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Mess-Filled Play

Toy brands offer hands-on activities that encourage messy play

Implications - Tapping into a bit of nostalgia, toy brands are reverting back to hands-on activities that not only encourage interactivity, but that entail mess as part of the process . Appealing to various sensory elements, brands are offering kids toys that encourage behavior like getting your clothes wet to creating custom-made slime. This turn toward more messy, hands-on activities suggests a shift back to not only more analog activities for kids, but activities that encourage disorganized, unconventional play.
Workshop Question - In what ways could you adapt your product or service to be simpler in design and function? What nostalgic elements could you integrate?
Trend Themes
1. Sensory Play - The trend of offering toys that encourage multi-sensory, hands-on and often messy play appeals to nostalgia and a shift back to unconventional activities.
2. Customization - Brands that offer toys that can be customized and personalized provide an opportunity for unique engagement with consumers and differentiation from competitors.
3. Chance-based Games - Games that rely on chance, suspense, and often involve messy or gross elements provide unique, highly shareable, and viral content for social media.
Industry Implications
1. Toy Industry - Opportunities exist for toy makers to create multi-sensory, hands-on experiences and highly-sharable games that appeal to social media consumption and reward repeat purchases.
2. Social Media - Creative and challenging games and experiences that generate uniquely hilarious, gross, or surprising content encourage social media sharing and engagement.
3. Consumer Goods - Companies that can create customizable products that engage consumers with more immersive and experiential play or activities can differentiate from competitors and provide highly promising upsell opportunities.
3.7
Score
Popularity
Activity
Freshness
Patterns
Megatrends
4 Featured, 33 Examples:
94,191 Total Clicks
Date Range:
May 17 — Jun 18
Trending:
Average
Consumer Insight Topics:

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