Businessweek Extra-Richard Dickson

Mattel Creations was launched in tandem with the brand seventy fifth anniversary and is being led by Mattel President Richard Dixon, who joined us to talk about it and well just to talk about toys. Well, first off, thank you for having me. Sure. I know there's a lot of news happening that should be the fun part of the day. It usually is, but not today, but it is now

that you're here. Well, look, I mean the good news as we try and find it in today's you know, uh challenging times, is that families are obviously spending a lot more time together results of obviously you know, the pandemic, and in fact it's reinforced the importance of play and toys. Um, you know, the whole toy industry has continued to search. We had a great third quarter overall in the industry, and we're incredibly proud of Mattel's performance, which outpaced actually

the overall market. We've been gaining share and ultimately really obviously responding to our consumers and providing the right toys and the right assets, if you will, to occupy during these challenging times at home. What have you seen in terms of trends in terms of the types of purchases people are buying? From my understanding, people were buying barbies, they were buying hot wheels. What what were people buying?

Were there any interesting trends that you noticed in the buying Yeah, well, certainly, again, as I mentioned, the whole industry was up. Almost all categories posted growth and within the Within the industry, of course, as I mentioned, Mattel is leading and in our portfolio, you've just had you know, enormous success with of course, categories like dolls. You know, Barbie has had an incredible run for the year. Uh, you know, great great increases, terrific new product reflecting obviously

diversity and inclusivity, great new toys. The game's piece of our business has also been incredibly successful. You know, obviously families spending time at home using games as a way to occupy their time. You know, the number one card game in the United States. I love you, you know, can I just say love it, love it, love it? Right? But we love hearing that, and many many other people

do love you. You know. In fact, um Uno is going to be celebrating it's fiftieth year, if you can imagine that next year, which we've got a lot of excitement and new new product coming. To keep those new fans going, we play kind of a hubo un version at the beach. My brother has created a version that's just ramped up and it's just a riot. We play for hours. So, um that's good to hear fifty fifty years.

So I do wonder, Richard, do you would anticipate that the trends that you're seeing, Because I'm thinking about the holidays and I'm thinking it's been a rough year and you know, wanted to be a good holiday season. I'm not going to be around a lot of family, um And I do wonder what you anticipate for the holiday season. Well, I'll tell you, um that the toy shopping as we see at the outlook for the fourth quarter is strong. In fact, toy shopping has already been planned earlier than

last year. And with the um you know, a surge with online and e commerce, the ability to shop early is more enticing than ever. Uh. You know, our research shows almost shoppers planned to start holiday shopping even even just before November. And obviously we're already in November, and with everything that's going on with the pandemic, some families are actually planning on making these holidays, you know, truly

extra special for their kids. It's been it's been a really challenging year, uh, four kids in many in many aspects, and I think parents are recognizing, you know that the simple rewards of toys and and fun. So there's there's a lot of h I think excitement around the industry and certainly in the Mattel portfolio for the fourth quarter. Have you well, what's your supply chain been like during

this process? You know, it's an asset Formattel. You know, we we have an incredible group of dedicated people and facilities around the world that have been working. Tires Lee certainly under the current you know, restrictions that have been in place in verious different places, but ultimately working to supply the demand. You know, given that there's been such a great surge uh in the industry and in particular for our brands and toys, our supply chain has been

working incredibly well. And as you know, in any business, it's about execution, and our execution has been really, really terrific. It's been a great year of excellence in performance driven metrics for the company. So in any kind of so, I found that fascinating your supply chain, like so any of the manufacturing that was needed to be done, Um, I'm assuming a lot of it happens outside the United States.

None of that stopped well, you know, we certainly had gaps, but if you look at when the timing of the most restrictions based on where our facilities were, primarily in Asia, that really took place, um at the end of last year and in fact the beginning of this year, if you were called January in February, and and in terms of production, the slow side of our business where we really ramp up in production is uh In in uh In the start of the second half, where restrictions were

lifted and we were able to resume much of the workforce and UH and working patterns. So really from a timing perspective, UM, as odd as it's sounds, it worked favorably in terms of production and supply chain. Hey, one last question that I want to talk about Mattel creation, So working from home? Are your employees working from home?

