Papa’s got a brand new bag | How Rocksax is having fun and finding growth in the digital age of music

The music merchandise specialist, Rocksax, has undergone somewhat of a transformation over the course of the pandemic. Nothing quite as drastic as a full-blown Jefferson Airplane to Starship transition, but noteworthy all the same.

Click through to the Rocksax online platform and you’ll be met with an engaging product showcase that spans its collection of music artist and band-branded bags, accessories, and bar stools. It’s been the company’s lockdown mission to build its digital presence, and it’s an effort that has paid off.

This time last year, outside of its retail and distribution business – the primary source of business for Rocksax still to this day – this was an outfit that was bringing in around £1 a day via its consumer-facing online operation. Today, Rocksax is doing between £1 and £2 a minute on the platform, selling luggage, backpacks, and vinyl carriers featuring artists and band artwork that spans the genres.

Within the Rocksax portfolio sits every artist to have made a mark on the music merchandise space, from legacy acts such as Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd, to contemporary artists like Billie Eilish. Then there’s the wealth of talent that sits in between; whether you’re into your Madchester sounds of Oasis or your Bowie image, or perhaps, even, the artwork of legacy record labels, like Blue Note or Motown.

Surprisingly, despite the gig and touring industry being ‘decimated’ by the pandemic, the music merchandise sector is going steady. Whether it’s music fans choosing to place their support of musicians elsewhere this past year, or simply that consumers have had time to re-engage with their music collections, and therefore their fandom, it’s for the likes of Rocksax, that business has actually grown.

But then again, music consumption hasn’t abated, but steamed ahead, and today, Rocksax’s license line-up is as varied as the modern day music lover’s Spotify playlist. If eclecticism defines today’s consumer – whether they are pop culture fans, gamers, or music-lovers –  and fuels today’s streaming culture, then Rocksax is having fun tapping into the opportunities that come along with that.  

What you won’t find among the company’s long list of licences, mind you, is Ed Sheeran. No matter how many Glastonburys he does.

“He just doesn’t resonate with consumers in terms of merch,” laughs Ian Hopkins, investor and business development manager at Rocksax. “Likewise, not many people walk around with an Adele t-shirt. Not every artist appeals to merch, there has to be a certain style, and a catalogue of artwork.”

With a more than 20 year career spent enveloped in the music merch scene, whether heading up new business at Virgin or in his role as the founding director of Pulp, it’s fair to say that Hopkins has an eye – and an ear – for what works. Currently, what’s working for Rocksax is its portfolio of bags, and with Hopkins and his business partner now in control of the young start-up, it’s where the focus will remain for the company.

“What’s exciting and what we are having fun with is tapping into how eclectic consumers’ music tastes are these days,” Hopkins tells Licensing.biz. “The digitisation of music is a lot of things, but it has definitely given music fans a bigger field. 

 “When I was growing up, you didn’t buy vinyl or products from anything other than the genre you were into. If you were a mod or a rocker, you were stuck in one genre because you could only buy one single or one album a month, because of the money,” Ian Hopkins,  investor and business development management at Rocksax, tells Licensing.biz.

“But now, because of Spotify, people are multi-genre, and when you look at their phones they have Metallica, Take That, Katy Perry… they listen to it all. And that’s brilliant, because it allows us so much to play with.”

As well, of course, music merchandising has become a new way for music fans to reconnect with their favourite artists. CDs are no longer the go-to purchase for engaging with music, therefore tactility with music is being sought through other means.

It’s certainly why the music licensing space has exploded over the last few years, with the likes of Bravado – Universal Music group’s own licensing division – spearheading innovative leaps forward in the business of licensing bands and artists. 

Likewise, artists have begun creating their own brands, too. Hopkins gives the example of Kanye and his Pablo and Yeezy brands, but plenty others are in on the act, too. The physicality of music is being redefined in branding, and whether its a Motorhead cycling jersey from Milltag, or a Blink 182 backpack from Rocksax, it’s a vibrantly exciting space.

“The music merch business has moved around a bit since I have been involved in it about 20 years now,” says Hopkins. “Where it was traditionally touring merch and what was stocked in HMV or Vertical Tower, it’s moved into fast fashion in Primark, and beyond that with capsule collections going into Selfridges.

“You hear of hip hop artists opening pop-up stores now, and the numbers they are doing through them is phenomenal.”

Like any industry, the music merch space is about finding a point of difference. With Rocksax, that takes the form of its line-up of bags; a range that itself has undergone development and re-development at the hands of Hopkins’ investment that has elevated its quality and design as the firm looks to extend its retail distribution network beyond the HMVs and international outlets it currently works with.

“We want to get these to the likes of Urban Outfitters, and those other Gen Z retailers,” says Hopkins. “It’s why we’ve made a lot developments over this pandemic, revisited the design, moved factories, just elevated the business in general.

“We have opened up our own subsidiary in the US and we have set up two distributors in the US and one in Canada, it’s all been about spotting the opportunities in different markets as they arise.”

One such opportunity spotted was in the resurgence of the vinyl, a movement that breathed life into Rocksax’s own collection of vinyl carry bags – each of them making use of the artwork not of artists but of record labels themselves, tapping – suggests Hopkins – into the more musically educated market of the record collector.

“We looked at the music market and no one was doing much with the old record label artwork, so we thought that, for the slightly more musically educated fan, maybe slightly older, we would develop this range of record label vinyl carriers that you can take your records around to your mates in,” he says.

“For us, it’s about discovering the trends within our primary focus. We could easily get distracted by other things – like gaming, for instance – but we don’t want that. For us, it is about bringing in genres into the bag business.”

