LM met Maryellen Zarakas, SVP of Global Consumer Products & Franchise Development at Spin Master, to learn more about the licensing plans for the tween’s gaming-based brand, Toca Boca, which makes its debut at BLE.
What are Toca Boca’s Licensing Strategy and primary targets in Consumer Products Development?
Toca Boca starts with a strong base—62 million monthly players worldwide—where tweens explore their individuality and express themselves through play in a safe, supportive digital space. Now, we’re extending that fandom beyond the screen, turning our digital universe into a lifestyle brand that tweens can connect with in the real world.
What truly sets us apart is our audience – broad, diverse, and built on the trust we’ve earned with them. Since creating this category in 2011, our experience has made us experts on our community: offering them a safe space to explore identity, try new things, tell their stories, and express themselves fully, embracing every emotion, not just the positive ones. Toca Boca also has an impressive history of meaningful collaborations, including Hello Kitty, SpongeBob, Pusheen, and artists like Conan Gray and Katseye.
We’re developing Toca Boca into the ultimate tween lifestyle brand — grounded in creative expression, inclusivity, and playful yet relevant aesthetics, all showcased with high-quality design that reflects the world through a tween’s viewpoint. Our sweet spot is in lifestyle categories that encourage tweens’ self-expression and their love of pop culture, integrating Toca Boca more into their daily lives — from fashion and collectibles to food & beverage and creative play products.
An overview of your achievements in 2025
Our Katseye collaboration marked a breakthrough moment — in just 7 days, we reached 91M minutes of music played! We also saw 79M virtual gifts redeemed, along with over 230M social impressions and strong double-digit engagement. It proves that when we connect with tweens in their own space, we spark cultural moments that extend far beyond the game and into your international presence. Where you lead today and where you plan to grow next (including Europe and beyond) matters greatly. Toca Boca is a truly global community, with Europe and the US standing out as our top markets.
Nearly one-third of our fans are in Europe, making that region — along with North America — a key focus as we develop programs that can scale worldwide. In terms of a “transmedia approach,” Toca Boca is naturally suited for it — our players turn our universe into stories every day on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. What we offer is an emotionally safe world that allows tweens to express themselves without fear of judgment — a rich, relatable universe filled with quirky details that mirror everyday life.
Looking ahead over the next few years, our goal is to grow and enrich the Toca Boca universe across digital and physical experiences — nurturing a fandom that goes beyond any single game. From community meetups and creative collaborations to personalized products that let fans carry their in-game avatars into real life, we are expanding every point of engagement.
What do you showcase at BLE, and why is it a bigger presence than in the past?
This is the first time Spin Master is introducing Toca Boca at BLE, and the timing feels just right. With Toca Boca’s fandom stronger than ever and the brand now reaching beyond digital platforms, BLE becomes the ideal stage to showcase it to the licensing community. That’s why Toca Boca is a key part of Spin Master’s expanded presence this year, reflecting both confidence in the brand’s current momentum and ambition for the future.
We’ve shown our strength in building high-impact in-game collaborations with brands tweens love. Our purpose at BLE is to demonstrate how a brand already creating massive cultural moments in-game can grow into a complete lifestyle program — shaping cultural moments that connect across both digital spaces and real life.
What are your upcoming plans, and what can we expect in 2026?
2026 is focused on scaling and expanding our presence. This involves launching an exclusive collectibles DTR with a trending retailer in 2026, unveiling new activity book formats this Spring that bring Toca Boca’s creative spirit into offline play, and broadening our selections in fashion and home. This gives fans the same customization they enjoy in the game, now available in real life.
Read the complete article in the new issue of Licensing Magazine, pag. 62.
