KIDZ GLOBAL What are the world’s most popular kids’ entertainment brands? Which are the 2020 trends?

KIDZ GLOBAL

What Are The World’s Most Popular Kids’ Entertainment Brands? Which are the 2020 trends?

By Ivan Colecchia

Despite the increasing agility of brands as they try to adapt with rapid socio-cultural changes and other transitions ushered in by our heavily digitised era, the top brands in the world represent largely familiar forces that include many historical brands that have been around for quite some time.

Of course, new franchises and digital media have had a massive influence on child interests creating somewhat of a duality between merchandise and toy-based brands who rely on physical products and media or entertainment brands who rely on digital products. The strongest brands, however, tend to spread their commercial strategy across both the digital and physical realms. Interestingly, when we look at brand changes between 2018 and 2019 we can observe declines in favoritism when it comes to the top corporate brands, e.g. Disney declined from 10.4% to 8.7% despite remaining in the highest levels of mentions of all brands. This indicates a diversification in brand favoritism, the choice is broader than it was in 2018, the main brands do not hold quite the same monopolies over consumer desire, choice and popularity.

#1 Marvel

Marvel’s timeless movie series combined with its superb physical merchandising and gaming creates a brand with nearuniversal popularity between both boys and girls, particularly as ages ascend towards 14 years. Interestingly, Marvel is the only brand of the top 3 which increased in popularity, albeit a small amount from 8.2% to 8.4%. Marvel has grown from a small and relatively niche comic book franchise into one of the world’s dominant brands and franchises. Like the other brands in the top 3, Marvel drives its success by its ability to ‘recruit’ characters and franchises, e.g. Spider-Man which was re- added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in 2019 after a brief break-up.

Disney is the world’s most successful entertainment brand and has been setting the fractions for others to aim for consistently since before the 1940s. Disney as a whole or content and characters taken from Disney franchises, e.g. Frozen, make the top 5 in every region worldwide. Its popularity, as mentioned, has declined slightly since 2018 but this may be due to the brand’s tendency to franchise new brands in order to reach more consumers, the most prolific and recent example of this being the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars and Frozen have been Disney’s two most successful endeavors and combined, these give the brand immense leverage on children’s consumer desires across gender and age. Disney+ was recently pitted into a crowded market of streaming services vying for competition with the likes of Netflix, Amazon and YouTube but Disney have pulled the rabbit

Ivan Colecchia

out of the hat once more with the release of the Star Wars’ series The Mandalorian which has been the source of immense social media interest.

Disney has made a somewhat seamless transition into the modern

Spider-Man as an individual entity actually beats Marvel as a whole in the boys 0-14 category and also grew rapidly in popularity from 5% to 7%. As the last Avengers’ lm Endgame slowly fades into the background after huge success, it could be Spider-Man which picks up the gauntlet and thus, Spider-Man maybe a brand with high demand surplus going forward. Overall, though, Marvel’s top offering is still undoubtedly the Avengers franchise which makes the top 25 across every age group in most regions and also, despite superheroes being commonly stereotyped as a male interest, Avengers shows strength in popularity across both genders. It is unclear how Avengers will continue past Endgame, whether a new series will take its place or whether Marvel will do a U-turn on this being the last lm

ever of the series but it’s hard to envisage Marvel just letting Avengers go after its monumental influence on children’s entertainment and global media culture.

#2 Lego

Lego shows near-universally strong popularity amongst boys and girls across the studied age range of 0 - 14 but just like in 2018, it is strongest amongst boys where it appears in the top 3 across 5/6 of the regions studied. Lego is formidable in Europe where it lies just over 4% more popular than the next-best Barbie. Lego by many accounts is the genius brand of the pack. Retaining such strong levels of popularity via primarily physical merchandising strategies in a digitised brand landscape is an immense achievement. Lego did begin to diversify quite some time ago with digital media, e.g. the Lego movies and Lego game series, but they still mainly rely on their primary block-build toy products. Lego is a genius brand because it works so closely with other existing and emerging franchises. For example, Star Wars Lego has always been one of its most successful core franchise offerings and Lego has renewed focus on the Star Wars franchise in light of Disney’s success. Lego’s brand strength is perhaps also partdictated by the fact it is a parent-friendly brand - Lego has long been associated

with being a healthy brand that plays an important role in child development. Building Lego models is stimulating for children and the brand offers an important means of breaking up digital media and gaming which tend to absorb an increasing amount ofchildren’s attention these days.

