The Toy Association recapped the overall show performance of Toy Fair New York 2019 and revealed the show dates for 2020.
Next year, the show will be held a week later, from Saturday, February 22 through Tuesday, February 25 at the Javits Center.
More than 26,000 professionals from 98 countries attended the largest toy trade show in the Western Hemisphere, where they got a sneak peek at hundreds of thousands of toys and games spread out across 447,300 net square feet of exhibit space. The show hosted the equivalent of nearly eight football fields filled with toys during its four-day run from Saturday, February 16, to Tuesday, February 19.
From veteran brands to first-time exhibitors in the Launch Pad section of the show, Toy Fair’s 1,038 exhibiting companies unveiled new product lines and showcased key drivers in front of 8,300+ mass and specialty buyers, including delegations from more than 3,000 unique retail outlets and 22 of the nation’s top 25 toy sellers, such as Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, Kohl’s, Costco, Best Buy, Walgreens, Disney Store, A.C. Moore, and Michaels Stores. In addition, licensing executives from NBCUniversal Brand Development, Netflix, Nickelodeon Consumer Products, Marvel Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. Consumer Products, and others were also on-site to scout trends and forge licensing agreements with toymakers.
More than 10,600 retailers, wholesalers, entertainment executives, importers, and buying groups attended Toy Fair. The top five countries represented at the show, not including the U.S. and Canada, were China, the UK, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Japan.
In addition, Toy Fair New York welcomed nearly 1,000 print journalists, broadcast reporters, YouTube influencers, and bloggers to report on the top toy-trends of 2019 – including Unboxing 2.0, Compound Crazy, Throwback Toys, Foodie Fun, Inspirational and Aspirational Play, and Explosive Entertainment. Top-tier media outlets represented at Toy Fair included ABC News, Bloomberg, CNBC, NBC, NPR, CBS, FOX, Good Morning America, Yahoo! News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, New York Post, HuffPost, Associated Press, Forbes, Good Housekeeping, Inc.com, Parents, Wirecutter, and influencers Stephen Sharer, Ninja Kidz, and ThatYouTub3Family, among others. Beyond the walls of the Javits Center, the social media world was also buzzing with Toy Fair news. On opening day, Toy Fair was a trending topic on Twitter. Over the course of the show, #TFNY had 191 million impressions, and was used in more than 97,000 posts across social media.
Participants also enjoyed more than 30 educational sessions, covering global safety standards, new toy trends, licensing, global trade and market expansion, and more. In addition, thousands of Toy Fair registrants participated in roundtables, presentations, and workshops focused on helping the creative community succeed through an expanded Creative Factor educational series, guided by a Creative Factor Advisory Board.