Teenagers in focus as Nuremberg Toy Fair set to open

Jan 31, 2012, 12:33 GMT

Nuremberg, Germany - Teenagers will be a new focus of this year's Nuremberg Toy Fair, an annual industry-only expo for 2,800 global manufacturers which opens Wednesday in Germany.

Major brands showed off the latest dolls, ride-on toys and playground collectibles to the media Tuesday. Some 80,000 merchants and other specialists are expected at the event, which runs until February 6.

The fair's general manager, Ernst Kick, said one theme would be how to keep the 13-17-year-old age group interested in toys. One of this year's fair mottos is 'Toys for Teens.'

'Despite what many people imagine, almost all these teenagers do play with toys,' Kick said, quoting market studies.

'We want to show both merchants and manufacturers the right way to communicate with their teenaged customers,' he said.

'Teenagers adore play, they really love it,' said Axel Dammler, who studies youth issues. 'Obviously electronic games dominate for this age group,' he said.

'It's a genuine market. Merchants tend to under-estimate it,' said Dammler, adding that in some markets teenagers played a lot of board games too.