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The State of Play: In Flux

Highlights of the 2009 Building Our Future Toy Conference

By Richard Gottlieb -- Gifts and Dec, November 1, 2009

I recently convened a meeting of 21 top thought leaders from inside and outside of the toy industry. The conference, entitled Building Our Future New York 2009, the second in a series, was designed to unleash the creative energy of these highly intelligent people. I wanted to give them the opportunity to share their thoughts on a number of key issues facing the toy and play industries. In doing so, I hoped to assess where we are and where we are going. I was not disappointed.

As I looked around the table, I was greatly impressed by the intellectual firepower of those in attendance. We had a professor of Robotics from the MIT Media Lab and we had the presidents of the Toy Industry Association, the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, and the Engage! Expo virtual world show. Also at the table were present and former heads of toy and virtual world companies, several inventors, a lawyer, a play museum curator, a marketer, a salesperson, a publicist, a financial analyst and a designer. The participants were asked to provide their insights on six topics: Play, Legacy Toys, Virtual Worlds, Consumers, Girls’ Products and Retail.

Each one of these topics evoked a highly interesting and sometimes heated conversation. Everyone was polite but by no means did everyone agree. In this and the next three issues of Playthings, I will share their thoughts on these subjects as well as my synthesis of their ideas.

Topic 1: Play

The first topic that this year’s Building Our Future thought leaders tackled was the question of what business were we in. Are those of us who see ourselves as belonging to a particular industry; traditional toys, virtual worlds or video games, actually in the same business: Play? And if so, what is the future of play?

Of course when any discussion of play occurs, the first question that arises is: “What is play?” This question can typically take you down a number of rabbit holes but Chris Bensch of the Strong National Museum of Play gave us a new and important perspective on play that I think finally answers the question.

Chris told us that play was all about context. Here is how Chris explained it:

He said that if someone was to ask him to go out into a field and dig holes he would consider it to be tedious and arduous work. If on the other hand, someone was to ask him to go out and dig in his garden (something he loves to do) he would consider it play.

In this same line of thinking:

A professional football player considers what he does to be work while an amateur sees the same activity as play. Similarly, a person walking for miles carrying a heavy bag will see that as work while a golfer will see the same activity as play.

The power to discern that which is play, therefore, ultimately lies with the one experiencing it and not the one providing it. The end user is therefore in essence the co-creator of his or her play experience. It’s truly a mind-expanding notion and one we need to keep in mind when designing toys.

A humble pursuit

Along these lines, the group fully recognized that people will play with or without manufactured toys. Take away a toy and a child will play in a box. Take away the box and the child will pick up a stick.

As one participant put it: “We’re just helping them through machines, through devices, through virtual worlds, through content. Whatever it is, people are gonna play. We’re just helping that along.”

And as another participant said: “We make machines that engender human interaction. We make machines through which children explore the real world.”

All that is necessary for play then are found objects like the before mentioned stick and box (both to be found in the National Toy Hall of Fame, I might add). The end user provides the inspiration, imagination and intellect.

Perhaps we need to keep this in mind when creating toys and other engines for play. A simple object that allows for endless and open-ended permutations of play is ultimately a stronger product than which too closely defines the experience. And, maybe, the more open the play experience, the less one needs to spend on licensing and marketing.

It’s the experience, stupid

Many in the group voiced a strong feeling that we are in the business of producing experiences rather than objects. As a participant knowledgeable about virtual play put it: “It’s all about creating an experience… The experience has to be great to bring people back.”

There was a concern, however, that the traditional toy industry did not see its role that way. Rather, it has become so totally object driven that it is flying on autopilot.

As one participant put it: “We are too busy stuffing slots and not thinking about what kids want to play with.” And as another put it, in explaining how a mass market manufacturer typically thinks about a new product: “I need to fill that [store’s] slot, and I need something that can retail for $14.99, and that can make me this kind of margin and that the retailer can make this kind of margin with ... so what is that thing? It’s not thinking about a product as a play experience and what entertainment value that’s going to deliver to the child.”

