The Toy Association’s 115th North American International Toy Fair took place from Feb. 17 to 20 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. The annual show is the largest attended toy show in the western hemisphere, with 26,236 professionals that were present at this year’s event.
More than 11,000 retailers, wholesalers, entertainment executives, importers, and buying groups from 97 countries attended Toy Fair 2018. The show also had an increase in international trade guest and a large delegations of attendees from outside the U.S., including 3,802 international visitors, of which 1,589 were global buyers. Excluding the U.S. and Canada, the top five countries represented at the show included China, the UK, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Japan.
The 1,049 exhibiting companies showcased new product lines and key drivers in front of 8,775 mass and specialty buyers, including delegations from over 3,900 unique retail outlets and 22 of the nation’s top 25 toy sellers, including amazon.com, Walmart, Target Stores, Kohl’s, American Girl, Costco, Best Buy, Family Dollar, Disney Store, Lego/Legoland Mail Order, and Dollar Tree.
Licensing executives from NBCUniversal Brand Development, Netflix, Nickelodeon Consumer Products, Paramount Pictures, Sesame Workshop, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. Consumer Products, and others were also on-site to scout new trends and forge licensing agreements with toymakers.
In total, 974 global print journalists, broadcast reporters, and bloggers attended this year’s show to report on the top toy trends for 2018. Top-tier media outlets represented at Toy Fair included ABC News, CNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, Fox Business, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, New York Post, Huffpost, Associated Press, Good Housekeeping, Popular Science, Evan Tube, Ryan’s Toy Review, and more.
Toy Fair was a trending topic on Twitter on its opening day, and #TFNY had 6.4 million impressions, while #ToyFair2018 had 4.8 million impressions. On Instagram, #TFNY and related hashtags were used 26,838 times.
The 116th North American International Toy Fair will take place Feb. 16 to 19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. The Toy Association’s Fall Toy Preview will take place Oct. 2 to 4 in Dallas, TX.
