Global Toy News

Kids want toys. Parents want values. How you can both get what you want!

Laura Ferry is a co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer for CWIST – “kids’ challenges with a twist.”  Laura is also the founder of Good Company, a partnerships and strategy consultancy, widely recognized for establishing award-winning socially responsible joint ventures for national brands, media and nonprofits. The company works with PBS, PBSparents.org, Channel One Network, Discovery Education/OPEI TurfMutt, KaBOOM! and other outstanding organizations.

Kids want things, and parents want meaningful experiences – but parents like me worry that we give in too often. We love our kids, and while we want them to be happy,  it doesn’t always feel right to answer every request with a ”yes.”  Today’s over-worked, stressed-out moms and dads need support, and they need great tools to make good parenting easier. 

Like so many working moms, I have my hands full finding the time and techniques to teach my kids important values like what it means to work for the things they have and how long it really takes to get them. Either I’m telling them I’ll add the toy or gadget they want “to their list” (birthday or holiday), or I just go ahead and buy it out of guilt for not being there enough.  But then my child misses out on the thrill of anticipation and the incredible sense of accomplishment that goes with earning something he wants.

Toy Tech: From Rough to Finish (Part 2)

Oil on canvas: Joseph Sapulich © 2013

In continuing our discussion on taking rough ideation sketches to fully rendered final art, these remaining points should help you bridge the gap between the two, and help make sure your toy idea is presented in the most exciting way possible.

5. Line work in commercial design sketches is most often made very prominent in final presentation art to clearly articulate details to engineers during the manufacturing process. Usually an outline with shading or color added to it will suffice, but fully rendered digital paintings with no outline are also employed depending on the individual client and licensed brand.

Rearrange your brain at the World Congress of Play

Those who attend the World Congress of Play (September 9-11 in San Francisco) are going to come away with an entirely new way of seeing their business and their industry.  One of the big reasons is the sheer number of points of view (over 40 speakers and 21 points of view) being represented by our speakers.  Here is a list in alphabetical order of points of view and speakers:

Animation; Storytelling and Artificial Intelligence - Oren Jacob, CEO and Bobby Podesta, Chief Creative Officer ;ToyTalk

Augmented Reality - Keith Maddison, Augmented Reality Architect; BoostAR

Children’s Publishing - Dan Yaccarino, Author and Illustrator; Yaccarino Studios

Design - Brendan Boyle, Partner; IDEO

Entertainment - Donna Friedman Meir, Founder; Lemonade Consulting

Futurist - Nicholas Webb, Author and Inventor; Hanz Toys

History of Play -Chris Bensch, Vice President for Collections; Strong National Museum of Play

Learning -

Jessica Lindl, eLearning Executive; GlassLab

Trip Hawkins -Founder, CEO; If You Can (founder EA and 3DO)

John Barbour, CEO; Leapfrog

Licensing - Ira Mayer, Publisher; EPM

Mobile Gaming -

Caroline Hu Flexer, Co-Founder; Duck Duck Moose

Nancy MacIntyre, Co-Founder, CEO; Fingerprint Digital

Trip Hawkins, Founder, CEO; If You Can (founder EA and 3DO)

On Line Play –

Chris Heatherly, VP of Production & Marketing at Disney Interactive; Disney Digital

Miles Ludwig, Managing Director, Content Innovation Lab at Sesame Workshop

DarranGarnham, Chief Business Development Officer and Chief Licensing Officer; Mind Candy

Phygital Play (Digital Toys) -

David Merrill, Expert in cutting-edge human-computer interaction; Sifteo

Meryl Nieman, Co-Founder, CEO; Playdate Planet

Playgrounds - Darrel Hammond, Founder and CEO;KaBOOM!

Research and Analysis -

UtkuTansel, Head of Toys & Games Research;Euromonitor

Dr. Kati Heljakka, Toys and Play Researcher; Tactic

Retail - Richard Barry, Executive Vice-President, Chief Merchandising Officer; Toys R Us

Social Network Play -

Nancy MacIntyre, CEO, Co-Founder; Fingerprint

Chris Heatherly, VP of Production & Marketing at Disney Interactive; Disney Digital

Toy Trends - Reyne Rice, Trend Specialist; Toy Trends

Traditional Toy & Game Inventing -

Mary Couzin, CEO / Co-Founder; Chicago Toy & Game Group

Nancy Zwiers, CEO & Chief Funosopher; Funosophy

Brendan Boyle, Partner; IDEO

Transmedia -

Eli Dekel, President; SabanBrands

Beth Rogozinski, CEO; Transmedia SF

Chris Heatherly, VP of Production & Marketing at Disney Interactive; Disney Digital

Traci Paige Johnson; Co-Founder, Yummico (Creator of Blues Clues and Co-Creator Super Why)

Susanna Pollack, Strategic and Business Planning; Yummico

Anna Van Slee, Co-Founder; Other Door Entertainment

Brian Torney, Strategy Director; Manifest Digital

Traditional Toys -

John Barbour, CEO, LeapFrog

Carter Keithley, President; Toy Industry Association

Video Games - Trip Hawkins, Founder, CEO; If You Can (founder EA and 3DO)         

To sign up, register by clicking here.

A Play About Hoarding Toys; Beanie Babies part 2

Backdrop to the play "The Capables"

In my last posting I wrote about the Beanie Babies collecting Robinson family and the terrible financial impact on that family from investing at the height of the Beanie Babies frenzy.  In this posting, I want to write about a new play, “The Capables.” It is a about hoarding and the way literally piles of Beanie Babies, Happy Meal toys, clothes and other bric-a-brac are curated into scenery that New York Times critic Neil Genzlinker, describes as almost worth the price of admission. 

Greg Kozatek did not write the play, Jay Stull did that, but he is a set designer who used his huge and once valuable Beanie Babies collection from the 1990’s, as a backdrop for the play.  The Capables centers on a woman who believes that her collecting is actually art. The play forces you consider exactly where the line between passion and mania lies. 

When I think about it, it seems to depend upon what is being collected and who is doing the collecting.  For example, fabulously wealthy J.P. Morgan spent a fortune and a considerable amount of his time collecting the world’s great books and manuscripts.  Today his collection is the basis for the wonderful J.P. Morgan library in Manhattan.  He is understandably admired for his passion; or was it a mania?

Thank You, Steve Drucker, You’re Our Only Hope

It’s a summer evening in 2006 and my cell phone is ringing. The caller’s number is not one I recognize, but the familiar 401 Rhode Island area code connotes Hasbro. I pick up: “Hello?” and am greeted by momentary silence. Then, on the other end of the line, a distant voice via speaker phone says, “You know Izzo? Josh Izzo?” I immediately respond that, yes, I do know Josh Izzo. The caller then says, “Kunoichi?” Again, I have to respond that, yes, I’m Brian and I run creative and interactive services at Kunoichi. Finally, the caller turns off speaker phone and picks up the receiver.

