Most Viewed TDmonthly Magazine Stories (Past 3 Months)
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How to Research, Patent and Pitch Your Idea So you want to invent the next great idea? One thing to keep in mind: “Do what you love, and write what you know,” or so I have been told...
8/1/2010
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Careers in Toy Design: Freelance vs. Full Time Almost everyone in toy and entertainment design asks himself at some point, “Should I work full time for a toy company, or freelance and start my own thing?”...
Designing and Submitting Toy Inventions I once pitched an idea for a wearable racetrack to a toy company. I thought it would be a great fit. It wasn’t. Turns out the product wasn’t themed correctly and the cost was too high. Luckily, I was able to talk with the manufacturer and redesign and simplify the product, and then execute a viable idea for the company that would fit...
9/1/2010
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How to Prove You're Really "Green" Being “green” isn’t as easy as it used to be. At the retail level, extreme caution is now taken as large retailers are increasingly being scrutinized...
9/1/2010
Most Viewed TDmonthly Magazine Stories (Past 12 Months)
Lead and Testing Under the CPSIA If you’re a toy manufacturer, you know the regulatory landscape for your business was dramatically altered in summer 2008 with the enactment of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)...
Designing and Submitting Toy Inventions I once pitched an idea for a wearable racetrack to a toy company. I thought it would be a great fit. It wasn’t. Turns out the product wasn’t themed correctly and the cost was too high. Luckily, I was able to talk with the manufacturer and redesign and simplify the product, and then execute a viable idea for the company that would fit...
9/1/2010
2.
How to Prove You're Really "Green" Being “green” isn’t as easy as it used to be. At the retail level, extreme caution is now taken as large retailers are increasingly being scrutinized...
How to Research, Patent and Pitch Your Idea So you want to invent the next great idea? One thing to keep in mind: “Do what you love, and write what you know,” or so I have been told...
8/1/2010
5.
Careers in Toy Design: Freelance vs. Full Time Almost everyone in toy and entertainment design asks himself at some point, “Should I work full time for a toy company, or freelance and start my own thing?”...
7/1/2010
6.
Patents in the Toy and Game Industry: Part 3 Sometimes, rights to exclusivity are simple to enforce. In a straightforward case, an infringer may simply not be aware of the patent...
Patents in the Toy and Game Industry: Part I The commercial success of iconic toys and today’s hottest-selling electronic games is helped or hindered by intellectual property (IP). In the United States, IP rights include trademarks, copyrights and patents. Each has an appropriate role in protecting toymakers from unscrupulous imitators...
4/1/2010
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Event Marketing Guru’s Corner: Connect ... Or Be Disconnected! One of the most critical mistakes booth staffers make at trade shows is failing to engage attendees who pass by and make any eye contact (whatsoever), whether they seem interested or not...
4/1/2010
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Event Marketing Guru's Corner: Copywriting Skills for Success, Part II After business stationery, a brochure is often the next item that businesses develop and print. While some may think of a brochure as an informational piece, good copywriting can turn it into an important sales tool...
3/1/2010
11.
Lead and Testing Under the CPSIA If you’re a toy manufacturer, you know the regulatory landscape for your business was dramatically altered in summer 2008 with the enactment of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)...
Event Marketing Guru’s Corner: Harvesting Leads for Sales In TDmonthly Magazine’s July issue, Part I of this article series covered setting measurable objectives and creating a lead system that will allow event staff to collect the right information in preparation for follow-up with potential clients...
8/1/2009
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TDmonthly Goes Inside ... Sideshow Collectibles Unlike other manufacturers who rely exclusively on laser scans and digital-wax outputs to create character likenesses, Sideshow Collectibles still hires artists to individually sculpt 90 percent of the faces and bodies for its action figures and collectibles...
8/1/2009
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Event Marketing Guru’s Corner: Harvesting Leads for Sales According to the Center of Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), “91 percent of decision–makers prefer to make purchasing decisions at exhibitions,” versus any other marketing medium. If that’s the case, why are tradeshows under such scrutiny...
