SONIC THE HEDGEHOG – STILL UNSTOPPABLE! - Kazachok

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International
trends
Beyblade, a 360° strategy development
Nelvana handles the rights for the Beyblade phenomenon.
Their objective is to increase this property in
2012, 2013 and beyond. 10 years ago, Beyblade took
the world by storm. Over 80 Million Beyblade Tops sold
worldwide. By 2012 it will be launched in 50 countries.
Over 200 partners are now on board and the full merchandising
program was launched fall 2011.
Beyblade is the number 1 boy action brand in Europe
(NPD ePoS Retail Tracking YTD June 2011). The secret
is simple. This brand has key characteristics, which
make it very powerful: TV series with new content,
new Hasbro products, European activities, new online
presence and world championship.
Indeed the 102x26’ TV series is very well broadcast all over the world and the 3 rd season “Beyblade Metal Fury” is
now in production and planned for fall 2012.
Master toy Hasbro innovates constantly with the introduction of a new segment each year in this category with
the respect of the 3C rule “Collect! Customize! Compete!”. They plan to launch new products until 2014. They are
developing products outside of the Beyblade core business: role-play, figurines, board games…
The merchandising program is tremendous. The objective being to maintain and diversify it during 2012, 2013 and
beyond. There is a huge Beyblade website community with over 4.4 Million unique visitors and 5.9 million page
views on www.beyblade.com and also 42,000 fans on Facebook. The World Beyblade Championships will be held
in Spring 2012. Over 30 countries will participate, and one winner from each country will be sent to the World
Championships tournament to compete for the title of #1 Blader in the world. Social Media is a key component of
promoting the World Championship and the content the event will generate. These tournaments help to establish
membership and community.
A leading figure on the toy market,
Mattel develops properties for licensing
The main brands that Mattel develops as licensed products are Barbie, Hot Wheels Fisher Price and recently
Monster High. The dolls were launched in France in March 2011 and sales are already bigger than Mattel’s Disney
Princesses. The brand already has gone beyond the toy world by producing Webisodes content, Panini Magazine
and books as well as licensed products, with many more planned during 2012. They will be sustained by the
release of a DVD for the end of the year period.
Nathalie Albaladejo’s POV - Head of Licensing France
Children are already extremely attached to their toy brands so it’s normal for them to enjoy finding theses brands
in other categories as a continuation of their game environment in their daily lives. Furthermore children love
to have fun and exciting experiences with their favorite heroes. That is why we organize events that enable kids
to experience unique moments, which grant our properties further importance. For instance in November 2011
we organized Barbie workshops in Paris that attracted 6,000 little girls. For little boys we created a Hot Wheels
teem that performs stunts on motorcycles and bikes, which they discovered during the last Kidexpo fair end of
October in Paris. All of these promotions make the toys come to life and we are currently working on all kinds of
fun projects for 2012 to make our brands exist in the world of children.