Tokyo Toy Fair 2015
Over the past few years I have visited quite a few fairs but it was my first time at the Tokyo Toy Fair.
I did try to sign up online to get my visitor's badge but the website said to just turn up with business cards and you can get a badge at the door. I was expecting chaos at the registration desk but the path to the front was totally clear, at least in the foreign visitors section. It seems there are not many foreigners visiting. They asked me for two business cards, one to keep record and another one to insert in my fair pass.
The fair was on two floors in vast halls with extremely large alleyways. I am used to European fairs where organisers cram as many booths as possible in the halls thus leaving little room for visitors. This was definitely not the case here. Booths are dominated by the large companies with very big, bright and noisy stands. When I say noisy, I do mean noisy. In some areas, you can barely hear yourself think due to the announcements, promotion speeches, music and even pin ball machine noises that some of the stand produce. I really do not see the point of one person standing on the side of the booth with a microphone repeating over and over the same advertising message. But then I am not Japanese. Judging by the number and length of announcements on Japanese airlines, announcements are de-rigueur in Japan. I was actually amazed, on a local Japanese bus, that the driver was announcing which way he was going to turn before making the manoeuvre.
English is definitely not the language here. Most of the signage on the stands is in Japanese. When I approached one of the stands to enquire about the product, there was nobody who could speak anything other than Japanese. My Japanese is a little too rusty to conduct a business conversation despite the crash revision I subjected myself to over the past few weeks by listening to the full Michel Thomas Japanese course during my daily commute. So, broken English and sign language had to work. Let's see how fruitful this conversation was when we start exchanging emails. Mind you, emails are easier as there is always Google Translate, which does sometimes lead to interesting conversations. The words "lost in translation" do take their full meaning sometimes.Only a few western companies decided to exhibit and represent themselves here without using a distributor. I met one western exhibitor who complained about the lack of English spoken by the locals. Surely a translator for a couple of days when you have already invested in a booth would not have been an expense too far...
As at most fairs now, the bigger booth will only let you in with an appointment. so difficult to gage what they were showing, not that I am that interested anyway so it did not matter.
I did particularly like the "community booth", where smaller companies are given the opportunity of a 1m wide wall on a stand they share with 20 other small companies. This community booth is in the middle of the fair and not tucked away in a far away hall like some fairs do to new comers. So, easily accessible and in full view of all visitors. The organisers obviously feel that it is not necessary to pay your dues for years before you are given prime spot at the fair. Refreshing thoughts!
The other difference of this fair is that it is open to the public and children for the last two days i.e. Saturday and Sunday. I guess it is great to receive immediate feedback from the end user. I am curious on how this work as most stands have some prototypes, do they remove those before public days? Do you also have to make an appointment on the large stand ;-)? I was "unfortunately" not able to find out as I left Tokyo on Saturday morning so could not attend.
I may be a little jaded as I have visited a lot of trade fairs this year but I was expecting a lot more interesting products or at least products I had not seen before but was disappointed by the offering. If it had not been for the fact that I had appointments with potential distributors over two days, I could have gone round the fair, and seen everything, in half a day. There was one product that had a queue of people watching and even a camera filming that I really did not get, it is sort of home made marble run with a plastic box at the bottom and if you manage to get the ball in, a flag pops up. I really did not see what the fuss was about. Lease do not listen to me as I am likely to be wrong. It will probably be the new technologically advanced toys that win next year's Dream Toy.
I can't finish this short visit report without mentioning the extremely eye catching uniform worn by some stand staff. Maybe a little inappropriate but it certainly got attention to the stands they were promoting. I just love my job!
About the Author: Thierry Bourret helps toy companies to find overseas markets for their creations, founder of the Slow Toy Movement and proud father. Please visit my profile to connect with me on LinkedIn and on Twitter @thierryshead.