Baskets Full of Easter Toys

I was talking with one of my younger colleagues recently about what I was getting my kids for Easter when he abruptly stopped me.

“Wait, you get your kids presents for Easter?” He shook his head and continued, “Aside from some candy, I never got anything for Easter! Presents? C’mon!”

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Where Was Camp Rock When I Was A Kid?

Like many parents, I marvel about how much life has changed since I was a kid. Take my son Alex, as one example. Alex is 13, and in many ways he’s a lot like I was when I was his age. While he fantasizes about one day playing in the NBA (despite his 4′ 11″ height), I wanted to be Pat Benatar or Chrissie Hynde. While his taste in music revolves around rap and hip hop, my affinity for disco eventually gave way to alternative rock. At 13 we were both math geeks and loved hanging with our friends. The differences? Alex has a lot more - and in some cases a lot cooler - options for indulging his interests than I did. While there was no “Camp Rock” when I was 13, last summer Alex had the privilege of attending the LeBron James basketball camp and got to meet LeBron himself. And while I met my girlfriends at the mall to hang out, or went to afternoon matinees at the movie theater, a big part of Alex’s social time takes place online, playing games via Xbox Live with his friends or socializing on Facebook.

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What Drives A Parent To Purchase Products For Their Children?

Are parents more likely to purchase a DVD or a book for their child? If they’re going to buy a DVD, will they be more inclined to make the purchase at Walmart or Toys R Us? When they’re making their purchasing decision, which will grab their attention more, Toy Story or SpongeBob SquarePants? Which retailer is capturing more than its fair share of spending against a particular hot brand or license? Insight into these questions, addressed with concrete data, is now available with The NPD Group’s Kids Industry Data Service (KIDS) / Cross-Category Service.

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All I Want For Christmas…

Well, it seems that the holiday season is in full swing. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, but the sounds of the holidays are around us everywhere in television ads, Internet gimmicks (”Have you elf’d yourself yet?”) and if you’re a Gleek like me, you soaked up every minute of this week’s holiday-themed episode. One of my favorite Christmas songs from my youth was “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.” Well, with three weeks of open-ended responses in from our KIDS tracker, I can tell you that “teeth” is one of the few things that has yet to show up even once on kids’ wish list items.

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A Licensed Pancake, My Face Is

On a recent business trip to San Francisco, I had an hour to kill in between meetings so I popped into one of my favorite haunts, Williams Sonoma, to see what was new in the culinary goods world with the approaching holidays.

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Minding Kids’ Business

According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, in 2009 there were approximately 62 million kids age 0-14 in the United States. These kids comprise 20 percent of the total U.S. population, representing an enormous consumer base, even though adults have much authority over what is purchased for them. Much, but certainly far from all. Even very young kids exert a good deal of influence over the purchases made on their behalf.
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Back When I Was A Kid…

I fondly remember the things my parents used to say whenever we complained about things, like walking a quarter of a mile down the street to the bus stop for school.  “When I was a kid, I walked three miles to school, through a snowstorm,” was one of my all-time favorites.  And, of course, as most of us have, I vowed never to say these types of things to my own kids.  And like most of us, I have failed miserably at keeping this promise. 
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When Times Are Tough, The Tough Go Bargain-Hunting

I was shopping last weekend for a gift for my twins to take to their friends’ party, and I entered my local specialty retail store without a preconceived notion of what I was going to get, but with a definite price range in mind.  As my kids suggested various items to me, I evaluated it against my predetermined price range.  Too often, my response to their suggestion was, “No, honey, that’s above my price range,” but eventually we settled on the perfect gift for the boy that they thought he’d enjoy, while also sticking to my budget.
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YouTube Kids

As I sat down at my desk one morning last week and scanned industry news along with items posted on Facebook and Twitter, I ran across something really interesting that one of my Twitter followers posted. “Barbie Premieres Her First Music and Dance Video” read the headline and of course there was a handy link to the video. The video itself is a lot of fun, but its bigger purpose is to promote a new line of fashion dolls being introduced for this holiday season by Mattel. The following morning I came across a posting on KidScreen that highlighted how Disney is also using YouTube as part of its launch campaign for the new line of Toy Story toys tied to the re-release of the first two movies in 3-D.

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“Big” News - TRU Acquires FAO

Just last weekend, my 11-year old son had a bunch of his buddies over on Saturday night to hang out and play video games, watch movies, shoot hoops, and engage in an epic Nerf gun battle.  A few of the boys’ mom’s hung out with me and we enjoyed an evening sipping wine and exchanging gossip.  After a couple hours of complete mayhem, we wanted to settle the boys down so I went to the cupboard and picked out a movie - initially it was hard to pick one I thought they all would like and then my eyes spied one of my all-time favorite movies:  “Big.”  As I announced to the group, “Okay, I’m putting on “Big,” several of the mom’s chimed in, “Oh I love that movie.”

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