He says, “I’m Steve Drucker and we’re going to be working together. Is it too late to talk?”

Toy Tech: From Rough to Finish (Part 1)

Rough Idea Sketch: Joseph Sapulich © 2013

I received several emails and Facebook questions asking how I go from rough ideation sketches to finished presentation art. While I don’t mind showing my technique, I do have to be mindful of using client work in discussing specific stages of the technical process. So, the sample above isn’t a toy concept but clearly visualizes the key points detailed in this article.

With that said, let me say there isn’t anything more exciting than glorious color in a toy presentation but the journey from idea sketch to final presentation art is sometimes a bumpy ride. Here are seven key points you should consider along the way.

1. Work everything out in the rough pencil stage—from character design and layout to the most detailed placement of the key components that serve to form the image. Remember, rough sketches are cheap but mucking around with problem solving during the final stage gets costly and may actually blow a deadline.

Challenges Await Manufacturers Who Reshore

Potential reshorers would do well to learn from fellow manufacturers that have already made the move back home.

Reshoring success stories faced settling-in difficulties early in their move back home. Companies looking to follow in their path should expect the same.

The challenges and how they impact manufacturing vary from one industry to another but generally, gaps in the supply chain and worker skills are the biggest obstacles.

Reshoring Initiative president Harry Moser said in an e-mail that supplies availability can be an issue because some items are no longer made in large quantities in the US anymore. Reshoring Initiative is an Illinois-based organization tracking reshoring activity.

Beanie Babies; After the Epilogue

Collecting is a play experience that runs from early childhood through old age.  It involves a fascinating string of emotions and actions that include desire, coveting, satisfaction, self-congratulation, zealotry , seeking, finding, categorizing and displaying.  Whether it is baseball cards, stamps, coins or, yes, Beanie Babies, it can fascinate, intrigue and when taken too far even ruin.   

 

Who knew that toy collecting could have such serious results?  That was what went through my mind this week as an article and a video prompted me to think about Beanie Babies and their fallen status as a collectable.   

One was the sad / funny / bizarre / much too-human story of the Robinson Family who have showcased their mania in a mini-documentary entitled “Bankrupt by Beanies.”  The other is a new play about hoarding  called The Capables.  I will write about the latter in my next posting; for now let’s focus on “Bankrupt by  Beanies.”

This documentary,  filmed by one of his sons,  describes how Christopher Robinson, formerly a soap opera star, took the family on what can only be described as a maniacal quest to collect five sets of every possible Beanie Baby.  The purpose was to buy them as an investment and then sell them to pay for each child’s college education.  One senses in seeing the video that there more than investing going on; something more like mania. 

Inventors/Designers: It’s a tough gig, but you’ve got to have faith

Yesterday I posted an article on a Kickstarter campaign that surpassed its funding goal but failed to produce the promised game.  The responses to the publisher’s letter to the backers ranges from “don’t worry about my refund” to actual legal action, with many angry comments in between.  Yet, there’s another twist to this story having to do with the game’s designers/inventors.

I’ve been an inventor in the toy and game business for over a decade and during that time most of my experiences with publishers have been wonderful.  Toy and game inventors place a lot of faith in their business partners.  We have to believe they will take the item they’ve licensed from us and create a quality product, work with upstanding manufacturers who won’t rip them off, be honest about how many items they sold, pay us on time, launch the item on time and honor our contract.  Obvious, they have faith in us too; they don’t want to see us knock off the game we just licensed to them with another company, withhold important information or share trade secrets.  Overall, there’s a lot of trust shared in these sorts of agreements. 

When The Doom of Atlantic City’s Kickstarter took a turn for the worst, there were four names that stood out: Lee Moyer, Keith Baker, Paul Komoda and Erik Chevalier.  Lee, Keith and Paul all have their names plastered on the top of the campaign’s main page and Erik was the guy who broke the bad news to backers.  But were all 4 of these guys at fault?  I have no intention of playing judge and jury here, however, it was interesting to read the post from inventor/designer Keith Baker regarding the situation. 

Kickstarter: Will bad experiences change the landscape of funded projects?

It’s happened again; a funded Kickstarter campaign that has failed to deliver.  With an initial goal of $35k, The Forking Path raised over $122k from 1,246 backers in June of 2012 for their game, The Doom that Came to Atlantic City.  Unfortunately, the project was terminated this week with a note that explains their hope to eventually refund the jilted backers.

This definitely isn’t the first time this has happened, but it creates a stir simply because it was such a large and well-funded project.  Earlier this year, Inc. magazine reported on a lawsuit against a project creator for offering, but failing to provide refunds after his iPad stand project was terminated despite being fully funded.  Kickstarter’s responsibility ends once the funding has been met, and encourages potential backers to weigh the risks when it comes to pledging money.  Still, I have to wonder if this terminated campaign will have any impact on future Kickstarter projects.  Will campaigns like this create a tepid “buyer beware” atmosphere within the game market?  Are backers going to be less likely to pledge at higher dollar amounts after seeing their peers get burned? 

Jets Coach Rex Ryan loves playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball; old school tabletop games

Before there was Fantasy Baseball and its love of statistics, there was "Strat-O-Matic Baseball" and "All Star Baseball" tabletop games.  Played with dice, spinners, pencils and cardboard, the games allowed baseball enthusiasts to play out dreams of managing in the big leagues. 

A very nice piece in the New York Times by Ben Shpigel makes the case for these games continuing existence with a profile of New York Jets football coach Rex Ryan and his love of Strat-O-Matic baseball.   The piece, entitled “Before Football, Jets’ Ryan Mastered Table Baseball,” recounts the coach’s lifelong obsession.  ““I have sets, literally, of almost every single year of Strat-O-Matic baseball,” Ryan said. “That’s how huge I was into it.”

All Star Baseball Discs

I used to work at Cadaco and can remember the day that the inventor of All Star Baseball, Ethan Allen, mailed us a photograph of him with George H. W. Bush and Babe Ruth.  It seems that Ethan Allen not only played professional baseball from 1926 through 1938.  He also just happened to be George Bush’s coach at Yale (he coached from 1946-1968).  Hence, the connection between the

Toy Tech: The Humble Notebook (Part 3)

Notebook exploration sketch: Marvel Entertainment © 2013, Creata © 2013

I personally use a Quo Vadis notebook featuring Clairefontaine lined paper. Most of my friends do not use lined paper but the purpose of my notebooks is to hold ideas as well as drawings, so the lined paper helps me write out my thoughts in a more organized manor. Moleskin notebooks are also a very popular choice among designers and they come in some well thought out colors and cover designs.

Many tend to use pencils, markers and ballpoint pens but I found that a marker or my trusted Namiki Falcon fountain pen works best for me. That way I can change the ink to different colors to keep things fresh. In any case, it’s all about recording random bits of information and to continue to explore those ideas from different angles eventually taking them to the next level.

