While Hasbro releases cartoon toy lines in many waves to help store shelves stay stocked, like in the first three years of the Cyberverse show/line or the Robots in Disguise show/line, they have front loaded movie lines in the past, both in terms of the amount of product in the first wave and the amount of different toys in the first wave. You can see an example of this below for the Age of Extinction movie line. The pandemic has definitely changed things with disrupting distribution of both movies and their toylines. Hasbro has been burnt in the past with Snake Eyes and it seems the disruption for the Rise of the Beasts Transformers movie has left a real bad taste in their mouth since they had to re-align their distribution approach and keep many toys stored in warehouses.
So, according to an interview with Hasbro’s VP of EMEA and Asia, Marianne James, those big movie lines or big marketing pushes will be distributed in multiple waves instead of a big push to have all classes and many toys available all at once. That will be easier to manage for them. Of course, we are just talking of big movie lines and big marketing pushes for kid targeted toys.
This is unrelated to Legacy/Studio Series lines which already adhere to the slow trickle wave model.Tried and tested models still have their place, especially when you’ve got a Consumer Products program that leans on core pillars like toys and games. What is interesting now is that we can test and learn. Instead of dropping products based on seasons, we’re now looking to where a rollout could be more relevant to a culture in one of our specific markets.
If the content is pushed back and we experience a delay at retail, or there are problems getting product on the water, it’s better to be flexible and have a softer, more phased-out launch instead of using a big, all-encompassing 360 strategy.
This is especially important for Hasbro’s “vault” brands such as Transformers, Peppa Pig, and My Little Pony, which exists in highly competitive toy categories, most notably preschool. To have a major rollout fall flat due to timing problems is not an option, so the company is expanding its arsenal of marketing and engagement tools.
From
Kidscreen
