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This was the second year running that Toy Fair in New York wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t get some good insights into the state of play for the coming year. YouthBeat sat in on the virtual Toy of the Year Awards presentation, and most of the winners are what we’d call “Pros:” the brands you’ve heard of that perennially release great products that promote joy, comfort, imagination, escape from daily stressors, and stimulation during playtime.
At YouthBeat®, we publish a quarterly newsletter highlighting new and newly-relevant youth + family culture elements that we expect to be relevant to brands’ portfolios beyond a fad’s lifespan. Rather, we identify constructs that we predict will still be applicable in a year, five years, even ten years down the road. In our Winter 2021/2022 edition, we start by broaching the topic of what Generation Z adulting looks like in the workplace and the nursery. Gen Z parents, in particular, are a group we’ll be keeping an eye on in the next several years.
The year 2021 has been one of adjustment and recalibration for youth and adults alike. Schools are mostly back in-person, but Covid variants aren’t going away anytime soon. The ensuing inflation and supply chain issues have had everyone wondering what the “new normal” can, and does, look like, and that picture changes regularly. Youth culture, however, marches forward—and here are YouthBeat’s top highlights from the last 12 months:
Find out whether youth want lots of small gifts or just one big gift, also what are this year’s hottest gift cards, and more. And, given the way family time has changed throughout the pandemic, this year we added a question, “If someone were to gift you ‘an experience’ where you spend time together, what would you want it to be?”
You may have read our Holiday Preview blog where we shared ideas for gifting all of the good children in your life.
As we enter the home stretch of 2021, hopes of holiday gatherings, good health, and good cheer abound. And for retailers, visions of healthy sales dance in their heads. The National Retail Federation’s predictions for spending this year suggest a holiday season total of upwards of $850 billion, a record high in the U.S.
At C+R Research/YouthBeat®, we’ve been generational experts for decades. We’ve been doing custom research with youth since the 1970s and have had our own proprietary panels of kids, tweens, teens, and parents since the early 2000s. Sometimes we think we’ve seen it all—we’ve lived through almost every fashion trend and musical style, seen one technological disruption after another, and borne witness to the eternal joys and tragedies of growing up into adulthood.
Gaming is for everyone; all ages, genders, backgrounds, and skillsets. Video gaming is experiencing exponential growth as it becomes a shared pastime for more folks when in-person activities become untenable.