China Diary; the VongKong

China is so important to the global toy industry and change is ocurring so rapidly there; that I am delighted to introduce Jacqueline Vong. Jacqueline will be providing us with her experiences and insights on doing business in China. 

Hong Kong based, Jacqueline Vong is a first generation Canadian (her parents are natives of Shanghai and Hong Kong), currently exploring a passion-fuelled adventure working abroad in the mainland China market, with a Western twist!  She began her career in 2003 at Spin Master toys and has continued throughout the last decade to specialize her skill set in children’s entertainment and consumer products through positions with such global organizations as Nelvana Enterprises and Mattel Canada. Following a lifelong love of the toy and licensing business, recently she expanded her professional realm to a managerial role leading marketing, product development and licensing with Hong Kong-based King Bee Toys focused on the China market.

A fervent writer, Jacqueline is a frequent contributor to a variety of publications worldwide, including the Huffington Post Canada, The Travel Presse and Fusia Magazine.  She is a self-proclaimed fanatical foodie, and shares her exploration of edible delights through posts on her blog the Vong Choice; whilst continuing commentary regarding her newfound life in Hong Kong vis-a-vis her sister publication the VongKong. Jacqueline will be keeping Global Toy News readers abreast of her life in Hong Kong and China.

It was my dream to work abroad and gain international experience in a market that was rich in history, culture and language.  My dream came true when I got the opportunity to move from my home town of Toronto, Canada to Hong Kong and challenged to build our business in the emerging China market in the toy industry.  China is the largest market in the world in terms of population at approximately 1.3B people and my objective is to attempt to reach and sell consumer products and toys to the 800M households with children in this emerging market.  To be able to even penetrate a fraction of this market would be a bigger opportunity than I had in my previous life! 

My background from my various roles of sales, marketing, and business development could not prepare me for the obstacles and hurdles that I had ahead of me.  China is a very complicated market full of specific nuances, ingrained traditional values and customs and behaviours that you cannot study or read about beforehand; you must experience and see firsthand.  Also there is not a set way to do anything, it changes almost every day and I consider myself a student everyday learning as much as I can as well as adapting to the ever changing fast pace of this market.

An example of a foreign custom is the culture of an afternoon nap after lunch at your desk that is commonplace amongst workers in China.  They bring neck pillows/ eye masks and ear buds and sleep for half an hour to an hour at their desk before they begin to work again.  This is mandatory rest for them and something that they have been practising for many years.

The retail landscape is less sophisticated in China as there are not many key accounts that have centralized buying offices.  China's toy retail is mainly made up of distributors who manage the different regions and smaller shops in those areas.  As a new

Old Maid, Crazy Eights and the Case For Games

One of my most powerful memories from childhood is playing board and card games with my siblings and friends.  Whether it was hiding money under the board while playing Monopoly (which for some reason really irritated my older sister); playing a variety of card games (I played a very strong hand of “Go Fish”) or getting beaten regularly in Checkers (I am now convinced that everyone I knew as a child was a checkers savant).

In looking back, I realize that it was where I learned to be competitive; to suck it up and to relate to others.  Indeed, games were important.  It was with this frame of reference that I read a very nice New York Times Magazine piece by Stephen Marche entitled “I’m Good.  I’m Really Good.  Damn I’m Good.”  The article is a  memorial to his deceased father; their shared competitiveness and love of games.  Here is his opening sentence: 

“Five days before my father died, I beat him at Ping-Pong.” He later goes on to list the games they played:

Could I even name all the games we played together in a lifetime of competitions? Old maid, crazy eights, cribbage, mah-jongg, checkers, chess, nine men’s morris, oh hell, backgammon, Risk, Monopoly, not to mention the many minor competitions, too many to name, that were just part of the routine. Who could find the most spelling mistakes on a menu in a restaurant? Who could name the band and the song on the radio first? All the little races up the stairs of so many hotels. Competition, against each other and against the world, was one primary way we connected.

Marche is ambivalent about his competitiveness but one gets the sense that he actually loves it.  In fact, his 7 year old son recently beat him in Sponge Bob Uno…and the kid loved it.  And so it continues.

Toy Tech: The Humble Notebook (Part 2)

My Sample Ideation Notebooks—Random Sketches: Lucas Film © 2013

The notebooks, in addition to compiling creative ideas, had page upon page filled with random artist tech notes on several subjects. Some notes analyzed the best way to depict a design ranging from light sources to shading, color to halftone, and in-depth thoughts on presentation guidelines. The designers even recorded thoughts from their youth remembering what their mentors taught them years before.

I loved reading through the books they were willing to share. One artist had notes on marker rendering mixed with personal diary entries about his newborn baby girl. He mixed those thoughts together because his work was as personal to him as his family life.

Board Game Hall of Fame

Did you know there was a Board Game Hall of Fame?  You did?  Well, I did not.

It is the work of Games Magazine which has been inducting winners since 1984.  To be inducted, the game has to have been on the market for at least ten years. 

In case, you also were unaware of the Board Game Hall of Fame, here are the members in order of when the games were first published (with a few asides by me):  

Sorry (1934)

Monopoly (1935)

*Yahtzee (1938)

Stratego (1947)

**Clue (1948)

Scrabble (1948)

Blockhead (1954)

Mille Bornes (1954)

Twixt (1957)

Diplomacy (1959)

Risk (1959)

Acquire (1962)

^Twister (1966)

Bridgette (1970)

Dungeons & Dragons (1974)

Othello (1975)

Pente (1979)

^^Civilization (1980)

Axis & Allies (1981)

Trivial Pursuit (1981)

Taboo (1989)

Tribond (1989)

Magic the Gathering (1993)

Settlers of Cataan (1995)

Apples to Apples (1999)

 ______________________________________________________________

*I had no idea Yahtzee was this old.

 **People must have been loving mysteries at that time as Agatha Christie alone wrote 24 over the course of 1947 and 1948.

^Chuck Foley, the creator, recently passed away at the age of 82.

^^Hugely popular video game, Civilization is now in its 18^th edition.

Toy Tech: The Humble Notebook (Part 1)

Sample Ideation Notebook: Lucas Film © 2013

I remember the first time I walked the halls of Disney Studios. I was like a kid in a candy store. From animators to background painters and toy designers to storyboard artists this place had it all. The talent was amazing. Most of my mentors who worked for this studio as well as Dreamworks and Pixar had many things in common, but one thing that surprised me most was that they kept idea notebooks—lots and lots of idea notebooks.

You were probably expecting more than that. I mean, I just dropped a few big industry names and you were probably waiting for a bigger pay off instead of the humble word—notebook. You must understand though that these designers didn’t just keep ordinary notebooks, they kept, well, um—super notebooks!

It's a Bloodbath Out There

“It's a bloodbath out there.”

