My LinkedIn feed has been largely dominated by posts from people living it up in LA this week. Nice work if you can get it. From what I hear from numerous sources, the trip seems to be going well. This week in particular seems to have seen good attendance, with a healthy crop of exhibitors and visitors from right across the globe (not just the obvious US and European attendees, but Asia, The Middle East, Latin America and Australia have apparently all been well-represented). There have even been queues for lifts in the showroom buildings like the good old days of the permanent toy buildings in NYC, while the evening social events have been packed – and mercifully, people don’t seem to be stressing over the tariff situation as much as they were earlier in the year. Clearly, the September autumn / winter preview event is here to stay, having firmly established its place in the annual toy event calendar.
To all of those people who have said they have missed me not being there – you’re too kind. It just didn’t quite work out this year, but I really appreciate all of the feedback and little nuggets you’ve been sharing over the past few weeks. Although I wasn’t able to join you this time round, there’s always next year.
Inevitably, with the September LA trip now a firm fixture, there has been a fair bit of chatter over what might happen with the various spring summer event options – LA, Prague and Amsterdam are all vying for arguably one slot in the calendar. I’m genuinely not sure how the global toy community will decide which one(s) to back – right now, there doesn’t appear to be a definitive consensus. Different formats, costs, dates… and pros and cons for each event. It will be interesting to see how that situation pans out…
Back here in the UK, the weather may be grim (increasing the FOMO of those left behind…), but there has been a lot going on in the retail world that warrants attention.
The brand new Smyths catalogue arrives in stores today. Before you head to your nearest store to pick one up, you can read all about it in our exclusive sneak peek story and view this year’s catalogue ad, which was produced in collaboration with Lego. Holidays are most definitely coming… great work from Sinead Byrne and the Smyths team.
Meanwhile, The Entertainer has announced that its festive gift guide will be sponsored by Disney this year, as part of a festive partnership with The Walt Disney Company which will also include two Disney themed campaigns in stores over the coming months.
One of the biggest retail stories of the week was the revelation – and I don’t use that word lightly – that Sainsbury’s has been in conversation with Chinese online giant JD.Com (the largest retailer in China according to Google) over the sale of Argos.
Read the rest here.
