Hasbro’s Jessica Murphy on Play, AI & the Future of Toy Marketing

Up today on the Speed of Culture podcast, we are thrilled to welcome Jessica Murphy, the Vice President of Global Marketing Strategy and Operations at Hasbro. Jessica's career sits at the crossroads of creativity, strategy, and consumer culture, leading iconic brands like Peppa the Pig, Transformers, and Play-Doh into new eras of relevance. Jessica, so great to see you.

Great. Thank you. Happy to be here.

Absolutely. So you are such an interesting company at such an interesting time because Many are questioning what is the future of creativity and even play in an era of AI. How do you look at kind of the formation of creativity in, in the very important upbringing years of children as the world changes so fast with, with these incredible new innovations that we're seeing?

Oh God, that's, that's a big question. I think, you know, when it comes to kids and play, Right? It's no secret we're in a loneliness epidemic. And that actually starts with kids. And at Hasbro, we've done a ton of study on this, which I love because it gives us such a great purpose in what we do. And we've really found that learning to communicate with people starts with play. And it starts as a kid. And we're living in an era now where— I'll just throw out a few stats. There's so many, but, you know, 30% of our kindergartners have lost recess. Kids aged 6 to 11 has 25% less free time for play than they did 10 years ago, right? And that's turning us into adults that don't really understand how to connect and communicate with people that aren't in our inner family circle or close-knit group of friends, right? So we have a generation of lonely adults. Yeah. And that really, you know, it sounds terrible, but it's actually so impactful to health. You know, again, just some statistics, you know, being lonely is the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It increases your risk of dementia by 20%. It increases your risk of infectious disease, your risk of premature death by 26%, right? So how can we raise a generation of kids who understand how to connect with people and who understand the importance of connecting with people. And play is foundational to that. So we need to keep kids playing. We need to keep kids playing in real life. So then that brings us to this dichotomy, right, of this age where everything is getting more and more and more digitized. So we're more connected to each other than ever, but we're actually lonelier than ever. So how do we navigate that? And I think one of the ways that we're trying to do it with our IP is to make sure that we're generating generating experiences across the spectrum, right? So if you play Monopoly, you have Monopoly Junior to play as a kid. You have the classic Monopoly to play with your family. You have Monopoly Go, which is a card game that you can play on the go. And then we have the hugely popular partnership with Scopely, which is Monopoly Go on your phone, right? And so we offer all these different ways to play so that our IP is a connection point for people, whether physical or digital, but we always want to make sure that we're offering people a chance to connect in real life with our IP. So kind of a long-winded answer, but I think we're really looking for the points to connect people in both of those ways. I think also coming out of COVID and with more and more awareness of the loneliness epidemic, in-real-life experiences are becoming more and more important and more and more sought after. And I do think that's going to continue, which is a benefit for us.

Why is play being deprioritized for kids at younger ages? Like, what's going on in the education system that's forcing administration to take away recess? I mean, I've never heard of that before.

Yeah, I know a lot of it's budget cuts. A lot of it is trying to squeeze in more with less staff, less resources. Right. Um, and then, so you have that on one end of the spectrum in school and then out of school, you have parents who are scheduling their kids. Kids more and more and more, right? More sports, more tutoring, more afterschool activities. And then you couple that with the fear that we've begun to have as parents of just letting our kids outside to play. I mean, you know, I think you and I are from a similar generation where we grew up and we kind of went outside and maybe we came home for dinner, but maybe our mom had to like call around to different houses to find out where we were, right? That doesn't really happen anymore. And, you know, I don't know if you've read the book, "The Anxious Generation," but it's all about the fact that— Mm-hmm. Parents today fear real-life situations for their kids. And what they really should be fearing even more is unsupervised digital experiences for their kids, right? So I'm hoping that awareness continues to grow. And we try to push our kids out into the real world a little bit more because, again, that riding bikes with your friends after school, that kind of doing your homework together, that's how you— Yeah. Learn to navigate real-world problems and real-life experiences as an adult.

