BITES // 11.06.25 // Kidulting: The Business Of Being A Big Kid 

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OVERVIEW: 

In an age characterized by global anxiety and mounting pressure, brands recognize that the most potent form of escape is the simplest: play. The "kidulting" trend—where adults wholeheartedly embrace childhood activities, hobbies, and interests—serves as a crucial source of stress relief and a powerful way to reconnect with one's "inner child." This trend encompasses collecting toys, diving into video and board games, consuming nostalgic media, and frequenting entertainment venues, all offering a lighthearted reprieve from grown-up responsibilities. 

The financial impact is undeniable: from January through March 2025, adults 18+ emerged as the fastest-growing and highest-spending age group in the kids’ toy sector. Spending soared 12 percent year-over-year in Q1 to a total of $1.8 billion (The Toy Association). This shift means brands must move beyond traditional sales tactics and make a strategic investment in fun to build meaningful emotional connections with this high-value demographic. This month’s BITES showcases six brands that have truly mastered the art of "kidulting."

1. POP MART: LABUBU TOYS CRAZE

The Labubu monster dolls from Chinese toymaker Pop Mart have transcended their origins to become a global cultural obsession, deeply rooted in platforms like Instagram and TikTok (#Labubu 3.2M posts). While kids love them, adults do too. The figurines adorn the handbags of global stars, including Rihanna and Cher. Adult fans are not only building extensive collections, but also using the dolls to style their outfits, making the simple act of buying a figurine a fun, communal, and often highly-prized hobby. The brand is currently expanding rapidly to meet this massive demand and frenzy surrounding recent launches, like the one ahead of spooky season.

2. FUNKO: MAKING ALL OF POP CULTURE PLAYFUL

Funko, best known for its iconic Pop! vinyl figures, has emerged as a multi-billion-dollar powerhouse by transforming serious collecting into a widely accessible and engaging adult game. The brand capitalizes on the fun of mass-saturation, applying its signature chunky, simple, and stylized aesthetic to thousands of licensed properties, most recently their Limited-Edition Pop!' 5-Pack Celebrating Dodgers' World Series Win. Funko successfully taps into the adult need for engagement by gamifying the buying process through exclusive, limited-edition "chase" variants. This scarcity-driven model turns the simple purchase of a figurine into a competitive, fun hunt that keeps its vast "kidult" fan base actively engaged and buying.

3. IKEA: NOSTALGIA AND PLAYFUL CULTURE

IKEA brilliantly stands out in the "adulting" climate by injecting timely pop-culture references and self-aware humor into its marketing, repositioning its products as enablers of joyful, relatable life at home. A key strategy for the brand in 2025 has been tapping into niche cultural moments that resonate with adult audiences. For example, IKEA Sweden acknowledged its late launch of a loyalty points system by featuring employees doing viral dances from a decade ago (e.g., the Harlem Shake). This blend of nostalgia, wit, and cultural currency transforms their marketing from simple product advertising into shared, playful social commentary, proving that even a global furniture giant doesn't have to take itself too seriously.

4. DUOLINGO: THE MEME-WORTHY MASCOT

Duolingo successfully gamifies language learning, but its market-disrupting strategy is built on the playful, self-aware chaos of its mascot, Duo the Owl. The brand has turned the serious task of education into a fun, low-stakes digital relationship by leveraging meme culture, unhinged social media antics, and a consistently cheeky tone. Duolingo's viral campaigns, like the 2025 "Death of Duo" stunt, rely on borrowed interest and character development to forge a deep, emotional connection with users—a mix of fun, fear, and familiarity. This strategy, led by a small, nimble social media team that prioritizes agility and entertainment over traditional advertising, ensures the brand stays culturally relevant, driving user engagement through content people choose to watch and share rather than feel forced to consume.

5. BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP: HARNESSING NOSTALGIA FOR ADULT FUN

The nearly 30-year-old toy brand, Build-A-Bear Workshop, isn't just for kids anymore. It's having a major comeback, successfully capturing a broad audience that is older. The company smartly shifted its focus post-pandemic, embracing what CEO Sharon Price John calls the "nostalgia economy" and emphasizing the fun, creative experience of making a bear. This focus is clearly paying off: 40% of the company’s business now comes from adults and teens, helping them achieve a record revenue of $124.2 million in the second quarter. Key to this is their popular Instagram account, which perfectly showcases the bears styled with playful adult flair and themed around hugely popular licensing deals like Hello Kitty, Wicked, and The Kansas City Chiefs. This highly visual and engaging approach has turned the simple act of building a toy into a culturally relevant lifestyle trend, validating the emotional need for playful self-expression among today's consumers.

6. LEGO: BUILDING ADULT PLAY AND MINDFULNESS

Though it’s been a classic toy brand for decades, LEGO has skillfully redefined its audience, aggressively and successfully capturing the adult consumer. The brand targets adults with increasingly complex, expensive, and nostalgic sets, including intricate architecture models, realistic flower bouquets, and Star Wars helmets. Crucially, LEGO's marketing, spearheaded by campaigns like "Play Is Your Superpower," frames the building experience as a necessary act of mindful, stress-relieving activity for grown-ups, rather than just a pastime for kids. Their latest holiday campaign, HELLO, invites families to step away from screens and enjoy the fun of play and family time. By offering challenging, screen-free engagement that taps directly into adult interests, LEGO has successfully cemented its role as a major player in the "kidulting" movement, proving that serious, contemplative play is a significant and profitable business segment.

TAKEAWAY:

The massive and sustained growth of the "kidult" consumer is not a fleeting trend, but a profound cultural signal that play is the new escape. The imperative is clear: marketing must pivot from aspirational perfection to relatable fun. This requires investing in gamification (Funko, Pop Mart), cultural relevance (IKEA, Duolingo), and shared, low-stakes experiences (Build-A-Bear) that provide a genuine mental escape. Brands must view the "nostalgia economy" not as a gimmick, but as a robust and profitable growth engine that provides high emotional ROI. By strategically integrating elements of humor, self-awareness, and purposeful play into their core product experience, brands can forge deeper, more defensible emotional connections with the highest-spending demographic, effectively transforming their products into tools for adult wellness and joy.