#3 Spider-Man

Spider-Man makes the top 3 brands for boys aged 0-14 in 5/6 continents worldwide. It has grown by a fantastic 2% from the previous year which is a pretty phenomenal level of growth. The Spider-Man franchise has been on rocky territory since its 2017 blockbuster Spider-Man: Homecoming where it seemed that relationships between the two major studios involved in Marvel, Sony and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), had broken down over the future path of Spider-Man. Sony and Marvel have a complex relationship but for now, Spider- Man still resides in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and with new lms forthcoming in 2020, Spider-Man’s resurgence is set to continually build off the back of this stability. Spider-Man has been spurred on by spin-offs like Venom, which was hugely successful in 2019 and another, Morbius, will come in 2020, at least. It is almost certain that there will be more releases, though, and hype is already swelling the PlayStation 5 and leaked footage of Spider-Man 2. With Spider-Man’s popularity amongst boys aged 0-14 and with a 2% increase year on year, the brand is experiencing an impressive rate of growth. Of course, this growth is tied closely to Marvel who will look to press on despite being in the twilight of Avengers: Endgame. It’s huge shoes toll; can Spider-Man really take the crown of the MCU and surge to become the world’s most prolific superhero once more? From the stats, it’s looking increasingly likely and going forward, it seems like Spider-Man’s formidable rise will spread further.

Girls 0-14 Years Old

A macro assessment of brands by continent for the girls aged 0-14 demographic reveals some homogeneity in that either Disney or its franchise Frozen consistently rank in the top 3 worldwide. Barbie is placed either 1st or second in every continent other than Asia where it ranks 4th. Doraemon comfortably ranks 1st in Asia, though, and is a standout amongst a fairly universal top 3 brands worldwide together with So a the First in South Africa which ranks 2nd, also an animated Disney TV franchise. Whilst Doraemon ranks high outside of the top 5 in other continents, it still has some growth to do to get on terms with the principles. In Europe and Oceania, Lego sneaks into the top 5 also which is perhaps no surprise given that it is Europe’s favorite brand across genders. Masha and the Bear, a Russian animated

TV series, sneaks into the top 5 in Europe but surprisingly, in Latin America also. With greater appeal to 0-7-yearolds, Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol are also represented in the top 5 in Oceania, Latin America, South Africa and also North America where Spongebob Squarepants, another animated TV series, comes in 5th. Whilst there are a few brands in the mix here, it is striking that Disney or the Disney-owned franchises of Frozen and so they are heavily represented across every continent.

Boys 0-14 Years Old

Unsurprisingly, the Marvel universe and its constituent franchises are heavily represented across all continents for the boys aged 0-14 demographic. Marvel comfortably ranks in the top 3 for every continent other than South Africa. In South Africa, though, Spider-Man, which has been newly re-added to the Marvel universe is the favorite brand. SpiderMan, a rapidly rising brand, makes the top 3 in 5/6 continents. Interestingly, though, Lego is very strong in Europe where it sits over 3% higher than next- best SpiderMan, it is highest also in Oceania but only sneaks into the top 5 in two other continents. Oceania and Europe also show a link through Minecraft which makes the top 5 in both without representation in any other continent. As we saw for the girls aged 0-14 demographic, Doraemon takes the top spot in Asia by a whopping 5.5%, also showing how the brand is extremely popular for both boys and girls in Asia. Tom and Jerry also makes the top 5 in Asia the same as it did for girls aged 0- 14. Fortnite, a relatively new brand, makes the top 5 in North America and Oceania which is quite the accomplishment seeing as it’s only been hitting the headlines for a couple of years. Younger boys between 0-7 are perhaps best represented here by Paw Patrol which makes the top 5 in 5/6 of the continents. This is another brand that shows cross-gender popularity.