Hip hop is a major focus for the team right now. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but the truth is, many of the genre-defining hip hop artists themselves are becoming legacy acts as the 30 year lag starts to come around again.

“It makes me feel ancient,” confesses Hopkins, “that this generation is now finding out about these artists and buying their merch. Dr Dre, Death Row Records, all of that stuff. What will come next – along with hip hop – will be grunge and the ‘80s/’90s grunge, Nirvana and the beginning of Foo Fighters, which will all start feeding in over the next few years.”

One to keep his ear close to his own Spotify in order to tap into the music trends, Hopkins is aware of the need to remain current. The youth of the Rocksax team helps keep the firm on trend, while the closeness with which Hopkings works with licensors goes the distance to help the business stay tuned in.

And the modern scene isn’t all about the music that consumers are engaging with, but the means through which they get their merchandise, too. It’s why the print on demand sector has become one of particular interest to Hopkins over recent months, so much so, that Rocksax is in the early stage talks with print on demand services to bolt onto its own platform.

“We are working with one of the big printers to create a bag that you can out into a printer and it will print out in two or three minutes,” he says. “That’s something we can then create – a load of bags, bring it over from China, and have them here as blanks for people to print what they want, when they want.

“The potential for print on demand in the music merch business, as well as wider licensing, is huge. It’s quite interesting in music merch because you always see the same three designs for a band, who may actually have a library of art work from their albums etc. There’s a long tail which is never seen.

“Put that in front of the consumer, let them choose, and you’ll find some odd winners that a buyer wouldn’t have thought of. Print on demand is putting the power back in the hands of the consumer, and I think that’s a great thing, because the buyer doesn’t always make the right choices.”

Guide Dogs UK creates The Gruffalo scents to make story time inclusive for visually impaired children

Magic Light Pictures and Macmillan Children’s Books have partnered with the sight loss charity, Guide Dogs to answer the age old question: what does the Gruffalo smell like?

Via this innovative new partnership, characters from the popular children’s book by Julia Donaldson – Mouse, Fox, Owl, Snake, and the Gruffalo – will be brought to life in a series of scents developed to help make reading a story inclusive for the whole family.

Research has found that 80 per cent of how we learn is visual. Guide Dogs has therefore made the move to create a sensory version of the beloved 20-year-old story for the first time, helping children with visual impairment feel more included in the story.

Working in partnership with Macmillan Children’s Books and Magic Light Pictures, the charity has created a scent kit that includes five inhalers, one for each character of The Gruffalo. The quick-witted mouse smells like cupcakes, the fox smells of cut grass, the owl smells like a freshly poured cup of tea, and the snake bring with it a smoky scent.

The Gruffalo himself carries with him a leathery barnyard smell that permeates from the depths of the deep, dark wood.

Kerry Kernan, Guide Dogs Children and Young People National Service Operations Manager, said: “Discovering a child has a vision impairment can be a worrying and confusing time for families, and we have a range of services to help. We hope that the universal appeal of The Gruffalo will help shine a light on how important it is to make things as inclusive as possible. Small adaptations and innovations can really help support families with a vision impaired child.

“Every year we help hundreds of families build their knowledge and confidence, and provide tools that are right for each family’s specific needs – whether that’s through enabling more moments like inclusive reading, or by providing services like habilitation support, education support or grants for parents and children to access new technology.

“We hope that this scent kit encourages more parents across the UK to reach out to us for help – and for more people to recognise and support the work we do with children and young people.”

Each scent in the kit was developed with the input of Guide Dogs service users to ensure they were at the heart of this.

Roger Whalley, Guide Dogs UK service user, said: “The support from Guide Dogs’ Children & Young People services has been life changing for our family. Not only in helping us navigate Josie’s sight loss journey, but also for building her confidence through teaching her life skills and providing opportunities for us to meet other families going through a similar experience.

“The Gruffalo is a much-loved story in our house, and we are thrilled that this scent kit will allow our daughter Josie who has visual impairment and our sighted son Wolf to be able to enjoy their favourite book together – something which I think most families rightly take for granted.”

Alyx Price, Associate Publisher at Macmillan Children’s Books, added: “We are so pleased to be working with Guide Dogs to help more children and families enjoy The Gruffalo. As publishers, we want to find ways for all children to access stories and this is a wonderful new way to enjoy books together.

“By interacting with the smells for these well-known characters, visually impaired children can now experience this favourite picture book and ‘meet’ the characters themselves.”

 In addition, Guide Dogs Specialist Education Support Team has developed a bank of resources specifically to support the parents of children with a vision impairment, this includes bringing books to life using touch and sound.

Book of Beasties embarks on mission to provide 500 London schools with children’s mental health support

The Book of Beasties, a London-based start-up and team behind the mental wellness card game of the same name, has committed to providing up to 500 schools with free mental health support to better help children through the current coronavirus crisis.

The move follows research conducted by the children’s mental wellness game developer that found that 86 per cent of teachers and parents felt the Government wasn’t doing enough to support them in addressing mental health with their children.

The survey uncovered that 78 per cent agreed that children’s mental health had been neglected in the Government’s resopnse to the pandemic and the lockdown restrictions it had implemented through school closures.

In response to these findings, Book of Beasties is aiming to reach over 141,000 children by donating games and training worth over £30,000 to some of the city’s most underfunded areas. 

This new incentive, which has been dubbed the 500 Smiles Crusade is part of the Playful Minds campaign, which is calling on the Government to increase funding for playful mental health provision for schools and parents, and launched to coincide with children’s return to school last week. 

