Why Your FEC/BEC Needs Blind Bags 😎

A new era of collectibles

“Collectibles were a top contributor to toy industry growth last year (posting 33% growth with $1.8B in sales, per The NPD Group), and they are expected to maintain their popularity in 2017…Collectible toys help children develop lifelong skills, including social skills (when negotiating and trading with friends), organization skills (as they maintain their collections), and perseverance (not giving up on the “hunt”).” — Toy Industry Association

We’ve seen many collectible items infiltrate the lives of children throughout the years all over the world — baseball cards, Pokémon cards, Hot Wheels™, breakfast cereal prizes, Happy Meal­®­ toys — and today welcomes the new trend of Blind Bags.

Top Toy Trends of 2017 Announced at New York Toy Fair

We’ve been talking trends a lot recently and the important role they play in your redemption and incentive programs. It’s time for you to get to know more about Blind Bags.

Blind Bags: A collectible toy in a foil, non-transparent package

Blind Bags are a “trend snowball” — not only are blind bags themselves a trend, but the trinkets they hold inside are trend-centered, too. The blind bags in our current stock include My Little Pony™, Super Mario Bros™, Guardians of the Galaxy™, Five Nights at Freddy’s™ and more! If you’re trend savvy, you know these are all popular themes right now.

Element of Surprise

There are thousands of videos on YouTube of people opening up blind bags and enjoying their surprises. Fans of blind bags love watching others open their blind bags just as much as they like opening their own.

This enjoyment is perfect for you and your redemption program. Let’s say a guest redeems a blind bag and is excited about what she finds inside. Odds are her friends are going to want that thrill of opening a surprise also. The anticipation and desire to collect all the characters is what keeps them coming back again and again.

The Prize Performance Breakdown

Top performing customers of Redemption Plus who offer blind bags to their guests order — on average — $168 worth of these items per month.

That equals out to about 56 blind bags per month with an average price of $3 per bag. If you’re willing to try implementing a blind bag option in your redemption program, we suggest ordering an inner of two different bags. Most of our bling bags come in either 20 or 24 items per inner. This will give your guests a couple of items to choose from.

Merchandising Blind Bags

These “trend snowballs” go well with other trendy items on your wall. For example, My Little Pony™ would go wonderfully in a generic unicorn section (read why unicorns are popular here). Not only do they go along with the theme of unicorns, but the licensed My Little Pony™ blind bags would also enhance the perceived value of this section of your wall.

In addition, Blind Bags will always work into any other licensed or trendy section of your wall like our Movies & More Storyboard.

Blind Bags and Trader Players

Although blind bags can appeal to all ages and genders, we do see a particular target audience that just can’t get enough of them:

The Trader Player:

• Spends roughly 250–1,250 Tickets
• Will “Trade Up” and play longer for select prizes rather than settle
• Plans to win a particular prize before gaming

If you have any other questions about the Trader Player or their favorite Redemption Range, give one of our Value Architects a call, or visit PlayerTypes.com to learn about our evolving Player Type System.

What surprise will your guests open up next? If you’d like to include blind bags in your redemption program, but don’t want to go at it blindly (see what we did there?) talk to one of our Customer Success team members. They’re always happy to help you see your redemption program more clearly.

This article is by Tabatha Bender, Connection Crusader at Redemption Plus.

Insights Empower is a collection of thoughts & insights to inspire, educate and connect the Family Entertainment & Bowling Center industry. From the team at Redemption Plus, est. 2017 🎉

Visit us at RedemptionPlus.com for more ways to #win.

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