Yeah. And of course, at the heart of play is creativity. And you know, what we're seeing in the workforce is the very nature of creativity is being redefined, right? Because if you look at some of the tools, especially some of the more recent AI tools that Google has pushed out, where anything you can dream of, you can make a video or an image of, and you are no longer bound by having a specialist or a graphic designer do that for you. So, you know, it used to mean creativity was held back by your technical ability to use Photoshop or in some ways even write. But now it's really just if you have the idea, you almost have much more potential than ever before. Like ideas now have so much more potential because you don't have the same dependencies.

Yeah.

As, as we did even 2 or 3 years ago. So it, it, I've been thinking about that a lot recently because, you know, when you think about how kids are raised in school, they're taught to color inside the lines. But I think moving forward, the robots are gonna be able to be incredible at coloring inside the lines, but what they're not gonna be able to do is color outside the lines.

Right.

And actually, you know, symbolize in, in ways that make us unique as humans.

Yes.

I just wanna know what your, what are your thoughts on creativity and how that's gonna evolve given all that?

Yeah, it's fascinating. I think, you know, generative AI is a huge problem solver for everybody with a great idea, right? Just like you said. But it hasn't gotten to the place where it can come up with the creative ideas yet. Right? So you still need the human there. And I think that's how—

And I don't think it ever will, Jessica, because like so much of our creativity comes from our human life experiences.

Completely.

You know, whether it's falling in love or getting your heart broken or having something amazing happen to you in the real world or whatever it may be. And so I just don't, I think that input is really the core to our humanity moving forward.

I hope you're right.

I really hope you're right. Yeah.

I think a lot of people out there hope you're right. And I do. I do think you're right. I think, you know, and true creativity a lot of times comes from solving a human need, right? And machines are never going to understand human needs the way humans understand human needs. But I think that's very much how we're approaching AI at Hasbro and those tools at Hasbro, like, help them accelerate human creativity, not replace human creativity.

Yeah. Have you guys given any thought to a world where, you know, the power of AI can be actually embedded into the product? So like a kid can talk to Peppa the Pig and Peppa the Pig can teach the kid. Like, to me, I feel like that technology's possible right now.

Yeah.

Are, are those types of innovations things that you're working on? And when do you see products like that, not necessarily Hasbro, but in the industry in general, come to market?

I think very, very soon. Some of them are— Really?

It's like the movie Ken, where the kid talks to his stuffed animal. So when do you see products like that, not necessarily just for Hasbro, but in general in the toy industry coming to market?

So we've heard whispers about Barbie coming from Mattel, right? We certainly have ideas in incubation at Hasbro. I think we just want to be sure that they're going to work as expected. Yeah.

Right? I mean, And be a good thing for kids. Yeah, it'd be a really good— Because sometimes, like, the imagination gets taken away if the toy starts talking to you.

Right, right. And wouldn't it be a disaster if you had an AI hallucination as a 4-year-old was playing with their Peppa Pig doll, right? So you want to make sure— I think it's a really good point you make about imagination. You want to make sure you're not hijacking the play, right? Like, how do you keep it interactive but still let the child steer the play and use their imagination for the play and be the master of the play? And then also, How do you really make sure that the technology is ready for that? Because going out too soon could be disastrous for our IP.

Sure. So speaking of your IP, obviously you have lots of great IP within the business. And, you know, these are brands and properties that have been around for a very long time. How do you make sure that they stay relevant with new audiences, and how much of your work is creating new IP versus leaning in and trying to create new use cases and growth opportunities for existing IP?

