Travel Thursday: Toronto to New York Best Options

My travel to New York for Toy Fair this year went remarkably smoothly. After traveling to and from New York in mid-February for over 20 consecutive years, I have definitely had my share of snowstorms, canceled flights, delays, and hassles.

Two things made the trip go smoothly this year, and I'm sharing my experience so that others can benefit:

1. I flew on Porter Airlines from Toronto Island Airport (YTZ) to Newark (EWR) and avoided the expense and hassle associated with Pearson International Airport (YYZ). My trip from my home in Riverdale to midtown Manhattan was an amazing 4 hours door-to-door, and my return was about 5 hours.


2. I traveled to and from EWR with Airlink Shuttle. I had a lot of luggage and wanted to avoid the many stairs and escalators associated with taking the combination of airport monorail, NJ Transit, and a cab to my destination in midtown. For $18 each way, it was a wise decision. Even though the Airlink Shuttle made multiple stops, it was still faster and easier than taking the train from EWR, and far less expensive than a $75 taxi.

Web Wednesday: What's Your Type?

A fun article in The Globe and Mail directed me to four simple questions posed in a playful video by the English design firm Pentagram, where "you can finally hook up with the style of print for which you were destined."

According to The Globe and Mail, thousands of enthusiasts have taken Pentagram's What Type Are You? test, searching for the elusive connection between human character and stylized alphabetical shapes.

Visiting the site at www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you, I took the test and learned that my typeface is Archer Hairline, "a modern typeface with a straightforward appearance but one that has tiny outbreaks of elegance and tiny dots of emotion only apparent on closer examination."

Archer Hairline

What type are you?

Marketing Monday: Focus Group Etiquette

Had dinner this week with a friend who works in consumer products marketing for a company that sells products through department stores. The company strives to have great partnerships with their retail customers. For upcoming focus groups where consumer will be comparing competitors' products against this company's products, they have invited their key retail buyers.

I was surprised when I heard about it, and as a marketer who likes to tell the truth to retailers in a controlled way, felt that this was a foolish and very high risk way to go. On the other hand, I recognize that in today's world of social media, successful communication between companies and their customers goes both ways.

What do you think?

Little Sponges

At the Kidscreen Summit in New York today, I attended a great presentation on media development for preschoolers by Stacey Matthias from Insight Research Group. Talking about preschoolers, she accurately pointed out that "For little sponges, all media is educational."

As gatekeepers, parents control the preschool content watched by their kids, and there are three ways they do it:

1. PROHIBIT inappropriate content
2. PERMIT entertainment (to keep their attention)
3. PROMOTE education + entertainment

For success in preschool programming, PROMOTING education + entertainment is key. While a lot of this seems obvious to those of us who work in the industry, Stacey did a great job of distilling and presenting it. I'm looking forward to the remainder of the conference over the next couple of days.

Travel Thursday: Veuillez répondre en anglais

Arthur Frommer's Europe on $XX a Day got me through my Europe backpacking trip when I was in university. I still like reading what he has to say, and enjoyed his recent observations on US entry requirements for foreigners.

"The new Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which went into effect last month, requires that those desirable foreign tourists who are permitted to enter our country without a visa (mainly from western Europe), will nevertheless have to send us an e-mail three days in advance of arrival requesting the right to come (see https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov). Such tourists are presented with numerous questions they must answer, which they can access in any of 20 different foreign languages. If they click the word "French," and receive the French-language translation of the instructions, they are then asked: "Veuillez répondre à toutes les questions en anglais" (Please respond to all questions in English). If they click the words "Spanish", they are asked: "Por favor reponda todo en inglés" (Please answer everything in English). And so on."

Frommer has more to say about it in his blog post. While Canadians visiting the US are increasingly faced with more stringest security requirements, we are fortunately exempt from the need for a travel visa.

Web Wednesday: Text Message Google for Quick Results

Seems that not a lot people know about Google SMS, great service from Google.

Text message your search query to 466453 ('GOOGLE' on most devices) and Google will text message back results. There are lots of ways to get info from Google, including local search, weather, and currency conversion. For example, text "w Toronto" for weather in Toronto, and you'll immediately get a text message back from Google with the information. Google explains it all here. It's a great service, all for the price of a text message, often free with many cell phone plans.

Toy Tuesday: Cereal Maker Learns from Toy Co.

Some of the best (and some of the worst) marketers I've worked with in the toy industry come from the world of consumer packaged goods.

Those who adapt to the faster pace and creative nature of the toy industry are often hugely successful. It's interesting and gratifying to read in February's Strategy Magazine that "Recent team trips to Spin Master Toys and Microsoft [from General Mills Canada marketers] have focused on building a culture of innovation and inspiring staff. Yes, big consumer packaged good companies can learn something from entrepreneurial toy companies. I have worked extensively with Spin Master and agree that their admirable culture of innovation is definitely something worthwhile for others to learn about.

I'm off to New York tomorrow for Kidscreen Summit and Toy Fair. Looking forward to reconnecting with industry colleagues and friends.