The social distancing measures and tier 4 restrictions have put children under immense amounts of pressure, which is taking its toll on their mental wellbeing. A Young Minds study found that 83 per cent of young people had said the pandemic made their mental health worse. 

Playful Minds has raised concerns that the length of time that the restrictions have been in place will likely result in ‘a mental health crisis that could last for years to come.’

Book of Beasties has said it is focused on improving the wellbeing of children through the use of playful and creative learning to raise emotional literacy, teach empathy and encourage open conversation about mental health. 

The survey also found that more than 95 per cent of respondents agreed that children’s mental health would greatly benefit from the increased use of playful learning methods. 

Following the successful launch of a new platform to provide teachers and parents with easier access to digital mindfulness and mental wellness learning materials, Book of Beasties partnered with Great Ormond Street Children’s Charity to help support the hospital’s play team. 

Phil Tottman, CEO and co-founder of Book of Beasties, said: “While our crusade is a drop in the ocean, we hope it will highlight the dire need for better mental health support in schools and put pressure on those who can make a difference to do so. 

“We are a small company, but our primary focus is to improve the wellbeing of children nationwide, especially following such an adverse year. If that means giving away our resources for free so people can benefit from them then so be it. We couldn’t be more honoured to be helping in such a way.” 

Silo Wellness to launch psychedelic micro-dosing mushroom range under the Bob Marley brand

Silo Wellness, a wellness company in the psychedelics and functional mushrooms marketplace, has entered into a multi-year licensing agreement with the family of the music and lifestyle legend, Bob Marley.

The deal offers Silo the exclusive worldwide rights to brand, market, and sell a product line of functional and psychedelic mushrooms.

“Our family is happy to collaborate with Silo Wellness to create the first ever global mushroom brand,” commented family matriarch Rita Marley. “When Bob and I were young we followed a strict, natural diet and we would include medicinal mushrooms. Mushrooms fit with our vision of a world transformed for good through natural products.”

“These are transformative times in which we are living. Our family seeks to use our platform to help facilitate positive change. Mushrooms have been used for centuries, and we believe they offer a natural pathway for healing and positivity,” stated Cedella Marley, daughter of Rita and Bob Marley.

As reported by Investing News, Jamaica is the only country in the world where psilocybin is not illegal to grow, extract and sell, positioning the island nation to benefit from wellness tourism as well as sales of psychedelic mushrooms.

The licensing agreement covers the development of a stand-alone Marley brand portfolio of functional and psychedelic micro-dosing mushroom products, formats, devices and promotional items. Silo Wellness has pledged a percentage of product sales to be contributed towards a charitable organization to be mutually agreed upon between the Marley family and Silo.

“We are incredibly excited to strike a long-term licensing agreement with the most iconic brand to ever emerge from Jamaica,” said Douglas K. Gordon, chief executive officer of Silo Wellness.

“There is deep respect for the legacy of Bob Marley, and we are honored to be entrusted as good stewards of a brand that stands for universal wellness and natural healing. We look forward to introducing a portfolio of quality branded products with instant name recognition and global visibility, enabling Silo to introduce what we intend to become the leading brand name in the functional and psychedelic mushroom category.”

Silo Wellness has been an early mover in the functional and psychedelic mushroom space and has already announced its proof of concept of a patent-pending, micro-dosing nasal spray format that this new brand partnership could potentially include.

The full line of functional mushroom products to be launched under the Marley brand will be announced in the near future along with a marketing and communications campaign, which will include targeted digital advertising, social media presence, brand public relations and lifestyle marketing initiatives.

Golden Globe: How staying ahead of the curve put Golden Bear on the international stage

The park is pretty empty when Barry Hughes, managing director of Golden Bear, logs on to catch up with Australian colleague at 7am. An early start to marry-up the time zones means that they have the place to themselves, before the next slew of visitors start populating their allocated slots.

With just a few clicks, Hughes can navigate the park’s greenery, cross the river, and showcase an entire portfolio of Hey Duggee toys in a room buried in a bristling bush. It all sounds a bit Mary Poppins, doesn’t it? It’s not; it’s simply what Toy Fair season looks like in the midst of the 2021 pandemic.

This is Golden Bear’s virtual toy fair platform, a digitally constructed journey through a colourful park area, populated with break-out rooms featuring the firm’s latest toy products. It’s from here the company can showcase its wares to a global network of customers, any time of the day, every day of the year. This isn’t just toy fair season, this is Golden Bear’s latest phase of international expansion.

By 8pm that same day, Hughes is guiding customers from California around the same platform. While the pandemic has wrapped its fingers around the usual annual travel to Spielwarenmesse, New York, and London’s Olympia this year, Golden Bear’s ability to network with its international customer base is by no means diminished.

But then, ask Hughes how Golden Bear has managed to find such success over the course of 2020 and he’ll tell you that this is a company that has managed to stay ahead of the curve for some time now. The team was among the first to spot the en masse shift to online retail and click and collect before the pandemic rendered it a necessity, and as such was a team well positioned to adapt to the changes that have swept the landscape in the past year.

Meanwhile, it’s not enough that Golden Bear already held the toy rights for some of the country’s best-loved pre-school IP, including Bing and Hey Duggee, but combine this with a diversification of product that has successfully taken the company into the outdoor sector, as well as the Escape Room trend of the gaming space, and the winning formula that Golden Bear possesses begins to shift into view.

Barry Hughes, Golden Bear managing director

“Obviously the bedrock of what we do is pre-school licenses, and our pre-school licenses on the whole did well,” Hughes tells ToyNews. “They benefited from kids being locked down at home; programmes like Hey Duggee were suddenly being watched by parents who might not have seen it otherwise, so that IP did particularly well.

