Raj:
Welcome, everyone, to Food for Thought, our webinar session. I’m Raj, Creative Director here at Kids Industries.
Jelena:
And I’m Jelena, Strategy Director at KI.
Raj:
Today, we’ll be covering some of the trends we’ve been working on this year. But first, the big elephant in the room—trends in March, Jelena?
Jelena:
First of all, why not? Trends are an exciting topic at any time of the year. We’re still in 2025, and there are so many opportunities for innovation that people can use.
February was our internal trends month, so we’ve been having lots of conversations with our clients. We wanted to bring some of those discussions to this webinar.
You may also notice the format has changed slightly. I strongly believe that the best way to discuss and consume trends is through conversation. You need someone to ask questions, to challenge ideas, and to push deeper—what’s really new here?
In a way, my team does more of the trend research and development, while Raj’s team is amazing at stretching those ideas, applying them, and bringing them to life with an innovation edge. So, thank you, Raj.
Raj:
No worries! I’ll be here to ask questions—hopefully the ones you might have. We’ve also prepared some in advance to make sure we explore these trends fully.
We’ve identified eight key trends, but we’ve selected three to discuss today, based on votes from our LinkedIn audience.
We also have Amy, our producer, in the room to keep us on track. As our CEO, Gary, always says, “If you walk away from this having learned one thing, that’s a success.” But I’m hoping you take away three insights—one from each trend—so that everyone gets something valuable from today’s session.
Shall we get started?
Jelena:
Excellent. Amy, could you bring up the general trend slide, please?
This year, we approached our trend research slightly differently. As always, it’s rooted in our own research and observations, but we also combined insights from over 190 global trends—sourced from major agencies, analysts, consultancies, and AI.
We extracted key themes and applied them to children’s industries. The final trend report explores how these trends are being implemented and what they mean for kids.
For those of you who are relieved to hear this—we won’t be covering all eight trends! We’ve presented them before, and trust me, it takes longer than 20 minutes. Instead, we’ve selected three. Interestingly, they’re the first three on our list—not by design, just by popular vote.
So, without further ado, let’s dive into the first one: Dopamine Hits.
If you saw our LinkedIn post, you might have noticed the phrase “Dopamine Hits aren’t hits.” That’s a bit of a clue.
The roots of this trend lie in the current state of the world. There’s that word—polycrisis—a recognition that we’re facing multiple global challenges at once. COVID, politics, cost of living—it’s a complicated world. And where there’s negativity, there’s also a drive to seek out positivity.
This first emerged in the Joyconomy—a desire for happiness, with brands like LEGO’s Rebuild the World campaign spreading positive messaging. But as consumption habits shift, so do brands' approaches.
We’ve moved from the Joyconomy to Dopamine Hits—which is much faster-paced and content-driven.
Some examples of this trend include the GCSE meal deal from Nando’s, the McDonald’s adult Happy Meal, and even a car dealership’s unexpected dopamine-driven campaign, which Raj mentioned yesterday.
Raj:
Well, yeah, my question is about dopamine hits. For adults, it’s probably tied to having less time and how technology—particularly content technology—fits into that. But what about brands that don’t naturally align with dopamine hits or the Joyconomy?
One example that stood out was a car dealership on the outskirts of New York that created The Office-style content for their TikTok. It became a massive hit. I think the key wasn’t just the content itself but the reach—so many people turned up just to meet the cast, as they call it.
Jelena:
And it was actually really well made.
Raj:
It was. But what I really want to explore is how this applies to children. Dopamine can be addictive. In the kids’ space—whether it’s games, interactive content, or products—dopamine is part of the experience. But if we create content purely for dopamine-driven engagement, how does that impact children in the long run?
Jelena:
It’s definitely happening, and let’s not forget—children live in this world of polycrisis too. They have the same need to seek out joy.
But, as the name of this trend suggests, dopamine hits aren’t necessarily working from a mental health perspective. If this trend is a response to "we’re all struggling," the reality is that we’re not struggling any less because of it—mental health continues to decline.
