Toys and Games Pocket Money Pitch

Imagine a year's worth of pocket money up for grabs,

just waiting for kids like you from across the UK

to come up with a winning business pitch.

-I'm from Warwick.

-I'm from Birmingham.

We're from Leicestershire.

Could you spot a gap in the market?

My business idea is to grow fresh fruit and vegetables

in my back garden and sell them to my neighbours

and my local community.

What's your big idea?

Our business idea is...

Freshly made waffles.

Or are you the next Branson, Sugar or Dyson?

My business idea is Box Rouge.

Gift boxes for teenage girls.

Now, budding entrepreneurs are entering the Pocket Money Pitch off.

All are hoping to secure that valuable pot of cash

and the priceless help of our top industry gurus

to kick-start their businesses.

They will have just one chance to call for help.

And this is it.

The Pause My Pitch button.

One guru to impress, only one idea can come out on top.

This is Pocket Money Pitch.

Pocket Money Pitchers, it's time to go head-to-head.

Present your pitch.

The pitcher...

I've chosen...

Is...

We have searched the whole of the UK

to find the best young business talent.

And you didn't disappoint.

In each episode, six businesses will battle it out.

Today, our pitchers want to play a big part

in the toys and games market,

a sector worth nearly £6 billion in the UK.

Only three will get the chance to pitch to today's guru,

Michael Acton Smith.

Michael is one of the most creative brains in the industry.

He launched an online game played by millions.

Our pitchers can improve their chances of impressing Michael

by winning over the business buddies.

There's no playing around with these top entrepreneurs.

They will be picking out the ideas

that they think could be the next big thing.

So, they are our buddies.

Who are our pitchers?

First up are 12-year-olds Tom and Curtis

and 13-year-old Calum.

They are from Nottingham.

We're three best friends.

And we're skateboarding mad.

We're always skateboarding.

They will go head-to-head with nine-year-old Harri

and 11-year-old Tomas from Swansea.

We're brothers.

And we're the best of friends.

We do everything together.

And we love playing outside on our scooters.

The two teams will go head-to-head

and whoever gets the most votes from our buddies

will go to pitch to the guru.

First up, it's Designa Skates.

Our product is a miniature skateboard

that you use your fingers to ride.

It is made completely out of scrap paper,

using various processes to harden and decorate it.

Our unique selling points are that the fingerboards

are eco-friendly and are attached to a key chain,

but can be taken off for use.

We designed a survey through social media, looking at quality,

price and design.

65% agreed that designs were really important.

This is our big unique selling point.

Being able to customise your board is really cool.

The overall cost of a fingerboard using recycled paper is £1.60.

Selling at £5 each, this is £3.40 profit per fingerboard.

The trick is, get on "board" and invest in Designa Skates.

And we'll really "ramp up" the business.

The boys are hoping to "skate away" with the buddies' votes.

But Tomas and Harri want to give them a run for their money.

Today, we would like to tell you about our idea

for a den-building kit.

Most children love building dens,

but they can be a disappointment because it's difficult

to get the materials together.

And they don't hold together well.

A kit should consist of,

strong fabric squares and triangles,

Velcro strips for attaching them to each other,

pole pieces for internal support.

Our target audience are children aged seven to 12,

who are old enough to build the den themselves.

Thank you very much for listening to us today.

Nice one, lads.

The buddies have two cool ideas to toy with.

Denventures or Designa Skates.

They can choose only one.

First to vote, it's Emily, a successful product designer.

I'm going for Denventure.

Next up, website wizard Ben.

I think looking at the market and ways I can help,

I think I'm going to vote for Denventure.

With two votes already,

if Emma-Jayne also votes for Denventure,

then they will go through to face the guru.

They are both fantastic ideas and brilliant pitches

and I'm going to be going for Designa Skates.

Designa Skates, you've got a vote now.

You just need the other two buddies to vote for you.

Denventure, you just need one of the buddies to vote for you

and you'll go through to the next round. Amber.

With my experience, I think I can add the most value to Denventure.

Denventure, there you go.

You are going through to the next round.

