What we can learn from the toy industry leaders on innovation

It is no secret that the 3 toy brands listed below are some of the best toy companies that have ever existed.

They clearly are applying a few different methods in the way that they operate that have led them to become the market leaders in this industry.

When it comes to top tear toy manufacturers a few brand names come to mind, but why, what makes a small number of toy brands stand out in an industry that has no shortage of brand names and even sub-brands in great quantities, there has to be a few innovative choices which they apply year after year that has led them to be the industry leaders.

Moreover, it is quite interesting how they prove year after year that they earned that spot and that they are bigger and stronger than ever before, by introducing their newfound ideas of how to infiltrate new markets and more importantly creating new customer personas by creating new segments to drive more sales.

Let us examine some of the top-performing toy brands in 2021-2022 to learn more about what they do differently than others.

Hasbro

We all know that Hasbro is one of the largest industry leaders, producing toys for literally every age group, and being heavily involved in the entertainment industry, but what is most impressive is that it has been named as one of the most ethical companies of 2021 which marks the 10th year in a row for Hasbro.

Going beyond toys, we would expect no other than Hasbro to Acquire D&D Beyond, the company is showing great interest in digital platforms, this is a huge deal as Hasbro added nearly 10 million players, D&D Beyond is The Fastest-Growing DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Category, Hasbro stated that this acquisition will accelerate their progress in both gaming and direct to consumer sales.

Showing their human side, Hasbro is more charitable than ever they are increasing their efforts in helping people in need both physically and emotionally, there are great examples of how Hasbro is helping, such as their efforts with the Afghan refugees, Hasbro has helped so many children in need after they’ve left their country and also provided them with toys and games throughout the transition, and we must mention their efforts with their black is magic campaign which helped support the training of 3,200 girls, and many more amazing achievements, Hasbro reached 6M children, they raised 17M as the total of their Philanthropic Impact, they've donated over 750K toys and games, we can all take a page out of Hasbro’s book when it comes to humane acts and practices.

Spin Master

Let’s start with the biggest news about spin master’s hit movie paw petrol,

Paw petrol took home the Golden Screen Award Presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, moreover spin master is invested more and more in this franchise as it’s now planning to release a sequel coming to theaters on October 13, 2023.

Spin master is investing in the NEXT-GEN CREATORS toys, this is quite a strategic investment as this is one of the most popular trends in toys this year, the main idea of these toys is to help children express their creativity, and to produce their own content, be it videos or pictures as well as its great effects on their STEAM learning capabilities.

Acknowledging online gaming is a must for all entertainment companies, Spinmaster is investing in online gaming as well, teaming up with the most-played PC game in the world. League of legends, they brought some of the most popular characters with the Spin Master Champions New League of Legends? Collection.

As an industry leader Spin master made a notable donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America of $275,000 USD to provide youth with equal access to opportunities and experiences.

The company is investing even more in the development of the Underrepresented Communities with 100,000 USD annually.

Expanding their brand to have more games under their name, one of their biggest moves last year was their new acquisition of Rubik’s Cube, Spinmaster is committed to continuing the brand legacy of rubrics cub, along with innovation from spin master to be expected, they stated that they will innovate the brand across its entire portfolio and they will expand distribution throughout the Company's global footprint.

Lego

All market groups delivered double-digit consumer sales growth thanks to strong execution and the largest and most diverse portfolio ever that brought families together and appealed to builders of all ages and interests.

We live in a digital world and it would be foolish not to adapt to such a huge change in the consumer behavior, Lego’s way of reaching that market is through their authentic digital experiences, like their new app “Digital Building Instructions” and the “LEGO Life app” which combined had more than 42.6 million downloads.

As we would all expect from Lego, the company was awarded 7 ‘Toy of the Year Awards from The Toy Association, Lego has taken those awards due to their unique sense of creativity and playfulness throughout the year

Focusing more on investing in what has already proven to be quite successful, they have been the leaders in many areas like product innovation, retail channels, production capacity, digitalization, and sustainability.

In 2021 Lego’s strategic investments led the company to innovate its portfolio, expand and evolve its retail experience, and increase capacity within its global supply chain network.

After the apparent shift to online shopping in 2020 Lego has adopted that new shift to its own and to external resellers as it is undeniable that the shift in the consumer behavior to be more focused on online purchases has continued from 2020 and there are no signs of slowing down, however, to provide a meaningful and engaging brand experience to Lego fans that have grown accustomed to going to Lego stores and buying their toys after seeing and playing with them in real life, they continued to open new stores, they opened 165 new Lego stores globally, which shows how much faith they have in the concept of brick and mortar stores.

Investing doesn’t only mean investing in stores and in the new trends

for giant toy manufacturers like Lego it is essential to always invest in their factories, most notably however is their huge investment of 1 billion dollars in 2021 their investment was in their new factory an operational carbon neutral factory, Lego is expanding its manufacturing capacity in general to meet their immediate and longer-term demand.