I think you’ve raised a fair point: do we still need dopamine-driven experiences? Probably, to some extent. Interestingly, this was the number-one trend chosen by our audience, which tells us there is a demand for it.
Raj:
And I was going to say—kids today, unfortunately, have less and less free time. They might want to engage with brands long-term, but they also crave those quick moments of escapism in between studying and other activities, especially in the Western world.
At the same time, they’re consuming more content that’s not necessarily designed for them—or being delivered in formats that aren’t best suited to them. So there’s a balance to be found between what they want and what they need.
Jelena:
That’s exactly it. And when we think about the future of this trend, a lot of the current conversation—both around the Joyconomy and Dopamine Hits—is very focused on comms and marketing.
But if we want to make a real impact, especially for children’s wellbeing, we need to take this beyond marketing. It shouldn’t just be about what we tell people—it should extend to products, solutions, and purpose. That’s how we give it real depth. Otherwise, it’s just dopamine.
Raj:
There’s also an opportunity to make these experiences more family-driven, which means they don’t have to rely on that instant hit.
We’re seeing this in our KiX work—families are looking for deeper connections. There might be instant dopamine hits within those experiences, but brands—especially those catering to children and families—have an opportunity to create something more lasting.
Dopamine is great for engagement and recruitment, but we need to think about what it means in the longer term.
Jelena:
How do we take them into a longer term experience?
Raj:
Great, okay, shall we go on to the next one?
Jelena:
Let’s do it! I think Amy will bring it up on screen.
The next trend is something I’m really passionate about, having worked with fandoms for quite a long time—decentralised, niche communities. Both words are important here. Decentralised means they’re not necessarily managed or controlled by the brand. Niche refers to communities that are interest-based and more thematic rather than broad and mainstream.
Raj:
Yeah, because my question was—when we talk about niche, do we mean smaller communities with fewer people? Since we now have access to the whole world through platforms like Roblox, you can pretty much find anyone who shares your interests. So, are we looking at closed communities?
Jelena:
Yes, it’s more about shared interests than size. Some niche communities can actually be quite large. For example, simply saying music fans isn’t niche enough, but Swifties—depending on how they’re organized.
Raj:
But within a big fandom like Swifties, are you then looking for even smaller, more specific sub-communities?
Jelena:
Absolutely. It depends on how people engage. Within the same fandom, people can have multiple affiliations—they might be part of global Swifties, UK Swifties, or even smaller groups, like those who make friendship bracelets together.
This trend is largely a response to the way traditional social media has become quite unpleasant—disjointed, chaotic, and increasingly difficult to navigate. More and more people are moving away from mainstream platforms, and I think this shift will only continue.
With reduced moderation and the rise of bots, people are already seeing less content from their actual friends or those who matter to them. Now, with fake accounts and spam comments flooding their feeds, it’s becoming even worse. So, people are turning to these niche communities—sometimes referred to as the cosy web—where content is more aligned with their interests, and engagement feels more meaningful.
If we look at examples, we can see this shift in the rise of apps like Lapse, which promotes friends, not followers. Tumblr also recently relaunched, which is exciting. Their tagline—"Even our subcultures have subcultures"—perfectly captures the idea that niche communities can have their own micro-communities within them. It’s a fascinating space to watch.
Raj:
I guess the potential red flag is when you’re dealing with kids and communities. Does it apply to everyone? Yeah, does it apply to everyone? I’m not saying that children under seven or eight will engage in this, but eight-year-olds, I think, do have access to a lot more digital screens and are probably already on some of the platforms you've mentioned, like Discord.
Jelena:
So, that's a good point to clarify. We are seeing kids as young as eight engaging in something like Discord, and it’s quite a complex ecosystem. I don’t know how many of you have tried to navigate it, but as an adult, it can be a bit confusing, like, "Where do I go?" But for them, it works seamlessly.
Raj:
For kids who are used to digital media, it works. But what are they doing in these communities? Are they contributing? Are they just consuming? Are they starting their fandom journey? How do they play a part in these niche communities?
