Hasbro is looking to licensing. entertainment, and gaming to fuel massive growth in profits over the next few years.
During the company’s fall investor day — the first under CEO Chris Cocks — the results of a nine-month strategic review were unveiled. Amid cost-cutting efforts and a drive to do more business from fewer properties, Hasbro says that it can grow its profit by 50% over the next three years.
“Hasbro has many strengths: amazing brands that span generations, a gaming portfolio second to none, a history of play and entertainment innovation led by some of the best teams in the business, and unwavering corporate citizenship,” Cocks says. “Building on these strengths, today we announced a new day for Hasbro with the introduction of Blueprint 2.0. This strategic approach is core to how we’ll continue to bring our strong brands to life for consumers of all ages, and how we’ll manage the business to monetize our intellectual property, drive investments, deliver profitable growth and create shareholder value.”
Select highlights from the event include:
- Major licensing expansion: Basic Fun! will create and produce Littlest Pet Shop toys while LEGO will create a range of Transformers construction sets. Expect additional licensing deals to be revealed involving properties from Hasbro’s vault of intellectual property.
- Direct-to-Consumer (D2C)/Digital Focus: Hasbro says that its D2C business anchored by Hasbro Pulse and D&D Beyond will become a $1 billion business with more than 50 million active accounts by 2027. The company says that it has 20 million accounts at present. New D2C products, including some from the crowdfunded HasLab platform, will join Starting Lineup, Avalon Hill’s HeroScape, and the Hasbro Selfie Series in the months ahead.
- Doubled Entertainment Investments across key toy and game brands, including Transformers, Play-Doh, Peppa Pig, Dungeons & Dragons, NERF, Monopoly, and Clue.
- Development of a B2B Brand Insights Platform to deliver consumer data and analytics to power the creation of new toys, games, and experiences.
- Magic: The Gathering is poised to become Hasbro’s first $1 billion brand. Collaborations with Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed are planned in addition to a 30th Anniversary Edition collectible series for the game.
- Dungeons & Dragons is getting a huge push, including the feature film, Honor Among Thieves, a AAA video game, Baldur’s Gate III, and new toys, collectibles, and games for the whole family.
- Transformers is getting a big push, including a new animated kids show, Transformers: EarthSpark, a new film coming in June 2023, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and an upcoming CGI feature film in summer 2024.
- Action Figure Portfolio Growth is expected behind six films for 2023, including Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3, Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones, and two unnamed titles.
- Preschool Growth will be anchored by Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures.
- NERF Growth: Hasbro expects to expand the brand into new categories and will launch the NERFBALL Sports League next year.
Updated Segment Reporting
Hasbro is updating its reporting segments to better reflect its priorities and growth.
- Franchise Brands will now include Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Hasbro Gaming, NERF, Play-Doh, Peppa Pig, and Transformers.
- Partner Brands remain as they have been, including The Walt Disney Co.’s Star Wars, Marvel, and Indiana Jones brands.
- Gaming Portfolio: Hasbro says it intends to continue to disclose revenue for the full gaming portfolio and will add operating profit. The company also intends to begin reporting revenue associated with any brand that is $1 billion or greater, beginning with Magic: The Gathering.
Financials:
Hasbro will release its Q3 2022 earnings on Oct. 18. Ahead of that, the company offered a long-term outlook to 2027, including plans to reach at least $8.5 billion in revenue, expand operating profit to 20%, and save $250-300 million annually.
The company says it expects a Q3 revenue decline of approximately 15% but will be flat to slightly down for the year.
