Kidulting is Big Business | Reimagining Retail

Suzy Davidkhanian (0:00)

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Hi everyone. Today is Wednesday, September 2nd. Welcome to EMARKETER's weekly retail show, Reimagining Retail, an EMARKETER podcast made possible by Verve. This is the show where we talk about how retail collides with every part of our lives, and I'm your host, Suzy Davidkhanian. On today's episode, we're talking about adulting, the growing business of adults who play games. Joining me today are podcast regulars, Principal Analyst Carina Lamb. Hey Carina.

Carina Lamb (1:05)

Hi Suzy, great to be back.

Suzy Davidkhanian (1:06)

Nice to have you. And Zak Stambor. Hey Zak.

Zak Stambor (1:10)

Hi Suzy, hi Carina.

Carina Lamb (1:11)

Hi Zak.

Suzy Davidkhanian (1:12)

Okay, so the global toy market hit 123 billion last year, and adults are becoming an increasingly important part of that business. In fact, according to Serkana, in the US, adults 18 and older drove 35% of toy industry growth through April just this year. But adults playing games and buying collectibles isn't new. What's changing is how intentionally toy companies are going after them. LEGO has botanicals, Crayola had launched All Grown Up, and this summer, even Play-Doh introduced an adult toy, Blooms, a floral crafting kit designed specifically for adults. So today, we're getting into what cadulting actually means, why this long time behavior is getting so much attention right now, and how far can brands take it before smart growth strategies feel a little too gimmicky. But okay, before we get started, I want to ask each of you, what's the last game you bought for yourself?

Here, because maybe you have not been participating in cadulting, I'm okay to go with stuffy or memorabilia, cards, some kind of fandom thing, Carina.

Carina Lamb (2:22)

Okay, so not just games, we're including kind of toys more generally.

Suzy Davidkhanian (2:26)

Because I don't peg you guys as buying toys, toys.

Zak Stambor (2:30)

So I bought a Lego set. My younger son is very, very, very into Legos right now.

In particular, like the very complicated, like modular sort of Lego sets, like just behind me, it's like a whole city of stuff. And so for Father's Day, we got a set to do together. So we built, you know that like lamp that's the Pixar, like logo guy?

Suzy Davidkhanian (3:02)

Oh yeah.

Zak Stambor (3:03)

Yeah, we built that as a Lego set. And it was great. It was very fun. And a great activity to do together.

Suzy Davidkhanian (3:09)

A present for you.

Zak Stambor (3:10)

Yeah.

Suzy Davidkhanian (3:11)

But it kind of feels like, I don't know, but this is a good thing. Because you know what, me too, Carina, I haven't bought myself a toy. I don't know if playing games on my phone counts as cadulting. I'm not really sure. But maybe that's the great way to start, which is like, what is? Yeah, go ahead. Did you?

Carina Lamb (3:27)

I was just going to say, I will say that I probably don't buy toys because I spend all of my money on my horse. And that's probably also me living out my childhood dreams, right? Taking my horse to like pony club camp. So I think I'm kind of doing it just with a more expensive toy.

Zak Stambor (3:42)

It is kind of a similar sort of thing. Yeah, you're hitting the same note in a different way.

Suzy Davidkhanian (3:47)

Yeah. Well, let's talk about that then. What, when we talk about cadulting, what is it that we're actually talking about? Is it that adults are buying toys, like you guys did, Zak, that are intentionally made for children? Or are brands making new toys? They're creating things for adults specifically for that experience.

Carina Lamb (4:07)

I think it's both and all things. So I think it's adults buying toys that were kind of traditionally associated with children for themselves.

And some of them might be collectors, but I don't think it's just limited to collectors. I think adults do also just buy toys sometimes for themselves. And then I think you also now have a toy industry that's recognizing them as a really potentially valuable market and making toys that are intentionally designed for adults.

Suzy Davidkhanian (4:35)