Latest Playingatbusinesspodcast Podcast Episodes
Ep 106 - Board Games: 10 Key Success Factors AKA What I learnt Working On The Best & Worst Selling Games Of All Time
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - February 22, 2024 13:54 - 24 minutesIn this latest episode host Steve Reece shares 10 Key Success Factors for Board Games based on decades working with and on some of the most iconic Games of all times, including Hasbro's stable of Family Games such as Monopoly. Clue/do, Risk, Game of Life and many more. Unusually Steve also ackn...
Ep 105 - Spielwarenmesse 2024 Toyfair Review & EU Toy Market Outlook For 2024
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - February 15, 2024 15:31 - 26 minutesAnother Spielwarenmesse Toyfair in Nuremberg has been and gone. This episode reviews this years show, and based on conversations at the show and market data released at this time gives an analytical outlook on the key drivers and trends of the European Toy market for 2024. Sign up for our ...
Ep 104: 2024 Global Toy Market Outlook, Another Year Beckons
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - January 05, 2024 15:03 - 30 minutes2020 and 2021 were unexpectedly boom years for the Toy business overall as locked down families invested out of season in play activities for their homebound children. 2022 and 2023 were significantly worse years for the Toy trade. The question now is what happens in 2024? Host Steve Reece talks...
Ep 103 - Why Product Selection Is Critical For Toy Companies (AKA Why I Turned Down Settlers of Catan)
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - November 29, 2023 15:56 - 19 minutesIn this episode we take a look at how choosing the right products to launch is the fundamental success factor for Toy & Games companies. Host Steve Reece uses an example of when he turned down a now famous & massively successful product as an example of how sometimes turning away good products i...
Ep 102: Selling A Toy Business: How Mergers & Acquisitions Work In The Toy Biz
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - October 24, 2023 18:16 - 19 minutesMany companies in the Toy business grow via acquisition. Company owners often want to sell up and retire or move onto other pastures. In this episode we take a look at some of the biggest Toy acquisitions of all time, we look at why and how Toy Cos are bought and sold and we discuss the details ...
Ep 101, How To Run A Successful Tech Toy Start Up With HoloToyz
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - September 26, 2023 10:42 - 42 minutesIn this latest episode host Steve Reece talks to Kate Scott & Declan Fahy, the Founders of Holo Toyz. Their company aims to inspire creativity and imagination via augmented reality technology. Kate stated "At our core, we believe that children should be able to experiment, play and learn throu...
Ep 100 - How To Recruit Good People & Find New Job Roles In The Toy Business
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - August 08, 2023 11:23 - 27 minutesJoin Steve Reece in a deep dive into the toy industry's recruitment nuances. Drawing from over a decade as a consultant, Steve unveils key strategies for companies to recruit effectively and tips for candidates to land their ideal roles. Whether you're hiring or job-hunting, discover invaluable ...
Ep 99, Gift & Hobby Distribution Channels
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - June 22, 2023 16:00 - 16 minutesGuess what – people have been buying Toys for adults for a very long time. Even though the ‘Kidult’ thing is the big thing nowadays, hobbyits sand people buying Toyetic gifts for adults have been around for a long while. Listen in to Episode 99 as we look at these adjacent areas in more det...
Ep 98 - How The Toy Industry Clears Excess Inventory
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - June 14, 2023 12:55 - 26 minutesA few episodes back we looked at why excess inventory is so dangerous - in this episode we move on to look at the practicalities of how our industry manages excess inventory, where they sell it, how it works and some major banana skins to watch out for when selling clearance stock! Our bu...
Ep 97 - Unchanging Fundamentals Of The Toy & Game Business
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - April 12, 2023 19:44 - 18 minutesWe are living through times of massive change and disruption. Technology is advancing at a frighteningly quick rate, and the very fabric of society has been changed by our adoption and development of new technologies. However, despite that there are 5 unchanging fundamentals of the Toy & Game...
Ep 96, 5 Characteristics Of Best Selling Toys & Games
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - March 23, 2023 14:52 - 19 minutesThere are some recurring characteristics of best selling Toys & Games. In this episode we run through the 5 most important features. This is not so much creative inspiration as it is a ticklist for new Toy & Games products in development. Our business is a Consultancy to Toy & Games compa...
Ep 95, How To Sell More Toys & Games Internationally
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - March 15, 2023 15:56 - 18 minutesRegardless of which country is your home market, the opportunity outside your borders is greater...in this episode we take a look at some simple ways to significantly increase your export sales of Toys & Games. Our business is a Consultancy to Toy & Games companies. We have worked with mo...
EP94 - 5 Key Tips To Find & Validate New Toy Factories
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - March 09, 2023 14:44 - 17 minutesEp 94 - 5 Key Tips To Find & Validate New Toy Factories In this episode host Steve Reece talks about his experience helping more than 100 Toy & Game companies find manufacturing around the world, and he shares 5 key tips for finding & validating new Toy factories. We look at why most companies...
Ep 93 - Excess Inventory Kills Toy & Games Companies
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - March 02, 2023 13:01 - 17 minutesExcess inventory bleeds Toy & Games companies to death, unless the company makes bold steps to reduce the size of the problem. In this episode we cover in detail the issues caused by excess inventory, why inventory represents a recurring challenge which needs to be constantly managed and we look...
Ep 92 Spielwarenmesse-Nuremberg 2023 Toy Fair Review
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - February 15, 2023 19:08 - 19 minutesThis episode reviews the 2023 Spielwarenmesse Toy Trade show in Nuremberg. This show is the biggest trade show covering the Toy business in the world. This show marked Steve's 21st visit, and in this episode he talks through how the show went, the outlook for the Toy business in 2023 and much mo...
