Page 14 - Toy & Hobby Dec-Jan 2020
P. 14

AUSTRALIAN TOY ASSOCIATION
REFRESHED AWARDS
Revamped and ready for 2020
THE Australian Toy Association has opened the entries for the coveted Product of the Year Award.
As reported by Toy & Hobby Retailer, the award is now judged on a retrospective basis and will assess the year's toy successes.
Entries for the Product of the Year Award are open to Toy Fair exhibitors only and will close on Friday 20 December 2019.
The Product of the Year Award is segmented into 15 categories and all entries will be eligible to win the overall Product of the Year.
ATA executive manager Alice Sanderson and ATA president Jonathan Zimbler discuss the changes to the awards and provide you further insights into the refreshed approach to the program.
Imogen: The ATA has previously received feedback on the old awards program – what was some of the feedback?
Alice: I think we’ve been getting feedback for quite a while – just bits and pieces here and there – and I suppose with the old awards being predictive there’s no real, ‘this is why.’ There’s
no data, no fact there, so it’s all really just a guessing game.
So with a fresh board and fresh management of the ATA we went, ‘ok let’s stop talking about it, let’s do it.’
Jonathan: We’ve gone the way that America has been doing it and the United Kingdom’s been doing it for some years and they’ve been successful with it so we’re prepared to give
it a go.
Alice: Yeah. And our Licensing Awards are retrospective, so it’s in line with those as well.
Imogen: What has the response been to changing the awards to a retrospective basis?
Alice: The feedback that we’ve had so far is mainly positive. A lot of them have said, ‘this is a good idea. This is the way we should be doing it.’ So it’s good. It is a huge decision, because we’ve been doing it forever [like this].
Jonathan: We just want to stop the controversy and that’s the only way that we can see to do
it. I don’t think there will be that many people who will be sad about losing predictive awards to be quite honest with you.
There’s real approval out there for the changes, there really are. It’s been done for all the right reasons.
Imogen: Was there unanimous agreement from the board?
Alice: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.
Imogen: How will the awards be judged? It is
only on sales?
Alice: Sales is part of it, but it’s also
value of play, it’s the uniqueness of the product and it’s marketing and promotion – and that’s not the budget spent but
how they’ve done it. Sales data will
have to have a part to play. We’ve
got the due date now in December
so we’ve got time to pass the submissions over to the judges and they can actually look at it and assess it prior to seeing
the product.
14 TOY & HOBBY RETAILER NOVEMBER / DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020


































































































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