“But where I like to think we have been ahead of the game compared to a lot of competitors is with regards to our online insights and supporting our retailers with their online sales assets. In the shift to online, we were ahead of the curve.”

Over the past year, Golden Bear has strengthened its team in the online operations space, built its own in-house photo studio in order to create image and video assets quickly, and has by and large, been ‘geared up for the digital switch’ long in advance, a presiding factor that has in recent years, won the company its expanding trophy cabinet of industry awards.

Not only that, but it is Golden Bear’s portfolio – a carefully curated clustering of high calibre properties and products – that has played directly into the strengths of the toy industry this past 12 months. This is a company that found its niche in both the outdoor market and gaming market right at the right time; just before the pandemic’s social restrictions thrust the sectors directly into the consumer’s consciousness.

“The Smart Ball Football and the Speed Ball Football came about through insights. Our USP is that we put a lot of stock into our insights,” says Hughes. “We are investing more into that area now, and with being a smaller company we can be more agile, which is a good combination for the toy industry.

“We had identified a gap in football gifts. My son, who was eight at the time and mad on football, got a load of football Guess Who? Games for his birthday. We quickly realised that the footballers were out of date, retired, or at the wrong clubs.

“But at the same time, we’d spotted a surge in searches for football gifts across various age profiles. We felt the need to fill the gap in the market, and now we have a host of new things coming in development for that range, too.”

Golden Bear’s new digital touring platform doesn’t just go the lengths to showcase what this product looks like this year, while doing its best to ‘put the product in the hands of customers,’ without them being in the same country, let alone room, but also to showcase who Golden Bear is; a digital home of the company’s recent re-invention.

The firm kicked off the year with the unveiling of a new logo, coupled with a new messaging that would go on to amplify Golden Bear’s image as a firm at the cutting edge of today’s trends in toys. With the launch of the company re-branding, the message was clear – this wasn’t only a company built on reliability and quality in the pre-school space, but pioneers of innovation across its key sectors – and seriously, take a look at its upcoming Hey Duggee and Bing portfolio if you want to see innovation in the pre-school sector this year – powered by its insight led business.

“The majority of our sales are in non-plush items, which tends to surprise people,” says Hughes. “We wanted to make the best of the past and combine it with the best of our future, and give it all a more modern feel.”

This even extends to the consumer message that Golden Bear promotes, and the changing sensibilities of the modern day shopper. And that includes in its approach to being a sustainably responsible toy company.

“We are a company that quietly goes about doing things and doesn’t shout about it much,” explains Hughes. “Sustainability is a good example of that. For instance, the stuffing in our plush has been made out of recycled bottles for years. We have actually now been moving our product lines to make the skins from recycled polyester, too.”

That move will be kicking off with Golden Bear’s Hey Duggee range this year. As well as that, this is a company that now confidently boasts its zero to landfill policy (one that has been in place for a number of years), as well as the installation of solar panels this year, and the switch of all company cars to hybrid and electric.

“We are liaising with licensors and retailers, and we like to think that we are right on the forefront of this movement,” continues Hughes. “We have set out our values and pillars and where we want to be as a company in three years’ time. Everything is underpinned by insights and sustainability, and we are making sure that everything we do has got sustainability and insights as its centre.”

It’s with that messaging now front and centre that Golden Bear will continue to exact its plans for global expansion. A digital platform open to customers 24 hours a day, every day of the year has helped tighten the screws on the firm’s international network, while advanced discussions are ongoing with partners in the US for some of the company’s own IP.

“It was always our plan, pre-pandemic, to grow internationally,” says Hughes. “We are just maximising that opportunity, instead of travelling to overseas fairs, to tap into our contacts via the virtual toy fair platform, and spend more quality time with people, albeit virtually.”

Via the medium, the response from global customers has been consistent; Golden Bear in on to a strong 2021. Tapping into emerging trends in the Escape Room gaming space, pushing the envelope in pre-school innovation, and making a success of the Outdoor sector in a year that will likely be recognised as the summer of the staycation once again, there’s little that Golden Bear offers that doesn’t just seem to fit.

“One of the most pleasing things that I have heard from buyers through this toy fair season is that there is a reason for every product to exist,” states Hughes. “That for me is a real testament to the team; that there has been a thought process and reason behind everything we have done.

“The end of the year was a real time to reflect for everyone. Our warehouses have remained open through the year, and the vast majority of our staff have been working from home. I am so proud of the whole team, given everything that has gone on,” he concludes.

Thunderbirds and Natural History Museum join Bachmann Europe’s hobbyist portfolio

The European hobby specialist, Bachmann Europe, has detailed a slew of new licensed releases with the launch of its Spring catalogue that includes buildable models from the classic Anderson Entertainment IP, Thunderbirds, and a new Natural History Museum range of dinosaurs.

Headlining the announcement, Bachmann has unveiled a range of Thunderbirds plastic kits produced under its Adventures in Plastic banner. Comprising 11 different kits across a number of scales, hobbyists can construct detailed models of vehicles from the original TV series.

All five Thunderbird aircraft and underwater craft feature, as well as Fireflash, The Mole, and Lady Penelope’s iconic car FAB 1.

The deal follows a slate of recent licensing activity for Thunderbirds’ IP owners, ITV Studios, who over the last month has secured an extended partnership with the streaming service BritBox to air classic Thunderbirds, a series that made its UK debut in 1965.

Prices on the new range start at £29.99 and each of the 11 kits is ready to be dispatched to Bachmann stockists from next week.

Additionally, and as part of its Spring 2021 MCC Announcements, Bachmann has partnered with the Natural History Museum to launch a licensed Dinosaur Collection.

