Toy Fair 2012: The Rapid Growth of the Slow Toy Movement

As I waited impatiently to be let into the biggest trade fair for the Toy industry in the UK, I could barely contain my excitement. Greeted by grand characters such as Raa Raa, Sonic the Hedgehog and Bananas in Pyjamas, I could feel the magic of Toy Fair all around me. With a ‘no kids allowed’ policy, adults were given full reign to release their inner child, playing with the new toys for 2012, with the intention of doing business of course. This annual trade fair, hosted by the British Toy & Hobby Association, is a great opportunity for traders within the Toy Industry to push their new collections for 2012, to network, start conversations, gain distribution and boost sales.

There are many new trends to see at Toy Fair. The one that jumped out to me was the ‘Slow Toy Movement’. A concept which aims to promote ethically sourced toys that leaves much to a child’s imagination. It was great to see classic toys and the more traditional games making a come-back and reinventing themselves and new companies upholding the values of this concept. Toys such as the classic Brio collection of magnetic trains on wooden tracks and Le Toy Van’s new imaginative play-sets and collectables are perfect examples of this movement.

Taking things back to basics raises the importance of children developing at their own pace, learning through traditional play, and pushing children to use their imagination. The toys that we used to play with as children have come back with a bang! As these toys have clear benefits for child development, for adults, these toys bring feelings of nostalgia, fun memories and the sense of innocence we had as a child. Technology does have a role to play, particularly for older children (and Kidults too, of course!), but it is nice to see a balance of offerings for younger children and the optimism within the traditional toy sectors of the market this year.

Measuring a blog’s success

These days, most businesses have a blog, and those that don’t – well, they are likely to be considering it. It’s a vital tool to help promote both a business and that business’s expertise in its industry. A blog allows for demonstration of thought leadership and the chance to actively engage with key stakeholders.

While all of this is true, a blog is pretty much useless if its performance is not being measured. Writing a blog a week may well be bringing in the viewers, but if you aren’t measuring, quite simply, you don’t know. So what are the best methods for measuring a blog’s success? Here are our tips:

Measure Visitors

It sounds obvious, but a blog is only as good as the amount of people reading it, so you need to be measuring. It is important to monitor the different posts to see where improvement is needed and which have been the most successful. If the most viewed blog posts all follow the same themes, this is a formula worth sticking to. Perhaps a video garnered the most attention, so incorporate that into posts going forward.

Measure Feedback

A blog doesn’t have to (and most likely won’t) result in a sale, but it can and should result in conversation. The whole idea of a blog is to provide a platform where your business can engage with existing or potential customers, industry bodies or the media. The more comments, feedback and questions a post receives, the more it shows the blog is spreading. Therefore, so is your business. Ask questions in your blog, open the conversation up for discussion. Just be sure to monitor the feedback and reply to any comments.

Measure Subscribers/Followers
Admittedly, it is hard to gain subscribers, but this is a great measure of success for a blog. The more followers, the more people who trust what you have to say and are, more than likely, spreading the word to others. Measuring how many people follow your blog provides a solid indicator of the quality of your blog and the impact it’s having.

While this is just a brief overview, it should help to understand the benefits of a blog and how those benefits can be exploited for maximum effect. The more information you have on how, when, why and what on your blog is being viewed, the better you can make it in the future and the more positive impact it will have on your business.

One to Watch for 2012: The Social TV Convergence

There was a time, a long long time ago before the internet, The X Factor and Pringles existed, when the phase ‘water-cooler moment’ was coined. This was a moment of community and shared experience, where the tele-visual event of last night was watched by the majority so they could be involved in the conversation. Then, as time passed, the number of channels grew and digital recorders such as Sky Plus and online catch-up sites like 4oD and iPlayer evolved, and the relevance of the event diminished to a point where advertisers withdrew and ratings dropped.

Now, however, an online revolution is changing all that, it’s no longer the water cooler but the social media moment, and it happens live, as the programme is broadcast. Suddenly a two screen revolution is under-way as internet access and multi-platform applications such as Twitter and Facebook are used in unison with the television to analyse, discuss and ridicule the exploits of soap characters, reality ‘stars’ and world events. No longer does it take any great effort to access the social media platforms for the average viewer, of a certain demographic, has mobile phones, tablets and laptops at their sides while they watch TV. There are even services like Zeebox springing up that embrace this trend and give users a one stop social media stop.

This is a sign of the future where all forms of media channel (YouTube, ITVPlayer and Sky TV) are viewed within a web environment that is not confined to the window of that company. So what does this mean? Well, for the consumer it means more feedback which could lead to better programming but also more power to those who air their views. For the businesses involved, the broadcasters lose control over image but have more metrics by which to show value to advertisers and these advertisers will no doubt be the target of the social media platforms collecting opinions.

Google+ for Business: Exploring the opportunities

Google+ now offers a social networking service for brands prompting  thousands of businesses to set up profiles. However, to optimise brand exposure, businesses need to understand what differentiates Google+ from its competitors and tap into its full potential.

Although it looks quite similar to Facebook, there are some features which really set Google+ apart. One of the greatest advantages of the new social networking service is its integration with Google Search. Google Search provides brands with exposure to a search base allowing access to reportedly 50% of global websites. Furthermore Google+ enables brands to streamline social media content easily across multiple platforms including Android, Google Chrome and YouTube. This could offer exciting opportunities to businesses to improve audience engagement and explore innovative ways to create and distribute marketing content.

To make its service more appealing to brands, Google+ launched its Direct Connect feature, which makes it simple for users to find and follow brands on Google+ by just typing a “+” sign in front of the name of the brand on Google Search. Another step towards strengthening the integration with Google’s search engine is the brand verification procedure at the initial registration stage. As Google+ permits the registration of multiple users with one brand name, it allows organisations to appear at the top of the search results by verifying their brand identity and linking their profiles to the company website.

As Google+ is looking to further integrate with the rest of Google’s products, the appearance of the website and its features are going to change. At the CrushIQ conference this week, Google’s spokespeople announced that they were planning to integrate Google+ with AdWords and enable multiple administrators to handle the brand pages on the website.

A further integration with products like Google Shopping and Places could open exciting opportunities for brands and advertisers to deliver micro targeted campaigns based on users’ interests, location and shopping habits. This has huge potential for brands. Furthermore they will be able to tap into Google+ features such as Circles and Hangouts to segment their Google+ followers and create targeted campaigns for engagement.

However, as social networking websites emerge almost on daily basis, a question is beckoning of how many social media profiles users can tolerate? With 40 million users worldwide Google+ is still far behind Facebook and Twitter in terms of popularity among brands and consumers.

To expand its reach, Google+ have to differentiate itself from its competitors and get the most of its integration with Google’s products to create an innovative, intelligent and pervasive social media product.

82 percent of people who have worked in a restaurant or bar own iPods/iPads, compared with 66 percent of people in general.

These figures have been put together by a website called www.correlated.org  Everyday Correlated.org, ask a new question, for example: are you left handed? Then with a clever bit of coding and maths, they work out which set of previous questions can give the biggest discrepancy from people in general and forward you an email with the results.

At this stage the sample groups are only reaching just over 300 so these correlations should be taken as interesting rather than factual and short of combining with a massive social network like Facebook, twitter or LinkedIn, we as communication professionals will not really be able to utilise them.  However, with stats like:

“71 percent of perfume/cologne wearers prefer debit cards over credit cards, compared with 53 percent of people in general” 

you can begin to see the beauty of this site.