Jelena:
Interestingly, children don’t usually start out by thinking, “I’m looking for a niche community.” It’s more about searching for interesting content related to something they’re passionate about, and they end up finding it within these spaces. I read something on LinkedIn the other day – sometimes you find great things on LinkedIn – and it said, “The community can take 100 shots at the goal for every shot the brand can take. There are more of them, and there’s more freshness and creativity coming out of it.” So, children, depending on their age and the type of community, may begin by participating, consuming content, and co-creating, but it could grow into more. They could even create their own.
Raj:
And what does the future look like for that? Because what you just hinted at sounds quite exciting. How do brands start thinking about niche communities?
Jelena:
What do we do first? Well, one of the things we always say is to find and embrace your niche. The first question is: Do you have a community? Are there fandom opportunities around your brand? If you have someone talking about your brand, that’s great. But if you don’t, is there an opportunity to create one, and then embrace that growth and help empower it? We recently worked with a client whose fans started changing their social media profile picture to the brand’s logo as it was launching, which is so exciting – it’s a real privilege. When you see something like that happen, encourage it. There’s a whole suite of content you can create around that, like saying, “We’ve seen you, we’ve seen this, here’s some extra assets.” Let’s empower that creativity and fuel it. And from a creative standpoint, I was going to ask, what are the risks and benefits?
Raj:
I’d start with the benefits, I guess, as the corporate side and the lawyers will probably focus on the risks, particularly around IP. But for me, it’s exciting. I think we’re seeing brands creating content with creators, and that can come from any age group. We're in the midst of the creative community, and while this trend isn’t new, it’s becoming more firmly established. There’s an opportunity for brands—especially those of us working with lots of brands—to think about content strategy, not just in terms of episodes, but also social content.
Jelena:
Yeah, ideally, more of your content will be made by your fans than by you.
Raj:
That strategy worked really well for one of our clients, Warriors, where the focus was on content created by fans. It’s a celebrated moment, but also feels inviting, where when you see it, you want to take part. Plus, there’s less pressure on the brand to constantly feed the content machine. By celebrating the fans and what they can create, the brand doesn’t need to worry about the ongoing demand for content. We’ve also seen a high level of content quality, especially with AI now in play, where cinematic…
Jelena:
For a book I follow, people are actually saying it would be quite disappointing to have official content made, because it can’t match the AI-created content. Over the past few years, the content made by fans has been quite hyped, so now that’s what people want. So, if official content is made, I think they need to go completely in the opposite direction. If they try to match or replicate what fans have already delivered, it won’t feel fresh.
Raj:
That’s exactly the point. It either has to be exclusive, like having an amazing writer create it, or something unique. It’s like the Game of Thrones finale—what if fans started to finish Game of Thrones? Would it be the same as the writer finishing it? I’m trying not to get a Game of Thrones reference in, but it’s a good example. Fans can generate all these sub-narratives and stories, but the core story should still be owned by the IP.
Jelena:
One of the points we wanted to make here is that, as an immediate action, you should speak to your lawyers about your relationship with the creation around your brand. Is it co-creation and co-monetisation? If your fandom community starts charging membership, who takes that money? Different brands have taken different approaches. A recent example is Squid Games on Roblox, where official Squid Games content was earning, or estimated to earn, around $70,000 a day. To public knowledge, that revenue isn’t being shared around, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be, as we discussed earlier, because the benefit of actually reaching those people is high. Lego has a model in their creative community where, if you submit an idea for a set and it gets made, you receive 5% of the profits. This will be a big topic in the coming years—who gets to make money here?
That needs to be planned in. You asked me earlier, if I were to launch a brand, what would I do? I’d embrace it, open it up, and make it part of your fanbase. Oh, Amy is signalling to move on, but yeah, if your brand does have that universe, embrace it and start with it. I think our family model will show how you can embrace all aspects of it.
Jelena:
And the last point is blending realities.
Raj:
Right, before we jump into blending realities, this has been happening for about 15 years, with AR, webcams, and now, obviously, mobile. What do you think is different now? What’s the change that’s pushing this as a trend?