Mm, that's a good question. I'm really not in the business of creating IP. I usually, it usually gets to me once it's partially formed, right? And then in my role as a marketer, I help shape it to the consumer insights and, you know, the marketing strategies that I think can really bring it to life for the consumer. I have been in the fortunate position of helping to reimagine legacy IP and relaunch and reboot legacy IP. So, you know, first for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I was at Paramount, obviously a huge group effort, but something I was able to play a part in from a retail and a consumer products marketing perspective. And now at Hasbro, you know, we're looking toward the relaunch of My Little Pony, and I've been working really closely with the franchise team on how to make that more relevant relevant for the girls of today. You think about the IP, it's been around for 40 years. And the theme has always been friendship. And friendship is always relevant, right, especially to girls, but now even more and more so to moms and adults as we face this loneliness epidemic, right? So now you have multigenerational fans of My Little Pony. And our goal is to teach little girls how to be friends and how to make friends. and how to be a good friend and remind the teens and tweens and moms and even grandmas now who grew up with the IP how important their friendships are, right? And so it's kind of taking that legacy and bringing it forward into a new generation and making sure that it's relevant to all the fans. Turtles is much the same way. You know, like, it's, you know, 30-plus-year-old brand. And, you know, you have dads who are fans bringing it to their— young kids, how do you make sure you have something fresh and innovative for those dads and fans to collect while you're keeping the turtles talking in the way that kids talk now, right, on all of the channels and relating to the kids in fun, interactive, relatable ways? So those are things we're always thinking about. How can we keep our fran— our brands fresh and relevant, not just for kids, but for all of the age demos we service?

Interesting. I mean, of course, at the end of the day, this IP needs to bottle up into product that sits at retail or on Amazon for consumers to purchase. What is working in the toy industry here in 2025? What are some of the products that are taking off and the audiences that are seeking them?

Mm, I think tactile play is a really big one.

Like slime and, and Play-Doh-oriented stuff. Yeah.

Things like that, right? And that is directly tied to anxiety in kids.

Yeah.

And the fact that they need to play with something tactile is why ASMR videos are so popular, right? It's why those Pop It toys were really popular.

Like sensory, like it's ADHD as well. It's a big part of that.

Yeah. And actually, we've had meetings at Hasbro where we pass around little cans of Play-Doh. And we just find that if people can keep their hands busy molding clay or as they talk, the ideas come out faster and they get inhibitions go away and you stop overthinking things. So that tactile play experience I think is really, really coming back. I think that, you know, with girls specifically, fashion remains hugely at the forefront. I think that the next brands to really crack the fashion space are going to be really, really big. And then I think with boys, it's really kind of like, how do you keep the tried and true things fresh and relevant? So action figures, vehicles, they're not going away. But I think the brands that are winning are finding out how to make them more relevant and give them digital and video game play experiences that keep them really relevant for today's boys. Fashion, I think, remains really big for young girls. I think the brands that get it right offer them the right blend of what's new and hot but also really making room for them to express themselves. So I see toys where girls can accessorize, girls can play with hair, girls can play with nails and makeup. And it's not really even just a form of beauty. It's a form of self-expression that I think is really catching on more and more with young girls today. And then in the boys' space, you know, you have your tried and true action figures and vehicles. But I think, again, the brands that are winning are just modernizing it, and they're connecting them to digital real experiences and they're putting them in video games. And again, going back to what I was saying about physical to digital experience in play and being able to offer kids the ability to go back and forth seamlessly.

Yeah, I think that, you know, having that, the, the multitude of touchpoints with whatever asset, because it's digital is becoming a bigger part of kids' lives for better or worse. I mean, I do not envy— the job right now of an educator to try to figure out what, like, what does teaching tomorrow's leader mean in a world where you really don't know what the jobs are gonna be that exist in 2030 or 2035. It's just, we're in a whole new world right now where I think people are kind of reinventing while they're on the fly.

I was just gonna say, to your point earlier, I think it's ideas. You know, ideas are never gonna go away. Human ideas and ideation and creativity, I think, are always gonna win.

So in terms of, you know, we talk about the products and obviously, you know, we're all aligned that the notion of creativity and play is changing. What's working in terms of bringing your messages to market to drive consideration, ultimately purchase for the new products that you bring to market? What are some of the retail channels? And, and what are some of the creative approaches and storytelling-based approaches that finding effective?

