also consumes IP, and the focus of children may be quite different from that of adults.
For example, it is also the "Avengers", the adults contributed to the box office in the movie theater, and then bought two UTs with Iron Man logo in Uniqlo. The little boy might prefer to watch cartoons on TV, and after watching it, he clamored to buy Iron Man toys.
For another example, nowadays hot toys and various dolls, adults may like to have a sense of design that can reflect their own personality, but the real main consumer group of dolls-little girls-the purchase standard is much simpler, they only I like cute ones.
Through this difference in consumption habits, we can discover many opportunities hidden in the mainstream market.
Recently, Smarty Pants, a child and family market analysis agency, announced the Top 30 most popular IP/brands among children aged 6-12 in the United States.
has big IP/brands we are familiar with, such as Lego, The Lion King, and Pokémon. There are also some IP/brands that you may never have heard of, such as NERF, which is a gun toy brand under Hasbro, and Scholastic, which is a children's book brand.
Why is a toy gun brand and a children's book brand able to enter the Top 30, and the ranking is still so high?
This is the difference between the children's market and the mainstream market.
products that are completely ignored by the mass market, such as toy guns and children's books, are actually essential entertainment consumer goods in children's daily life. Therefore, the popularity of these two brands in the children's community can be higher than the annual income of 25 billion US dollars in Pokémon. The IP with more exposure of
is more popular, but the most popular is the toy IP
back to the top of the table, we added the company and main media to it based on the original ranking.
From the perspective of the company it belongs to, Disney is still outstanding, with 11 of the top 30 IPs from Disney. The rest are well-known film and television entertainment companies, toy companies or game companies, such as Warner, Lego and Nintendo.
However, small players also have opportunities in the children's market. For example, we mentioned earlier Scholastic and another successful publisher, Abrams Books, both of which are famous for children's books.
In 2018, when the overall sales of the North American book market rose slightly by 1.3%, the sales of children's picture books soared by 40%, becoming the main force driving the book market.
In China, the book market has also ushered in a reshuffle. In 2018 and the first three quarters of 2019, more than one-third of the growth in the book retail market came from children's books, and children's picture books accounted for 24.98% of the children's book retail market. It can be said that in the children's market, children's picture books are a small outlet.
From the perspective of media, we can find that the IPs that children love are mainly film and television content IPs, and the next level is games, toys and children's books. This is no different from the mainstream market. The place
needs to explain is that this list only counts the popularity of IP/brands, and has nothing to do with the form in which this IP is consumed. We list the "main media" here to show that this IP is the most popular The main presentation.
In the table, Lego ranks first, and NERF is second, both of which are toy IPs. Lego and Hasbro, the owner of the NERF brand, are both the first echelon in toy companies. Although toy sales have been declining in recent years, children under 12 are still the main players in toy consumption. The rest of
is mainly film and television animation IP, and we can find that the top rankings are all popular IPs that have launched new movies or updated episodes this year. For example, Toy Story and The Secret of Pets both released the latest movies in their series this summer.
In the survey, 90% of the children said they like Toy Story now, and 87% of the children said they like the Secret of Petting.
Whoever can occupy the mass media can occupy the minds of consumers, especially for children. The Secret of Pets this year’s ranking has risen by 17 places compared to last year. This is because related movies have been released this year and have been exposed in the media on a large scale.
corresponds to the Wonder Woman who was still on the list last year. With the movie’s popularity,It has disappeared from the comprehensive ranking this year.
In fact, in this year's Top 30, nearly half of the IPs on the list are either new movies released or related content broadcast on the TV. The same is true for the
game. Mario Kart, which was on the list this year, just launched a mobile game version last month, creating a record of over 20 million downloads in the first day and over 90 million downloads in the first week. Now "Mario Kart" is Nintendo's most downloaded game in the first week.
