With an ability to reach a potential audience of millions, creating toys based on digital content and would seem to be quite literally child’s play.

And as the toy industry heads to the American International Toy Fair in New York this week, the qualities that can make or break a licensed product based on an online personality or series will undergo close scrutiny.

With the industry struggling to recover from sluggish sales in 2019, toymakers are increasingly turning to YouTube creator and digital series for fresh content that can turn products into a million-unit sellers.

(Make sure to attend the Toy Fair seminar, “From Influencer to Brand,” assembled by Licensing International, featuring Andrea Fasulo, SVP of Global Marketing, VIACOM CBS Consumer Products; Stone Newman, Chief Revenue Officer, Pocketwatch.com; and Brian Bonnett, President/CEO,The Bonkers Toy Company. It will take place Sunday, February 23, 10am – 11am in Room 1E011 at the Javits Center.)

Millions of Viewers

Ryan’s World set the bar when Bonkers Toys introduced mystery boxes at Walmart in 2018 featuring a toy selection curated by eight-year-old Ryan, who has 23 million YouTube subscribers. Ryan will be joined at this year’s Toy Fair by YouTube family-oriented FGeeTV (13.1 million subscribers, toy licensee Bonkers), children’s toy unboxing CKN (14.6 million subscribers, toy licensee Wicked Cool Toys) and other creators.

The sheer size of these digital audiences, chock full of toy-buying parents and their children, is attracting toymakers to their sales potential.

“In order to pass scrutiny, you have to be content- and character-based and literally get hundreds of millions of monthly views; even if you achieve that, there are still hurdles you have to get over,” says Wicked Cool Co-CEO Jeremy Padawer, whose company is a licensee of both CKN and videogame influencer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. “In getting an influencer to translate to toys you are dealing with humans, and recreating a human in a toy section is not easy. If there is an influencer like Ryan or CKN that is actively playing in every video, you tend to have more success mirroring that play since it provides an aspirational element” for children. 

Creator Products

Indeed the toy industry expects a large increase this year in the number of products that are based on YouTube creators, whether individuals like Ryan’s World or FGTeeV, or an ever-increasing number of animated series, says Bonkers’ VP Deborah Stallings Stumm. To determine which YouTube channels might be primed for toys, Bonkers developed a “proprietary” vetting system for creators and series that is partly based on subscriber numbers and views, says Stallings Stumm.

“There is a clear direction in how children are consuming content; the children of millennials rarely watch TV and are device-driven,” says Stallings-Stumm. “Their preferred entertainment includes YouTube videos, gaming apps and other forms of digital content. It is only natural that their heroes and role-models come from digital content, especially YouTube.” 

Deals Proliferate

Indeed, there has been a flurry of licensing agreements signed for YouTube creators and other digital content in recent months:

• Jazwares signed on as the master toy licensee for YouTube entertainer/educator Stevin “Blippi” John, whose series has 7.35 million subscribers. Jazwares also tapped into the CKN license by buying Wicked Cool. Jazwares also signed a deal earlier this month for Treasure Studios’ YouTube-based  “Cocomelon” (formerly ABCkidTV) series of 3D animated videos based on traditional nursery rhymes and Treasure’s original songs. The channel has more than 73 million subscribers.
• Bonkers is building out its roster of YouTube creators, having added licensing agreements based on “Trinity and Beyond” (4.1 million subscribers) that features Trinity and Madison Cummings in dress-up skits, challenges and reviewing toys. It also signed a pact for the YouTube channel “Braille Skateboarding” (4.5 million subscribers), which is a how-to skateboarding channel founded by Gabe Cruz and Aaron Kyro.
• Moose Toys will bring toys to market in the fall based on the Collins Key YouTube channel. The channel, which features former “America’s Got Talent” finalist Collins Key and his brother, Devan, focuses on comedy sketches and has 20.6 million subscribers.

“Five years ago you could take a look at a film or TV show and see that it made sense for a toy so it was pretty straightforward,” Moose Toys Licensing Director Menal McGrath. “Now you have to look at” YouTube and other digital content and “think how you can make the property different and make an impact at retail.  In the kids space, that is all about being a bit more engaging and exciting.”