Yeah, well, when you're talking about kids these days, it's really YouTube and gaming and influencers. Those are the three places they're really dialed into, right? And I think you can see the most success when you can connect those channels to your retail channels in any meaningful way, right? So we're seeing that we are amping up our investment on the Amazon Media channels of the world, the Walmart Connect channels of the world, the Roundel channels of the world, because they're making such big innovations in how they're connecting to upper funnel media tactics. Absolutely. So if you put an ad on Roku, it connects directly to Walmart. If you put an ad on Amazon Prime, it connects directly to purchase. And then you have this data funnel from awareness to consideration to purchase that was hard to piece together previously, right? So I think technology is making it easier and easier. And, you know, even though platforms are bifurcating, they're continuing to proliferate. Kids are mainly gaming and watching YouTube. And so those are the primary ways that we want to reach them. I think in terms of messaging, The experiences you can create in games literally allow you to play with the IP, and we're all about play, right? So that's a win. And then when it comes to creators and influencers, it's really about giving them free rein to be themselves with your product. Kids can sniff out inauthentic content probably even faster than adults can. So it's really, really important to just kind of release your hold on the IP a little bit and allow it to adapt to the play experience in the game and allow it to become what the creator wants it to become in that moment. And I think that's the most effective way to generate interest right now. And then again, going down the funnel to the performance media and seeing that connectivity is where we're really seeing success.

How much work have you guys done in the world of creators? Obviously, when you talk about YouTube and you want to garner eyeballs, not to mention Instagram when kids come 14, to those that wait till 14, none of them do. How important is the creator economy to your ongoing strategy to make sure that you're where your audience is?

Extremely, extremely important. You know, we deal with creators on all levels. We see them as a paid media channel and we engage them specifically, you know, through the marketplaces, We see them as brand ambassadors with bigger deals and contracts where they become the face of our brand for a certain period of time, and we engage with them over and over. And then, you know, we have fan communities that are diehard fans of our brands, and that's a gift, right? So really, you have to think about them when you develop product and keep the product in their hands. And that's really the special sauce there because they're a free mouthpiece for you. But they want to feel like you're thinking about them at all times and you're creating for them. And they want to be the first or among the first to receive their product—

your—

sorry, our products. So it's really 3 tiers for us. It's that kind of collector, creator, fan community, inherent fans that we just have to kind of keep in our fold and keep really engaged. Yeah. Then there's creators as a paid media channel kind of coming in over that. And then there are those bigger deals where we have a celebrity or a creator face of the brand that becomes a more meaningful tie to the IP.

Right. And I would imagine depending upon the property, a big part of your role is also marketing to the parents, right? And when it, when it comes to obviously data collection, you can't collect data of kids under a certain age, nor would a company ever, Hasbro ever do that to begin with. So what does marketing to the parents look like? And what's the overall split when you think about, okay, I need to drive volume for the holiday season, how much of your time is thinking about driving, you know, influence from the younger kids or actually reaching the parents directly?

That's a hot, hot topic for us. It really varies by IP. It really does. We have to look at the IP and we have to really comb the insights and look at who's driving purchase, right? And it used to be, you know, back 10 years ago when I was at Nickelodeon that, you know, when we were talking about preschool IP, we were talking just to parents. We wouldn't even bother. We'd let the content do the work with the kids, and the commercials would go to the parents. Now we're finding kids are driving that purchase power younger and younger, starting at the age of 4. So we really have to talk to the kids when we're selling Play-Doh. But we also have to talk to the parents. So we're always thinking about what's the split. And if one has to go away, which one is it? And we're constantly looking at our campaigns and testing. You know, we'll launch something and say, let's just talk to product— sorry, we'll launch something and say, let's just talk to parents in this specific DMA or market, right? And see if that moves the needle versus this specific market where we're just talking to kids and see which has a bigger influence so that that can continue to shape the split going forward. So there's no one formula. It varies by every single brand, every single season. Based on the insights that we're seeing come from purchase.

