By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
Spielwarenmesse is celebrating as the Nuremberg toy fair saw a significant jump in attendees and exhibitors this year.
The toy fair at the Nuremberg Exhibition Centre is the largest in the world, and this year took on a greater significance as Toy Fair New York was cancelled, returning next year after a reimagining of the event.
In Germany, however, exhibitors flocked to Spielwarenmesse, with the number of booths climbing 10% over last year to 2,354 exhibitors, from 68 countries, showing off the latest in toy innovation and trends. The fair also delivered for those exhibitors, attracting 57,000 attendees from 125 countries, as well as another 3,000 members of the public who attended an open access day on Saturday.
Exhibitors old and new said the toy fair confirmed the importance of Spielwarenmesse for the global industry.
“The Spielwarenmesse is the one constant to rely on in the current era of the regional and national toy shows working to find their new rhythm,” said Helena Perheentupa, founder of the newly-minted U.S. toy company Wyncor.
Like many other trade shows and conferences, Spielwarenmesse was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but organizers say the event has fully recovered, even while some of the smaller trade shows are struggling to find that rhythm that Perheentupa referred to. A growing number of exhibitors say they consider participation in Nuremberg to be important or very important. This 97% of exhibitors agreed with that statement, as opposed to 95% in 2023.
Just as importantly, 84% of exhibitors this year (compared to 83% in 2023) plan to participate in the Spielwarenmesse again. The next edition of the fair takes place between Jan. 28 and Feb. 1, 2025.
“As the leading trade fair, the Spielwarenmesse is the place where everyone from all over the world meets. You won’t find these opportunities anywhere else,” said VP Ram Ronen of PMI Trading & Enterprise.
As the most international trade fair, many exhibitors and attendees feel its vital to build up business in new markets. “We were able to welcome customers, potential customers and press representatives from all over the world—from New Zealand, Asia, Europe, and the USA to South America—to our stand,” said Paul Heinz Bruder, CEO of Bruder Spielwaren.
Andrea Herre of the Canadian-based toyco Spin Master International agreed, saying “We had all the relevant decision-makers and key accounts meeting us at our stand.”
Some of the success this year is due to the fact that businesses from China have returned to Spielwarenmesse in a major way, after attendance fell during and immediately after the pandemic, said Christian Ulrich, spokesperson of the Executive Board at Spielwarenmesse eG. Also, while Russian companies are absent from the toy fair this year due to that country’s invasion of Ukraine, other nations like Ukraine itself and Kazakhstan are seeing increased participation.
As well, Spielwarenmesse has seen increased attendance from the United States. Perhaps partly due to Toy Fair New York taking a year off, the U.S. was among the top 10 countries in terms of visitors to Spielwarenmesse this year.
Trade show organizers say their survey data shows that more than 90% of exhibitors were satisfied with their participation.
“The Spielwarenmesse is the centre of the toy universe!” explains Jennifer McIver of the Wishbone Design Studio. “We can show our novelties to so many countries all in one place. And we discover the latest trends here, too.” With its key focal themes, the Spielwarenmesse has once again proved itself to be the initiating force for the sector.
“We were particularly interested by the Kidults focus, which we seized on with enthusiasm where new ideas were concerned,” says Fischertechnik MD Thomas Bußhart. With its special area ‘Life’s a Playground—Toys for Kidsters, Kidults & Co.’, an international study and expert talks, the Spielwarenmesse highlighted adults as a target group, offering promising new suggestions for the trade.
“Renowned exhibitors such as Mattel took up the Kidults theme in a big way. And the market figures from market research company Circana also demonstrate that we’ve picked up on the spirit of the age,” Ulrich said.
He adds that a number of events at Spielwarenmesse have grown in popularity, with attendance that is now truly global rather than being primarily attended by European delegates. For example, the annual Disney Group breakfast, and that of Circana, both saw attendees from every corner of the globe.
Importantly for the licensing industry, Ulrich also says licensing has become more prominent at Spielwarenmesse, partly due to the trade fair’s growing partnership with Licensing International and with BRANDmate, a B2B event for partnerships, collaboration and licensing.
That partnership saw content creation specifically for the licensing industry. “The LicenseTalks were a perfect opportunity for us to generate new knowledge,” says Maria Gunderson from the Flops startup company.
Spielwarenmesse also now includes The License Lounge, where major licensors are represented, such as Paramount, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros.
“At the Spielwarenmesse, all the stakeholders are there,” said Martina Vierkötter of Haba, for whom winning the Toy Award in the Baby & Infant category was the icing on the cake. “It’s a great place to have conversations, it put a noticeable wind into our sails and generated various spontaneous meetings.”
Winning the Toy Award in the Teenagers & Adults field brought many visitors to the Fizz Creations stand, too. “We’re very fortunate to be part of this incredible trade fair,” says Caroline Hedges.
Exhibitors’ opinions of the supporting program were every bit as positive as their views on the range of services. For the second RedNight on the Thursday evening, over 100 exhibitors invited interested trade fair visitors directly to their stands. Those with an interest in games were able to cultivate key contacts on the Friday at the second edition of the Internationale Spieleerfindermesse – Game Inventors Convention. Similarly successful was the second Open Day on the Saturday, for which 3,200 consumers flooded into the model railways hall. “With its diversity, its wide-ranging supporting programme and its unique service, the Spielwarenmesse showed again this year that it continues to be the international meeting point for the sector.
The ‘Spirit of Play’ was in evidence everywhere,” said Florian Sieber, CEO of the Simba Dickie Group.
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