Now available with new packaging that incorporates a fun and educational fact sheet, the range has been developed under the guidance of the Natural History Museum’s researcher, Dr Paul Barrett. The range includes eight sets to choose from and are available from Bachmann stockists now.

The two new ranges have been introduced as part of Bachmann’s first Model, Collect, Create branding announcements. A new mode of communicating its portfolio to customers, Bachmann will provide quarterly MCC updates on new plastic kits, toys, and collectables in the UK and around the world.

As with its successful 2020 British Railway Announcements, new items unveiled in the MCC Announcements are due to  arrive with Bachmann stockists over the course of the next three months.

New high score | Roblox is outpacing broadcast TV for audience reach – Kids Insights latest

Video gaming is setting a new high score for audience reach in the battle for eyeballs among streaming platforms, YouTube, and traditional broadcast TV, suggests the latest data from Kids Insights Media Mix Compass, and now is the time for toy brands to start paying closer attention.

Here, Nick Richardson, Founder and CEO, The Insights People, and Licensing.biz’s Robert Hutchins explore the latest trends and data to be shaping the shifting media landscape.

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The videogame Roblox has outscored all broadcast TV channels in both the UK and US as the most powerful platform through which to reach young audiences, according to the latest insight from The Kids Insights Media Mix Compass

And the implications if this can’t be underestimated. In fact, compounding the popularity of the video games market, which has continued to grow significantly over the last few years, the potential for it to change the way in which businesses execute the marketing strategies for brands and retailers, is enormous.

Advertising budgets should no longer be solely – or even predominantly – focused on television. The world has changed, and video games are all too often the undervalued platforms to core audiences by marketers.

According to our latest data – sourced through a recently launched Media Mix Compass – teens now spend an average of 1 hour 25 minutes per day playing video games. That’s more time than they spend watching TV.

Generally, kids spend 62 per cent of their available time on digital activities. In the US, for example, for kids aged six to nine, Roblox has a Media Mix Score (MMS) of 128 which is higher than Nickelodeon (91), Disney Channel (80) and Cartoon Network (76). The Kids Insights Media Mix Score considers the reach, time spent and preference of 11 different media types and approximately 1,500 different channels in each region.

This past year has found parents discovering new ways to get their kids to play. With that, one of America’s top toy properties LOL Surprise is joining forces with top digital gaming platform ROBLOX – creating a relationship with the 1st Doll World of Roblox on a Global level. Through these two leaders in toy/play coming together, billions of fans can now discover a more immersive and shared gaming experience.

Toy brands are beginning to become savvy to the step change in the importance of such gaming and entertainment platforms. Just this week, international toy manufacturer, MGA Entertainment detailed plans to launch its LOL Surprise brand onto the Roblox platform.

The launch will kick-off with a ‘testing phase’ through which fans can play with and against their favourite gaming influencers as they explore the LOL/Roblox world.

Elsewhere, last week Hasbro detailed the five year extension of its current partnership with Epic Games’ Fortnite to expand on its licensing programme that includes the addition of its GI Joe character Snake Eyes into the Fortnite video game.

Meanwhile, it is equally important to note the growing importance of other new media options, including esports, which now ranks as the third most powerful media type for boys aged 10 to 12 in the UK, behind only YouTube and video games.

Esports is therefore one of the biggest opportunities for advertisers in 2021. Already one-in-ten teens in the US, UK, Germany, Brazil, Mexico and Canada use Twitch, the premiere platform in the industry for live video content. While physical sporting events were halted amidst the pandemic, the League of Legends European Championship – streamed live on Twitch – boasted the league’s highest ever viewing figures, raking in an average of 819,400 viewers for the final in April 2020.

Meanwhile, even more traditional areas, such as online chess, has witnessed huge viewer numbers over Twitch, hitting as many as 140,000 viewers at a time and helping to fuel a global resurgence in the traditional game, confirmed by the International Chess Federation, that has seen manufacturers hit new record highs for sales of chess boards.

However, marketing to kids is not a one-size-fits-all activity. In the UK, teenage girls are still tuning into Broadcast TV with ITV recording a score of 124 and Channel 4 hitting 99, making Broadcast TV the second most powerful media type with this demographic.

But streaming services and video games took a huge piece from the tasty audience pie. Each year with a growing variety of different online entertainment, the trend for kids to opt for digital platforms over the traditional ones will likely continue.

We also should keep in mind the growing influence and decision-making power of kids within the home being greater than with any other previous generation. Children have their own opinion over many other new categories, such as the purchase of a new car (which 54 per cent more kids say they influence in 2020 compared to 2019).

Although reaching this audience is more important than ever, it is increasingly difficult to do so. Growing up as digital natives, this generation have a far greater choice of what they consume and when they consume it than ever before. Therefore, kids’ attention is fragmented across a huge range of (increasingly niche) platforms, making it harder to reach a mass audience.

Brands spend just 37 per cent of their budget on non-digital spending, yet kids spend a huge 62 per cent of their time on digital, resulting in a mismatch that will cost advertisers $1.15bn in 2021.

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For more information on the Kids Insights Media Mix Compass, and to receive complimentary access to the tool and a copy of an example report please visit www.kidsinsights.com/mediamix

To learn more about the attitudes, behavior and consumption patterns of kids, parents and families, and to get freemium access to the Insights People real-time data portal, please visit: http://www.kidsinsights.com/toynews

World Book Day | Words’ worth: Rubie’s on the importance of inspiring the nation’s young readers

It didn’t take a global pandemic to facilitate the manner of changes to have taken place at the dress-up and costumes specialist, Rubie’s, over the course of the last 12 months – but it certainly did help.

