In a Strategic Shift, Mattel Embraces Open Innovation
Calling all product developers, designers, engineers, inventors, artists, makers, tinkerers, and DIY enthusiasts! I have great news for you. The toy company Mattel is now acceptingyour ideas for new products online. Until recently, submitting an idea to Mattel was a challenge for most of us. You had to have a toy broker represent you or have successfully established yourself as a professional inventor. No more! In a marked shift, the company behind iconic brands like Barbie and Fisher-Price is now reviewing ideas from the outside.
“It is time to reinvent this company because of where the world is headed,” Mattel CEO Margo Georgiadis told Fortune in an interview published in advance of the toy maker’s investor day presentation. Over the past three years, sales have slipped and Mattel has lost market share. To get back on track, the company announced that it intends to “focus and strengthen its innovation pipeline” and reshape operations to become “leaner, faster, smarter” on Wednesday.
Specifically, Mattel intends to significantly speed up its development process. On average, it takes the company about 18 months to transform a concept into a product on a shelf. In today’s fast-paced global marketplace, that’s simply too long. Its new target? Just six to nine months.
As a business model, licensing capitalizes on speed to market. The toy industry has relied on freelancers to supply it with innovative ideas for many, many years now. But in an effort to head off frivolous lawsuits at the pass, industry leaders have largely practiced a limited form of open innovation by relying on intermediaries and maintaining a guarded attitude toward outsiders.
However, that’s changing. In 2015, Mattel partnered with the popular invention crowdsourcing platform Quirky only to have the venture-backed startup go under a few months later. (With a new president at its helm, Quirky is back.) This year, the company teamed up with ABC to launch The Toy Box, a reality television show in which toy inventors compete to have their idea licensed by Mattel. After the season finale aired last month, the winning invention Artsplash™ sold out online and in Toys “R” Us almost immediately. Meaning, it’s a bona fide hit!
That’s no small feat. Hats off to Ryan Stewart, the inventor of Artsplash.
