 very quickly in what's coming up next. Well, what's common between Barbie, for a surprise, Hot Wheels, Thomas and France, Mega Bloks, or Uno Scrabble? What is it? Well, besides being iconic and loved toys and games brand, they are all brands from Mattel. Joining us today is Mr. Lokesh Kataria, is the head of marketing and franchise business for Mattel toys in India, taking and talking on the topic, building a kids brand in India in a FISA chat with none other than Neeta Nair, assistant editor impact. And trust me, this subject is very close to my heart. So let's get straight into building a kids brand in India and over to you, Neeta. Thank you, Mithin. So I'm Neeta Nair, I shall be finding all the questions at Lokesh Kataria, head of marketing and franchise India Mattel toys. Hello, Mr. Kataria. Hello, Neeta. Hello, Mithin. Thank you so much for the warm welcome. You know, Mattel owns legendary brands like Mattel said, Hot Wheels, Barbie, Fisher Prize. And these toys from these brands were the stuff of envy even when Mr. Kataria and I were children. Isn't that right? That's right. I used to play with Hot Wheels a lot when I was a kid. I used to have He-Man, I used to have Skeletor. So even master of the universe is our franchise. So Mattel has played a very special and big role since my early childhood, in fact, yes. Absolutely. And yet a lot has changed. Playtime today is completely different from what it was back then. Especially with COVID here, kids are spending their childhood in stuck-in-pore walls and it's only obvious that the way they are being marketed to also changes. So coming to you, Mr. Kataria, I want to understand as one of the biggest brands in this space and also a trendsetter, what has changed in the way you have been marketing before COVID and after COVID? So I think when it comes to the recent events of COVID or pandemic, as we call it. So it has been a big learning for us and I think we have learned a lot, but luckily we were prepared from past three, four years. We've been stressing a lot on capturing the imagination of kids on the digital platforms. I think that preparation came very handy to us and it's not only us grownups, but I think the kids also when they're confined within these four walls, they have resorted back to getting more and more screen time. Now, how do you make that productive for them and not just unproductive screen time as parents like me used to call it or are still calling it that too much of screen time is bad for you, but how can I turn it around into a productive time? How can I make it valuable for them? How can I bring in the sense of that learning that while having fun, while enjoying the content, they can also learn a couple of things about the life, a couple of things about things which are very relevant in their own lifestyle as well as their own future going forward. So I think that's where we found this sweet balance that we struck when it comes to engaging kids on the screen, making them engaged through videos, through apps, through games, through a lot of resources, but also getting them to learn a few of the tricks of the life and how do you develop your own personality? So I think that's the fine balance that we struck. Okay. I don't know, like you mentioned, kids of all age groups today have stuck literally glued to screens. So what is the primary medium of communication for you today? You mentioned digital games and all of that. Can you give us examples of how you're communicating with kids right now and also considering that they have such short attention spans? So I think the biggest platform that we're communicating with them now is so in terms of hardware, it is a mobile phone or a tablet, but when it comes to platforms, YouTube as well as the consumption platforms which are related to video are leading the edge. So, and you need to create an ecosystem around it that everything is connected together. So if a kid watches a YouTube video of let's say a Barbie color reveal product and she has to buy it, then you need to have a link of that back to an e-commerce platform. And on the e-commerce platform, you need to be very, very sure that there is no difference between how you merchandise place stock and price your product is different from how it is done in different platforms. So it has to have a complete ecosystem. You capture them where they are at the moment where they're consuming the content. You make them curious about it because one of the biggest things with the kids is that you don't need to sell them actually. You should not sell them. What you need to do is you need to tell them a story because kids imagination, trust me, I've learned this in past years is much, much better than an adult's imagination. And when it comes to telling a story, it's something that gets them gripping basically. So tell them a story, connect your product to it, give them a reason to understand why should not I have this product or why should I have this product? Let them into a demo of it, maybe let them choose how they want to play with the product, give them couple of virtual simulations, give them couple of reasons for that and then finally direct them to a platform where they can buy it. So that's where I think it's not just one platform but we are creating an ecosystem around all the platforms combining them together and giving them a wholesome experience. It's like you're visiting a hamlet store or you're visiting a Toys R Us store. It should not differ from that, right? There's no reason for us to make that difference. But tell me, have you completely given up on TV and all the mass media platforms? I mean, is the focus completely on digital right now? As of now, yes, since past one year or so we have been focusing 100% on digital and there are reasons for it. Most of the households in India still are one TV household and when you have more and more people in the house it's might not get a 100% chance to watch what they want to. And I'm not saying that the TV ratings are going down but it's much more efficient, it's much more productive and it's much more beneficial for both consumers and the brand to connect them over to medium which is the medium of choice today. So that's why we are focusing all our heroes and energies on digital today. Okay, like I was mentioning earlier, play time is very, very different today and especially when you compared it to what it was last year. Mental health of kids is a very, very important factor to consider. So tell us, how are you addressing that aspect? So I think this was something that we