the purpose of marketing it’s characters and movies. But, as retailer margins squeeze the manufacturers


Dan


Salem Prism Digital


Solutions In the words of Ferris


Bueller... “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”. Something we should all do once in a while as the


developments in technology, media and retail begin to converge ever more closely without us considering all the issues. ITV has made very public their need to grow revenues from outside of traditional advertising sources, and other broadcasters such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have already developed successful cross-licensee retail partnerships in order to promote some of their licences and develop solid consumer products businesses. Moreover, Disney Media Plus’ most important remit is to develop promotions across its own and partner platforms for


and rights owners, we are starting to see many more companies find their own direct channels to market in a similar way to Disney, whether that be selling direct from their own stores, websites or through partners such as eBay. Investing the savings from traditional retailer margins, these companies are then spending the money on TV and other platforms to talk and sell directly to the consumer in order to generate more revenue. Interestingly, new property owners and programme makers are also bypassing the traditional media owners, in favour of marketing their content through its own channels, such as YouTube or other growing platforms like Hulu and Netflicks. Does anybody need anybody else anymore? Can a silo’d content world ever deliver enough traffic in order to develop a toy property; even Moshi Monsters grew it’s business through the power of TV. With the likes of Amazon play investing in their own programming content, and the ability to play it any time through its Lovefilm platform, and then promote it and sell the merchandise through its own retail platform, will we see an even more fragmented marketplace, or will we enjoy the one-stop shop that Amazon is creating?


The fact that good content alone can change behaviour was made clear when 2m subscribers in the UK signed up for Netflicks in order to enjoy House of Cards. In the future, it appears to be increasingly


feasible to have a single vertical platform for the distribution and retailing of related product, which means that for the toy retailers, not withstanding their own online store development, more attention will need to paid to the emotional and experiential side of retailing in order to give consumers something more than just product choice. And yet even with this convergence, when it comes to kids, just because you can does not guarantee they will come. We all know the one consistent trait amongst all kids is their fickleness, and when out of sight means out of mind, the likes of Nick, Turner, CITV and Disney will still be there using their airtime to promote new content, wherever it comes from, along with the toys that come from them. With BLE upon us, I’m sure the conversations will be


very different from only a few years ago. Content today needs to have a global appeal in order to make a return, but with competition amongst toy manufacturers to not only chose the right licenses but to get them in store, is it time to start talking to the audience a bit themselves more frequently? The toy industry is still driven largely by gut instinct, and as more platforms come online, and child and parental behaviour changes to accommodate it, having a greater understanding of the audience through more in-depth research can only help. If you want to know more about kids, feel free to get in touch.


the number four is ‘unlucky four’, and the 14th floor is missing, as is 13 for our benefit. A 12-story hotel goes to thirteen floors as it jumps


Ali Mafi 50 Fifty Gifts


Why don’t ducks have umbrellas, and rabbits


don’t wear glasses? The answer is that, unlike us, they are designed to cope with their environment. I cannot think of a single animal who is less suited to coping with its environment in a natural state than human beings. So, to see better we wear glasses, to keep the rain off


we wear raincoats and use umbrellas, and, all in all, we have done a pretty amazing job in creating a world that suits us rather than coping with what we are given. The problem is that in the process we have created arbitrary rules that we feel obliged to adhere to. Why, for example, is it rude to eat peas with a spoon rather than balancing them on the back of a fork held in our least-used hand? It’s not logical, but conventional, and anyone deviating from it is considered to be devoid of manners and deprived of a proper upbringing. The most absurd is that these rules vary from country to country, and what is considered rude and unacceptable in one is a norm in another, which only goes to prove the absurdity of it. On top of the rules we have superstitions, such as the number 13. I find it quite funny that in Hong Kong


from three to five, but then as 13 is unacceptable goes to 14 which is unlucky for the Chinese, so jumps to 15. So, one ends up on the 15th floor of a hotel that only has 12 floors and hoping whoever is responsible for bad luck can’t count and also relies on our numbering system. I remember being on a flight sitting in row 14 and the couple in row 13 making a huge fuss about not sitting in that row, and I just could not resist informing them that, to the best of my knowledge, never in the history of aviation had a row of seats fallen out of the sky on their own...usually, if one row goes the whole plane goes with it.


The other problem I have is people habitually saying things without thinking what it means. One example is, “I went over it with a fine-tooth comb”. Sorry if you are offended by being corrected by a foreigner, but it is a “fine-toothED comb”. Teeth, to the best of my knowledge, are rarely combed. These absurd rules and beliefs are things we apply to our daily lives, and follow and accept them without question. We have become a cotton wool society which goes to ridiculous extremes to protect us from harm, and this applies to the work place. The fact is that we apply the same rules in business. With the exception of a few shining examples, such


as Apple and Microsoft, which are run by geeks and in a thoroughly modern and geeky way, most companies are run in the same way as companies were 200 years ago.


There is the hierarchical pyramid, with the boss sitting in his closed office upstairs, more attention is paid to body counts than productivity, and rules are constantly created to tinker with previous rules that did nothing for the business other than create problems. The fact is that 90% of the problems we encounter in business,


we create. We all prefer to do things we like, and put off things that need to be done. We like to say, “I told you this was going to happen”, instead of doing all we can to prevent it happening. One of the biggest bug bears of smaller companies is the inaccessibility of buyers who appear huddled up around their existing larger suppliers, who bow and scrape to them and get away with murder. The problem is that “no” is the most difficult word in


the English language to utter. We are good at applying it to our children but not in business. Buyers find it difficult, after receiving a contact or catalogue, to just pick up the phone and say they have reviewed the catalogue and the answer is “no”. They choose instead to play hide and seek, which is totally counter- productive and frustrating. On the other side, when pushed for a delivery date,


knowing it is unachievable, we say “yes” out of fear of losing the order. We all know there is a shortage of factory workers in China, and that deliveries are taking longer than before, but we just ignore it and choose to face the music. I just love the way Apple work. The rule is you have ‘x’ number of days to produce this. We don’t care where you work, which hours you work, whose help you seek, just produce the results. I love companies that have pinball machines, football tables, etc, and if we become bigger I will insist on it in ours.


I have, over the years, stated some of my pet hates, and one is bosses who suffer from insomnia and don’t have a life, showing up at the crack of dawn and expecting others to follow suit. I have a simple message for them: if you want others to be as committed as you are, then reward them for the commitment. It is beyond idiotic to believe you deserve your huge car and massive house in the country while others should be committed to slave away to provide them for you.


Toyworld 77


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