But before we leave it there, let's find out what Bianca thought.

I thought both pitches were very good,

but I have very fond memories of building dens.

So, I'm going to go with Denventure.

It's a win for Denventure,

and a valiant effort from Designa Skates,

who aren't ready to hang up their skates just yet.

This isn't the last of Designa Skates.

You will see us again.

Getting four of the five buddies' votes,

Tomas and Harri are now in control.

They can choose which buddy they think will best prepare them

to face the guru.

(Who should we go for? Who do you think?)

(I don't know.)

They could choose Emily,

who has experience in launching new products.

Ben, who knows all about doing business online.

Amber, who could advise them on how best to sell their product.

Or Bianca, an expert on marketing.

There's a lot at stake,

so it's vital they choose the right one for them.

So, tell us who you've chosen.

Ben.

One happy buddy, off to work with Denventure.

It's time now for our next head-to-head.

First, is 12-year-old Joseph from Chichester.

I want to start my own business one day.

And that's why I think I'll maybe do well in this competition.

He's going up against 12-year-old Rachel

and 13-year-old Lara from Belfast.

Although we are competitive a lot of the time,

we love working together

and that's why we think we'll be successful in business.

With Suleman as a new addition to our line-up of buddies,

it's time for Joseph to present his pitch.

My company, Mathmagicool, is a family fun board game

to develop and improve mental maths skills.

You make your way around the board with a roll of a dice

and answer as many questions in your 30-second time limit as you can.

The player who answers the most questions correctly at the end

is the winner.

The retail price for the board game would be 14.99,

giving me a total of £10 profit.

My strategic vision would be to develop an app.

This app would have regularly updated questions

and timer functionality.

The magic is in the numbers, thank you.

A great summing-up there from Joseph.

But is it enough to keep him in the game?

Next, it's Lara and Rachel.

Our business idea is a history-based board game called Age To Age.

To play our game, you must roll the dice

and it will show a draw, mime, explain or question icon.

The game is played in pairs,

so at this point you must decide which pair will be doing

the drawing, miming, explaining or answering the question.

If you are miming, drawing or explaining,

you pick up the top card from the pile and read the top word.

For example, it might be T Rex.

So, I would have to draw, mime or explain a T Rex.

If you are answering the question,

your partner would read the question that was written on the card

and you would have to answer it correctly within 30 seconds

to move onto the next square.

We really believe in our game,

and we believe that there definitely is a market for it.

I mean, have you ever seen any history-based board games

on the shop shelves?

Because we haven't.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

It's the battle of the board games.

Now, with all to play for, it's down to the buddy votes.

First up, Bianca.

I have a fondness for history and I'm going for Age To Age.

Next, Emily.

I thought they were both absolutely fantastic.

But for me it was Age To Age.

Age To Age have two votes in the bag.

If Suleman also goes for them, then they have won this head-to-head.

Very well done to both of you.

But Mathmagicool, I'm going to go for you.

Next to vote, it's Emma-Jayne.

Both really exciting board games.

But my vote will be going with...

Mathmagicool.

Mathmagicool has made a comeback.

Now, it's all down to Amber.

It's an incredibly tough decision

because you both have potential to thrive

in the educational entertainment space.

But for me, Mathmagicool, my vote is with you.

A close one there.

Lara and Rachel haven't made it through,

but they're hoping their game will still make history.

The day's been amazing and you haven't seen the last of Age To Age.

The tables have turned.

Joseph now gets to choose one out of the three business buddies

who voted for him.

What do you think you can do to improve Mathmagicool?

The advice I'll be giving you is, "How can we make it stand out

"from everything else that's on the market at the moment?"

I recently launched a children's range onto the market,

so I would definitely be able to help advise you

on the different retail outlets.

My experience in the gaming industry and in the toy industry I think

could really add a lot of value and I'd love to help you with this.

Joseph can only pick one.

It's a tough choice.

I'm going to go for Emma-Jayne.

Emma-Jayne goes to work with Joseph.

It's time now for our final head-to-head.

