Kidults, Brands and the Power to Touch Everyone’s Inner Child

It was the perfect plan. I would buy the horse veterinarian van for my two little daughters' dolls and get the (very expensive) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bus for myself. I would then tell my wife that we could all play together, each with our own cars. But that wasn’t the real reason I bought it, of course. The truth is, my family couldn’t afford this bus when I was a child, and buying it now felt like delayed compensation. Many amateur therapists teach you how to “heal your inner child.” And toys can really do that!

But it’s not only toys and it’s not only me. The kidult toy market (defined as anyone over age 12) accounts for about $9 billion in toy sales every year. The two most successful movies last year were Barbie, which grossed over $1.28 billion, and Super Mario Bros., which hit $1.35 billion in global box office revenue. The Netflix series Avatar is generally considered the most anticipated TV show of this year. Guess what Pharrell Williams was wearing during his debut Louis Vuitton runway show in Paris? A Minecraft-inspired suit. The most iconic festivals in the world? Tomorrowland (inspired by Disney), Burning Man (inspired by video games), and Coachella (with the big Ferris wheel). 

So what’s behind the kidult trend? There’s a saying “We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.” This holds especially true in times like these. Let’s face it: we are living in an era of multi-crises. Movies like Barbie, video games, and toys let us forget about our day-to-day sorrows, and some of them let us time travel as well.

But what does that mean for brands?

Many brands have been heading in the wrong direction lately, focusing on meaningful purposes, fancy mission statements, and other ‘boomer’ ways to save the world. But this is not what people emotionally need right now to cope with this messed up world. What they need is joy, fun and a bit of nostalgia. 

The kidult phenomenon offers an incredible opportunity to connect with consumers on a whole new level. There is nothing more emotional than your inner child. This can be easily achieved by leveraging beloved characters and themes from our childhood. Remember World of Warcraft, Dragon Ball or Sailor Moon? Well, Gentle Monster, adidas and Chanel do. They’ve been launching crazy successful collabs with iconic franchises like these. 

Brands should also rethink products and packaging. One of the most awarded ideas last year was the Oreo Cheat Cookies, and our very own Super-Mario Haribo limited edition has been a global top seller for three years. There are plenty more easy ways to increase the playfulness of your brand. Just think about digital interfaces. We’ve grown up with Apple’s white functional minimalism for decades, but I encourage brands to try out more gamification in their interfaces. I promise retention times will go up especially if people collect points when logging in or earn badges and achievements in your apps and loyalty programs.

Embracing more playfulness and a kidult mentality can work for all products – even cars. Why not launch a car at Burning Man? Just do a Mad-Max version of it. 

We once launched a Pokémon Pikachu Collab Car with BMW Mini at Gamescom in life-size toy packaging. The results were incredible: We achieved over 800 million impressions in less than a week, and brand mentions went up by 1,600%. The coolest part was the backside of our packaging with fictional features of the car and a homage to action figure toy designs from the ’90s. People were literally lining up in kilometres!

It's actually really easy. Everything is more fun when it’s more fun. Everyone has an inner child longing for joy and play, and kidults find happiness in reconnecting with their childhood—a powerful antidote to the daily grind. And let’s be straight now. I think this is what brands should do. Some can save the world. But most should just do one thing - make consumers happy.