That is how a good friend and industry executive described the retail toy marketplace to me recently, and another confirmed that observation the very next day.

Though I have heard that some companies claim significant sales and profit growth this year, in the same breath they like to talk about the problems their competitors are having. One observer claimed that the industry as a whole is being downgraded, though I cannot confirm that statement.

A long term trend has been the declining effectiveness of TV advertising to reach a target audience. With the rapid growth in the streaming of content to mobile devices, the challenge of reaching both children and the 25-35 year-old moms that make purchasing decisions is exacerbated. What to do?

China's Skilled Labor Pool Drying Up

The deficit of skilled and experienced workers in China continues to increase even as the general labor shortage starts to relax.

Many suppliers cite wages as the main point of contention although worker salaries have climbed steadily over the past several years.

Put plainly, people are seeking jobs with better pay, said Kesley Wang, sales representative of Qingdao Juyuan Fitness Equipment Co. Ltd. The Shandong province-based supplier of health and fitness products works with a job-placement agency that has helped keep the skills gap at bay.

"China companies are growing and they have salary wars for the best talents in the market," said Chen Chunjie, CEO and board member of HROne.

The senior human resources executive added that the skills gap is now evident in HR outsourcing, with a growing number of clients requiring services to find and hire experienced employees. Foreign-owned companies, in particular, are feeling the pressure as skilled workers and qualified graduates are snapped up by local manufacturers. 

Augmented Reality Coloring Books; Wow!

Augmented reality is finally coming into its own; just take a look at ColAR; an app that works with a physical crayon and paper color page that is so amazing that it makes you…well… it makes you want to color! 

Here is how it works.  You purchase the app and then you download color book pages from the ColAR website.  Color them in as you normally would with a marker or crayon and then look at them through your phone or tablet’s camera feature.  What you see is your drawing come to life and move around. 

To appreciate it you need to see it so check out this video.  After viewing it, let us know what you think.

 

ARPU in the World of Toys and Games

In the world of digital games – as in many other worlds – acronyms rule the day and separate the insider from the outsider.  This special alphabet language can make for difficult discussions when industries begin to collide or even want to partner and evolve.  Sometimes though, the concepts that the acronyms embody are a “secret sauce” and are something to be embraced. 

EA's FIFA Game soon to be Free to Play and ARPU dependent

A very important cpncept/acronym for the worlds of games and toys is ARPU. ARPU is not a cuddly character and friend of Winnie – it’s a leading indicator of success also known as Average Revenue Per User.  ARPU is the measure of choice for casual and social games – especially those termed F2P (free to play) – since this measure helps to define how successfully a game or product is monetizing its user base.  The often used and associated term ARPPU – for Average Revenue Per Paying User – is defined as the average income only from those users have that converted into paying customers and is a solid indicator of how well a game is upselling its premium services.  While these terms come primarily from internet service companies and have been the focus of the casual and social game markets, other types of games and game companies are increasingly looking to ARPU as the economic factor that they need to focus on for the future. 

In a recent investor meeting at Electronic Arts (EA)[1] in June of this year, senior executives described a strategy that focused strongly on ARPU/ARPPU and hinted at more than one free to play game coming in the future.  They likewise confirmed a F2P mobile version of their FIFA game which will base its entire revenue structure on upsell.[2]  This is all a huge and needed shift for EA. 

As with many in the world of high end, AAA or console games, trends have been moving away from off-the-shelf sales to selling as Downloadable Content – DLC – for a long while.  The DLC model helps companies by curbing the re-sale markets and cutting out retailer share and business development concerns. But even with shifting to DLC, wherein payment for the product is in hand before the player even gets the game, pre-sales has been eroding for years and this decline has been tied to the rise of tablets, smartphones and free to play models on the web.  But many companies, like EA, felt they needed to hold onto high upfront prices to make back the huge and ever growing budgets of producing their high quality content.  Meanwhile, companies offering “free” games may be able to bring in over $50 per paying user – and sometimes more – PER MONTH.  Rumors suggest that “whales” – big players/payers – can exceed thousands of dollars total lifetime value (LTV) – a far cry above a $60 price tag for a one off software package.   Plus, with the massive numbers of players that free games generate – there are many other options for monetizing and upselling the lower paying user base.

“Live” Video Games

Move over Angry Birds, here come Angry Amoebas! If you think video games have become too realistic, these games may not be for you.  But, if you remember the thrill of playing with bugs as a kid, setting up cricket camps and putting them through a series of Hunger Games-styled obstacles, reenacting the olympics with grasshoppers, or being fascinated by the micro organisms smooshed between glass and enlarged by a microscope in your chemistry class, then you’ll love the concept of “live” video games.   Modern technology and science have teamed up and taken electronic game play to a whole new level.  A microscopic level.

About four years ago, Stanford bioengineering professor, Dr. Ingmar H. Riedel-Kruse started working on the idea of using live paramecimum as the players in video games.  By merging biotechnology and simple electronics he has produced the basis for what he calls  “biotic video games”. So far, Riedel-Kruse has created three types of games using biological processes: paramecia, PCR (polymerase chain reaction – an automated process for creating millions of copies of an organism’s DNA in as little as two hours), and yeast.

Chances are, you won’t find these games on the shelves of your neighborhood Toys ‘R Us anytime soon.  It’s a bit of a Do-it-Yourself game creation and not for those who are squeamish.  Paramecium are extracted with an eyedropper and placed in a fluid chamber with a mounted webcam.  Live images are then sent back to a video screen. By pressing buttons on a rigged, rudimentary game controller, a mild electrical current is activated, sending the critters moving in a specific direction.  Digital graphics appear on an overlaid screen, giving the appearance that the living organisms are interacting with the game. As the slight electrical current is emitted, it encourages the paramecium to ‘run’ past the designated play zone or obstacles and toward a specific goal.  The screen then produces visual and audio feedback indicating the player has scored a point.  It’s a little like PacMan meets Microbe. 

Toy Tech—Five Tonal Values (Part 3)

 

Toy Ideation Sketch: Naruto © 2009, The Marketing Store © 2009

The toy ideation sketch for Naruto (above) was done very fast using the basic principles of this tonal rendering system. Notice how different this style is from the fine art piece (part 1 of this article) even though it's basically the same system. The outline is prominant and the form factor is much more simplified.

Everything learned from the fine art masters has been adapted to the commercialized application of design drawing. So, this method can be used for any subject, technique, and personal style you may have with realistic or more graphic results.

Laser Pegs | A Toy Video Review

ToyTasting is a video channel about toys. The channel releases 2 videos every week (Wed and Fri). Each video is released after receiving feedback from at least 3 families in the ToyTasting panel.

About Laser Pegs

In 2009 Jon Capriola founded Laser Pegs. Laser Pegs is the world’s first construction toy that illuminates a child’s creation. They are basically clear plastic bricks with super bright LEDs inside.  Each unique light piece feeds the next light piece through low voltage current and illuminates the entire structure.