Jelena:
Great question. There are a few key things pushing this forward. As you said, we’ve had AR for a long time. One key difference is access—everyone can do it now. A hundred years ago, Raj, when you were making apps, it took a lot of skill. But now, I can do it, and an 8-year-old child could create apps or products that bring digital into the real world via AR, or bring the real world into the digital via immersive gaming spaces like Roblox, where you can host concerts and events. So, access is one thing. The second thing is higher quality. With generative AI, you can boost the impact of what you’re doing. The Fortnite engine is also pretty powerful for this. So, it raises both the quality and access. Finally, there’s distribution. We’re creating this world where the real and surreal are blending. If you show the example slide, Amy, you’ll see some of the interesting applications of this. Naria AI is a generative space where you can create stories from your own ideas. But perhaps the more interesting example is the AI artist with over 100,000 songs. She has concerts in real life and digitally. It raises the question—what is real, and who makes it?
Raj:
Are they trying to blend that reality, or are they quite clear that this is a virtual character and it is AI? Are they trying to create the illusion that it’s actually real? What’s the deal?
Jelena:
Players have done it differently. The singer here is not a real artist—she can’t have 100,000 songs in the space of a few years. It's impossible. And there's no heart in them, either. If you think about it, it’s very much embracing the fact that this is not real. It’s fantasy, it’s escapism. I’ve also seen some "fake" people, and with AI now, especially with voice and voice chat like GPT or its counterparts, they’re quite conversational. I think they’re doing a bit more to blur the lines of reality.
Raj:
Do you think children want to blend realities? My view is, if you’ve got the power of digital, why try to recreate the real world in the digital space when you can actually embrace it and take it further? We've seen concerts in Fortnite, and personally, I don’t want to just stand in front of the stage and watch. I want to be flying through space or whatever, wearing my concert t-shirt.
Jelena:
You want to be wearing concert wings.
Raj:
Exactly, that’s the power of digital. It’s not just about bringing people together, but also about creating worlds you can immerse yourself in. There’s no need to try to blend it with the real world. I also think the quality is important, like you mentioned with Fortnite. The quality is amazing. Kids are happy to play in the Netflix world in Roblox—it’s nothing like the IP in the real world, but they’re not expecting it to be.
Jelena:
A bit better? So, on the quality, we’ve recently been speaking to a lot of children about it, and we found that it varies depending on the brand. It’s about the strength of the brand and how many touchpoints they have. If the brand has a lot of quality in other areas, they don’t mind a little extra one. But if there’s nothing else, they’ll take whatever they can get. The expectations differ. For example, if you’re Marvel or a high-res brand, that will shift the expectation. But you made a great point about blurring the lines, and that’s what we see most people doing these days. A few years ago, we did a study on digital creativity, and what we found was that it wasn’t just about drawing with pink and purple; it was about wanting to create with sparkle, jazziness, and things you can’t do in real life. So, people are blurring the lines by creating digital events that enhance the fact that you can do anything in this space. You can be friends with people from all over the world, look however you want, and be on stage if that’s the experience you want.
Raj:
I think the art example is a really good, simple one. Art apps just have brushes, trying to recreate what's in the real world. But what if I could drive a truck to create patterns and draw? I think you can stretch the power of digital a lot more, rather than just recreating things. But I guess the blending also comes with risks, especially for younger children in understanding what's real and what's not. As you mentioned with the artist, should there be better signposting? Are audiences asking for it, or are they just happy to be taken into this fantasy world?
Jelena:
I think they’re not asking for it yet, so that’s fair to say. But they are growing up in a world where the blur between reality and fantasy is strong. So, as experts in this space, it’s becoming increasingly important for us to be clear about what is real, what isn’t, and who is a person and who isn’t. Because otherwise, especially as they grow up in this environment, it could create unexpected expectations about how humans behave and how they do not. It could even create safeguarding issues, like people disclosing things to AI thinking they’re talking to a person and expecting a response that’s human-like. So, we’re not there yet in terms of full blurring. We’re missing the hardware for that, but I think signposting will be incredibly important.