We have also referred to similar lists published by Smarty Pants in the past few years, and found that some big IPs have always been on the list stably, such as Lego, NERF, Minecraft, Roblox and Avengers. The reason why these big IPs of
can stably make the list is that in addition to their long-term accumulated brand effect, there is also a very important point that they do not rely on content products to attract viewers' attention. Among these long-term stable big IPs, except for a few such as Avengers, which belong to film and television IPs, most of the others are toys and games. For children, toys and games are things they are willing to actively consume, so these brands will have a stronger "sense of existence" among children.
This also reveals one point: For children consumers who are not so loyal, products that can stay with them to actively consume may cultivate their interest more than periodically broadcast film and television content.
In addition, with the rise of smart devices, children's consumption habits are also changing. A study by
Common Sense Media found that the time spent watching TV for children under the age of 12 has dropped by 25 minutes compared to 4 years ago, while the time spent watching online videos is getting longer.
Now the favorite video platform of American children is YouTube. For children, this is the world of game anchors and toy evaluation.
Entertainment companies like Disney are reluctant to put their content on such a free-to-air platform, but such an approach will undoubtedly lose some potential consumers.
Girls love blind boxes, boys love games, but the most popular always men and women take all
The Top30 IP/brand list mentioned above combines the preferences of girls and boys. If we distinguish between genders, we find that many IPs that miss the list due to obvious gender bias can be on the list.
Among the 30 girls’ favorite IPs/brands, 15 are related to toys. Some of them are IPs that we know well, such as Barbie and My Little Pony, but there are also many toy IPs/brands that we rarely hear about. They Most of them are plush dolls and delicate dolls.
The number one L.O.L Surprise! It is the hottest blind box game in the United States in recent years, and it once led the trend of U.S. YouTubers making unpacking videos of toys. In statistics, 62% of the girls said L.O.L Surprise! very popular.
is ranked among the best-selling toys in 2018 according to NPD statistics, L.O.L Surprise! The toys launched are almost "slaughter". Among the top ten, only Mattel's Hot Wheels and Barbie are not L.O.L Surprise! The product.
is operating L.O.L Surprise in July this year! The company’s MGA Entertainment and iQiyi have reached a partnership, and the latter will become the exclusive full-category authorized agent of the L.O.L Surprise! brand in Mainland China.
is at L.O.L Surprise! Under the leadership of, the blind box has become a trend in the toy industry, and blind box toys such as hatchimals, Pikmi Pops and Poopsie also occupy a place on the list. The biggest difference between these American blind boxes and Chinese blind boxes is that they have put a lot of effort into packaging, trying to create a "sense of ceremony" of opening the box.
L.O.L Surprise! The remaining toys of
include plush dolls, plastic figurines, and small toys for playing "play house". The biggest difference between these toys designed for little girls and adult play is that the latter will invite artists to design, and the shape will highlight individuality. The little girl’s requirements are relatively simple, just cute. Little l on the
listIve pets and FurReal are no different from ordinary stuffed animal dolls in appearance, but these two dolls actually move. They have motors installed inside. As long as you touch them, these dolls will move. Head, or winking, just like a real pet, very cute.
Boys’ Top30 list is relatively special because there are many more game IPs, such as Sonic and Call of Duty. As for the annual popular game "Fortnite", 42% of boys said they play almost every day .
But overall, boys are more inclined to "save the world" content-based IP, especially the superhero IP, which can be called the boys' favorite. Survey data shows that some of the more classic superheroes, such as Batman and Superman, are welcomed by almost all boys (90% and 85% respectively).
In recent years, most companies have tried to "de-gender" in terms of IP/brand gender bias. The benefits of this are obvious. The top IPs on the comprehensive Top30 rankings have no obvious gender bias, which means that these IPs have a larger market. A typical example of
is NERF, which can be on the girls list. In theory, girls are unlikely to be interested in this toy gun. But Hasbro made a lot of efforts to open up the girl market. In the product, Hasbro has added many pink and purple styles that girls may like. In terms of brand promotion, Hasbro has specially shot a commercial called "Girl Power". The same goes for
games. Games like "Fortnite" are difficult to attract female players, but "Roblox" such as "Roblox" weakens combat elements, more inclusive games can be ranked third in the girls list.
