Games puzzles
“Games like Logo are proving to be very
accessible because they tap into knowledge that most people have in their heads. Articulate too has broad appeal because it’s not overly intellectual and that works at a time when people are staying in at home. People are buying more games that are ‘non-threatening’ in that sense. That’s why Drumond Park has 50 per cent of the market in adult games now.” The adult market is also performing well for puzzles giant, Ravensburger, which claims it is now one of its strongest categories. “We search hard for the right images,” says
marketing manager, Benn Bramwell. “We’ve got a lot of experience and are in touch with what puzzlers want and can refl ect that in the product. People want variety and quality in the box with good imagery. Price points are still critical but we’ve managed to maintain our levels despite the rising cost of paper.” Ravensburger will continue its development
with over a 100 new titles spread over the spring/summer and autumn/winter seasons to keep the category fresh. The tradition of a specially commissioned Christmas puzzle – now in its 15th year – is also being maintained.
Shouting louder Social media is also on Gary Wyatt’s ‘must-
do’ list at Green Board: “The main challenge for us is to embrace the opportunities available through social media. It’s a brave new world without geographical boundaries and I believe the companies that can grasp this opportunity will be the long-term winners in the games business.” “We’ve never cut back,” adds Claire McCool. “We’ve actively changed our approach because of the economy and endeavoured to create strong concepts and invest in TV. We’ve never taken the foot of that pedal. Al our campaigns started at the end of August with ten weeks of concentrated TV on kids and then adult family games from October to December. In between, we’ll be spending a lot of money on
60 Toyworld
&
PR with all sorts of competitions, press and radio plus sampling campaigns.”
New opportunities The rise of the app and the phenomenon
of people playing games and puzzles on their smartphones or tablet computers could easily been seen to be damaging to manufacturers of traditional, physical games and puzzles. But even here, suppliers like Mattel see the opportunities. “The explosion of social media and apps has provided marketers with another consumer-facing touch-point that can drive mass awareness of brands and the game- play of new products,” says Kirkley. “Apps provide a complementary way of accessing and driving games. With over a million consumers playing Scrabble on Facebook and some 800,000 consumers enjoying the game on the Ipad or Iphone, social media does a fantastic job of driving brand interaction while sales of the board game remain robust. “As well as turning a traditional board game into an app, the process can also prove successful in reverse. Mattel has just launched a fantastic family game based on the top-selling mobile phone app Angry Birds. The Angry Birds Knock On Wood game is already fl ying off the shelves in the US – and it’s just about to launch in the UK, which really demonstrates that bringing the digital world to life in the form of a physical, boxed game is relevant and appealing to consumers too.” Licensing too continue to be a big driver (pun intended) as Imagination’s David Snow confrms.
“Licensing is still
having a big impact in our category most recently
with Cars 2 movie product and London 2012 product hitting
the shelves this year, meaning the large events product gets a great deal of space and coverage. However we are fi nding there is still room in the market for new innovative products in the category and this is an area we are trying to develop. It’s all about trying to fi nd a gap in the market not exploited by our competitors. I believe we have done this in 2011 with Ka’lide, Am I Napoleon? and Abbey Road Music Trivia. Elsewhere, Greenboard Games is tapping
new markets in the East to boost sales. “Our lead game range, BrainBox, is being sold in 22 countries in 19 language versions. Some overseas markets are fl ying, Germany and China in particular, so we are lucky to have such a strong export business,” says Gary Wyatt. “We recognised that its not the Chinese
way to sit down and enjoy a game as a family, so we re-positioned BrainBox as an educational product and have gone from zero sales to 30,000 in one year. We’re expecting to double that quite quickly going forward. “We’re confi dent of big things in China: we
manufacture there already, which helps with logistics and costs and all our products are translated into Mandarin. Even better, there aren’t many British brands in China. “What we’ve found is that all games have
to have an educational theme – it’s one of the hurdles we have to jump because in China there’s a complete emphasis on learning. In fact there are huge numbers of book chains there which are categorised as ‘learning areas.
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