The Toy Association’s Greg Ahearn talks inventors, innovation and new initiatives

At this year’s New York Toy Fair, Greg Ahearn – CEO & President at The Toy Association – spent time with the International Media Delegation to discuss tariffs, inventor engagement, new initiatives and more. Here are some key takeaways from that conversation:

On the past 12 months:
It has been an amazing year, filled with accomplishments, issues, challenges and change. Through it all, The Toy Association has continually lived up to its mission.

On the impact of tariffs:
The tariffs brought something to our industry – and every industry – and it’s the hardest thing to deal with: uncertainty. Uncertainty is the enemy of any business because you become very conservative in your capital expenditure. You become very conservative in how you look at your organisation. Maybe you don’t make that key hire that you really needed to make to take your business to the next level… Maybe you become very conservative when it comes to launching that innovative new thing that you think is going to be great, but is a risk. So it creates a level of conservatism for us as an industry and that’s not great. Especially as we’re an industry that thrives on moving forward, creativity and innovation.

When you think back to May, June, July… The reports I was getting from small, medium and large manufacturers was a great pause. They were not making toys because nobody was willing to take the risk while it sat at 145%. Then it drops down to 30% and we now find ourselves now at 20%.

A perfect example of the uncertainty is India. At one point, India seemed to be the most stable option for tariff rate – they were at one of the lowest early on – and some production shifted there because it seemed like the smart move. But all of a sudden, India moves back up to 50% and China moves down to 20%. And we know that shifting manufacturing like that is not a snap of the fingers. So, it’s taught our industry and many others to stay still for a little bit, instead of trying to anticipate where it’s going to go.

Additionally, challenging tariffs was approached on two fronts… The Toy Association working within the administration to lower or exclude tariffs on toys. And companies taking to the courts, with Learning Resources – led by the work of their CEO Rick Woldenberg – ultimately getting a favourable verdict which has landed us at 10%. The work on tariffs continues will continue through litigation for fair refunds and we continue to advocate for no tariffs on toys.

On industry engagement:
We have put action behind our mission and people are feeling, in very tangible ways, that we are working in service to them. Whether it be answering questions, helping them with issues, the weekly tariff meetings, or through rebuilding the muscle of our advocacy group in Washington, D.C and beyond.

Using tariffs as the example, we very quickly created relationships with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Department of Treasury, the USTR, and The White House. We had numerous conversations at the highest level, and we punched above our weight as an industry advocating on behalf of the toy industry. Our efforts have resulted in significant progress, and I think it’s also a little because people understand the intrinsic value of toys and the importance of toys to children.

On new initiative, The Toy Desk:
We are in the most creative and innovative industry in the world, so we cannot be a staid, old-fashioned toy association. We need to be creative and we need to innovate. We have new ideas across the board and here is one of them… As an association, we take on all questions. You have a container that’s stuck, we’ll help you. You don’t know how to work with influencers, we’ll help. You don’t know how to optimize your presence on the Amazon Marketplace platform, we’ll help. Want to know what a TikTok shop is? We can help.

Providing this service is not one of the things we often take credit for – it’s just one of the things we do. But now, we’re organising it under the banner of The Toy Desk. Best Buy has the Geek Squad, right? Think of The Toy Desk as the Geek Squad for the toy industry. It will bring value to every member that has questions, regardless of their size or the complexity of their inquiry.

On how to sell new initiatives and evolutions to the industry:
First and foremost, we have an incredibly talented, experienced, and high-level board of directors. Sharon Price John – our outgoing chair and the CEO of Build-A-Bear – has done a phenomenal job of redirecting and reinvigorating The Toy Association. And now that job moves over to Geoffrey Greenberg, the co-CEO at Just Play. Also on our board are Hasbro, LEGO, Mattel. Spin Master, Disney, Universal, Razor, Sunny Days – big, small, and everything in between.

The reason we have such a high calibre board is that we’re not shy as an association and we will bring up the uncomfortable topics. We’ve had robust conversations on AI and toys, as we should as an industry. And we’ve always come with a plan. It does not help anybody if we walk into a room and say: “Hey, what does everybody think?” We come in with very pointed questions to get the conversations on the right path, quickly, and then we will push people towards alignment as best we possibly can.

A great example is the LA previews. The first year that we were visitors there, it was three full weeks. Last year, we had the new Toy Building and it was three weeks. We took feedback and this year; we are working across the global toy industry to align on going from three weeks down to two. You can imagine what it’s like trying to create a more efficient calendar, but it will be two weeks. And that comes from talking with people, gaining alignment, and talking about what the benefits of efficiency are. So trying to create these kinds of evolutions relies on working towards an alignment with the leadership that we’ve got in the industry.

On AI:
The first thing we assessed is safety. That’s a major premise of the Toy Association. That’s our mission and it’s been that way for 100 years. We realise that when AI is carefully done and designed correctly – and has very, very stringent, rigid guardrails – it has potential in the toy space. And there are some products here at Toy Fair that utilise it. So when it’s done right, it has potential for our industry. But if it’s not done right, that’s when it becomes problematic. Say, if a toy is using an open-ended chatbot lacking sufficient guardrails, or is using AI to create a social or emotional bond with a child – trying to replace friendship at a very young age – then we currently believe those toys should not be in the hands of children.

We are working with toy industry leadership on constructing guidelines for the appropriate integration of AI. We want to ensure they don’t get in the way of creativity and innovation, but it cannot come at the expense of safety for the child. That is a non-starter.

On the Association’s engagement with the inventor community:
Back in my old days, I ran Inventor Relations and I know many inventors personally. They are a cornerstone of what makes our industry great. There’s no other way to say it. Some of the greatest toys that have ever been launched within our industry were inventor driven. We need to continue to foster, value and grow that community. How do we do that?

We have People of Play, with the TAGIEs, the inventor pitch, the innovation conference, and the Young Inventor Challenge. We do an incredibly good job there and we will do more. We up the game here at Toy Fair New York. Look at what we’ve done with Creative Factor and its new speed dating format. And we are looking to do more things in LA. We will continue to see inventors as an area of focus for the association.

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