First up, we have the 14-year-old Abbie

and 13-year-old Lou from Somerset.

Because we've known each other for ages, we sort of think the same way

and that helps us be good business partners.

They'll be up against 11-year-old Lauren from Bridgend.

My dad is my business inspiration because he never gives up

when he is given a task.

With top chef Luke joining the buddy line-up,

it's time for the next round.

First to pitch, Abbie and Luke.

-BOTH:

-Welcome to Froozles, the greatest discovery since air.

Froozles is a gags-and-gift shop like no other.

It's not aimed at ages, but at anyone with a good sense of humour.

With the help of Pocket Money Pitch,

we would like to create original products and set up a website.

If we receive the money, we'd spend it on creating

some of our favourite products.

What's your favourite product, Abbie?

Hm, I don't know.

They're all so good.

But I do like the biting biscuit tin, a sneaky biscuit tin...

Oh, biscuits. Don't mind if I do.

..that bites intruders.

And helps dieters.

What are your favourite products?

I like the talking mistletoe.

The motion sensor Christmas gimmick that shouts

when people walk under it.

-Pukka up, baby.

-Give us a kiss.

-I love you.

-Oh, thanks.

Though it may not be able to bring world peace.

Or cure diseases.

Laughter is its own cure.

To boredom!

Well, there's no joking, that pitch was fab.

Next up is Lauren with her company Fancy Rounded.

This is a Can of Person.

When you would first receive this in packaging

it would not look like this,

it would just look like an ordinary can of baked beans.

However, with one push of a button within my logo,

the top bit pops off and reveals the head and the bottom lifts off...

Pops off to reveal the legs.

And the hair corresponds to what's on the label.

In this case, baked beans.

This also corresponds to the name, which is, for this one,

Beatrix Baked-Beans.

I've also come up with some other ideas for names,

as in Sadie Spaghetti-Hoops and Gertrude Golden-Syrup.

Thank you for listening to my presentation on Can of People.

Another fab, fun-filled pitch.

But who will the buddies vote for?

First up, Luke.

Really interesting ideas.

But I'm going to be going with Froozles.

Next, it's Amber.

I'm going to vote for Fancy Rounded.

With one vote each, it's Bianca's turn.

I thought both pitches were great,

but I do like the idea of some more jokes.

So, I'm going to go Froozles.

Froozles, you have another vote.

You just need one more to go through to the next round.

Emily.

Really impressed the creativity of both pitches

and it's really close for me, but just sneaked in, Froozles.

Froozles, you have made it through to the next round.

But let's found out what Suleman thought.

The team that I thought delivered the best business pitch

was Fancy Rounded.

Another close result and although Lauren is going home,

she's not going to "can" her idea.

I'm just very happy that I got to this stage

and I'm going to keep developing my idea.

Now, Abbie and Lou can choose from the three buddies

who want to be part of the Froozles dream.

What can you offer us to help?

There's so many ideas you have.

But to launch a business you need to focus on just a few,

so maybe looking at honing down your idea to start with.

Sounds like you've got some really solid ideas, so I think that

I could help his probably from more of a numbers point of view.

I think where I can help

is really on the marketing and the branding side of things.

OK.

We've really, like, focused on something.

Maybe the numbers or the marketing?

THEY WHISPER

Have you decided?

-BOTH:

-Yeah.

We're going to go for Emily.

Emily.

So, Emily's going to be your buddy.

Go and get yourself prepared and I'll see you in the vault.

So, six have become three.

Denventures, Mathmagicool and Froozles.

They will now get ready to pitch to today's guru, Michael.

The toys and games industry is a competitive one

and today's guru, Michael, knows all about

how to conquer the ups and downs.

One of the keys to success is creativity.

Being able to come up with weird and wonderful ideas

that no-one has ever thought of before.

So, what will Michael be looking for in the vault?

I'm looking for a business that's run by very passionate entrepreneurs

who are really excited about their idea.

It's really important that no matter how amazing and colourful

and creative the idea is,

that at the end of the day it makes a profit.

Congratulations.

You did so well.

-Hey, Louise. Hey, Abbie.

