While toymakers continue to rely on mass and specialty chains to drive sales, they also are making a play for platforms such as Kickstarter as much as a marketing platform as to raise money. They’re also drawing deeper into social media platforms to promote brands.

Although fundraising platforms have long existed to help fledgling brands and products raise money, increasingly companies are also using them as part of a marketing strategy. For example, McFarlane Toys plans to launch a 30-day campaign on Kickstarter this spring without a fundraising goal to mark the return of Spawn action figures, building on the IP owned by McFarlane CEO Todd McFarlane.

Hype Plus

And Spin Master developed a Kickstarter program for the Marvel United board game created developed with Cmon. The campaign exceeded its $150,000 goal by raising $1.2 million, and benefitted from exposure to the property’s rabid fans. “Part of it is about the hype, and it’s about giving access to fans and making them part of the developing the game,” says a Spin Master spokeswoman. Platforms like Kickstarter “are increasingly being used as a marketing tactic, because some have a community of gamers that already go on there regularly to check out new products.”

Content-Based Opportunities

At the same time, toymakers are broadening their involvement with content from such platforms as Instagram and TikTok as the basis for licensing programs. Wowwee signed a licensing deal for a card game with Instagram network Doing Things Media, whose top channels include “Animals Doing Things” and “Kids Doing Things” which feature user-submitted photos and videos.

Meanwhile, Moose Toys plans to use TikTok influencers for the introduction of its Oh My Gif collectibles that are inspired by Internet gifs, memes and stickers and will ship in May. The line, which starts with 50 items, also is being considered for outbound licensing.  The collectibles are integrated with an app.

Among the other things we saw and heard at Javits:

• Spin Master took back licensing responsibilities previously with Cartoon Network for “Bakugan: Battle Planet,” which will continue to air on that channel. It also will handle licensing for the new “Mighty Express” series that launches on Netflix in September.
• Viacom Nickelodeon is developing a Baby Shark series that will air on Nickelodeon in 2021 and will handle the consumer products licensing of it. SmartStudy, whose Pinkfong subsidiary developed Baby Shark, has handled licensing in the past.
• With Herschel Entertainment set to release a sixth season of “Chuggington” later this year on Amazon Prime, new master toy licensee Alpha Group is readying a new toy line for 2021 across die-cast, playsets, RC and battery-powered vehicles, says Alpha’s Matthew Sherman. The deal with Alpha was Herschel’s first since it acquired Chuggington in late 2018.
• Basic Fun is launching about a dozen Care Bears plush and other products at Walmart in June, the first since it gained the license for the property, which airs on Boomerang.
• Blues Clues, which relaunched on Nickelodeon on Nov. 11 with new host Josh Dela Cruz, is returning to licensing as well with master toy licensee Just Play (role play, plush, figures, playsets), Spin Master, Basic Fun and others fielding product. The original Blues Clues was released in 1996 and ran for six seasons.
• Basic Fun scrapped plans to bring back Weebles under license from Hasbro because it would have had to make the new Weebles slightly larger than the originals to satisfy current regulatory requirements. “If you can’t make them to the original scale, it doesn’t do as well” since they’d be different from the way consumers remember them, says Basic Fun’s Ashley Mady.
• Jazwares has signed a licensing agreement for the Korean pop group BlackPink and will bring product to market in the fall. The deal is the first for BlackPink, which joins fellow K-pop group BTS in licensing. Mattel introduced BTS dolls last year.
• There’s a new competitor in the toy wrestling ring. All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which launched last year and is carried on TNT in the U.S., signed its first deal with Jazwares. The first products – action figures, a ring and championship belt are due in the fall. Jazwares also signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for action figures (Conor McGregor, Donald Cerrone and others) and other products.