The Fastest-Growing Brand’s Popularity

The potential choice for marketers and merchandisers looking to leverage licences to popular brands is greater now than it was in 2018. The main shareholders of popularity have shrunk slightly and many smaller brands have crept up the list. Some honourable mentions here include Masha and The Bear, a Russian animated TV series which grew in popularity by 0.7%, from 3% to 3.7%, to make the top 25 of brands worldwide and Spongebob Squarepants which climbed a remarkable 2.7% from 2.9% to 5.6%, making the top 10 most popular brands worldwide. Western or American brands no longer totally dominate the rankings, which might have been the case in the past, and there are strong representation from brands originating from other regions of the world. It is a complex and nuanced picture characterised by both stable longterm brands e.g. Barbie and Disney, new brands e.g. Fortnite, declining brands, e.g. Pokémon and Harry Potter and resurgent brands e.g. Spider-Man and Doraemon.

An Asian Representative: Doraemon

It would be impossible not to mention Doraemon which is double the popularity of next-best Tom and Jerry in Asia at 15.9% vs just 8%. This means Doraemon reaches the top 25 worldwide and it’s on the increase across Europe with strong awareness and popularity between boys and girls throughout the whole age range studied. This Japanese brand has been around for almost a century but in 2008, it was appointed Japan’s anime ambassador, which has subsequently boosted its worldwide popularity. Doraemon’s rising status certainly places it well as a brand with high demand surplus, meaning that the interest is there but the available products aren’t meeting demand. There is great potential for merchandisers to leverage the demand surplus of Doraemon across Europe and other Western regions.

How Do These Brands Successfully Connect With Their Consumers? 1. The Digital Influence

You could say that every brand requires some level of digital presence to survive brand popularity contests in 2019, but there are some who defy this rule, such as

Barbie who still strongly rely on physical merchandising and toys - this has not tempered their popularity and relevance. Lego is similar, although the brand’s excursions into digital via its game series and movies have been successful also. Disney, on the other hand, shows some of the most agile adaptations to new platforms in the form of Disney+ which snowballed in popularity due to The Mandalorian series. The Mandalorian is also a superb example of how just one character can surge to be a viral sensation in incredibly short periods of time, we are of course referring to Baby Yoda who has quickly become a hallmark of meme culture, reaching the screens of millions worldwide.

2. The Rising Star: Fortnite

Fortnite has risen rapidly to become a huge brand entity amongst children aged 0-14, especially amongst boys where it repeatedly tends to rank in the top 25. Worldwide, Fortnite has almost doubled in popularity from 1.6% to 3%, the social media buzz created when Fortnite ‘destroyed’ their season 10 world with a meteor strike and black hole was pretty incredible and after this period, an astounding 125 million new accounts were created. Whilst Fortnite is incredibly popular right now, time will tell as to whether this relatively narrow brand can continue to entertain child audiences or whether its limitations will eventually be exposed. For now, however, Fortnite has an immense presence for a one-product brand. The viral nature of Fortnite and its role in social media culture has aided

its snowballing success. Indeed, the ways in which brands can utilise social media engagement not just for driving engagement but for feedback purposes also has become increasingly important. Brands which properly use the power of social media to test and mobilise new ideas have retained popularity.

3. Technological Themes

There is undoubtedly a trend towards high-tech futuristic themes across both brands and their primary flagship characters. Superhero franchises have often focused on futurism but Avengers took this to the next level. This has spread to other brands, e.g. Doraemon is a cat with high-tech augmentations and Fortnite has a largely futurist theme. Across the gaming industry in particular, we can see a trend towards high-tech sci

-esque characterization, tech and gadgets. Children are demanding greater brand attention to cutting-edge technology, as well as, the imagined characters and landscapes that come with it.