-Hi.

Congratulations. I'm thrilled.

Massive well done, boys.

You've done really well for getting this far. I loved your idea.

-We got you something.

-Oh, my goodness. Thank you very much.

Only one business will win time with Michael

and a year's worth of pocket money.

That's £322.40 to turn their business dream into a reality.

So, what I think we maybe should focus on,

is the kind of boring business side of it.

And the numbers.

The young entrepreneurs need all of the help

they can get from their business buddies.

Playtime is over.

The manufacturing is another thing we need to look at.

-So, some research on that. Where some factories are.

-Yeah.

Where you can make this.

And then we can try and get our costings down.

-Another thing to really work on is your pitch, yeah?

-Yeah.

Because I think there was some parts that were really good

and really funny and engaging.

There were other parts that weren't quite as that.

Your product is all about fun

and so I really want to make sure that comes across.

-Right, to business.

-Yes.

Now, while the Pocket Money Pitchers get ready,

the vault is preparing for the final showdown.

The mission to win over the gurus.

But if at any point the pitchers get stuck, they can press this,

the Pause My Pitch button and the guru will be locked away

and the buddy will be able to run on and help them.

But they need to choose their time wisely with this

because they can only Pause My Pitch once.

Michael is looking for passionate pitchers

with a fun idea that could make a big profit.

Harri and Tomas are the first to enter the vault.

Their buddy, Ben, is watching backstage

just in case they need to call him into their den.

Good luck.

Present your pitch.

Why not join us on a journey to build an awesome den?

The kind of den kids dream of around the age of ten.

Just call your friends together, put your den kit to the test.

-BOTH:

-I think you'll soon discover Denventure is the best.

Today we would like to tell you about our idea

for a den building kit.

A kit should consist of strong fabric squares and triangles,

pole pieces for internal supports

and a short booklet of possible den shapes.

Our main competitors sell polls that you can throw sheets over.

That's not good enough.

So, our unique selling point are the ready-made fabric pieces.

Thank you very much for listening to us today.

Smashing work.

Now, before he dives into a Denventure,

Michael wants to know a bit more.

Well, tell me, where did the original idea come from?

Well, we like playing outdoors with smaller construction ties,

so we thought it would be a good idea to combine it with den making.

So, we came up with Denventure.

Planning in business is very important,

so I'd be really keen to know what your projections are

for revenue and profit over the next few years.

He wants to know how much money they think they are going to make.

It's a toughie.

They've paused their pitch, locking away Michael,

while they get some help from Ben.

Well done, boys. You're doing really well.

So, remember what our plans were to sell him.

-We had...was it 1,000 in the first year?

-Yeah.

How many are you going to sell in the second year, can you remember?

-Erm...

-10,000.

-10,000. And what about a third year?

-20,000.

-20,000.

20,000. So you've got to £24 profit.

-Yep.

-So, that means you have £24,000 profit in the first year.

Yeah.

Then in the second year, you've got 240,000.

Oh, OK.

Then in the third year, 480,000.

Ooh.

-Yeah. Do think you can remember that?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Big numbers.

Are you ready?

In the first year, we should get 24,000.

In the second year 240,000.

And in the third year 480,000.

Great, thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Well done for remembering those numbers, lads.

Next up, it's Mathmagicool,

who's hoping to get Michael on his side with his game.

Good luck, Joseph.

Present your pitch.

Hi, today I'd like to pitch to you my business idea.

Recently, I'd really struggled with mental maths skills.

That's where my idea comes in.

My company, Mathmagicool, is a family-fun board game

to improve and build confidence in mental maths skills.

You make your way around the board with a roll of the dice

and answer as many questions as you can in your 30-second time limit.

The player who answers the most questions correctly wins.

Research shows that I can make my board for £3.

I will then sell on to retailers for £8.

This would give me a profit of £5.

My strategic vision would be to develop an app.

This app would contain regularly updated questions,

dice and timer functionality,

an avatar, which is basically a character you can create

to work around the board.

Now, remember.

The magic is in the numbers.

Thank you.

