Much as we’d like to offer our clients, colleagues and friends warm wishes for the coming year and a quick summary of what we all got up to in the holiday period, there really isn’t time.
Between awards entries, new product launches and important licensing deals, we, like the rest of the licensing industry, are already dealing with a very busy 2026.
And there’s also the small matter of Toy Fair in Olympia next week. Not only will Kilogrammedia be there to wish all the best to our client the Puppet Company, celebrating its 25th anniversary in the business – and a lot of launches – at the show, but we’ll be checking out some of the licensed product inspired by brands we work with or enabled by agencies whose work we publicise.
But this year’s edition of the UK’s largest dedicated toy, game and hobby trade show isn’t just a useful chance to catch up with our business partners. It’s a reminder that amid the continuing (and welcome) diversification of licensing into experiential, virtual and online formats and concepts, there’s still a strong market for board games, playing cards, plush or wooden toys and any number of other traditional items.
Technology will, of course, make these toys smarter or connect them to apps, mobile phones, tablets or computers, but the continuing market for familiar physical toys, be they cuddly, throwable or board-shaped, is a reminder that a fast-changing market still has a lot of room for products that haven’t changed much – sometimes for hundreds of years.
There will of course be adjustments over time to the target market for such products – be they traditional, new or in-between. The very young are still a significant demographic but the growing importance of tweens, teens and young adults (and the rest of us who may be slightly older) is changing toys and the toy market in some subtle and not-so-subtle ways already.
As visitors to Toy Fair will no doubt discover. And, as we promised earlier in this blog, Kilogrammedia will be there too in the form of Managing Director Samatha Murray and Account Manager Sian Dorrington.
Sam (pictured below with a friend at last year’s show) and Sian will be attending on Tuesday and Wednesday, so if you spot them, say hello – or just get in touch via our website for an onsite meeting.