Having ended 2020 – the year of the great halt – considerably stronger than how it started it, there’s an electricity of excitement running through the Rubies business right now that is almost palpable, even if you are chatting through email.

It was only last month that Rubie’s witnessed the momentous point in its modern day history, as co-owner and managing partner (and also the founder of NECA – what a side project!) Joel Weinshanker take direct oversight of the company’s global business, and since then there’s been a bigger buzz about the costume company than ever before. Then again, this time of year always does seem to get the blood racing for many within the business, because with the dawn of March comes the favourite season of all for so many in the Rubie’s team.

We’re talking, of course, about World Book Day.

It’s by no accident that Rubie’s has become a name somewhat synonymous with the annual charity event developed to encourage reading among children across the UK. Over the years, the firm has carefully aligned itself with the core values that World Book Day promotes; the importance of literacy among children and the rallying of the industry – across its breadth – to do what it can to encourage an enjoyment of reading.

This year, Rubie’s has taken that alignment one step further, through an official partnership with the World Book Day Charity and its mission to change to the lives of the youngsters and families that it acts to serve.

ToyNews catches up with Fran Hales, head of content and marketing at Rubie’s to learn more about the partnership, talk the finer points of developing book character dress-up, and cover the facts of why encouraging children to be active readers is one of the best things the toy industry could for the next generation.

Fran Hales, head of content and marketing, Rubie’s

Hi Fran, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Just to get us started in a nice orderly fashion, can you tell us how things have been for you guys over the course of 2020? 

It’s a very exciting time for Rubies! We welcomed Joel Weinshanker, our co-owner and managing partner, who will have direct oversight over the entire worldwide Rubie’s business (Rubie’s One World).

Rubies ended 2020 in a much stronger position than it was in at the beginning of the year. We are very confident moving forward into 2021 that we will see our industry rise as a result of the hard work that has been put in by the team over the past months, as we continue to support our retailers who are the core focus of our business.

It’s important to note that the changes we have made this year were always scheduled to happen and were not a result of Covid-19. If anything, the pandemic has hastened the progress, ensuring that we bought a consolidated Rubies UK operation quicker than it was perhaps originally planned.

How resilient has dress-up been throughout the pandemic? How important has book character licensing been in the wake of big movie releases at cinema etc?

License ranges have certainly held their own throughout the pandemic, with our new ranges such as The Mandalorian proving to be massive success and sold out of stock within weeks. While licensed product remains desirable, the industry has seen a significant fall in general costume sales because of the hospitality and events industry being hit with severe restrictions throughout 2020 and continuing into 2021.

On the flip side of this, we found lockdowns inspired the nation by providing more focus on dress-up, with parents keen to keep the children entertained at home. We also made sure we were proactively prominent in the national media, which really helped keep the dress-up industry at the forefront during key seasons.

As we haven’t seen as many theatrical releases this year it has had a knock-on impact with product releases also being delayed. There are plenty of new ranges in the pipeline though, not just for movie theatres but from streaming site productions with Disney+ leading the way with epic original series such as WondaVision and Falcon and The Winter Soldier – the next big release on the hugely popular platform.

It’s March, which means we’re coming up to the big day in the Rubie’s calendar… Can we talk about your relationship with World Book Day? Why has the annual event become such an important one for you guys?

We are very excited about our new collaboration. It brings together Rubie’s global experience of delivering best in class costumes and accessories as a trusted manufacturer of licensed and generic dress-up products and the World Book Day Charity who is actively changing lives through a love of books and shared reading.

World Book Day is personally one of my favourite times of year. The event encourages children across the globe to get creative through reading, which can benefit lives an immeasurable amount through such a simple activity. Over the years the day has grown to be a remarkable success. It’s due to the hard work by the charity and the backing they’ve received from publishers and booksellers along with the help of schools to reach out and engage with pupils of all ages.

Our approach when it comes to costumes is for them to be utilised more so as a tool to encourage creativity and nurture the joy experienced from reading or reading to others. It is important that we also recognise the core principle of World Book Day which is to celebrate reading and to share books together this year.

Reading for pleasure is in decline with only 29 per cent of 0-13s reading for pleasure daily (down from 30 per cent in 2017). Fewer than 19 per cent of eight to ten-year-olds are read to daily.

What does the Rubie’s offering bring to the World Book Day event, how does it help heighten children’s engagement with the event and reading in general?

It’s easy to lose sight of what World Book Day is actually about. Here at Rubies, we fully believe that reading knows no bounds, if you can encourage engagement with reading a book through say the use of a costume, as it can only be beneficial to aide enjoying the experience.

It’s proven that wearing costumes motivates children when learning to read, which is the reason schools encourage dressing up as part of the event. We fully endorse any resource to support the education of a child and open their eyes to the joys and endless possibilities of creativity through reading.

There are many children that are compromised by reading and some have parents who may not feel confident reading themselves or have the time to do so. A costume can open those doors by bringing the story to life, help to visualise the characters, and inspire the imagination. Some children need the visual stimulation to get started and once they start, what could be more fun than recreating some scenes dressed as their favourite character to show parents, grandparents, or even friends across video calls helping with much-needed social interaction.

Kids love dressing up, especially in clothes that make them feel grown-up or looking like one of their favourite characters. Adults like dressing up because it reminds them of that feeling of being a child again and getting excited about dressing like a grownup. In a time when we may need to have a break from reality, a costume offers escapism from the world, along with newfound confidence or just making someone else smile and who could argue with putting a smile on someone’s face in these testing times?

Why is children’s literacy such an important issue for you guys, particularly this year and following the events of 2020?