Joseph has nailed the numbers in his business plan as well as his game.

And Michael's keen to know more.

I love the name.

Can grown-ups play against children, as well?

Yes, because there's different questions

based on school year groups

and there is an adult set of cards.

We wanted that so there'd be family interaction,

so children don't feel like their parents are making them play it.

They can have fun with it.

And have you thought about expanding beyond the game and the app?

Are there other categories that you'd like to get into?

Yes, I'd love to make different editions, different subjects,

not just maths.

I just really want to help children feel like it's not just boring,

we can make learning interesting.

-Great, very impressive. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

There's no doubt about Joseph's passion, a great pitch.

And last in the vault, are Abbie and Lou.

Good luck. Present your pitch.

-BOTH:

-Welcome to Froozles, the greatest discovery since air.

Froozles is a gags-and-gift shop like no other.

With the help of Pocket Money Pitch,

we would like to create original products and set up a website.

If we receive the money we'd spend it on creating

some of our favourite products.

What's your favourite product, Abbie?

Hm, I don't know.

They're all so good.

But I do like the biting biscuit tin...

Oh, biscuits. Don't mind if I do.

..that bites intruders.

And helps dieters.

Another food-related item are the Chewdebby Eggings egg cups.

You can "be-egg" your egg using a "spaxe".

Which has a spoon at one end

and either a sword or an axe at the other.

We hope you have enjoyed listening to our big ideas and plans.

-BOTH:

-Is the world ready for Froozles?

-BOTH:

-Froozles, expect the unexpected.

What a great pitch, thank you. Very entertaining.

I'm going to put my serious business face on now.

So, you mentioned a website.

So, have you got a website sorted out?

Have you got the domain ready?

-BOTH:

-Erm...

-THEY LAUGH

Erm... We'd like to buy a domain name.

And we've checked to see whether froozles.com, I think, is...

and it's not taken. So, that's one of the things that we...

It's not taken. Great.

And tell me about your projections over the next couple of years.

How much are you forecasting in revenue and profit?

-I don't know.

-Shall we?

Yeah. Go on.

It's those pesky projections again.

And Abbie and Lou need some help from Emily.

Do you remember we talked about... with your biggest competitor.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-I remember that bit.

-What do they turn over?

-BOTH:

-60 million.

-60 million.

-A year.

So, you can say our biggest competitor in the United Kingdom

turns over 60 million and with our superior ideas,

-or our magical ideas...

-Yep.

-..we want to beat that.

-OK.

-Fantastic. Good luck, guys.

Erm... Well, our highest competitor turns over £60 million a year.

And with our fantastic Froozle ideas, we would like to beat that.

Wow, those are big figures.

Fantastic.

-Well, thank you very much, Louise, Abbie.

-Thank you.

Well, they are not short of ambition.

Or fun.

All three of our businesses

have delivered passionate and entertaining pitches.

But only one can receive the pocket money.

Well, Denventure.

Brilliant. Very creative. Very innovative.

Joseph, really confident. I love that.

You knew your financials inside out.

And last but not least, the Froozle's.

What a double act.

I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of you two in the future.

I've no idea how I'm going to decide.

But he can only choose one business.

So, Michael, who is your prize pitcher for today?

Well, the picture I have chosen is...

Denventure.

Well done. Amazing.

I chose Denventure because I thought it was a great idea.

We know how popular building is online

and offline and doing it in the garden... This could be huge.

Found the whole experience...

Really great.

-Yeah, amazing.

-Yeah.

Just... Oh, yes! We won!

I was really surprised and impressed by all of the pitches.

I thought everyone was fantastic.

I'm feeling really disappointed, but it's not the end.

I'm going to carry on.

Gutted, but at least we lost to a really good team.

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

Now, Tomas and Harri have a year's worth of pocket money

to help get Denventure off the ground.

Today, I thought it would be really good to explore

maybe creating a logo.

-Do you like it?

-Wow.

-It's amazing.

So, am I hired?

Yeah.

Find out what they learned from their time with Michael

in Pocket Money Pitch: What Happened Next at the end of the series.