BAYKO Advertising Diary

The purpose of this page is, quite simply, to provide a Diary-style indication of the timing of all the known BAYKO Adverts. At this stage I have identified no less than 541 adverts, all available on the website - links to all relevant publications are available in the 'Key' table [below]. There are a further four BAKELITE plastic adverts and two STYRON plastic adverts, which mention BAYKO as a user of their product, plus a U.K. wartime savings advert which includes a BAYKO image…

…click here to see the Styron adverts…

If you know of any other BAYKO adverts, then I'd love to hear from you…

In order to make the Diary [below] as easy as possible to understand, I have used different colours to distinguish between…

…children's comics, other children's publications, adult newspapers, trade publications.

To simplify matters, MECCANO general product adverts which included BAYKO are included, as are general toy shop adverts which specifically mention BAYKO.

The solid run of 'Games and Toys' entries during the war years, and for several years after, are small classified style adverts, the “(x2)” amongst them indicate additional full adverts in those months.

There aren't too many conclusions to be drawn from the above, beyond the inconsistent, comparatively planning free approach to the placement of adverts, with monthly patterns varying substantially from year to year, and gaps of several years for no obvious reason.

The three most basic observations are : -

The adverts to the trade appear to have two focus periods, those being the run up to the February British Industries Fair and the third quarter of the year when retailers would be planning their Christmas stocks.
Having said that, there are periods when the BAYKO name was being kept in the trade's eye much more comprehensively, particularly during the war, when, of course, no product was available.

Apart from the regular appearances in 'MECCANO Magazine' most of the adverts targeted at the wider British public are restricted to the pre-Christmas periods, after 1950, apart from a few, early year, 'Boys Own' adverts, perhaps aimed at parting the happy recipient from his (or her) Christmas pennies.
The 'MECCANO Magazine' comprehensive coverage may be as much evidence of the relationship between the two companies as of a marketing strategy.

Once MECCANO took over in 1959, the frequency of BAYKO adverts dropped, including, unbelievably from my point of view, in their own publication, 'MECCANO Magazine'! Why‽ Once Tri-ang took over in early 1964, all BAYKO advertising ceased.  This can only have been part of their 'milk it' strategy as BAYKO was allowed to die peacefully in less than four years - with zero cost, maximum profit as the name of the game.