The Video Review

I think Jon Capriola has done a brilliant job by combining two kid’s favorite activities – Construction and Lights Play together. The approach of bringing construction, creativity, design and visual appeal in one toy has worked very well.

Toy Tech—Five Tonal Values (Part 2)

The Form Factor

I know the sphere isn’t very exciting in itself. After all, it’s just a ball with a cast shadow but the simple ball is a building block for such things as faces and many other components that visually construct a toy design. In breaking the tonal structure of a complicated face into a simplified form—the mighty sphere helps us more easily understand the path of light.

First, the sphere is divided into two families of light and shadow. This is key, not only for tonal drawings but also for full color renderings because every color has it’s own tonal value. That’s where many designers go wrong in rendering their ideas—be sure to clearly define the areas of light and shadow or your drawings will lack the sense of three-dimensional form.

Young Adults Delaying Parenthood; What it Means for the Toy and Play Industries

Fertile men and women are like the source of the Nile when it comes to the toy and play industries.   It is this group upstream creating all of those consumers and end users downstream that make the business of play possible.  What happens, however, when the Nile runs dry and those adults stop producing babies?

Well in a sense that is what is happening to U.S. birthrate, at least according to an article on the Today Show website by Allison Linn.  The piece, entitled “Dreams delayed or denied; young adults put off parenthood.”  It seems that young adults, freaked out by a lack of good jobs and seeing their parents fall into financial difficulty, are reluctant or simply too scared to take on parenthood.  At a time when birth control is widely effective and easily available, they have the where withal to put off or even decline to have children.

Here is how Linn puts it:

The U.S. birth rate has generally fallen since the Great Recession began in 2007, and some of the sharpest drops have been among women in the 20s. The birth rate for women ages 20 to 24 hit a record low of 85.3 births per 1,000 women in 2011, according to the most recent detailed data available from the Centers for Disease Control. For women ages 25 to 29, the 2011 birth rate of 107.2 births per 1,000 women was the lowest since 1976.

These kinds of statistics mean that any industry that depends upon children for its well-being is going to struggle.  It makes all those adults who want to play look pretty good doesn’t it?

Toy Tech—Five Tonal Values (Part 1)

 

Charcoal Painting: Joseph Sapulich © 2013

The sample above is a charcoal painting of my daughter Sarah. It is a technique in which you actually mix water with granulated charcoal to create the image. Although this technique would be considered too complicated for most commercial applications, my digital concept renderings of toy, product and film designs are all based on the same simple tonal rules—you only get five!

Five you say? There are more than that in this piece! Well, I do admit that when you actually count them there are more than five tonal values in the overall painting but what I’m trying to say is that I only mixed and applied five of them.

ModelZone Becomes the Latest Victim of Rising Grocery and Internet Retailing

ModelZone, the UK's largest model retailer with 47 stores across the country, went into administration on 27 June, leaving yet another gap on the high street. Big name brands such as HMV (media products), Comet and Jessops (both electronics and appliance specialists) in the UK have all collapsed this year as hard-up consumers remained reluctant to spend freely at a time of high unemployment, low wage rises and increasing prices.

Hobby stores (and ModelZone) was one of the very channels investigated in our "Toys and Games Retailing: Specialist Toy Retailers: Defence against the Grocery Arts" global briefing back in 2011. As highlighted in the report, competition from grocery retailers has put specialist toy retailers in a difficult position, fighting for their status as the preferred destination for toy shopping in recent years. In true grocery fashion, these players are offering low prices coupled with convenience. They are also well placed to harness the seasonal nature of toy demand. Back then, in response, Euromonitor International had advised specialist toy stores to rebrand themselves and search for alternative growth avenues, including the internet, emerging markets and new store concepts. ModelZone’s failure to address and fully embrace the ever changing dynamics of retailing caused its collapse in this latest blow to the British high street.

 

Toys and Gender Extremes

One of the reasons we are putting on the World Congress of Play is to shake up the way we  look at the business of play.   Whether by platform, gender and / or  by age; the various play industries have created artificial gaps that don’t need to exist and as a result cost sales.

Consider this data illustrated below in a great Bloomberg Businessweek article by Matt Townsend:  “Mattel's Mom Issue: They Really Don't Get Hot Wheels.”  The below graphic was included in the article:

Yes, some of these gaps may make some sense on a gender level but does it seem natural to you they are so extreme?  Do the silos we create distort them?  It’s a serious issue for the toy industry because it may be costing everyone a great deal of revenue and profit.

Consider this question I like to raise with audiences:  If you were to put action figures and fashion dolls in the same department and if you were to start running GI Joe from right to left and Barbie from left to right; what would you put in the middle?”  That gap goes unrecognized because we gender segregate one kind of a doll (action figures) from another kind of doll (fashion dolls).  One category that comes to mind might come under the wonderful amalgamation of “Action Doll” coined by the people at Makie Lab. 

Another company with the vision and will to be a gap filler is GoldieBlox who announced their inclusion in the Toys R Us lineup with this great, gender breaking video:

  

Join us at the World Congress of Play and help us close all of the gaps.

A Car with a Mustache

Last week I wrote a piece entitled:  “Cars with Brands vs. Cars with Faces.”  It discussed the decline in driving and the resulting lack of interest in car brands by children.  I suggested that the reason the movie “Cars” was so successful was because children were drawn to anything that was anthropomorphic.  I even half-kiddingly suggested that car companies might consider eventually giving human personalities and charactericstics to cars in order to attract a rising generation.  

Well, you can imagine my reaction when I saw that a car service in Los Angeles, Lyft, puts a nice, identifying mustache on all of its cars.  H-m-m-m-m-m-m-m.  It makes you think.

The Chief Officer of Change

To be blind to the need to ever evolve, improve, change, and upgrade one’s products and processes is to be a moron.

When the barbarians are not at the gates, it is hard to get oneself in a lather about evolving one's organization's processes. The barbarians are coming however, we just don’t know when.

Corportations have chief executive officers, chief operating officers, CFOs for finance, and CIOs to oversee all information technologies. Perhaps there is another role to be given a C-level position, and that would be COC, or Chief Officer of Change.

Licensing 180 Degrees vs. 360 Degrees

Marlo Gold is the CEO of D3M Licensing Group (D3M), a provider of end to end solutions for brands and talent.  D3M clients range from Grammy nominated artists, producers, top NFL players and comedians.Their expertise covers wholesaling and manufacturing across toys and video games, apparel and accessories, software and hardware development, and TV production. D3M principals have successfully developed products and brands for companies such as Hasbro, Mattel, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Disney, Marvel Entertainment, Nickelodeon, HSN, QVC and the NFL.

As we are all aware, licensing is a marketing and brand extension tool that is widely used by everyone from major corporations to the smallest of small business. Entertainment, sports and fashion are the areas of licensing that are most readily apparent to consumers, but the business reaches into the worlds of corporate brands, art, publishing, colleges and universities and non-profit groups, to name a few.

