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State of the<br />
Industry<br />
EVA LORENZ,<br />
Category Leader,<br />
Amazon <strong>Toy</strong>s & Games<br />
Record numbers of shoppers used mobile<br />
devices to make holiday purchases in 2015.<br />
How will you address the needs of mobile<br />
shoppers this year?<br />
During the 2015 holiday season, nearly 70<br />
percent of Amazon.com customers shopped using a mobile device. In<br />
fact, Amazon.com customers shopping on the mobile app more than<br />
doubled. On Cyber Monday alone, Amazon.com customers ordered<br />
more than 23 toys per second from a mobile device. During the 2015<br />
holiday season, we made it even easier for mobile shoppers to discover<br />
and take advantage of great deals from Amazon. Amazon introduced<br />
more than 150 hand-picked Lightning Deals only through the Amazon<br />
mobile shopping app available on Android, iOS, and Fire OS. Thanks to<br />
the new “Watch A Deal” feature, holiday shoppers could pick the deals<br />
they were most excited about and receive a notification to their mobile<br />
device when the deal was live. With this new feature, Amazon customers<br />
could effortlessly take advantage of deals throughout the day and while<br />
on-the-go. In addition, Prime members in more than 20 metro areas<br />
could use the dedicated Prime Now mobile app to enjoy free two-hour<br />
delivery on select Deals of the Day throughout the 2015 holiday season.<br />
Did the popularity of Star Wars toys drive additional, non-Star<br />
Wars toy sales in the fourth quarter? What are your expectations<br />
for Star Wars toy sales in <strong>2016</strong>?<br />
In 2015, Amazon.com celebrated May the Fourth and Force Friday<br />
by offering customers access to a new, one-stop shopping destination<br />
for the classic and celebrated Star Wars franchise. <strong>The</strong> Star Wars Store,<br />
available at amazon.com/starwars, features toys, collectibles, media,<br />
entertainment, fan memorabilia, and much more. Customers can find<br />
a wide selection of new toys and games, including products only available<br />
on Amazon.com. It’s clear that Star Wars has an enduring popularity.<br />
Sales of Star Wars items on Amazon.com more than doubled in<br />
2015 and we expect the momentum to continue into <strong>2016</strong> with a new<br />
Rogue One selection launching in December.<br />
What categories drove sales in 2015?<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were a number of toy trends that emerged last year, including<br />
products related to the latest entertainment. Paw Patrol and Star<br />
Wars were among the most popular. Construction also continues to be<br />
a popular category as building sets evolve and include programmable<br />
technology, such as the Meccano Meccanoid. <strong>The</strong>re were several innovations<br />
introduced in 2015, including the Ozobot and Osmo Gaming<br />
System for iPad. Newly launched interactive play toys, including Fisher-Price’s<br />
Bright Beats Dance & Move BeatBo, also generated a lot of<br />
excitement among Amazon.com customers throughout 2015.<br />
MAUREEN SMITH<br />
Senior Vice President,<br />
U.S. Marketing, Hasbro<br />
How have consumer expectations<br />
changed over the past few years?<br />
Our consumers are engaging with<br />
content across more platforms than ever<br />
before, and they’re looking to connect<br />
with their favorite brands and characters<br />
in a wide variety of mediums: mobile games and apps, streaming<br />
entertainment, social expression, in-person experiences, and<br />
much more. We’re constantly evolving our brands and characters<br />
and deepening their stories to bring engaging and immersive<br />
experiences to life and ultimately reach kids and families wherever<br />
they are consuming content.<br />
As technology rapidly evolves, we’ve seen that consumer expectations<br />
do, too. Today’s kids are technologically and digitally<br />
savvy, and we strive to create products that fit their lifestyle by<br />
integrating better technology and more intuitive features that<br />
deliver enhanced play experiences.<br />
Record numbers of shoppers used mobile devices to make<br />
holiday purchases in 2015. How will you address the needs of<br />
mobile shoppers this year?<br />
As third-party reviews and recommendations become some<br />
of the most impactful paths to purchase, we continually work<br />
directly with retailers, online influencers, and editorial review<br />
sites to ensure in-depth, unbiased assessments of our products<br />
to help consumers make the most informed decision before<br />
purchase, and make that information available wherever they’re<br />
researching products.<br />
In what new ways do you use social media to correspond<br />
directly with consumers?<br />
Social media remains one of our strongest mediums to connect<br />
directly with our consumers, and have an ongoing conversation<br />
with fans. We use our social channels as a tool to break news<br />
as well as a platform to offer exclusive content and engaging experiences<br />
for our consumers. We’ve even used social media as a<br />
way for our fans to have a say in the features of certain products,<br />
like the fan-voted property spaces on our 2015 Monopoly Here<br />
& Now U.S. Edition board and our new 2015 Transformers Fan-<br />
Built-Bot Combiner, Victorion. Beyond our owned and operated<br />
sites, we also connect directly with influencers to create unique<br />
and tailored Hasbro brand experiences for their audiences on<br />
their platforms, whether that means inspiring YouTube challenges<br />
or unboxing videos, creative Instagram photos, live Periscope<br />
streams, in-depth blogs, and more.<br />
62 THE <strong>TOY</strong> BOOK | FEBRUARY <strong>2016</strong> | <strong>TOY</strong>BOOK.COM
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