Carter Keithley, President & CEO, Toy Industry Association
Willie Wilkov, Chief Marketing Officer, Tomy International
What challenges are currently facing the toy industry and how is the TIA addressing them? Over the past several years, our industry has done a tremendous amount of work to maintain and strengthen our robust safety standards. Nonetheless, the toy industry continues to be confronted with spurious allegations about the safety of toys and non-toy children’s products. Of course, these misleading allegations often emerge around the holiday season, and they have the potential to damage our industry’s reputation and unnecessarily worry toy-givers. This is especially frustrating given the many proven developmental benefits of toys and play. As part of our ongoing efforts to provide families with accurate information about safe play, in November TIA conducted a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s (U.S. PIRG) Trouble in Toyland reports issued from 2008 through 2013. We determined that PIRG’s reports were based on improper testing methods that are not approved by the federal government, and failed to support the group’s allegations that the identified toys present any danger to children at play. In fact, none of the supposedly hazardous toys identified in the reports from the last six years were recalled as a result of PIRG’s allegations—and 20 percent of the products named by PIRG are not even toys. We provided media outlets with our analysis; our findings were included in more than 50 news stories, including a national NBC package, which aired in more than 30 local markets. We are developing strategies and messages to further educate government, consumers, and the media about the safety of toys and the intrinsic value of play for children of all ages. We have started a dialogue with the emergency and pediatric physician communities to see how we might partner with them to promote messages about safe play, including the use of proper safety gear for ride-on toys and parental supervision at all times.
What categories were driving sales in 2014? What categories will flourish this year? Vehicles, plush, action figures, and role play were category leaders across all of Tomy’s lines—whether from licensed or proprietary brands. We expect 2015 to perform similarly, with an increase in the presence of role play as we dive deeper into that increasingly popular play pattern and spread a little Tomy magic in that category across many of our preschool lines.
FEBRUARY 2015
In what new ways are you using social media to correspond directly with consumers? Social media is completely integrated into the marketing for each of Tomy’s brands. Our communications are designed to drive true engagement, not just push out marketing messages. Tomy’s social media channel content for each of our brands is written and posted by our own employees who are parents themselves, which makes the content honest, real, and approachable—and, consequently, highly engaging for our customers. We are less product-focused and more interest-driven. Our goal is to learn more about what motivates and excites our consumers, which informs not only our communications, but also product design and development. How have you seen consumer expectations change over the past decade? While parents have always expected quality, value, and safety from their children’s toys, now they have the tools to ensure what they are being sold and told is truly what they are buying. When a millennial mom sees a toy featured in a magazine, she’s checking her phone to see what other people have to say about it; she’s going to read reviews posted on retail websites; she’s going to ask her friends about the toy on Facebook; and she’s going to let everyone know what she thinks about a toy if her child has a very positive or negative experience. It’s our mission to make the world smile and we go the extra mile to earn the trust of all our customers across the globe.
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