Traditionally, licensing agents have deployed a 180-degree approach. By this, I simply mean they did their jobs, and quite well. They created logos, style guides, reporting/approval systems and of course, collected royalties.

We think that in the 21^st century; that’s not enough.  What is needed today is a 360-degree approach to licensing and endorsements that offers clients support through every stage of brand extension, from product development and manufacturing, to marketing and brand building, to securing distribution and facilitating sell-through.  We believe that agencies need to be involved with every facet to insure the product appears on a shelf or online is the key to success.

The recipe is this- mix a 360 degree philosophy with the ability to acquire new strategies, dream up innovative ideas coupled with practical solutions you need to succeed.  Blend a variety of marketing strategies to extend your brand globally, bringing together leading licensors and agents with key decision-making retailers, manufacturers, marketing, and advertising professionals across all consumer product categories. At the end of the day, you have a brand that has sold through; and that is a recipe for success.  If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at mgold@d3mgroup.com.

Crisis/Opportunity in the Games and Toy Businesses

Beth Rogozinski is a serial entrepreneur, published author, and former college instructor with over twenty years in the media technology industry in strategy, production and marketing.  She was on the founding team of the world renown Multimedia Studies Program at SFSU and was the Executive Director of the DigiQuest Learning Center. During her tenure at Silicon Graphics (SGI), Beth helped create and launch a new multimillion dollar consumer products division.  After SGI, Beth founded Systrum Media Consultants where her clients included many dot.com and Web 2.0 start-ups as well as established companies such as 3Ware and Macromedia.  While working at Macromedia, Beth helped launch the digital video editing software, Final Cut, which was then sold to Apple. Beth also served as the VP of Client Services for West Coast Operations for Circle, a full service ad and brand agency that was acquired by Havas. After completing an MBA, Beth joined Devicescape, a Kleiner-Perkins funded start-up and executed three successful product launches including launches into Europe. 

Beth has founded games and apps companies including Signal 2 Productions  and D2S Games..   She is an advisor to many start-ups and non-profits such as Kleenslate Concepts, the Mobile Monday Momentum Accelerator, Grimm Bros Games and Wise Old Duck Games.  Most recently, Beth founded Transmedia SF, an agency/studio/incubator/salon with the aim of accelerating the transmedia revolution across industries and around the world.  Hear Beth speak at the World Congress of Play in San Francisco.

Wake up and smell the crisis:  Whether you’re on the toy side of the business or the digital video game side – the Games and Toys Business is undergoing disruption.

The US toys and games market saw four years of decline from 2007 to 2011.  Even with new and fast growing markets in China and India helping to prop the traditional toys business up – the holiday season of 2012 was the Year of the Tablet.[1]

While the video game industry saw rapid and spectacular growth from 2007 to 2011, bucking all trends of the larger toy and traditional game markets, by 2012, most growth had stopped and fortunes began to reverse.  Reports circulated about the end of the boom with many – from the NY Times to Wired to CNBC – asking Is It Game over for the Gaming Industry?

By 2013, Zynga’s flat IPO of 2011 paled in comparison to its paltry stock price and it, along with EA and other stalwarts in the space were laying off droves of developers and designers and reporting deep declines in sales and revenues.  LucasArts – sold to Disney earlier in the year – has been shuttered and all staff laid off.  Smaller players in the space have been shifting focus – to mobile, free to play – and other strategies to stay ahead of the competition and declining revenues.  Indie game makers have struggled as well:  funding is harder to get, as is attention with now nearly 1 million apps in the iTunes app store alone. 

But through all of this gloom and doom there are a few stars and standouts – all of whom have embraced true transmedia strategies including creating open worlds, crowd-sourcing and integrated toy offerings.  Minecraft, the open world building game, reportedly made Mojang, it’s small Swedish game studio of just 32 employees, over $240M in 2012 alone.  Skylanders, the mythical adventure game and toy set, has made it into Activision’s billion dollar earner club and the title continues to grow and expand its storyworld and real life offerings.   The long awaited Disney Infinity platform pledges to transform the company into a huge game company and it promises to bring the best of Minecraft and Skylanders together:  an open “toy-box” world that integrates into but expands on foundational stories pulled from the expansive and

Toy Tech: Planned Spontaneity (Part 2)

Skylanders/Activision © 2013, Creata © 2013

We as designers must dream big and give voice to those dreams within our conceptual designs. To a child, a toy is magical fun. Shouldn’t that be captured in our visuals? The detailed information must be annotated, of course, but the ideation sketch itself should be handled differently that a finished rendering.

Final rendered design sketches are usually pretty tight because they are going into the production pipeline. The CG modelers need concrete visuals to build their 3D models, engineers will choose the type of plastics best suited to produce the toy and price out internal gears, etc.—all of which are guided by final detailed renderings.

Zynga Reaches Across the Divide; Xbox CEO Takes the Reins

It seems like just yesterday (in fact it pretty much was) that Zynga was a star in the social gaming firmament.  It’s brilliant piggybacking on Facebook combined with addictive games (think FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker) and a 21^st century business model (free subscriptions coupled with pay to play virtual goods)  made them the darling of the speculative, investor class.

Well, a funny thing happened; Zynga’s stock declined the first day of trading and company revenues have gone the same way as well.  In fact, here is how  Farhad Manjoo puts it in his Slate article “Failure is an option:”  “Mark Pincus announced that he’d be stepping down as CEO of Zynga, the online video game company he co-founded in 2007. The Pincus deathwatch had running for months, and intensified in April, when Zynga reported that its revenues had declined 30 percent over the last year.”

The new CEO is Don Mattrick, formerly the CEO of Xbox, the Microsoft video game company. What intrigued me was Zynga’s choice of someone from the now venerable video game industry.  Unlike social network gaming, video games depend upon generating support for hardware (a console) and then providing a vast number of various kinds of games to satisfy consumer hunger.  Zynga, of course, did not have to have a console; it needed the support of vast social networking giants like Facebook to supply a few games to lots of people.  It’s a very different business model.

The choice of Mattrick may not, however, be such a bad idea.  Here is how Manjoo puts it:

Mattrick’s s main accomplishment at Microsoft was the meteoric growth of Xbox Live, the subscription-based online plan attached to the console. When Mattrick started running the Xbox division, only 6 million people subscribed to Xbox Live. That number now stands at 48 million people, each of whom pays about $5 a month. Mattrick grew this user base mainly by expanding into new markets… by adding movies, TV shows, and apps.  These additions led to a huge increase in Live usage.”

The business models, however, are still quite different with Xbox Live focusing on subscriptions and Zynga concentrating on the sale of virtual goods.  Even if Mattrick’s background may well fit, is he the right choice? Might there in fact be a different challenge. 