Can some work from home? What's your take on you know, what's happening in terms of the potential for a hybrid workforce well as as you can imagine, our first priority is our people and has been our people, their health,

their wellness and certainly well being. UM. And I have to tell you just you know, being part of the Mattel community, we really are about collaboration and we've we've we've, of course, like many other companies, had to transition to a work from home environment, you know, using digital first mindsets, tools that we put into place very very quickly, UH and mobilized around the world to accommodate from a technological perspective as well as UM programs to ensure that our

people had the right breaks at the right times, had the right hemily engagement UH. And we've done a lot of great work with that in mind, and ultimately, our our community has been incredibly resilient um and and the results speak for themselves, but we've we've had a really wonderful bonding if you can imagine over the pandemic and uh and the work ethics that have risen because of it.

So does hybrid stick from Mattel, Well, I think it's going to stick, not just for Mattel, but for many companies. I think there is a degree of recognition that, you know, working from home is possible, and as as we sort of moved through whatever the new normal will be, I think they'll be recognition that you can work from anywhere.

But there's also the need to you know, show up work together being an environment where, particularly from Mattel, which is a creatively lead company, where design, development and marketing get together and really look at product and and and I d e uh that in person um arena is still incredibly meaningful and important. And so is social engagement. Uh. You know that's where you get you know, bas and creative.

So you can't replace that all right. Well, speaking about creative ideas, tell us about your new digital platform called matel Creations. What it's all about what you're trying to do here. Well, thank you for asking that question. It's a meaningful new brand for us UM and it's commensurate with the seventy five anniversary for Mattel. This year is

our seventy fifth anniversary. We were started in in a garage, which is of course a great story by itself, but the tie into the name Mattel Creations is because that was the name above the garage door. Uh. And ultimately, when you think of the name Mattel Creations, you imagine working in it are the creators who began our company and certainly set us up on the journey that we

uh that we are enjoying today. So to honor that legacy, we launched a new brand called Mattel Creations and it is an e commerce content platform that's going to feature really incredibly exciting collector products um from designers, both designers that you know and designers that you will know, because we're gonna be launching them on matel Creations. Taking our products and we have over four hundred brands at Mattel and inviting designers to recreate them with us. So creating

limited edition much sought after curated collector product scarcity. We know collectors love the hunt and the limited editions, and it will really be um an engine for us that pairs internal creators and innovators outside of Mattel to create new and exciting collectible toys. Is this for the adult population? You know, I think it's well, clearly, you know eighteen plus will enjoy, you know, the curated assortment, But at

the end of the day, they're toys. And depending on know who you are and how much you love, you know, what you see, it certainly can be playable, but it certainly is going to be designed for more of a collector orientation. Limited editions, you know, highly sought after and look,

we've got amazing celebrated designer relationships traffic. Scott has worked with us with Hot Wheels, Kylie Jenner, recently with Uno, the late Carl Lagerfeld with Barbie and and even recently, you know, Harry Duke of Sussex works with us on Thomas and Friends. So there's an incredible array of pop culture curators that are inspired by our brands and looking forward to the play date for Mattel Creations. So we're Bloomberg. I just have to quickly ask is this expected to

be kind of a productive revenue stream for you guys? Look. Absolutely, you know that one of the fastest growing segments in the toy industry has been the adult collector. And while Mattel has always had a great collector orientation and following in each of our brands Barbie, Hot Wheels, American Girl, this is the first time that we're presenting Mattel as a brand that features all of our brands and drives a collector orientation, which we know is a segment within

the industry that's growing very fast. We believe not only are we going to create a lot of fun for collectors as a community, but this absolutely will be a driving segment for the company. And that wraps up the Bloomberg Business Week Extra podcast with Betel President Richard Dixon on that new digital platform it's called Mattel Creations. Check out more of our favorite conversations. You could find it on Apple Podcast and at Bloomberg dot Com. I'm Carol Masser.