Every hero starts with a story! That’s our saying and the power of literature spreads far and wide through storytelling, it’s fundamental to shaping and forming a child’s imagination. The core reasoning behind WBD is that reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background, or their income.

Every child should have the opportunity to own their own book and we feel very strongly about this core message from World Book Day, it’s one reason why we fully support the day in our own way by bringing the stories to life through dress-up.

“We as an industry can work together to help utilise the power of dress-up to help the cause when it comes to inspiring children to develop key skills from reading.”

What is the process like in bringing children’s book characters to life through dress-up? How closely do you guys work with source material and publishers throughout the process?

We work closely with our licensors to ensure we capture the true spirit of the character and their story, from concept to final costume approval.

To start a project, the Design Team hold creative brainstorm meetings discussing all elements of the characters personalities, colour pallets, fabrications and environments. They use this information to design a range of costumes capturing the characters essence.

It gives the team such pleasure to be able to lift a character from the page and bring it to life in a 3D form, enabling children to become their most treasured characters from literature.

What sort of growth have you guys seen in engagement with World Book Day over the last few years? How important is the event to Rubies’ UK business?

World Book Day plays a significant part on any costume calendar, it’s up there with Halloween as the second largest dress-up season of the calendar year. It’s a celebration of the characters and narratives that we’ve all grown up with and can share with younger generations.

The event has been seen to shift in recent years, in the way it has adapted to reflect the way children now engage and interact with stories, whether on the page or screen. The potential that World Book Day offers has grown exponentially over the years, by providing vast opportunities for collaborations between retailers, publishers and licensees.

Last year the charity encouraged at least 25,000,000 minutes of shared reading and made an impact with 64 per cent of early years settings and 66 per cent primary schools confirming World Book Day changed reading habits. However, there is still work to be done, as reading for pleasure is in decline with only 29 per cent of 0-13s reading for pleasure daily (down from 30 per cent in 2017). Fewer than 19 per cent of eight to ten-year-olds are read to daily or nearly every day and 383,755 children and young people in the UK don’t have a book of their own.

We as an industry can work together to help utilise the power of dress-up to help the cause when it comes to inspiring children to develop key skills from reading, encourage autonomy, enthusiasm, achievement and a sense of enjoyment.

What kind of growth have you seen in the children’s book IP licensing space? Are more and more publishers engaging with it?

Yes indeed, more and more publishers have absolutely seen the benefit of working in the licensing space and engaging with our category. Bringing stories to life is a mutual objective. At a time when encouraging children to read has never been more important it is great to work together with this aim.

Why should retailers be keen to work with Rubies for the coming year?

Well, not only do we have Joel’s arrival, but we have also been working very hard behind the scenes to provide our customers with an improved 365 wholesale experience from Rubie’s.

It’s a giant step forward in the industry with our innovative systems now in place to support our expansive range of the best licensed and generic dress-up product in the world.

Over the past year, we have moved to address the diverse challenges of a changing global market, to provide retailers with the opportunity to grow on today’s marketplaces and ecommerce platforms.

The services we offer have also had to adapt to the changing digital landscape, one example of this would be our live virtual shows from our dedicated showroom in Nuremberg – in addition to our new Rubie’s showroom, complete with a media studio, in our Bristol site.

It all signifies part of our continuing promise to offer innovative and sophisticated solutions to elevate customer’s experience throughout the seasons.

What’s the next step for you guys in terms of the World Book Day partnership? How will you guys look to continue to build in this relationship?

Of course, we have the long term in mind for this partnership as we work closely together to understand each other’s requirements, objective and to ultimately benefit one another for the foreseeable future. The partnership provides reassurance for World Book Day by ensuring they are represented in the correct manner within our industry.

Gaming, events, and retro-appeal: Scalextric talks its brand new horizons through licensing

Anyone paying any level of attention to the general narrative of the toy industry over the course of the past 12 months will know that there’s been a re-awakening among some of the market’s more traditional sectors.

The hobby community is one among them. As consumers have found themselves with more time on their hands and a greater tendency to lean back into the pastimes and brands of yesteryear, it comes as little surprise that the hobbyist sector has undergone a resurgence.

The pandemic, for all of its ills, has played a helping hand in driving those dormant hobbies out of the shadows and into the limelight. Gaming – whether it is tabletop or role-playing – has never been so popular, with Hasbro citing record years for both its Magic: The Gathering and Dugeons & Dragons franchises, while the more traditional pursuits – and we’re looking at model building and the hobby trains segment here – have too ploughed full steam ahead into a wider-spanning, more mainstream audience.

As a result, Hornby Hobbies, a name synonymous with the hobbyist market, has reported some of its best results in years. It’s in fact the success of sales of Hornby Hobbies products over the past two years that have given the outfit a new lease of life, and a new grasp on the contemporary market. Consumers have rediscovered the joys of slowing down, and in turn, things at Horby Hobbies have been, well, speeding up.

Hornby Hobbies’ licensing consultant, Michele Pearce

Earlier this month, the company announced a definitive return to the licensing sector with the appointment of licensing consultant, Michele Pearce, who has taken on the role of leading a new charge of licensing opportunities for the company’s popular Scalextric brand.

Talking with Licensing.biz, Pearce has confirmed that the programme will commence with a few of the more pertinent categories, spanning luxury goods such as watches, video games, board games, sportswear, sports equipment, footwear, and apparel. While it may be early days for the programme still, the message is a big one; after a period of softer sales not some five years ago, Horby Hobbies is ready for growth, and licensing is a very viable route towards it.

“Hornby has dipped its toe into licensing in the past,but this has not been the focus for some years due to changes in the company and a need to really focus on the core product ranges,” Pearce told Licensing.biz.