Forbes writer, Erik Cain sees the problem as one of creativity or the lack thereof.  In his article, “Zynga Details Pay Package for New CEO, But Xbox Chief Faces a 'DNA Problem' At The FarmVille Publisher,” refers to another article in SFWeekly News.  The article, “Farm Villains,” the author Peter Jamison interviewed former Zynga employees, one of whom talking about his first experience with the

Toy Tech: Planned Spontaneity (Part 1)

Skylanders/Activision © 2013, Creata © 2013

Ideation is an art. Really. When you think about it, ideation is the magical process of creative thought that only a few have ever mastered. The main focus of the ideation sketch should be that shiny new idea, but more often than not the impact is over shadowed by too many details and static renderings.

When you sketch an idea, remember that you are not selling the annotated technical information but the toy concept itself. The star of the show, or sketch in this case, is the idea and therefore must have within the sketch a vibrant burst of spontaneous emotional impact.

Toys and Race; What We’re Missing

Want to have some fun?  Google the word “toys” and “race.”  What do you get; well, you get lots of information on Hot Wheels, Carrera, racing sets and so much more…on cars.  What don’t you get; any information on how different races of people interact with toys and games?

I note this fact because I have been recently getting calls from the press asking my opinion on how the toy industry is handling the rapidly changing makeup of America’s children.  “What is the toy industry doing to accomodate the new racial mix in America?” I am asked.  "Not so much," I reply.

You would think that in an age where Asians and Hispanics make up 98% of American, big city population growth; in which Hispanic Americans go to the movie roughly 50% more than other groups; in which the birthrate among non-Hispanic White Americans is down 53% and in which deaths now outnumber births for White Americans for the first time in 100 years that the toy industry would be all over the demographics of what is happening.  You would think…

With the exception of brands like Dora The Explorer and Handy Manny (he’s a janitor); there appears to be little movement towards satisfying Hispanic shoppers.  “Baby Abuelita,” a doll that sings Hispanic songs and has found distribution in the Hispanic markets for big chains like Wal-Mart is one of the rare exceptions of a retailer actually being able to see the doll forest for the trees.

Toy of Steel - 75 Years of Superman

2013 is the 75th anniversary of the publishing of Superman, among the most famous fictional characters ever created and the playtime inspiration for generations of kids in bath towel capes. The year is big for Warner Bros. and DC Comics red, yellow, and blue hero: the record breaking $202 million debut weekend box office gross of Man of Steel, produced by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception) and directed by Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead); as well as the end of decade-long litigation between the estates of Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and Warner's publishing subsidiary. The release of Man of Steel and the rights confirmation for Warner Bros. occurring on such an important year for Superman can hardly be seen as coincidental. The anniversary is just one more reminder that Warner has under exploited one of the most well known and commercially viable entertainment brands in existence. The promotional tagline for Christopher Reeves' 1979 Superman: The Movie claimed "you'll believe a man can fly" but perhaps the generational wonderment surrounding the character is better summed up playetically as "imagine if you could fly!" Red bath towel optional.

Industry Legend: Marty Abrams

One beautiful morning last week, Marty Abrams and I met for coffee at an outdoor café in New York. I couldn’t help but feel lucky… lucky to so enjoy what I do, lucky to get to meet such endlessly fascinating people, lucky to be a part of the toy industry.  It occurred to me then that the amazing stories of the legends in our industry must be told.

I shared this thought with Marty, and said that I’d love to write about him. He agreed to be interviewed for this article series, and as he was talking, a woman that neither of us knew who was sitting within earshot, walked up and profusely thanked him for providing joy and play to so many over the years. He was surprised and humbled by this, but it was made obvious to me once again that interest obviously (and rightfully) spills over into the public. People are genuinely wowed by the creativity that our industry routinely demonstrates. It moves them. It profoundly affects them from the time they’re kids onward.

Marty has lived and breathed the toy business for over 40 years. He started out in his family’s company, Mego, and has consistently made mega-hits with popular lines such as Magna Doodle, SkyDancers, Micronauts and early Nintendo launched in the U.S. There are now over 750,000 websites mentioning products by Mego, and its action figures are highly prized collectibles worth thousands of dollars. Mego Corporation manufactured the first comprehensive line of DC and Marvel characters, and there is even - believe it or not - a Mego Museum.

Marty has been called the Father of Action Figures and a true pioneer of licensed products, once having his story and product gracing the cover of NY Times Magazine. He has also been featured in People Magazine, and there are no less than three books written about him. Now the head of I-Star Entertainment, he’s still filling mass market shelves around the globe.

To say Marty Abrams is an interesting person, is a ridiculous understatement.

Screens Everywhere! Or, Let's Get Better at What We Do

I share the concern I have heard others voice over the proliferation of screens in the lives of today's children. Everywhere you turn, kids as young as one, and often even younger, are glued to screens mere inches from their faces.

Watching TV is not a form of play, it is the viewing of entertainment. Watching a screen is passive. Even interacting with a touchscreen is little more than passive activity.

True play is active and imaginative. It allows the child to create scenarios and explore the real world, as well as the world of their own imagaination. Real toys facilitate play.

The Strong Artifact of The Month: Star Wars Action Figures

When the first Star Wars movie (now called Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) screened in theaters in May 1977, movie audiences marveled at its space-opera plot, engaging characters, and elaborate set decoration. Filmmaker George Lucas produced several more movies in the series and together the films grossed more than $4 billion. Fans today continue to enjoy new Star Wars films and witty, off-color adaptations like Space Balls and Family Guy’s Blue Harvest. The value of the movies, however, paled in comparison to the thrill of purchasing and playing with Star Wars related merchandise (Forbes magazine reported that the franchise generated more than $20 billion over its lifetime).

A Tableside Chat with Richard Gottlieb

For several decades, Richard Gottlieb, president of Global Toy Experts, has interviewed the Who's Who of the toy industry. Now, I'm turning the tables on this venerable toy expert as he discusses the toy industry at large, the secrets to his long and successful career and his upcoming "World Congress of Play" conference in San Francisco.

Dawn:  What do you think are the three most important secrets of your success?

Richard:

    1. Always be a student. Things change so rapidly and there is so much to know; being a student allows you to be on the front end of what is happening rather than finding out after it happened.

    2. Be a great communicator. Always call or email back within 24 hours; try to respond to anyone who reaches out to you and make sure that the people with whom you are working never go for more than a week without hearing from you; even if there is nothing new to report. Also, and as important, be a great and active listener. Always make sure that people know that you actually heard what they had to say by periodically summarizing their thoughts back to them. That way you know that you heard them accurately and they know that you cared about what they had to say.

    3. Make great problems for yourself. Take on challenges that scare the hell out of you and then accomplish them. If you do, you will grow your knowledge base; you will meet some great people and believe me, you will have some amazing adventures.

Dawn:  What three words would you use to describe yourself and why? What three words would you hope others would use to describe you?

