If you’ve been watching TV, reading national / regional newspapers or listening to the radio in the UK this week, chances are you will have come across coverage about the toy market, courtesy of the DreamToys event. Its primary purpose is to get consumers excited about purchasing toys for Christmas, and I think we can certainly say that it delivered on its promise.
Post November 5th, it certainly feels like the toy market has turned a corner. Some wondered whether DreamToys was perhaps a bit late in the calendar, but the way this year has turned out, it seems that the timing was spot on. The visitor profile definitely represented quality over quantity: more good quality national newspapers and magazines, and even a smattering of TV news crews, fewer influencers and bloggers – and in truth, I don’t think many people were too unhappy about that balance. (Team Toy World was out in force, and you can read a report on the event here).
The day after the event, we were inundated with requests from radio stations for someone to go on to talk about toys – and I can only imagine how many interviews the official retail representatives for DreamToys were fielding that day. A two-minute slot on the ITV evening news also showcased several of the DreamToys to great effect – and will have been seen by millions.
There’s no need to pick over the individual entries on the list, as I think that is always a highly subjective topic. I do think it makes perfect sense to do away with all the long lists, although I wonder if a list of 20 top toys is still too many. Many articles and reports simply avoided showing or printing the list altogether, as 20 product names take up a lot of space. Inevitably, it also means that even though they are all paying the same fee, some companies on the list will receive far more prominence than others – which is often down to the kind of product and how well it lends itself to photography or being part of a filmed segment (small items are at a particular disadvantage here, while larger moving items always work well). Of course, the challenge for the event organisers is that halving the number of items on the list would double the cost for those which do make it – and it isn’t cheap to start with.
Read the rest here.
