Looking at the future of the industry from the history of toy development: APP toys or becoming important branches

　　 [ Chinese and foreign toy network November 21st] According to " Chinese and foreign toy manufacturing " report : the history of toys reflects the changes in people's perceptions in different eras, and is integrated with human culture, education and civilization. When we feel that a product is a trend, this trend must be relative to history. Looking at the history of toys, let's take a look at what role APP toys (toys that can play with App) will play.

Once upon a time

Toys emphasize educational value to meet parents

The ball and dolls that were discovered 5,000 years ago were discovered by archaeologists, meaning that the birth of toys has a long history. In 2800 BC, the West Indian Halapa culture appeared something that seemed to be an animal toy; in Greece in the era of Horace, children also had wooden horses, toy pets, and dolls made of wood and clay. The exchange of dolls between medieval adult aristocratic women is very common, but only when the mother does not need it, it is given to the younger daughter. During this period, toys can only be called miniatures, and they are not separately targeted for children.

Since the 1970s, toys have become a product of the transfer of values, and parents have placed emphasis on toy durability and educational value. Toy makers of this period, the main purpose is to meet the parents, aimed at the middle class rather than the masses, and educational toys have become the best symbol of the status consciousness of the middle class family. The child’s personalized expression has not received much attention.

Miniature kitchenware made the little girls of the 1890s familiar with their future domestic chores

Modern

Toy consumption is gradually turning to children

By the 1930s, comic strips and radio brought a certain amount of imagination to toys. In the 1950s, television brought tremendous changes to the toy industry. Mattel and Hasbro were pioneers in advertising children's programs in the 1950s. They design the perfect promotional language, not only for toys but also for stories. These advertisements have scripts that tell the children how to play the game and how to make the toy the protagonist of these fictional plots. This form of sales advertising has been so successful that, by the mid-1980s, these companies and other companies had turned cartoon shows into half-hour commercial specials featuring specific toys. Since then, the toy factory's parents turned to the object from the child, meet the child, creating a new independent children's fantasy world, the sale of individuality and imagination.

70's

Turn on TV+ toy mode

From the end of the 1970s, fantasy toys were divided into three parts: fashion, action, and "friendship," targeting girls, boys, and preschoolers. All of these toys have their own storyline, complemented by a carefully categorized character. They all have some dramatic appearances, fighting plots and emotions. Toys have become a part of a huge interconnected industry, including movies, television and other media. Practitioners in the toy industry can find that this model is also the model we are most familiar with at present: through the creation of popular cartoons, giving children plots and imaginations, and then driving the sale of toys. Briefly, this is a TV+ toy model. This mode TV playback and toy use are separate.

A successful toy must be associated with a world that is constantly changing. The goal is to "catch up the tide." Steven's Steven noticed that a toy failed either because it was "too much like something that had appeared before, or because it was not like anything that appeared in the past."

just now

APP interaction and toy fusion

Now, we are in a period of transition from the TV era to the mobile Internet era. We found that as a young parent, the time spent watching TV is constantly shortening. The time spent on mobile phones and ipads is increasing, and the time of fragmentation is increasing, which will affect children in a subtle way. Coupled with the unique interactivity of mobile phones and ipads, this kind of interaction naturally attracts children, so in this huge industry system, APP will surely gain a place. What's more, the next step in the Internet of Things is waiting for us. Technological changes will inevitably drive industry changes.

Remember Taobao’s slogan of “small and beautiful”? In fact, the APP in the toy bears such small and beautiful functions. Most toy brands do not have a high amount of money to invest in a complete set of cartoons, nor do they have such strong anti-risk capabilities. But with APP, you can use iterative methods to do some interactive content with scene plots, see feedback, refine, and iterate. It's a bit like a American drama, isn't it? Toys are naturally sold, and toys sold can naturally be downloaded by APP. This fragmentation feature is equivalent to each toy brand in the future will have its own reservoir. Every toy brand has an IP dream, and these dreams will become easier and easier to implement. In this mode, APP interactive content and toy use are integrated.

future

APP toys will become an important branch of the industry

More interestingly, educational toys will have new life. In the history of American toys, educational toys and fantasy toys have different supporters and opponents. Educational toys have also been greatly reduced in sales due to the emergence of fantasy toys. Then educational toys with educational content and plots and characters will greatly compensate for the lack of educational toys. It is very likely that educational toys will usher in new growth points.

"Today's Dad", Ives's catalogue in 1932 wrote: "The difference with yesterday's father is that you want your child to own and enjoy all the things that are impossible for your own time!" We need Develop toys that are based on classics but can be associated with an imaginative future. From these perspectives, APP toys will not be short-lived, but will become an important branch of toys.

Source: "Chinese and foreign toy manufacturing" October issue
Author: Ye Hao (Chinese and foreign toy all media contributing author)