Richard:  Emotional words like warm, helpful and caring come to mind as well as cerebral words like intelligent, insightful and creative.

Dawn:  If your life was broken down into the parts of a story, what would we be reading right now: the introduction, the rising action, the climax, the falling action or the conclusion? 

Richard:  The climax. I am just getting to the good part.

Dawn:  What do you see as the most imminent threat to the success of the toy industry? In turn, what has had the most beneficial effect on the toy industry?

Richard:  The most imminent threat is the failure to recognize that we no longer compete for square inches on a shelf, but for time in someone’s head. Time is now a scarce commodity and there is more competition for that time than at any time in history. Problematic for anyone who sells play is that there is, between video games, traditional toys and digital play, more supply than demand. How to get a share of available time is, therefore, the biggest challenge facing the toy industry. Failure to secure time will ultimately lead to a loss in dollars.

Thinking About the Play Industry Players

In my last two postings (The New York Times Top 200 List of Executive Pay; the Play Industry and The Play Industry; a look at revenues) I took a look at how the Play Industry stacks up in terms of executive compensation and revenue.  My take-off point was the annual The New York Times Top 200 List of Executive Compensation.

That list, however, offers only a starting point in studying the Play Industry.  Listing companies exclusively by executive compensation leaves out a large number of companies including some big names.  Here are just a few of the missing names:  Hasbro, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Nintendo, Zynga, Facebook, Amazon  and Rovio to name a few.  Why were they missing;  for any number of reasons including their only recently going public or not providing compensation packages big enough to make this year’s list?

In studying the list, it is clear that despite the growth of Amazon, bricks and mortar retailers still dominate when it comes to compensation and revenue.  Seven out of sixteen Play Industry companies listed are big box retailers.  Ecommerce may well be the wave of the future, but at least for now, bricks and mortar dominates the scene.

It was also interesting to see the small footprint that traditional toy manufacturing has on the list.  There are only a few publicly traded traditional toy companies; only two of them generate over one billion dollars in revenue and only one, Mattel, made the list.

In the same vein, video game companies seemed under-indexed as well.  Activision was the only video game company to be included. 

Finally, the question arises, what businesses should make up a comprehensive list of Play Industry companies?  We are working on that and it is just one of the deliverables we will be providing at the World Congress of Play. 

In the meantime, what are your thoughts on what types of companies should be included.

 

The Play Industry; A Look at Revenues

In my last posting, I reviewed The New York Times Top 200 List of Executive Compensation.  In doing so, I broke out those companies that played a role in the Play Industry.   To make the list, a company had to have generated over one billion dollars in 2012 revenues and filed proxies for 2012 by May 31 of 2013.  

I decided to take the same list and now rank the same companies based upon revenue rather than executive pay.  Here is how it looks

Top 200            Play Industry                 Revenue           Company

Rank                 Rank

2                      1                                  $469.2              Wal-Mart                                  

23                     2                                  $73.3                Target                                      

42                     3                                  $42.3                Walt Disney                             

68                     4                                  $25.9                TJX                                         

90                     5                                  $16                   Dollar General                          

99                     6                                  $14.1                eBay                                        

100                   7                                  $13.9                Viacom                                    

117                   8                                  $10.9                Bed, Bath and Beyond             

127                   9                                  $8.9                  GameStop                               

133                   10                                 $7.4                  Dollar Tree                               

142                   11                                 $6.4                  Mattel                                      

152                   12                                 $5.4                  Big Lots                                   

153                   13                                 $5                     Yahoo                                     

155                   14                                 $4.9                  Activision Blizzard                    

158                   15                                 $4.5                  Discovery Communications      

186                   16                                 $2.2                  AOL                                         

More analysis in my next posting.

 

Toy Tech: Ronald McDonald House (Part 2)

Digital Concept Sketch: McDonald's Corp. © 2013, Creata © 2013

As the disease progressed, Ladybug became more secretive about her art and spent most her time drawing her storyboards. She was deeply worried about her mommy who had lost many things during this fight with cancer, including her husband. Her mom’s eyes were dark and the pain from this long ordeal was etched all over her face. As I got to know her better, I truly respected the love and commitment she had to her beloved daughter.

When Ladybug passed, her mother finally got to read the storyboards made just for her. They started with the diagnosis of Ladybug's disease and gradually worked toward detailing the last few months of their journey together. Then, as tears ran down her face, the mother saw the drawing of her daughter buried next to flowers, trees and a big beautiful sky. Standing all around her were cartoon stick people representing family members, even Daddy.

The New York Times Top 200 List of Executive Pay; The Play Industry

Opportunities to see the Play Industry in context to the broader world of business are not as common as we would like. That was why I took some time to study The New York Times Top 200 List of Executive Compensation.  To make the list, a company had to have generated over one billion dollars in 2012 revenues and filed proxies for 2012 by May 31 of 2013.

I wanted to know how play industry members fit into a mix that included giants like Nike and Ford.  So, I went through the list looking for companies that were engaged, at least in part, in the business of making or retailing play.  Here they are in order of top executive total compensation:

Top 200 Rank      Play Ind. Rank     Company Name                          Category

2                                  1              Activision Blizzard                     Video Game/Traditional

4                                  2              Discovery Communications         Media

7                                  3              Walt Disney                              Transmedia

9                                  4              Yahoo                                        Int. Content Provider

11                                 5              Viacom                                     Transmedia

13                                 6             eBay                                         eCommerce

28                                 7              Dollar General                            Variety Retail

46                                 8              Wal-Mart                                   Mass Merchandiser

47                                 9              Target                                        Mass Merchandiser

54                                 10             TJX                                           Off-Price Retailer

77                                 11             Dollar Tree                                Dollar Stores

97                                 12             Bed, Bath and Beyond               Specialty

158                               13             Big Lots                                    Off-Price Retailer

163                               14             AOL                                          Int. Content Provider

169                               15             Mattel                                       Toy Company

184                               16             GameStop                                Video Game Retailer

In my next posting, I rank these companies in order of 2012 revenue.

 

Toy Tech: Ronald McDonald House (Part 1)

 

Digital Concept Sketch: McDonald's Corp. © 2013, Creata © 2013

The Ronald McDonald House is an amazing place. I had the honor of conducting storyboard and toy design classes for the terminally ill children for over a year. The medical personnel are the most dedicated and caring people I have ever met. Having worked on toy and product design for McDonald’s over the years, I have come to respect their commitment to the children and their families by providing these truly amazing services.

All of the children were special, but one sticks out in my memory and I wanted to share her with you. We’ll call her Ladybug—an adorable child who loved to draw. The first time she came to the playroom to attend my class was a bit challenging, in that we had to position her wheel chair so she could see me work up close. By this time, the disease had taken its toll and it was very difficult for her to hold anything, let alone draw. Her vision was poor but she was still filled with wide-eyed wonder.