Ep 92 Spielwarenmesse-Nuremberg 2023 Toy Fair Review
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - February 15, 2023 19:08 - 19 minutesThis episode reviews the 2023 Spielwarenmesse Toy Trade show in Nuremberg. This show is the biggest trade show covering the Toy business in the world. This show marked Steve's 21st visit, and in this episode he talks through how the show went, the outlook for the Toy business in 2023 and much mo...
Ep 91 - UK Toy Fair 2023 Report & UK Toy Market Update...
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - January 30, 2023 14:19 - 13 minutesReport on UK Toyfair 2023, with a short UK Toy Market update based on newly available year end 2022 Toy market performance. Our business is a Consultancy to Toy & Games companies. We have worked with more than half of the biggest Toy companies in the world, as well as 100+ startups and sm...
Ep 90, Global Toy Business Outlook 2023
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - January 19, 2023 15:28 - 22 minutes2022 was a tough year for the Toy business. But finally that's over...now we can look ahead to what 2023 will bring. In this podcast we look at the 4 key factors driving 2023's Toy market: 1. RETAIL INVENTORY LEVELS 2. CHINA'S RE-OPENING 3. INFLATION RATE & CONSUMER DISPOSABLE INCOME 4...
Ep 89, The Future Of Toys Part 4: Toy Manufacturing
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - January 02, 2023 18:34 - 23 minutesThe Toy industry does not spend enough time worrying about available production capacity. For decades we have presumed that we can get our Toys & Games produced from the same old factories in China...but things have changed... ...and the pace of change may be set to accelerate. We discuss what...
EP 88, THE FUTURE OF TOYS: PART 3 - CONSUMERS
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - December 01, 2022 13:01 - 21 minutesIn the third episode of this podcast series we take a further look at The Future Of Toys, this time looking at Toy & Game Consumers. We discuss what areas could see the most change, the areas which will most likely stay the same as well as identifying one massive threat to the Toy industry an...
Ep 87, The Future Of Toys: Part 2 - Product
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - November 15, 2022 11:35 - 22 minutesIn the 2nd in this series we take a look at the most fun part of the Toy business - Products! Most people who work in the Toy business do so because they love Toys, most of us have a collection of the Products we have worked on around us as we work. The podcast looks at some fundamental factor...
Ep 86, The Future Of Toys, Part 1: Retail
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - November 01, 2022 15:27 - 12 minutesIn the 1st of a series of podcasts looking at the future of the toy business we begin with a look at Retail - how it's evolved, how it affects the toy business today and what future changes we can expect to see. Many fundamentals stay the same, we discuss these key areas in this podcast, but w...
Ep 85, The 5 Hard Learnt Truths About The Toy & Game Biz
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - September 28, 2022 12:50 - 16 minutesHuman beings tend to learn best by making mistakes. In this podcast we look at the 5 big learnings that toy & game people have to make...ideally as inexpensively as possible! There are 5 big areas where toy & games companies can really mess up, listen to the podcast to find out more about what...
Ep 84, LOCALISATION: THE UNDERVALUED SALES DRIVER FOR TOYS & GAMES
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - September 15, 2022 13:33 - 21 minutesLocalisation is normally the poor cousin to the more exciting and glamorous parts of developing a toy or game product and bringing them to market. Yet localisation is a critical functionality and process for maximising the commercial success (or otherwise) of our products. In this episode we l...
Ep 83, The 5 Key Ingredients Of Massive Hit Toys & Games
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - July 20, 2022 17:11 - 13 minutesProducts tend to vary from category to category, but at the heart of any top selling you will normally find most or all of the 5 key ingredients we run through in Episode 83 of the Playing At Business podcast. We discuss successful products such as Spin Master's Paw Patrol ranges, Monopoly boa...
Ep 82, How To Manage A Drop In Consumer Demand For Toys & Games
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - July 13, 2022 17:12 - 21 minutesIt's looking like 2022 is panning out to be a tough year in the toy & game biz! The question is what companies can do in the face of a drop in consumer demand. The reality for most companies is that they have not faced a significant drop in market size, at least not for a very long time. For s...
Ep 81, How To Manage A Toy Company In An Ever Changing World
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - July 06, 2022 10:28 - 18 minutesThe world has changed so much in the past couple of decades. Sometimes the rate of change can be bamboozling...but there are some underlying fundamentals of managing toy & game businesses which haven't changed. Listen to Episode 81 to find out more...
Ep 80, Why Big Toy Companies Morph Into Entertainment Companies
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - July 01, 2022 09:45 - 18 minutesOne of the major trends in the toy business in the last decade or more is the morphing of the major toy companies into cross platform entertainment companies. In this episode of the Playing At Business podcast we take a look at this trend, and we also look at what smaller companies can do to ...
Ep 79, The Key Success Factor For Board Games Is...
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - June 24, 2022 09:27 - 16 minutesThere is one fundamental success factor for board games which is overwhelmingly present in the most successful board games of all time. From Chess to Clue/do, and from Monopoly to Mousetrap, any board game which sticks in the market features this one fundamental feature at the very core of the g...
EP 78, Consumer Playtesting. The Secret Weapon Of Successful Toy & Games Companies
Playing At Business - toy & game business podcast with Steve Reece - June 14, 2022 10:35 - 16 minutesToy & games companies generally don't test their products enough with consumers. We all know how much testing goes into ensuring products are compliant with safety standards, but what about testing to see if they are compliant with functionality, fun and general appeal to kids & their parents? ...
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