Perfect! Now… Brand Manager is one of those job titles that means different things in different places. What does a Golden Bear Brand Manager actually do?
As a Brand Manager, I am the main touch point for all things brand specific! I work really closely with the product development team, the marketing and content team and the sales team to bring everything together. We help facilitate that process from start to finish.

And tell me, Rachel, where does that process start for Golden Bear?
It starts by identifying a gap. It might be our realising we need a new product for a certain recommended retail price, or one that’s going to go to a particular retailer once it launches. And then the fun starts! So you’ve got all the product development, the marketing kicking in, the monitoring of sales and analysing how effective our marketing comms are… Then managing the range portfolio to make sure all the products are delivering from a retail point of view.

An enormous job! And it sounds like it can start in a most embryonic way. In that respect, how is it you look to fill the gap? Do you knowingly prowl around BLE, say, looking at what’s popular?
We’re always on the hunt for new opportunities… Be that in the kids’ arena, or the more sporting arena, perhaps, now that we’ve got our Smart Ball brand. That’s more for the outdoor, sporty, football-related toys and tech. That’s prong one!

And prong two?
Prong two is where we’ve already got licenses within our portfolio. We might be looking to expand the range, or replace all the product lines that are naturally coming to the end of their life cycle…

It’s time for a change?
Right. We might look to fill that gap. Alternatively, a new opportunity might come up because, say, a new retailer comes on board, or there’s a new promotional mechanic to fulfill. In situations like that, we might develop product so we can go to previews and sell in. Other times, it might be that we need a new core line to fit a price point. And that’s where our creative and product development teams start to brainstorm!

That’s great. It’s easy to forget how much art and science there is filling such a specific slot. Let’s talk about one of your newest licensed lines – Supertato. What’s the plot there?!
Supertato is a potato superhero that fights to save the world from his evil nemesis, the arch-villain Evil Pea. Evil Pea is always trying to cause trouble in the supermarket… Supertato must save the day!

Perfect! And something that interests me about this is the age of the property versus the newness of the toys… The book came out in what? 2014? So why is now the right time for this?
That’s right. It’s the first book’s tenth anniversary this year. But in between the book and the toys, the BBC created an animated series. The animated series builds on the books in a way that feels like a really great setup to a toy range. It’s a really natural progression as the next phase within the licensing of the brand.

And presumably the TV show has to have time to bed in? It needs to find the audience and be a hit?
Yes. We knew how successful the books were, and that – clearly – there’s some longevity in the brand. But giving the series a year or two to bed in, as you put it, is also a good thing… The series came out in 2022. But the essential thing is to know the fans are out there and that they’ve been asking for toys. So we look at what’s happening on socials, listen to people and see what they’re searching for. Another important factor is to see if a property’s got a really significant licensor behind it.

Which in this case is the BBC…
Exactly. So we know that there’s terrific support there. Having a CBeebies presence is really important with something like the Supertato brand.

And Golden Bear is a routinely successful partner with the BBC. What else do you do with them?
We do Hey Duggie with the BBC. A couple of our other infant and preschool brands aren’t directly with them, but they’re related – In the Night Garden, for example. It’s under separate licensors but it benefit from that pedigree.

Yes. I think pedigree is a good word for the meshing of the BBC and Golden Bear’s enormously high standards. Now, part of me wants talk about being green! I covered this in an interview with Becs Henshey not that long ago – people can read that here. But Golden Bear is exemplary with its environmental efforts; I’m assuming that’s the case with the Supertato range?
Thank you! I would say that, as a business, we’ve got a really positive outlook. It’s important to us that we’re doing as much as we possibly can to help the environment. So we have our own ‘green team’. They’ve moved us to fabrics and fill-ins within our plush that are made from recycled plastics; recycled bottles. We highlight that on our packaging… If you pick up a Supertato toy, you’ll know – for instance – that 11 plastic recycled bottles were used to help make the toy.

