Nominations are now open for the 2025 Toy & Game Innovation Excellence (TAGIE) Awards, presented by People of Play. Taking place on November 8 as part of POP Week, this year’s event marks the TAGIEs’ 18th year honouring the best and brightest innovators, designers, retailers, suppliers, PR professionals, and marketers who drive creativity and success across the global toy and game industry.
New for 2025, this year’s TAGIEs will feature more award categories and fewer nominees per category (7) to spotlight more industry innovators while also increasing the odds for nominates to take home a win.
“The TAGIEs unite the global toy and game community for a star-studded evening of celebrating the bold, innovative minds and trailblazing individuals”
Anyone in the industry may submit a nomination by August 2, 2025. There is no fee to nominate a candidate for consideration.
This year the TAGIE Game Changer category will honour the innovative heroes of our industry — the people that innovate our industry yet are seldom publicly recognized.
Karri Bean, senior global licensing manager at Disney Consumer Products, and host of the TAGIE Awards, said: “The TAGIEs unite the global toy and game community for a star-studded evening of celebrating the bold, innovative minds and trailblazing individuals and teams that shape our industry – the extraordinary People of Play.”
Here are this year’s categories:
Preschool Toy Innovator of the Year
Kidult Toy Innovator of the Year
Preschool Game Innovator of the Year
Adult/Family Game Innovator of the Year
Tech Toy Innovator of the Year
Tech Game Innovator of the Year
Breakout Innovator of the Year
Young Innovator of the Year
Innovative Art and Visuals of the Year
Innovative PR & Marketing Team of the Year
Most Innovative Retailer Award
Most Innovative Vendor & Partner
Most Innovative Licensed Product
Game Changers – Innovation Heroes
Finalists will be notified in early September, at which time voting will open to the general public, media, and industry. The Game Changer and Lifetime Achievement awards are selected exclusively by the TAGIE Awards Committee and the Lifetime Achievement Committee. The TAGIE awards committee also creates the “In Memoriam” presentation and selects the recipient of the Hassenfeld Humanitarian Award.