“However, with the success of the sales of Hornby products over the last two years, the company is now in a great position to expand its options. This is also the perfect time to connect with the customers with other consumer products.

“There is a strong nostalgia response trending amongst all consumers right now as well as a focus on known and trusted brands, and Scalextric is definitely a good fit on all points.”

A traditional slot-car racing system with more than 60 years of rich history behind it, Scalextric is keen on bridging the gap between the surge in demand for nostalgia, with the necessity to contemporise for modern day audiences. It’s by no accident that Pearce talks about Scalextric in the same breath as Mattel’s Hot Wheels, or Hasbro’s Monopoly; each pedigree brands with the vision to remain contemporary and span audiences.

“Scalextric has both the fun and excitement of a dynamic speed-driven toy and the gravitas of being a retro brand,” says Pearce. “This is not something many toy brands can share as an accolade, and the few that do are already partnering successfully with licensees.

“Scalextric has a wealth of imagery in its archive relating to box artwork, catalogues, and old logs and slogans which can be utilised in bringing an extra zing and classic look to a range of adult product.

“Then the new style guide offers a bright and dynamic range of colours, logos, and the digital tie in with the Scalextric Performance App that will appeal to the younger audience.”

Racing into the future

While the potential for the Scalextric brand within the consumer products space lies before it like an expanding horizon, Pearce has already earmarked her markets for initial exploration, and amng them, of course, is digital gaming.

“With the Scalextric App already developed and the ability to play via your mobile phone or tablet to control your cars and then share scores and discuss via social media means that this is a natural extension for the brand,” she explains. 

Then, there’s the scope for audience engagement that live eventing – when the world opens itself back up to in-person events of course – has to offer.

“Once the opportunity is available again to participate in the public space, we will be looking for partnerships with stores and other types of events that could host Scalextric events,” Pearce added. 

Reading the signs offered to the Scalextric brand over the past 12 months, engagement with the slot-car racing brand is expected to remain high. House-bound consumers have rekindled their love and affinity with a brand to a degree that it has welcomed families back into the field, while Hornby Hobbies has been active in engaging new fans through its social media platforms.

“All of these actions have either reawakened past fans or brought the brand to the attention of new enthusiasts who have discovered the fun and excitement that is Scalextric. We now want to build out the partnerships over the next six months and have a positive story to tell at the Brand Licensing Show in late November,” Pearce continues.

“Over the last three years or so, Hornby has invested heavily into the Scalextric brand, with new scales, new sets, new features, and new licensed characters. The team has reinvigorated the brand with such innovations as SparkPlug, but there is still plenty to come.

“Scalextric is a 60 year old brand with an eye to the future with both product, brand awareness, and vision,” she concludes.

Opinion | Toon-age day stream: How Disney+ is about to change toy licensing for good

It almost seemed by design that Disney’s subscription based streaming platform, Disney+ launched just as the Coronavirus pandemic began to tighten its grip on the UK and force the world’s population inside and away from the entertainment venues of yesteryear. And in just a short space of time, its impact on the wider world around has begun to be recognised.

Kids Brands Insights’ Steve Reece takes a closer look at the Disney+ platform and the moves already being made that will overhaul the nature of toy licensing, indefinitely.

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Netflix has vastly changed the world of what was once simply called ‘television’. The content proliferation process which has been ongoing for the last decade or more is accelerating, as lockdowns around the world have vastly increased viewing. In response Netflix is producing more and more entertainment content. But aside from the occasional freak occurrence like The Queens Gambit which saw Chess set sales soar, we haven’t seen that great an impact on toy merchandising.

Disney+ of course changes all of that, because whereas Netflix is full of content for adults with adult themes and is not focused purely on a family entertainment audience, Disney+ is all about family entertainment.

“Even coming out of lockdown, viewing is likely to remain high versus historical levels because human behaviour is habitual.”

Those who questioned whether this type of video on demand could drive merchandise sales soon got their question answered by the success of The Mandalorian. Logically though, if tens of millions of people subscribe to a service, then each piece of content must be averaging millions of views. When you compare that with cable/satellite TV which back in the old days were just about enough to drive some degree of licensed product sales, then it becomes clear that Disney+ heralds a bright new era for licensed toys.

The other effect that has been underestimated is the degree of immersion/obsession which an entertainment franchise creates. There are brands which lots of people like, and there are brands which some people become deeply obsessed with. The depth of content on offer via VOD platforms, the drip feed of the next instalment/series and the binge-watching habits of locked down people lead to a deeper immersion and bond with content brands, which in turn should drive toy sales.

Even coming out of lockdown, viewing is likely to remain high versus historical levels because human behaviour is habitual and the habits of binge-watching huge amounts of content has become deeply ingrained.

The other effect of VOD platforms is to smooth out the long tail after the content first releases. For sure, major headline content releases will drive big initial viewing, but many people don’t buy in, either because they are still too busy watching other series or because they don’t believe the hype yet. This long tail offers a longer-term payback than the traditional blockbuster movie with two sales spikes around cinematic release, and secondary release to DVD or previously to less content abundant VOD platforms.

The other key factor here is scale. At the time of writing, Disney+ reportedly has more than 95m subscribers around the world. Disney forecast more than 200m within the next year or two, but the potential could be much higher, so the effect of this platform is only going to increase.

Every so often something comes along with marks a fundamental shift in the toy business, Disney+ heralds a new age of toy licensing, it’s that big a thing.

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Steve Reece is the founder of the toy expert consultancy, Kids Brand Insight, leaders in supplying services to the toys and kids entertainment industries.