Right. And that’s the toy itself as opposed to just the packaging, which would be easy to talk about just to tick a box…
Yes, the fabrics, the filling… We do look at the packaging side of things as well to help consumers recycle. We’re using recycled materials there, and soy inks. We’ve also moved away from any sort of plastic and wire ties in favour of paper ties to keep product in the packaging while reducing our impact on the environment.

And people can see this for themselves because the first wave of Supertato product is available now, is it not? What’s on the shelf?
We have a talking Supertato soft toy, which is our hero line. You press his superhero belt and he says a range of classic phrases from the animated TV series. He plays the show’s theme tune as well! We also have some smaller soft toys and an Evil Pea. Evil Pea might be an evil character, but it’s a popular one!

Naturally! We need to wrap things up but I have one last question… It’s early days, but how are Supertato toys performing?
It’s very early days, yes; it’s only been online and in store for a few weeks. But we’re really pleased with it! It’s doing well; it’s exceeded our expectations and we’re already looking to develop more product to extend the range.

That quickly?! Wow. How does that work? You just tell the team it’s a hit? “Everyone – to the Bearcave!”?
Ha! We’re geared up to do it quite quickly; we have a crash-critical path…

You got a what-there now? “A crash critical path”? I’m so excited; I don’t even know what it means. Ha!
Ha! It’s just working on a smaller time scale. We can react quickly because we have so many ideas bubbling in the background. If the demand’s there, which it seems to be, we can bring it to market quite quickly. It’s just about looking at the show and the most popular or iconic characters and having conversations about what should be plush, what should be plastic, what should be at the forefront of that range.

Fantastic! Well, thank you, Rachel, for making time for this. Great licence, great range, great partnership! Don’t be a stranger; do come back and give us an update.

The post Rachel Field – Brand Manager for Licensed Products at Golden Bear – on the new Supertato toy range appeared first on Brands Untapped.

PeaKeeBoo is a nature-inspired show centred on Pea, a small, green creature, Kee, a little bird, and Boo, a large, grey boulder-esque character.

Golden Bear will launch the toy line – spanning textured plush, figurines and activity sets – in autumn/winter of 2025.

“With our rich history and knowledge of pre-school licenses we like to think we recognise great content when we see it, and that’s what we saw when we first set sights on PeaKeeBoo,” said Barry Hughes, Managing Director of Golden Bear Toys.

“In addition, the chance to work with the great disruptive team at Toikido was too good an opportunity to turn down. We look forward to bringing fantastic toys to consumers, who will undoubtedly fall in love with the characters as much as we have.”

Will Ochoa, Chief Commercial Officer at Toikido, added: “Golden Bear Toys’ reputation for excellence in toy manufacturing is unrivalled, and we are excited to have them on board as the master toy licensee for PeaKeeBoo. Their innovative approach to toys will greatly contribute to the holistic educational experience we envision with PeaKeeBoo.”

The post Golden Bear signs as master toy partner for Toikido’s PeaKeeBoo appeared first on Brands Untapped.

Golden Bear will create a range of Supertato character plush toys, which are set to hit retail in AW24. Golden Bear is already master toy partner for BBC Studios properties Hey Duggee and Something Special.

“We are delighted to have been granted the rights for Supertato, extending our long-term partnership with BBC Studios,” said Barry Hughes, Managing Director at Golden Bear Toys.

“We were big fans of the original book and love the TV Show adaptation. We can’t wait to get Supertato and Evil Pea toys into the hands of our pre-school superheroes.”

Julie Kekwick, Head of Hardlines at BBC Studios, added: “We are so pleased to have secured Golden Bear as Supertato’s master toy partner.”

Supertato follows the world’s first potato superheroes and is co-produced BBC Studios Kids & Family Productions, BBC Children’s & Education and Tencent Video Productions.

The first series launched in the UK in Autumn 2022 and has consistently ranked as the top show for four to six year olds on CBeebies in the UK.

The post Golden Bear to launch Supertato toys in 2024 appeared first on Brands Untapped.