4. Mobile-rst Experiences

Mobile-rst experiences are becoming essential for many brands including children’s merchandise and entertainment brands. Smartphone usage continues to rise to the point that smartphone ownership amongst young people has become near-ubiquitous across every region on Earth, stats indicate 65% of internet engagement is represented by mobile phones, 25% of those aged under 6 own a smartphone and over 70% of those aged 7-14 own smartphones.

ABOUT BRANDTRENDS

BrandTrends tracks the relative awareness, attitudes, popularity and merchandise appeal of the most important Entertainment brands among people up to 25-year-olds. The data was collected via their survey tracker, BrandTrends, which reports on hundreds of thousands of respondents about over 1,000 different brands simultaneously in 43 countries around the world. Their database of brands contains over 50,000 different brands.

Many brands now offer mobile games which offer in-game purchasable content, content services or interactive apps which work in tandem with physical products.

5. Parental Trust

Parental trust is essential for brand popularity when it comes to those aged between 0-6. As children approach 14, it becomes increasingly likely that children will utilise their own choice when it comes to buying into brands and content, perhaps even using their own payment methods to purchase merchandise, toys and content, but at 0-6, parental trust and willingness to pay is critical. Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig and Disney make the top 3 brands for those aged 0-6 and each has their own distinguished level of trust which helps enable parents to pay for them. Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig share a similar focus on an animated TV series which combine wholesome storylines with humour and engaging fun characters whereas Disney’s uplifting, positive and morally educational themes have always helped secure the brand’s family-friendly status.

6. Baby Shark: A Musical Phenomenon

Baby Shark is an extremely simple video and song which made a remarkably large splash in recent years. It started life as a German song in the early 2000s but after Pinkfong, a K-Pop band, popularized it in 2015, the song gathered momentum to enter the charts worldwide and rack up some 5 billion views on YouTube by January 2020. The song then found itself spreading through school playgrounds, social media and across families to become a true viral

hit. It has now appeared in advertising and marketing campaigns for big businesses such as Kelloggs. This is a superb example of how a brand out of the ordinary can move into the cultural spotlight extremely quickly.

7. Gender Interests

Whilst it might be fair to say that Lego’s top 3 placement is driven by extremely strong male interest and Disney’s top 3 placement is driven by extremely strong female interest whilst Marvel occupies more of a middle ground, between girls aged 0-14, Barbie is the strongest brand overall scoring in the top 5 across every region and is number one in 4 regions. Barbie sits 1% clear of the next-best Disney for girls 0-14 across the world, though it is slightly beaten 2% by Peppa Pig for girls aged 0-6. Barbie is another historical brand which has stayed at the top of its game for decades. Barbie’s core offering has remained largely the same and though the brand has had to diversify its products to be more inclusive, its stability is quite remarkable.

6. Content Driven Experiences and Escapism

If we take a very general view on what makes the top brands tick in 2019 then the story remains much the same as in 2018. Children want to be absorbed into their favorite brands, they’re willing to engross themselves for hours into gaming and ondemand streamed content, they’re looking for a means to escape from daily life and engage with colorful imagined worlds jam-packed with strong visualisations and larger-than-life characters, futurist

themes and high-tempo action. Digital technology has been employed across many brands who are looking to leverage new possibilities, e.g. creating more cutting-edge content-rich experiences than ever before - we may be on the edge of a VR and AR breakthrough but this is still unclear and brands are still investing in producing cutting-edge content and products which are the ‘coolest’ by way of their high-tech functionality.

More Diverse Brands

The top brands of 2019 do differ to 2018, they are more diverse, international and represent a continued shift towards digitisation and mobile- rst experiences. However, it remains surprising how historical brands like Barbie, Lego and Disney continue to share the greatest child popularity and despite some small decreases, this popularity remains largely stable for now. Of the top brands, Disney seems the most secure and perhaps also the most likely to prosper off the back of Star Wars and The Mandalorian which has been an international hit and viral social media sensation. Marvel and the Avengers are interesting brands in 2019, still buoyed by the success of Endgame, it’s unclear how they’ll adapt to one of the world’s most successful superhero franchises coming to an end. This may somewhat account for Spider-Man’s rapidly rising success and he may indeed become the dominant star of the superhero scene going forward.