Reuters Insider - Toy makers comeback game plan

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17/02/2014 03:14

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 Source:             Thomson Reuters                                   
                                                                       
 Description:        Toy giants Mattel and Hasbro preview their toys   
                     for the upcoming year- hoping to win back buyers  
                     after a weak holiday season. Bobbi Rebell reports. 
 
 
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Transcript (May be auto-generated)

 Now, stand up. H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P. The game has changed for toy makers and after 
a bruising holiday season, they are gearing up to fight back starting with the 
2014 Toy Fair. Toy industry expert Jim Silver of TTPM says industry tie-ins with
Hollywood will help. This year you have a lot more movies than last year. You 
have Transformers, you have Spider-Man, you have a new Disney Planes movie so 
you have a lot more movies coming out. You also have new TV shows, you hope for 
better weather and you are going to have a longer holiday shopping season. The 
biggest players, Mattel and Hasbro, are coming to Toy Fair 2014 armed with what 
they say is a fresh approach that will get kids and their parents excited again.
Hasbro's Chief Marketing Officer John Frascotti is proud of their focus on 
customization. We are giving girls for the first time ever the opportunity to 
customize and create their own ponies and this is called My Little Pony Pop. 
Also customizable: My Monopoly, complete with an app. Put any image you want 
into the program, and make your own properties, tokens and even some of the 
cards. And with games like this, the apps are driving sales of more traditional 
games. Having apps that work with toys and also promoting online. They realize 
now that people are going online and getting their content that way and that is 
how you have to reach kids. Mattel and Hasbro are doubling down on their 
established brands. If you look closely pretty much all of them, from Thomas the
Train to Star Wars Angry Birds have a nod to technology. Barbie sales may be 
under pressure but Mattel has big plans for its iconic top doll including the 
new career barbie for this year, that's an entrepreneur complete with an iPhone 
and an iPad of course and also she'll be making a special appearance in Sports 
Illustrated. Toy Industry Association trend watcher Adrienne Appell. As 
technology becomes more affordable toy makers are able to do more things within 
their play things at a more affordable price. Seamless integration must be a 
priority if the toy business wants to get back on its feet, according to 
Hasbro's Frascotti. Consumers want to experience our brands in multiple formats;
especially today's kids. They move very fastly between analog and digital worlds
so with a classic board game brand like Monopoly, we are able to deliver that 
digitally as well as in analog format and we find that kids don't want to be 
restricted to one media and that's why with a lot of our games we've been able 
to bring them into digital expressions that kids love. And it will be the kids 
who ultimately decide the winners when the new toys hit the stores later this 
year