Our figures from Billets/Thomson Intermedia show who maintained their marketing over the full course of a year, as opposed to the occasional spikes that happen around a big product release.

No surprise to see Mattel at the top of the estimated spend share chart, closely shadowed by Hasbro.

Character Options leads the chasing pack ahead of Vivid Imaginations and Tomy. The interesting thing about looking at the yearly figures is that the combination of a full year’s campaigns shows which retailers are really getting behind their toy ranges. Normally the monthly spend is never enough to grab a decent amount of spend share, so tends to feature in the nether reaches of the charts or slip under the radar altogether.

A full-year sample shows Argos giving the most backing to its toy offering, closely followed by Toys R Us as the leading specialist toy retailer. In fact, overall they were the two biggest single campaigns, albeit covering a number of different products over the course of a year.

Asda is the top spending supermarket, but is matched nearly blow for blow by Sainsbury’s, which has greatly increased its commitment to the toy market over the last 12 months. Maybe it’s only a loss leader, but the supermarket is certainly letting people know about it.

And Irish chain Smyths may be largely clueless about PR, but is really putting its money where its mouth is in its bid to establish its presence on the UK mainland.

And what have been the most advertised products in the 12 months to September according to our friends from Billets? Hasbro’s Monopoly, that’s what. But Leapfrog is to be congratulated for the effort it has put behind its Click Start computer for pre-schoolers. Its great rival VTech is not far behind with its campaign for V.Smile Baby. Flair promised big backing for its Gormiti range and has delivered just that, although the range has yet to mirror its success in its native country.