Makes sense. Yeah, it's something I've always wondered about in terms of your industry and, and, and how you go about going to market. So let's shift gears a little bit as we wrap up here, Jessica. You know, you've had such a great career and you've spent time working at so many great companies like Viacom and Nickelodeon, PopSockets, of course, now Hasbro. When you look back on your career, what are some of the things that you've consistently done right along the way to continue to be a valuable executive and a really effective, you know, leader at these organizations?

Adapting to change. I think that's the single biggest leg up I've had. You know, I'm someone who kind of thrives on change and dynamic circumstances, and I love to continue learning. And change, I think a lot of people fear it or let it trip them up. And I think that, you know, something that I've always embraced is new challenges, and I've always said that to my team, you know, it's not a waste of work, it's a pivot or it's a learning opportunity, right? Something goes away, it's an opportunity to get started on something new. And I think— Yeah. That goes a long way in the corporate world. And I think more and more so as we all evolve and we're in this period of rapid technological shifts, the ability to adapt to change, I think, is really valuable.

Yeah, for sure. I think now change is the only constant, and the only thing we can bank on is that things will look nothing like they look today, you know, 5, 10 years from now. So, it's just, we're in a fascinating time. And in that regard, what advice would you have for some of our younger listeners here on the podcast in terms of what some of the things that they should lean into or focus on earlier in their career to set them, set themselves up for success in the world of marketing?

Yeah, I think that, I think that, you know, the days of being a deep, deep specialist in one thing, and that being the most valuable tenet, are slowly gonna go away with the advent of AI. Right? I would advise people now to get as much experience in as many different facets of marketing as they can, because first of all, you get to know what you like, and that's, that in itself is powerful, right? You get to know where you wanna lean in, but also it makes you a generalist and it, and it really lends to being a strategic marketer and leader in the future. Yeah.

And I would say it also future-proofs you, right? Because you don't wanna focus on, let's just say, search engine optimization, if 2 years from now everyone's searching for things on ChatGPT and that, you know, that's just one example and some would say, yeah, well, it carries over. Okay, but there's a lot of specialism and technical details that won't apply. And I think, you know, if you're broad and you have a much wider aperture of marketing and of the consumer, then those skills will be applicable no matter where the world is when, as your career progresses.

Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And I think that, you know, it also allows you to really understand when you're marketing a product or a service or a brand, you know, what levers do you wanna pull? You know, the knowledge of all the levers really allows you to understand how you wanna shape the campaign.

Absolutely. That's fantastic advice. So we always wrap up our podcast by asking our guests if there's a saying or mantra that's kind of encapsulated their career journey to date and would love to know what comes to mind for you.

Yeah, mine is from my dad, and I love this question. I had to think a bit, and then I was like, oh wait, no, it's this. You know, he always said, "Be brave," when I was little up until he dropped me off at my dorms freshman year. You know, he taught my sister and I, I think directly and indirectly, that fear is a paralyzing emotion. And so, whenever we were going into an uncertain circumstance, he said, "Be brave." And I like to remember those words on a daily basis.

Yeah, it's fantastic. And, and in this day and age, I think young people need that more than ever before. You know, you talked about the fear of letting kids play alone outside, and that's a whole nother podcast episode. But you know, I think being brave right now is important because it can't, it can't let you, can't prevent you from seeing the sunshine or crossing the street or traveling or, you know, you have to seize the day, so to speak. So I think it's fantastic advice and, and a great point to end, end our chat today. Thanks so much for joining Jessica. It's been a fantastic Fantastic discussion. Really appreciate all the great insights and wishing you nothing but success as we head into the busy holiday season for Hasbro.

Thank you so much, Matt. Great to be here.

Absolutely. On behalf of Suzy and I, we keen— thanks again to Jessica Murphy, Vice President of Global Marketing Strategy and Operations at Hasbro, for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the Speed of Culture podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Till next time, Susan and one, take care.