Crayola’s Post

Transcript

Here in New York City this weekend, I'm that's maybe why we have the CEO of Crayola here in New York with us, Pete Ruggiero. Welcome, Pete, good to see you. This is this is kind of a fun way of looking at crayons and Crayola. So what's the response been? We help parents and educators raise creatively alive kids and we've been trusted by parents and educators for more than 120 years with that responsibility. Creativity is very important. So we started some research with the Ad Council and we found that nine out of 10 parents. Yeah, wanted creativity to help develop their kids. They just didn't know how to integrate that into their lives. So we did this campaign for creativity so that we could learn more deeply about one how it is that the the those kids use creativity to get where they are and to how they engage with their parents and teachers in that effort. And it it how much does I mentioned in the introduction and we have done a lot of stories on screen time and the effect of all of that played into maybe people going a little old school and saying I need more of this. Anybody needs some more? Very honest in my life. Yeah, it's actually we've we've been hearing about how screen time was going to take away from coloring time, but it's actually just the opposite. Parents and teachers are constantly trying to give the child that opportunity to create with the crayon or create with a mark or create with a colored pencil. And it's it's such a very part of important part of their development. Did it change, you know, in other words, when the screens came in, was the iPhone 07, did they go down for a while in terms of how many people would use crayons? And now it's coming back up because people realize they were spending too much time staring at their phone. We actually saw an increase in in the demand for our. Products as that happened as as parents doubled down to try and give their kids that opportunity I find them people who know the most about technology with a lot of times use that technology the least they're probably Silicon Valley. They probably love Crayola you know it's kind of interesting the way it works let me put this up from the New York Times on the benefits of coloring because it's it's kind of interesting how the arts can benefit your mental health I mean this is serious when you think about the notion that art can improve mental well-being is something many people intuitively understand but they can lose sight of especially if we become. Disconnected from the dancing, creative writing, drawing and singing we used to enjoy as children. That was like that woman in the clip we just played said boy, you know, you could see it in her face. Is that you forget how much you enjoy this kind of thing, I guess. Yeah. We actually see an improvement in in all aspects of of development when it cran is in a child's hand or when a crayon or a pencils in an adult's hand. There's there's a there's a cumulative effect in the in the benefits of the art with the development of the mind. In what ways anxiety goes down. Anxiety goes down. Improve learning, there's a connection between the arts and between sciences and maths and technology and it's enabled arts infused education. It's enabled by the arts and by coloring. So this can be displacement. We said here in New York and in other places, right, People can go. What's the it's, it's, yes, we have, we have an art gallery on 20 on West 23rd St. and starts tonight, tomorrow and Saturday where all of that, our work on much of that artwork is on display. And we're very excited for for many of those, those children who are now adults. To be reunited with their artwork and to engage with their parents or their teachers and who had such a great effect on their lives. How, how could anybody be against this? We have all our stories. Somebody's against, but nobody's gonna be against it. I just inflexibly, because I've spent so many years covering business news, every time I got a CEO sitting next to me, I have to ask a few economic questions if I can. So you're, you know, Crayola, but you're, you have a pulse of what's going on in the country and the economy. Where do you see things right now? Where's our economy? You're what are you worried about with your business? Inflation? What, what's, what are the, what's the state of things? Inflation is difficult. On, on our shoppers, but we do see that that they're choosing to buy our products because our products are at the right price point. We're on the doorstep of our back to school season. At that time, there are 17 units of Crayola sold every second OK across US retail. So we're very excited to have the Crayola crayons, markers and pencils in the backpack for that first day of school and make it a special experience for our consumers. Think there are things changing for the better or the worse with the consumer. What where do you see the consumer right now are the consumer who's. Playing our products is not sacrificing buying Crayola, they are right. They are looking for the opportunities to to trade into some of our products because they're affordable and they give a good experience for for the consumer. So where are you in your business? You're adding, subtracting. Are you hiring people now? We're we're, we're very busy right now. We're running a lot of overtime trying to add capacity and we've got some great workers in in the Lehigh Valley and in our our suppliers around the world who are adding to that benefit. OK, so adding overtime, not necessarily adding to the headcount, but adding overtime right now because that's how you. That's how you do it and adding right now we're hiring right now. You're hiring right now. Well, that's good. So Pete, thank you for coming in. Interesting to have that here in New York City and a good conversation maybe lower people's anxiety. They pick up a crayon. So good to see you. Good to see you, Pete Ruggiero and that's Crayola CEO in a moment back to the.