In an all-out assault on Europe for the 2012 holiday shopping season, American toy-maker Hasbro is re-launching a number of its classic toy lines and making a big licensing push at Brand Licensing Europe in London from October 16-18.

In the US, Hasbro recently re-launched its classic Furby brand, the quirky mechanical creature "with a mind of its own" that caused a sensation some fifteen years ago. The updated version uses a blend of robotic engineering and digital programming "that brings a whole new way to play to kids," said Samantha Lomow, Hasbro's SVP, New Brand Franchises and Global Brand Leader. "The personality of each Furby appears to evolve by the way children play with it, and every unpredictable action and reaction helps make each Furby seem unique." 

Now Hasbro bringing Furby to Europe with a wide-ranging licensing program. Get ready for all things Furby, including apparel and accessories, back-to-school supplies, food and beverages, home decor, paper and party goods, and sporting goods. Furby-licensed merchandise will begin arriving this fall in retail outlets in France, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the UK. Hasbro has aggressive re-launch and licensing plans for other toy lines, too.Continue reading...

The tween girl market wields unprecedented economic sway, social influence and digital aptitude. Why do you think Cynthia Rowley's latest brand collaboration is with JCPenney for a tween clothing line? FashionPlaytes, a digital design site aimed at tween girls, is hoping to inspire the next Rowley by giving her a virtual studio, showroom and sales channel to call her own.

The statistics alone speak to the clout of tween girls. According to NPD Group, 73% of girls ages six to eight go online an average of three hours per week, while 92% of girls between nine and 12 are online an average of five hours weekly. And it's not behind their parents backs (well, for the most part), either: “iGen’s parents belong to Generation X, who act as the invisible hand empowering and guiding the $150 billion a year that Tweens influence. The Gen X parent is raising a new type of young consumer that has more independence and financial prowess than any generation of kiddos to toddle along before them.”

Given the role that moms, in particular, take in influencing their daughter's choices — Rowley's dreampop JCP collection was inspired by her own daughters — it took an enterpreneurial mom to see the opportunity that the web provides to create a fashion-centric site for her own fashion-crazed offspring.

Sarah McIlroy, mother of two daughters and a son, started FashionPlaytes after her then five-year-old daughter asked to design her own clothes. McIlroy liked the idea but lacked the technical design skills, so she founded a site for tween girls to dream up their own clothing ideas and have them produced and shipped right to their door, from their own digital design studio.Continue reading...