Focus on: Toys: 14 March

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Publishing: 14 March

Advertising deadline: 21 February

Submissions deadline: 14 February

Contact Simon Creasey (creasey.simon@gmail.com )

The Story

Toy sales are booming in the supermarkets. The grocery channel has been a key driver of the British toy market in the past year. Growth has hit a four-year high. What products have driven the growth? How much of it is down to World Cup themed toys? And if this was a major factor, what’s the outlook for the coming year when sports fans have no such event to look forward to? What else drove the growth in 2014? How can it be sustained?

Key Themes

World Cup : The best-selling toy of 2014 was Fifa World Cup sticker albums and stickers. Just how much did these contribute to the overall market and with no sports events of the scale of the World Cup on the cards for 2015, is it inevitable that the coming year will be slower for the overall toy market?

Collectibles : Sales of lower priced collectible toys have also been a key contributor to growth in the past year, particularly for the supermarkets because such toys are at the right price point to be purchased as part of the weekly grocery shop. So which products have been most successful and what will be the big hits of 2015?

Loom bands : Loom bands have been one of the must-have toys of 2014. How much did these products contribute to the toy market’s growth? Was this just a fad? What will be the next big thing for kids’ collectibles?

Black Friday : How much of an impact did Black Friday have on the past year’s performance? Which products sold best on Black Friday; larger, more expensive toys rather than smaller items and collectibles? How dis larger items sell through the rest of the year; has Black Friday become the key opportunity for selling such items?

Licensed products : Analysis suggests that eight of the top 10 selling toys in the past year were linked to a movie or a cartoon. So what were the most successful licensed products of the past year and what will be the big names of 2015?

Innovation : This will be key to this feature. We will be investigating how new product development has shaped the category over the past year and what is in store for shoppers in 2014. We will be profiling four of the most interesting launches in a separate innovation panel.

Retailer mix : In June 2013, Tesco said it was reducing its focus on some non-food categories, including toys. Has it given them less space in store? What effect has this had on the other supermarkets – have they taken this as an opportunity and ramped up their toy offer or also pulled back from the category? What about pound stores and discounters?

Key questions the feature is likely to address