realized even before the pandemic started that the rising screen time consumption of kids and is making them stay at home more and more rather than going out of those but then suddenly boom this thing came in wherein the kids were forced to spend 24 hours within those four boundaries of the four walls. And hence we came up with this project that was already in works which we call it as Playroom and which we actually brand is at, plays never cancel. So we provide a lot of resources for kids, parents and caregivers online on a platform that is neutral of any hardware, any software, any operating systems that's a web platform for them to explore, find and choose things that they would love to do. Now, if it was just purely an academy exercise I think you're not really helping them to come over the kind of mental stress that they're going through it is something that they have fun with something that they're engaged in and something that connects back to their old stories with their friends. So I know a lot of kids in my housing society and few of them are really naughty they would put a hot wheels car on the roof actually through a drainage pipe and we'll just watch it having fun because they pull it from the top and it comes down from the bottom. So it's like a natural track set for them. Now, if you were to remind them that this can be done virtually, imagine how excited a kid would be that he is not with his friends but he's still reliving those memories. So we're putting a lot of resources that was just an example where a kid can from coloring pencils, printing out to go back up to building their imagination or maybe construct a car of their own choice. So these are the resources we are making it available for the kids so that they can come over with those kind of one is the fear of missing out that I'm not meeting my friends, second is the mental stress that I'm locked up in a house with my parents, my dad is working in a separate room, my mom is working in a separate room, I'm all alone. So I think this is challenging for kids particularly and we've been taking care of that for providing the resources online. Okay, also a very important factor is communication is great but the actual sales, the point of purchase is a very important aspect in this whole scenario. Tell me a good amount of purchase used to happen because the kids visit to malls they would see your toy and they would pester their parents to go and buy it for them. So now that's not going to happen especially when I don't know how many malls. So how do you think you're going to compensate for that kind of an experience? Is there something you're doing online that can completely take over? So we've been doing this in works for past three years in fact, and it just went into a fast forward mode since last March or so. The core thinking over here is that when you call it Omni channel, Omni channel means you need to be Omni present across all channels. So there is no reason for me to give to a child that the Hot Wheels car which is displayed in the family store will look different from what it is listed on Amazon. And as I said, merchandising, stocking up, product pricing have to be absolutely same. The feeling of that touch and experience in a store needs to be replaced on an online virtual environment and we're working towards it by creating more and more interactive demos as well as unboxing videos and giving them more and more details about it. So the dynamic, more the dynamic content is more the engaged children are. And I think it is impossible to do that but it is possible to reach that 99% of perfection wherein you compare with a physical touch and feel to an online view telling our show and tell kind of a thing. So that's what we're doing. We have enhanced our capabilities across all digital marketing spaces including the ones which are offering the marketplaces solutions. We have enhanced our capability in terms of how kids actually experience it through proxy play. So if you're doing, if I were to invite few influences to open my products, let them do a pretend play and show it to the people who are looking at it. I think the kids over there on the other side of the screen start understanding what kind of product they need to expect when they order it. So it's basically putting in the only channel strategy and giving them every experience that they would have in a toy store when they go out. So this influencer part is really, really interesting. And especially in the West, it had really taken off. I remember saying this kid, I think Ryan Toys he goes on his YouTube channel. He has 25 billion views on his page. I mean, I can't even imagine the kind of influence these kids have. So tell me, is that something that you want to actively chase this kid influencer aspect of it? How much importance are you going to give it? Yes, we need to actually, what we're doing is basically we're trying to understand who are the biggest kid influences in India. And so the Indian space in terms of kid influences is nascent when compared to the West. Ryan, as you talked about, is a kid from Canada and he really has 25 billion plus views on YouTube but he's one of the biggest influences around the globe. But his popularity in India is not as compared to what is there in the other parts of the world. So we're trying to create that ecosystem of influences in the country and we are trying to build it. India is still behind it, but we're not at the place we should be with such a big population of kids. But what we're trying to see is how you can nurture those people, how you can nurture that talent to make them hit big as other people have done. So yes, influences is an important strategy within the digital marketing strategy of us because it just doesn't give you an experience of selling the product but also gives you an experience of holding and trying the product itself. So product trials are big with influences. Unboxing, yeah. Unboxing, that's right. Tabloids, and there was also this very interesting thing that I saw for Barbie globally in one of your markets abroad. You know, where they used to monitor everything that a girl child is doing from the time she wakes up in the morning till she goes to bed. And based on that experience, they realized that girls are majorly into gaming. So they developed this app, you know, for gaming, especially for girls and then they would promote everything Barbie on it. So is there a very innovative approach of this kind specific to Indian market that you're coming up with? So we're trying to replicate it