touchingbase
VTech Graham Canning
We have had a good start to the year. VTech is up 10% with the total toy market up 4% (according to week seven data from NPD). Our overall InnoTab property continues to perform well, up 27%, and VTech Baby is going from strength to strength up 14% year-on-year (week seven, NPD) following continued strong sales for Toot-Toot Drivers. We have had TV campaigns for Toot-Toot Drivers, InnoTab,
Switch & Go Dinos and KidiPet running throughout March and into April. With Toot-Toot Drivers, we will be focusing on the new Parking Tower, Police and Fire Station playsets, and with InnoTab our TV advertising will cover both hardware and key software titles. These campaigns will deliver over 1,700 TVRs in total. This strong TV activity will support our retailers stocking up on these ranges during the key Easter trading period.
Sponsored by Q1 and the Easter trading period
In this month’s edition of Touching Base we asked the trade about Q1 so far, their top- performing products and what they’re doing to support the Easter trading period.
Tomy Jeremy Robinson
Character Options Jerry Healy
Character had a strong fi nish for 2013 with many of our brands exceeding potential, and that has continued into Q1 2014 with further growth and the promise of a great year ahead. Fireman Sam,
Peppa Pig, Teksta, Cra-Z-Art, and of course Minecraft and ChillFactor, are just a few of the properties that are delivering on all counts. These have now been joined by Peppa Weebles, Skydancers and Disney Princess Palace Pets which are all performing strongly at retail. Our lifestyle brand of the Year, ChillFactor also continues to be a lucrative proposition for our retail partners with the introduction of the Ice Cream Maker selling through week on week. TV advertising is a major part of the Easter marketing calendar with 17 different brand campaigns delivering over 1,500 TVRs through the holiday period ensuring a foremost share of voice with the audience. We have also scheduled many print campaigns across brands such as The Zelfs, Skydancers, Chill factor and Cra-Z-Loom. Retailer activities and promotions are also scheduled, and products will be highly visible with our branded FSDUs and point-of-sale materials in place.
98 Toyworld
This is actually the last quarter of our fi scal year, so we really are in the home stretch as far as that is concerned. This has been a strong year for us and we have been able to deliver growth on last year, and put in a strong performance against our plan number. The focus for the rest of the quarter is simply to maintain that momentum and deliver the year on the back of the hard work everybody has put in for the last eleven months. Following the successful launch of the new video game at the end of 2013, the Pokemon X&Y range is benefi tting from strong retail support and new product offer to complement the game content. The entire Play 2 Learn and Aquafun offering has been combined under the new Tomy Infant and Toddler brand. This really is the traditional Tomy heartland and the range is benefi tting from not only a complete re-launch with new branding and packaging, but also some key new lines for 2014 already available such as Luke The Loop which combines great play features as well as helping children learn numbers and count. With Winnie the Pooh being the key character in the Disney
Baby initiative we have seen a very positive reaction to the new lines we have launched. We have focused on lowering the age appeal of the product to match the core age group for the brand. The Balloon Light Show has proved particularly popular and is also one of the new to market products this year already available. Dinosaur Train featured in the NPD 10 fastest growing licences last year and we have some key additions planned for this year, and will be continuing to invest in the brand with a TV advertising campaign due to start at Easter. Mr Conductor is a new addition to the core interactive offer and is available now. There will also be a further feature packed big box item available for the second half. Lamaze remains a real pillar of the Tomy business and our
development into new categories and product offer for 2014 has been positively received across our entire customer base. This looks to be another very strong year for Lamaze and we have plans for not only new product but also how the range appears at retail, to ensure we really are supporting the brand and our retail partners to the highest possible level.
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