Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece

The toy & game business is currently facing massive challenges with shipping. Shipments are delayed, and container shipping costs have soared to plainly ridiculous, unviable levels. In Episode 36 of the Playing At Business podcast we take a look at what's currently going on, how long this disruption is likely to last for & what toy & game companies can do about it.

India is a fast rising toy manufacturing hub. In this episode of the Playing At Business podcast we interview the owner of a leading toy factory in India. There are cost savings to be made by switching some toy manufacturing from China to India, and in this episode we take a look at what drives those cost savings. We also find out about iTech Plast, the factory owned and operated by Chintan Parekh. For anyone wanting to find out more about how toy manufacturing works outside of China, and specifically in India this podcast episode should be insightful.

Toy & game business expert Steve Reece talks through brand licensing and how it works in the toy business. He outlines some of the key opportunities presented by licensing, as well as the risks both financial and otherwise. He also discusses the key to negotiating good licensing deals.

For anyone interested in toys & brand licensing, this should be an informative episode of the Playing At Business podcast.

In episode 33 of the Playing At Business podcast, Steve Reece lists out the top 20 things he has learnt from more than 2 decades working across regions, product categories and companies in the toy & game industry.

Steve has worked for, with and on some of the most iconic toy & game brands out there - including Monopoly, Play-Doh, Disney & many more.

On this episode Steve runs through his top 20 lessons learnt covering topics from product development to sales, and from manufacturing to marketing.

This episode should be interesting to both those who are fairly new to the toy & game business, and also those who have been around a while.

David Ripley has extensive experience in the toy business, having worked as a Toy Buyer and in more senior commercial roles for major UK retailers. He has also worked for and with a number of online platforms. As such, David is very well placed to offer unique insights into a broad range of topics from how Toy buyers select products, to where Toy retail is today, we discuss major e-commerce platforms, as well as the future of toy retail. For anybody who is interested in the commercial side of the toy business, this really is a must listen episode.

Dean Weller is the expert's expert when it comes to marketing and buying media for toys & games. In this broad ranging episode of the Playing At Business podcast, we talk about how marketing has changed over time, we run through the typical weight of a toy marketing campaign today looking at the percentage of spend typically spent on TV advertising vs digital advertising, we talk about Dean's own career journey and we talk about the future of marketing. This is one of the most insightful podcast episodes we have recorded. Enjoy!

China has played a critical role in building the global toy business as a massive hub of highly efficient toy and game production. As OEM contract manufacturing i.e. making toys for other people gets harder and harder to make a profit from, so an increasing number of Chinese toy factories are looking to move up the value chain & move towards being full toy companies themselves. with their own developed products and brands.

This is one of the biggest under reported trends in the toy & games industry, find out more in this episode of the Playing At Business podcast.

TOYI is an up and coming Construction Toy brand. There story is compelling - the concept started as a University project for co-Founder Elif Atmaca. From there TOYI was successfully funded on Kickstarter, and is now selling successfully around the world.

TOYI's story is interesting because they are a few years into the business, with some degree of success already achieved and for those planning to start a toy business or who have recently started a toy business there story may be helpful. For experienced toy people, TOYI's fresh approach to the long established Construction Toy category offers insights into how to disrupt and expand traditional toy play patterns.

Augmented reality has been on the periphery of the toy business for some years now. Pokemon Go really brought the technology to the fore, leading to a major boost on Pokemon toy & card game sales.

In this episode of the Playing At Business podcast we talk to Wikitude's Paula Monteiro about A.R. and the potential for toys. We also discuss some of the fantastic A.R. implementations Wikitude have created for world leading toy companies. Finally we also take a look at the (exciting) future of this technology

This is a must listen episode for anyone interested in technology and toys.

Adam Borton is a professional toy inventor and designer held within high regard in the toy business. Among other things he invented and licensed to Mattel the smash hit skill and action game 'Flushin' Frenzy'. In this podcast interview we talk about Adam's journey in the toy business, and about his new initiative: Toy And Game School, which aims to help those interested in how to design & make toys to get ahead in the toy business.

Our favourite part of this interview is the part near the start where Adam casually discusses his 'luck' in finding freelance work from talking to people at the UK toy fair. Some further probing reveals the fact that Adam literally spent days at this show walking around and talking to everybody he could on every exhibition stand at the show - this seemingly casual relentlessness is clearly a big part of Adam's success. There are of course many more insights offered by Adam in this compelling episode of our Playing At Business podcast.