In other words, too many traditional toys today are commodities designed to hit a specific price point. Toys need to be more than that or they will lose out to other forms of play that focus on the experience provided rather than the cost of plastic.

The future of play

Based upon what I heard from participants, it is going to be extremely important for us to embrace a broadly expanded notion of what constitutes play and toys. Here is what the participants say is coming:

• Toys will no longer be a stand-alone experience. In the future of play, toys will be just one component in what is being called “transmedia storytelling,” the use of various forms of media to tell a story. Let’s take Transformers as an example. As we all know, there is the Transformer movie, books, music, action figures, video games and more. Currently, each of these stands alone. You don’t need one to play with the other. In the future, however, you will have a play experience that integrates all of these components. My sense from the discussion is that you won’t just license a brand or logo, but the right to be an integral part of an integrated play experience.

• Play will be about shaping and changing. Modern children play on the Internet and expect to be able to play an active part in shaping that with which they play. In this context, it will be important that toys provide the same experience.
  Look for toys that allow the end user to change and adjust them. This will mean making them scalable so they can adjust to varying skill levels and age grades. It may also allow the child to change the very shape and look of the toy. Think of a doll that allows you to change its face, complexion hair and body style.

• Play will be about expanded social contact. Toys are going to provide the means of enhanced social networking. Users will employ toys as a means of interacting with other users all over the world.
  If you think that this is just a rehash of Internet play, think again. The computer will become passé as toys interconnect via wireless networks with other toys anywhere in the world. Think about a version of Battleship where you press the 'destruct’ button while in your bedroom in Milwaukee and your opponent’s battleship pops apart in Stockholm.

• Play will be about creativity. Think for a minute about musicians who mash up other people’s songs to create new ones. In the same sense, there will be play platforms and technology that allow the end user to mash up existing toys in order to make a unique and sometimes bizarre new toy from their parts. Will we see kids and adults creating a GI Joe/Barbie Rock 'em Sock 'em Robot or a Cluopoly? Maybe.

• Retail will have to change. When one really considers these forecasts, one is struck by how none of them fit into current product categories, such as girls’ toys, boys’ toys, dolls, games, puzzles, etc. Let’s face it, most of the categories used for buying and merchandising were created a century ago. They just no longer fit with what is coming down the road.
  In the coming world of play, it will not be enough to add a department or two. Buyers are going to have to ask themselves this question: If no toy categories existed, what would I put in my toy department or toy store and how would I merchandise it?

• Marketing will have to change. More ominous for manufacturers and bricks and mortar toy store buyers is the Internet experience that allows consumers to bypass traditional means of marketing and purchasing. As one participant put it:
  “I think that the sharing aspect and the whole social media aspect [on the Internet] now are why it’s so easy to get a message out there. It’s going to change the way we do business, so we’re not going to be able to have the big box stores tell us what we want, because as a mom, I don’t want that stuff. I’m going to tell not just the friends that I reach when I drop my kids off at school, I’m going tell everyone over the internet, 'Hey, there’s this other option over here,’ and so, if we don’t change the way we market a product, moms are going to go and find it someplace else.”
  In essence, marketers will have a far more difficult time telling kids and their parents what to buy. They will need to create new methods that accommodate a far more democratic process for deciding which toys succeed and which fail.

• More than toys. The ease with which consumers can purchase toys on the Internet means that sharp bricks and mortar retailers will have to provide more than a place to make a purchase. They will need to provide a play experience. They will have staff that will assist children and adults in actually playing with the toys they sell. This chance to provide hands-on play experiences with toys prior to purchase will be a major advantage for those bricks and mortar retailers who choose to use it.

Play is up for grabs

The overwhelming sense that I took away from our conversation about play was that the world is changing dramatically and those who survive will not just adapt to these changes but take advantage of them. All bets are off as everyone from inventors to manufacturers to marketers to retailers figure out new means of competing.

Play is like a big rubber ball that has been just tossed into the air and is up for grabs. We may all need to jump higher to reach it.

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