As soon as I walked in I sensed a great vibe in the WOW office. Sitting on a comfy red sofa in keeping with the company's corporate hue, the brand's logo jumped out at me from every corner of the room. Strong in its simplicity, the use of onomatopoeia in a cartoon style speech bubble represents the brands desired effect - to invoke gasps of delight when opened.

Quietly observing the office dynamic, I saw an individual at every desk and by individual, I mean exactly that. No personality crushing office casuals to be seen here - Nadim's employees come to work as themselves. As he recalled team building events, brainstorming sessions and lunchtime barbecues on the office terrace over looking the Thames, I could tell that this was one very exciting place to work. They all love their jobs and as a result, retailers in 40 countries worldwide love their toys even more.

Nadim's talent and passion for design was obvious from a young age. He designed some big toy ranges in the early 90's for a number of hugely successful companies, including The Early Learning Centre. By the age of 25 he had a portfolio to be envied but, a born innovator, he was determined not to stagnate; quite the opposite. Despite his relative youth, Nadim set up his first toy design company ‘NAD Associates' in the early 90's.

NAD Associates was a huge success story, but Nadim quickly became disillusioned with his paymasters, who he said:"Began slashing budgets in favour of expensive marketing campaigns, a strategy which ensured the quality of the toys would suffer." Nadim decided instead to go it alone and established his own brand of toys, WOW in 1997.

Nadim likens his company's journey as to the process of a boy becoming a man, formulating a belief system by which to live and work. "We pulled out of the supermarkets completely 10 years ago and have no great ambitions to go back," he told me. "We are designing something for the future now. We have grown as a company and we now know who we are and what we want."

Incredibly humble, Nadim didn't volunteer the information that he was in fact the youngest ever person to be awarded an MBE for his services for the toy industry - I had to push him on it before he went on to tell me how he gratefully accepted the award at a ceremony eight years ago at Buckingham Palace.

Why WOW?

WOW toys are powered by children's energy and imagination, without the need for environmentally unfriendly batteries. "Our friction motors and clever mechanical features provide long lasting play value without the worry that batteries might run out." Explaining that without batteries many toys are redundant, Nadim added: "Lacking in imagination, battery operated toys often boast unsophisticated features that scream 'look at me' but inspire little creativity beyond that."

"Consumers love our toys because of their ability to encourage learning through creative play and discovery, with a mix of vibrant colours, sounds and mechanical features. The toys introduce themes from real life into the home helping children make sense of the world around them - the objective being to stimulate learning through imaginative and interactive play."

To demonstrate, Nadim showed me an air ambulance together with an accompanying range of 'injured' animals each of which could be magnetically attached to the vehicle and ‘flown to safety'. A simple concept, this would clearly appeal to all children within the 1-5 year age range. As a child becomes increasingly dextrous this, like others in the range, will encourage his fine motor skills - with the action of moving the animal and attaching it to the vehicle representing a milestone in development. The stories that could be made up around the product are endless - no batteries, just a plethora of opportunities for imaginative play. Perfect.

"You have to consider how chaotic children are and design for the reality of their abilities," said Nadim. Explaining just how uncoordinated a child's hands can be, he showed me another toy: a truck with a ramp. The truck is set in motion via a motor that is powered by pulling back on the wheels several times before letting go. A cord is pulled from the ramp making a great friction like sound and magnetically attaches to the truck to pull it back up the ramp. Every stage of development is catered to here, the next step being the story telling and role play exercises that might be attached to the various actions.

WOW toys are highly collectable, allowing children to mix and match the range to build their own fun world. They are designed to work together and and all the figures can be used in any toy. What I like about WOW toys is that they challenge stereotypes - the characters are ethically diverse and women for example, are in roles typically thought of as belonging to men.

WOW was named 'Overall Award Winner' at the Good Toy Awards 2008 for its range of inspirational toys for toddlers from the GoodToy Guide. WOW also won Gold, Silver and Bronze from Practical Pre-School Awards 2008.

The WOW Activity Table is well worth having in store for children to play at while mum or dad is shopping - and comes with the added benefit of increasing purchases in other areas. It features a cute and colourful road scene graphic and is ideal for use with any toys from the WOW range. It's easy to clean, durable surface makes it great for a host of other fun activities too. Simple to assemble it is suitable for ages 3+ - and a ‘must-have' for any WOW devotee.

WOW toys are made to last. Excellent design, high grade materials and rigorous quality control make them extremely durable. "We want our toys to be passed down to successive children," said Nadim - an idea that will resonate with all parents, cash strapped or not.

WOW reacts a lot to parent feedback. Nadim told me about a recent email blast to 40,000 parents that generated a 10% response rate, a result that most marketers only dream of. He also holds regular focus groups with parents to aid in product development, during which the toys are demonstrated and reactions to them are closely observed. There is also a questionnaire in every WOW toy for both transactional and aspirational data to be collected, enabling WOW to respond to its customers needs even better. Such is the popularity of the brand that the average WOW customer has four toys from the range at home. Nadim commented:"We are constantly measuring and testing ideas for business growth. We launch new products in January and September every year and are already working on products for Spring/Summer 2011 at a cost of around £100,000 per toy. Have we noticed the recession? No not at all. WOW is 44% up on like-for-like sales and our main challenge has been keeping up with the demand."

Looking after the retailer

After our meeting, Nadim was off to visit retailers to find out what more WOW could do to meet their needs. He wrote to me afterwards: "I have just got back from the Lake District after visiting 8 retail customers to learn about the good/bad/ugly things that are happening to their businesses and how WOW can play a strong part in making their customers (the public) even happier! It was all very good and allowed lots of interesting insights." As a retailer you will know even better than me just how many MD's of the brands you stock actually take the time to visit your store. I suspect not many. Working at grass roots level is undoubtedly what makes WOW a success, the retailer is at the forefront of Nadim's mind and central to his business plan, as he relies on you to stock his products, display them attractively and promote their features and benefits with skill and commitment.

WOW supplies signage and banners to every store. Devoted WOW areas have also been created in a number of shops for special WOW days, where members of the community can come in with their families and try the toys out (in store) and get a free WOW gift, helping retailers to generate sales and raise their own profile in the process. Said Nadim: "In the first half of the year we ran a promotion where the consumer had to spend £15 to get a £6 toy for free, boosting profits for both us and the retailer. We are doing a much bigger consumer promotion for Christmas. All new accounts are also offered 100 goody bags containing a free toy for customers and the loyalty this goodwill this generates for the brand and the shop is staggering. We recommend the bags be given to customers that haven't bought WOW yet, to help win them over in the future. We do all we can to support retailers by offering merchandising help and advice, supplying materials and investing in product training."

As I said, reading up on WOW en route to London I was suitably impressed by the company's credentials as a UK toy maker. By the time I left, I was absolutely convinced of them.

WOW

T: 020 7471 0980

W: www.wowtoys.com

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