What’s the road not taken then, Al? If this wasn’t your job, what would you want to have done instead?
Great question… As a young kid, I always had dreams of joining the RAF as a pilot and saving the world. Maybe I watched too many reruns of Top Gun at the time! But as I entered my teens, I really enjoyed two subjects: economics and design. Thankfully, I chose design for which I had a real passion, especially at the start of my GCSEs due to a great teacher.

The right teacher can make all the difference. Growing up, what was your favourite toy or game?
I had a few toys that I remember favourably as a child. The toy that I was most fond of was a 1982 Hotwheels Pontiac Trans-Am. I used to carry it everywhere I went, and remember constantly playing with it on my grandparents’ sofa. I’d treat the 80’s fashion of floral sofa patterns as roadblocks and parking spaces to manoeuvre in and out of. I also loved Centurions by Kenner. Max Ray was my favourite! As I got older, and LCD games became popular, TOMY’s Tronic 3D Shark Attack was another one of my standouts.

Some great answers! And let’s stay with this… We know that, as a child, you used to physically dismantle Tonka Toys and put them back together again… Do you still break things apart to see how they work?
Absolutely. Breaking toys apart to see how they work provides so much insight and helps generate ideas and solutions for future product development. It lets you marvel at the clever, simple engineering that you not only learn from, but also helps you appreciate the intelligence in which the Toy Industry relies on. As the industry is increasingly challenged on pricing and value, learning how products work is an absolute must for all toy designers.

In terms of the industry, your jobs and brands include Hasbro, Golden Bear, Vivid, Mattel, Disney, TOMY… Given that, what advice would you give your younger self if you could?
I’ve been very lucky to work on a variety of amazing products, with amazing people and amazing companies throughout my career. The best advice I’d offer my younger self is to keep practicing your craft. Only do things that make you happy, allow yourself to perform at your very best and always be open to learn and try new things. Also, be grateful to the mentors that provided you with the training, vision and inspiration to get you where you are today.

In terms of your personal creativity, you’ve spoken about how you travel, visit retail and play with your kids. What else inspires you?
I’m a really visual person and embarrassingly, I don’t read as much as I should. Nearly all of my inspiration comes from simply looking at things – whether in real life or digitally – and asking myself the really simple question: is this interesting enough for a child to positively notice?

You’ve also mentioned – very much in passing – your idea book. Tell us about that: what happens when something’s caught your attention?
When I spot something interesting or have a creative brainwave, I take a picture, save a link, write it down, sketch it or make a sound recording straightaway… I have quite a short-term memory! Then I simply show it to my kids for their immediate response.

A stringent filter!
Very much so! And anything that filters through then goes into some further thinking time to see if there’s a product possibility. As I’m getting older, I’m realising the beauty in simplicity and focusing my efforts on how to innovate with straightforward ‘ingredients’. It’s a challenge, but I look at the most loved toys in the world and the simple innovation that always captures the audience imagination and love for toys.

Well, let’s look at an example of that… This June sees you releasing a new line of licensed preschool toys for the Toomies brand. Working with Universal Brand Development, you’re launching Jurassic World items… Chase & Roll Raptors, Spin & Hatch Dino Eggs, a Pic & Push T-Rex… Tell me about these!
There are probably five movies in my lifetime that I’ve been to the cinema multiple times to watch… And Jurassic Park is proudly a part of those five.

I’m with you. Great film. Brilliantly made, fantastic premise and – at the time – the closest we’d ever been to seeing real dinosaurs!
And dinosaurs are such a classic part of a child’s life from a very young age. So when developing this exciting new range, we were finishing our new Jurassic Park line, which expanded our famous eggs into a complete, interactive world. We wanted to define what direction we could take the line down in the future. It was after a conversation with Alpana Virani at UK Toy Fair that an immediate memory of the egg incubator sparked from the first movie. And I just thought, wow, Jurassic World and Hide and Squeak Toomies could be awesome.

To read the full interview on our sister site Mojo Nation click here

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