and it's still in the works right now. What are you calling about the day in the girl child? Basically, how a day goes and it's not only about girls. We have done it across all the genders, across all the age groups. So when a kid and the age group of three to five to eight or eight to 12 and he or she wakes up and when he or she comes back to the bed, what all activities? Because Mattel as an organization is a legendary brand which believes in IP and our franchisees are world-class iconic, as you say. So it's not just about the toys. I imagine if a girl is a fan of Barbie she would love to have a backpack of that. She would love to have a pencil box of that. She would love to have a dress of that. So for us, it becomes a complete 360 degree solution which we call as a franchise solution often to our consumers. We could not cater to all but there is a big use world of licenses that we have that does this. So we're trying to do that in India also. We started the process to take a step towards that direction. It might still take a little bit of time. Things are different right now compared to what it they were a year ago but there is obviously something that we're trying to work on. And also as we know the target audience may be children but a big part of it is influencing parents and who have multiple dilemmas of labor. They're working from home. They have to manage their kids' classes. They're cooking, cleaning everything. So I think they'll give an arm and leg to ensure that their kids are occupied. And at the same time, I think they also want to ensure that the products that they're playing with, the kids are playing with is safe. So how are you striking a balance and how easy or difficult is it to convince the parents of today? According to you. I think if you talk about the grown-up kids and when I say grown-up kids, it's not actually plus 12, sorry, from our perspective, from an age group of five onwards, the kid starts taking his or her own decision what toy to buy. And then from that point onwards, it's 90% of Pesta purchase rather than Indoch purchase. So what you have to do is you have to convince the parents from the second point of the question is that you are a quality standard that a parent should be convinced about and they should leave their kids with that toy without being worried about their own safety. I think that's where the 75 years of our glorious history comes into play. That's where our expertise comes into play. We are one of the most safe toy making organization in the world. So convincing parents on the other side, I think it's going the other way nowadays. So I read a report last year which was published online that nowadays kids are actually influencing parents to buy a lot of consumer durables, cars, as well as different things which they need for home. So we are competing with the likes of Toyotas of the world or you name it from an LG's or Samson's of the world. If parents are buying the endorsement of kids, then kids also need to convince parents to buy those toys. So I think we have about 25 to 30% of our efforts going into parents. We call it as gatekeeper marketing, which helps us push that kind of pressure that we gave on the faster marketing. Okay, and one last question. There's never bad time to empower people and the sooner the better, as they say. Informative years go a long way in determining their thoughts. So tell me like the Barbie dream gap initiative in 2018 where they use Barbie as a role model fight against injustice and all of that. Are there any efforts you guys are taking up to ensure a body positivity among kids or gender equality or anything to that effect right now? So there are two parts to it. Dream gap project, which was kicked off globally in the US actually has a very inert insight to it that the way you bring up kids, whether if it is a boy or a girl, there are different standards that the parents unintentionally have in their mind. So the idea or the insight was that girls are never pushed out to take engineering as a career or an astronaut as a career. And there are enough statistics available around the world that how many astronauts are women, how many politicians are women, how many physicians or physicists are women. So in that way, dream gap project kicked off saying that when the child grows up, you start unintentionally discriminating between the choices that they should make or what you should push them to make. We launched that project in India also and we've been working very closely with one of the NGO partners in Maharashtra, wherein we activated through school, I mean, invited all the parents and through various engagement activities, we told them that this is something that you do unintentionally, nobody is blaming you. This is something that you have to realize before you do it. And I think we were glad to convince a few parents over there who actually promoted their kids to go and their girl child is actually to go and pitch for the NASA competition globally and one of them actually got a citation as well. So I think these are the small things that start making difference. And from a body positivity perspective, from a more acceptability perspective, I think we took that step about six years ago and we have a range of those that doesn't only talk about body positivity, but also the skin tone positivity or the neutralness of what we promote to our kids. But kids as the age of under the age of eight and seven, the way they are molded is not through the toys, but through the interaction they have through their social contacts. So we've been working on that level also. We've worked with Harvard, we've worked with a lot of universities around the world where we want to understand where, what are the differences that a toy can make while children play with it? I'm sorry, it was hard to think, it's not hard to, but what is the difference that a toy can make when it gets placed with it? Does it impact their understanding? And yes, it does. So it is a great medium for us and we take a lot of pride and pleasure in doing it. That's amazing, Lokesh. I mean, more power to you. And like we were discussing, I think a lot of parents would be very eager to get their children off their back while they're diligently working from home. And after this discussion, I'm sure they're going to look up to Mattel to provide solutions to safely engage their children with while they're working. And I hope you've come top of class as far as that expectation is concerned, Lokesh. Thank you so much, I take it. Thank you so much for joining us.