ACGBOX漫盒 , a Food Toy brand recently completed Series A financing. This round of financing was exclusively invested by Ventech China.

ACG BOX was established in Shanghai in 2017, positioning itself in the food toy industry. By integrating anime IPs with snack foods, ACG BOX achieved nearly threefold growth in 2023.

In the current competitive market, how can ACG BOX break through? We talked with Garron, the founder of ACG BOX, about this "unconventional" creative Food Toy brand.

Expanding Distribution Channels and Enhancing Shopping Experience

Nowadays, more and more channels realize that it is not only necessary to provide consumers with high cost-effective products, but also to let consumers experience the pleasure of shopping. 

Such changes have also brought more growth opportunities for ACG BOX.

Garron found that in the current environment, many relatively traditional chain channels are looking for differentiation, and ACG BOX's products can bring them the differentiation they need. "We will get more shelves and displays in these channels, and we are also developing customized products with the channels. For example, we customized the Oatmeal Crisp Crayon Shin-chan series for the whole family, and achieved good results," said Garron.

Family Edition Oatmeal Crisps + Refrigerator Stickers

Garron concluded: "Where the consumer is, our product channel is there."

IP + Snacks: Providing Emotional Value

Based on the understanding of culture and social circle, ACG BOX points out a new idea of " leisure snacks through the combination of "IP + leisure snacks": improving cost-effectiveness can not only come from lower prices, but also from higher "performance" - for the leisure snack category, facing young people with life pressure, in addition to the product itself "eating healthy", the emotional value brought by "eating happily" is also being recognized by more consumers.

Garron believes that most human actions are driven by emotions. For ordinary products, consumers are only willing to pay the cost price; but when faced with products with emotional connections, they often show incredible loyalty, which even surpasses reason. IP is a good emotional connection that can bring more emotional value to the product.
This tests general capabilities: from IP strength to channel strength, product strength, operational strength... Only through years of accumulation can one form their own unique abilities.

Garron believes that accumulation is the most crucial factor in any industry. IP is constantly changing, and "products" as the carrier of IP are also constantly changing - from blind boxes in 2017-2018, to cards in 2020-2021, and then to “Goods” starting in 2023... 

Therefore, the entrepreneurship of the ACG industry has higher requirements: not only needs to have a forward-looking market, but also needs to combine with the changes in users' content needs, and concretize IP as a "product" that users are willing to pay for.

As for how to create a "product", Garron shared with us a sentence he saw before: "What is valuable today is not standardized supply, but experiences worth sharing."

Future Strategy: IP + Product + Channel

ACG BOX's focus on food toys is not actually a completely new category.

In fact, the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin hero cards of Little Raccoon instant noodles should be a beautiful childhood memory for many people born in the 1980s. For the post-2000 generation, "social currency" appeared again, such as the Paw Paw Cheese Stick and the hidden toy Kinder Fun Egg...

This means a broader market for the food toy category, but it also means more complex challenges.

Garron believes that the current food toys industry is a greater test of IP acquisition and operation capabilities, supply chain integration capabilities, and deep distribution capabilities of enterprises.

He said, "In the future, we still need to constantly find out the hottest IP in the market, such as the recently popular Little Pony in the girls' circle. At the same time, we will also find excellent food supply chain companies to co-create, and ensure that the products we make are truly good products through our understanding of user requests and their R&D capacity."

At the same time, we will continue to deeply work on the distribution channels, serve partners in the ecological niche of distributors, and enable more consumers to continuously purchase our products in various scenarios near their homes, schools, and companies"

Garron concluded, "Delicious and affordable, happiness doubled" is the experience we hope to provide to our users.

Curt Ferguson, a Managing Partner of Ventech China, the investment institution in this round said, channels are both customers and partners, and building long-lasting and resilient channels seems simple but is actually not easy. What I learned at Coca-Cola is that brands need to ensure their products are with availablity, affordablity, and acceptability. 

Emotional value is also a key element of a product. The rise of the internet and self-media allows consumers not only to access diverse information but also to become significant information providers. Thus, consumer preferences and emotions have become crucial to a brand's image.

ACG BOX’s continuous rapid growth in the current market environment demonstrates its unique ability to integrate IP, products, and channels. Ventech China has long focused on brands that can establish emotional connections with consumers while excelling in channels, products, and operations.