Despite the rise of the digital world, widespread interest in video games and increasing personal ownership of devices, offline play remains an indisputable part of the kid’s ecosystem.
All the top five hobbies among kids aged 3-5 in the UK are types of offline play. 83% of parents across the markets which we cover, agree that they would like their kids to occupy the online and offline worlds equally. As kids and parents continue to invest in offline play, new opportunities continue to arise for brands in this space.
Toys serve a multitude of purposes for kids and parents across the world. They are regarded as an entertaining medium for education, also known as forms of ‘edutainment’. Since pandemic disruptions to schooling, more parents are concerned about the development of their kids and 11% of parents with kids aged 3-9 in the UK now doubt that schools are the best place for education. Secondly, toys provide opportunities for self-expression, as kids can personalise their favourite toys and use collections to identify with specific communities. Play is also acknowledged as beneficial for positive wellbeing, meeting the rising concern among kids and parents for both mental and physical health.
TOP HOBBY
The number one hobby among preschoolers in the UK is playing with toys, with 1 in 5 kids aged 3-5 stating this as their favourite hobby at the start of this year. On average, this demographic spends 1hr 37mins a day playing with toys, the top expenditure of time after sleeping and school. This is higher than the time spent watching TV (1hr 25mins) and even eating and drinking (1hr 23mins), highlighting the importance of play.
The toy preferences of kids in Europe have changed across the last 12 months. While construction toys ranked as the top favourite toy category for kids aged 3-9 in both the Q2 2020 and Q2 2021 Kids Insights UK data sets, this market share has decreased by -33% in recent months. Moreover, soft toys have shown a -26% decrease in popularity in the last year, however they have also moved from third to second most popular toy type. Kid’s preferences are now more thinly spread across different toy categories, blurring the distinction between successful toy types.
There has been a trend of kids aged 3-5 buying toys with a collectable element, such as trading cards, with their own money. Across the regions covered by Kids Insights, trading card purchases increased in 2021 when compared to 2020 by kids aged 6-12 in France (+19%), Germany (+13%) and Canada (+3%).
As we previously established, parents have also adjusted their expectations of play and what the activity should offer their children. Most parents surveyed in Parents Insights believe that there is more to play than just fun, with only 7% believing it is about having fun only – the lowest ranking criteria recorded in the data portal. On the market today, there are a range of products seeking to unlock these other benefits for kids during playtime.
STEM toys have inspired the next generation of kids towards the field. In the UK, kids aged 6-9 surveyed between July and December 2021 who play with these toys are +62% more likely to aspire to be a doctor when they’re older compared to the average kid their age, while being twice as likely to want to become a scientist. Similarly, kids aged 6-9 who report electronic and digital toys to be their favourite are more likely to aspire towards becoming engineers (+19%), and +16% more likely to pursue a career in IT/Computing (data taken from July-December 2021).
With more IPs and content available to kids every day, it is key for toy brands to provide an offline touchpoint through which their young audience can engage with their favourite properties. Brands should diversify their product offering into many toy categories to engage the widest audience. This could mean an opportunity in the edutainment sector for kid-centric IPs to licence toys and games with an educational element, giving kids an opportunity to interact with their favourite characters in the offline space, while providing a distinct benefit that their parents can connect with.
