive group of speakers and attendees who were interested in the depiction of women and girls in movies, television, cartoons, digital and other media formats. 

I was invited due to my research and conferences on the relationship between girls and toys.   It was really quite an event.  There were representatives from the United Nations, the Ford Foundation, PBS,  scholars, researchers and some incredible documentary filmmakers.  In short, it was a collection of some of the most impressive intellectual fire power you will ever find in one room at one time.

There was a great deal of ground covered but what I wanted to share with you was some of the research shared concerning the depiction of body types in cartoons.  We in the toy industry are, of course, highly influenced by licensed cartoon properties.  We are also, I believe, aesthetically influenced by these same cartoons in how we depict non-licensed properties.

Riding the Toy Highway

 
 
The Toy Highway beckons.  What is the Toy Highway?  It is the name I coined for the sometime arduous, sometimes boring but endlessly necessary trip that many of us take each year in our pursuit of toy industry knowledge, contacts and sales.  Maybe I read Jack Kerouac's On The Road a few too many times but it seems to fit the experience.

My highway, like many of yours, starts in this week Dallas for the Fall Toy Preview and ends in New York for Toy Fair in February.  In between, I am off next week to Shanghai for the China Toy Expo and China Kids Expo.  In November I visit the Chicago Toy and Game Fair and the T&G Inventor Con.  January finds me heading to the Hong Kong Toy and Game Fair (I am speaking at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on the January 10 if you are in the neighborhood).  In early February, that busiest of months has me traveling to Nuremberg for the Spielwarenmesse Toy Fair and while there I will be speaking at the Global Toy Conference (GTC) 2012 that will be taking place concurrently with the Fair.   Later in the month I will be in New York for Toy Fair.