Boothside: MOB on Making Everyday Technology More Playful

Technology is increasingly part of everyday life from a young age — but that doesn't mean it has to look or feel purely functional.

French design brand MOB has built its identity at the intersection of technology, toys, design and gifting, transforming familiar objects such as alarm clocks, speakers, cameras and walkie-talkies into colorful, characterful products designed to create an emotional response.

Rather than defining itself through a single product category, MOB approaches everyday objects with a different question: how can something useful also become more fun, intuitive, memorable and enjoyable to own?

For this edition of Boothside – Beyond The Booth, we spoke with Jonas Elfassy, Founder of MOB, about designing technology differently, creating impact on increasingly competitive retail shelves, changing expectations around playful products, the opportunity for the brand in the UK and why finding the right retail partners matters more than simply finding more of them.

About Jonas Elfassy

Jonas Elfassy is the founder of MOB, a French design brand creating playful, technology-led products that bring together functionality, design and entertainment.

MOB's collections span audio, lighting, cameras, alarm clocks, walkie-talkies and other lifestyle products designed for children, families and the growing "kidult" market. The brand sells internationally through department stores, concept stores, museum and design shops, gift retailers, lifestyle stores and toy retailers.

Website: https://www.mob.paris/

MOB sits somewhere between technology, toys, design and gifting. How did you identify that space in the market, and what do you think makes the brand different from a traditional toy or tech company?

From the very beginning, we never wanted to place MOB in just one category.

We saw that technology was becoming an increasingly important part of children's everyday lives, but the products available were often either very technical and not particularly appealing, or very toy-oriented, with a relatively short lifespan.

We saw an opportunity to offer something different: everyday objects that are genuinely useful and functional, but with the emotion, colour and playfulness of a toy.

That's exactly where MOB sits today: at the crossroads of design, technology, play and gifting.

What makes us different is that we never start by asking, "What toy could we create?" or "What technology could we add?" Instead, we start with an everyday use or object and ask how we can make it more fun, more beautiful, more intuitive and more memorable.

An alarm clock can become a character. A speaker can become the Moon. A walkie-talkie can become a real video adventure.

For us, a product has to be useful, but above all, it has to create an emotion.

Your products turn everyday technology — from alarm clocks and speakers to cameras — into something playful and highly visual. When developing a new product, how do you balance great design with functionality and what children actually find fun?

This is probably one of the most important balances in our creative process.

A beautiful product that children don't want to use isn't a successful product. But a product packed with features and no personality isn't MOB either.

We always try to bring together three elements: function, emotion and simplicity.

The features first need to be relevant and intuitive. Then we spend a lot of time working on shapes, colours, materials and interactions so that the product is immediately appealing.

We also pay close attention to the small details that create enjoyment: a light effect, a funny sound, a filter, a soft-touch material or an unexpected movement.

Children are extremely direct in the way they interact with a product. If something is too complicated or boring, they lose interest very quickly.

Our challenge is therefore to make the technology almost invisible, allowing the experience and enjoyment of using the product to come first.

MOB has a very distinctive visual identity, and many of your products are designed to immediately catch attention. How important is that "wow factor" when creating products for retail shelves, particularly in such a competitive category?

It's extremely important.

Retail is first and foremost very visual. A customer often decides within just a few seconds whether they want to stop, pick up a product or learn more about it.

We want MOB products to trigger that first reaction: "What is that?"

But the "wow factor" shouldn't come only from packaging or colour. Ideally, it should come from the product itself: its shape, its function or the way it interacts with the user.

That's also why merchandising is very important to us. When several MOB products are presented together, they immediately create a highly recognisable universe.

We want every product to work individually, but we also want the collection as a whole to have a strong visual impact in store.

In a very competitive market, being instantly identifiable and recognisable is a real strength.

As a French brand looking to grow your presence in the UK, what opportunities do you see in the British gift and retail market, and what are you hoping to achieve by meeting new UK buyers?

The UK is a particularly exciting market for MOB because there is a strong culture around design, gifting, lifestyle and originality.

These are exactly the areas where MOB performs very well.

We already work internationally with department stores, concept stores, museum shops, toy retailers and lifestyle retailers, but the UK is still a market where we have significant room to grow.

Our objective isn't simply to open as many accounts as possible. Above all, we want to meet the right partners — retailers who understand the MOB universe and our positioning, and who want to build the brand with us over the long term.

We see strong potential with department stores, museum and design shops, premium gift retailers, concept stores, lifestyle retailers and selected toy retailers.

For us, The Gift Fair UK is above all an opportunity to present the complete MOB universe, rather than simply a succession of individual products.

You'll be exhibiting at The Gift Fair UK this year. What are you most excited to introduce to buyers, and what kind of retail partners are you hoping to connect with during the show?

What excites us most is showing how much the MOB collection has evolved.

We'll be presenting products from our different universes: Play & Dance, Create & Discover, and Dream & Sleep, with products combining technology, lighting, sound, creativity and play.

We'll also introduce some of our latest products and collaborations, which highlight the increasingly lifestyle-oriented side of MOB.

For buyers who may only know one or two of our products, I think the real surprise will be discovering how broad, coherent and recognisable the collection has become.

We're particularly interested in meeting department stores, concept stores, museum and design shops, gift retailers, lifestyle retailers and premium toy stores looking for products with a strong visual identity and real in-store impact.

For retailers discovering MOB for the first time, what do you think they need to understand about the brand — and the customer it appeals to — before they even look at the individual products?

The first thing to understand is that MOB isn't built around a product category. MOB is built around a point of view.

Our ambition is to bring more imagination, colour and emotion into everyday objects.

Our customer is looking for something useful, but also something they'll be excited to own, display, use or give as a gift.

That's also why MOB can appeal to several generations and work across different types of retail environments.

Children are attracted by the playful side, the colours and the interaction. Parents and adults are more sensitive to the design, quality and gifting dimension.

We're also seeing an increasingly strong "kidult" dimension around the brand.

Today, adults are completely comfortable buying joyful, colourful, optimistic and sometimes nostalgic products for themselves.

Ultimately, our ambition is quite simple: to create objects that make everyday life a little more fun.

Play. Dream. Smile.

Key Takeaways

• Categories don't have to define a brand. MOB operates at the intersection of technology, design, toys and gifting rather than trying to fit into a single category.

• Function, emotion and simplicity need to work together. Technology should support the experience rather than dominate it.

• Retail impact starts with curiosity. MOB designs products to create an immediate "What is that?" reaction.

• Merchandising is part of the proposition. A coherent collection can create greater visual impact than individual products viewed in isolation.

• The right retail partners matter more than the number of accounts. Long-term brand fit is central to MOB's approach to UK expansion.

• The boundaries between toy, gift and lifestyle retail are becoming less rigid. MOB sees opportunities across department stores, gift shops, museum and design stores, concept stores and lifestyle retail.

• The growing kidult market is broadening the audience for playful products. Color, optimism, design and nostalgia increasingly appeal to adults as well as children.

MOB's approach demonstrates the value of building a brand around a recognizable point of view rather than a rigid product category. By combining useful technology with design, playfulness and emotional appeal, everyday objects can become products that consumers want to interact with, display and give.

It also reflects how traditional retail boundaries are becoming increasingly fluid. A product can be technological without feeling like conventional consumer electronics, playful without being limited to children, and giftable without belonging to a traditional gift category. For MOB, that space between categories has become part of the opportunity.

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