Top news this week from the world of kids and families.
LEGO believes that children should learn mainly through play until the age of eight - and are funding research to explore and prove this claim. The LEGO Foundation will be starting a Professorship at Cambridge University, and linking up with Harvard, MIT and other reputable institutions, looking to provide an incontrovertible academic underpinning to the educational value of play.
They believe parents are squeezing play out of their children's lives, doing their best to "prepare them for a competitive world". And if parents, school and government push children towards formal skills such as literacy and numeracy earlier and earlier, they miss out on some of the play-based learning that would teach them creative thinking, problem-solving, empathy. They suggest that even as parents want the best for their children - they may now know how much of a valuable part of "the best" playing makes. And so LEGO's here to provide the evidence.
We are curious to see how this develops and what the implications of this research commitment will be.
In other news, Disney and Hipster Whale have announced a Crossy Road collaboration that will see Disney and Pixar characters "playing in traffic" (don't try this at home).
Crossy Road was a runaway hit, reaching 50 million downloads in its first 90 days and it remains a huge success with children.
For Disney, the collaboration allows their much-loved IP to engage children through another channel, taking on a game mechanic that they already love. It's not the first time Disney partners with popular games, they have already collaborated with Temple Run on Brave and Oz iterations, but this time they have amped up the engagement potential: the new game will feature over 100 Disney characters, offering the players more choice than ever before. We can't wait to see it!
Last week, we also said hello to the new branding for CBBC. It's meant to translate well across a selection of different platforms where kids may consume CBBC content, and overall - in our opinion - makes for a playful and dynamic experience.
According to the CBBC Controller, Cheryl Taylor, it's not meant to scream "children's TV", having a broader appeal than the earlier version of the logo and the brand.
Finally, have a read of this new research that looked at kids' affinity towards different IP/brands, and found that those that appeal to both genders are the ones that have the highest "kidfinity score", contrary to the historical view of gender-specific brands as the leaders.
These gender-inclusive brands of the moment are Minions, LEGO, Minecraft, Looney Toons, Sponge Bob, Angry Birds and we can certainly see some trends in how they are crafted: having central male and female characters, utilising a diverse set of play mechanics that can appeal to different types of children, using humour that appeals to both boys and girls.
This seems in line with the general market trend of inclusion, and we see many brands across the board losing a sharp gender focus and defining themselves by lifestyle and interests instead.
This weeks update was written by Jelena Stosic