Raj:
And you mentioned AI, especially with the update to GPT, and its reasoning ability, making it more human-like. The power is amazing. Imagine a child could have a conversation and get stories created from their imagination. But is that also a risk? If it’s not signposted clearly, like we did some research on Alexa…
Jelena:
You could absolutely love it and consider it your best friend, which is probably not worse than having an imaginary friend. It could just be your imaginary friend, but given a voice.
Raj:
But with an imaginary friend, you’re in control and imagining it. Whereas with AI, how much control do you really have? Also, we talk about AI in terms of content creation, but I think there’s also an opportunity to look into trends where AI could be used as a safeguarding tool. It’s probably being used in the background already, but it could be used more in a front-facing way. AI could help with safeguarding, where technology has the power to catch up with the fast pace at which children are advancing. Kids are always ahead—they are leading in tech and innovation. They can pick things up so quickly. I feel like there are opportunities to use AI in a more safeguarding-focused way as well.
Jelena:
Yeah, get them back.
Raj:
Oh, perfect timing.
Jelena:
This is the flashing light, by the way, Amy does this, which is great.
Raj:
I think what we can do is probably wrap up saying thank you for joining us. But is there any questions we've got we want to go through, right? Excellent.
Amy:
We don’t have questions yet, but if anybody would like to send some through, that would be great, nice.
Raj:
And I think in the meantime,
Amy:I was going to say I could ask a question?
Jelena: Oh, excellent.
Amy:
So, I guess you talked about those three trends. We know there are eight, but out of the three you mentioned, which one excites or interests you the most? Which one do you think holds the most promise for the future?
Raj:
I mean, you’ve already said it, but I think for me, it's probably blending reality. Year on year, we are changing, and technology is growing so fast. The question I ask is: What’s different from what we’ve had in the past few years? What’s exciting is how we use it. We talk a lot about AI in the office, and we see how brands are coming to us and utilizing it. I think there's a stronger opportunity here. AI isn't just about creating content, there's more to it.
Jelena:
I think it's a misuse of AI in a way, because right now, at least, it's not sustainable in terms of its costs—water, storage space, and all of that. I'm sure that will be resolved over time, but for now, it's a bit of a silly use for it. I think using it for more creative and safeguarding purposes would give it more purpose than just asking it to do your homework.
Raj:
Yeah, using it as a tool. I think seeing it as a tool and watching how kids use and embrace it could be really, really interesting.
Jelena:
And I like decentralised niche communities because there's so much power in fandom. There’s power in community, and it's happening both online and offline. So, bridging those gaps and seeing how brands make the most of it will be incredibly powerful.
Amy:
Yes, we have one more question. So, what might a niche community look like for kids under 10 versus teens who are more likely to use Fortnite?
Jelena:
That’s a great question. Depending on the brand, the separation might be greater or it might be in the same space. Your 8 to 10-year-olds might be less prioritized within it, or you might have brands catering to ages 2 to 14, or even 8 to 10-year-olds, and then grown-up fans in the same space. They’ll still be on Tumblr, Discord, and Instagram—wherever they are—but your 8-year-olds probably shouldn’t be there. For kids under 10, brands are creating their own platforms, like Lego Life, which has since transitioned to a different name. It’s more of a softer, community-building approach, where you’re creating your own product.
Raj:
So they become decentralised if the brand creates it?
Jelena:
It’s not decentralised; it's centralised. But it can still have a niche community vibe because, for children under 10, there will still be decentralized niche communities. You might just see less evidence of it online, and kids will self-organize and do it offline. We did research on recycling, and a group of boys started a community called Recycler Boys, supporting a charity. Supporting this kind of offline activation is where a lot of power can lie for younger brands. Think of how many Pokémon clubs exist in schools, organized by little Pokémon fans that the brand might not even know about. It’s like Junior Football Leagues—another example of kids organizing around brands, and sometimes the brands themselves support that.
Raj:
When it’s under 10, you’ve got to be a lot more careful, supportive, but also mindful of safeguarding. I’d say be involved, but not necessarily controlling. If they’re using your brand to create a community, you’ll want to have some say in it, especially for younger audiences. But for older audiences, you can probably let them do their thing and contribute more than control.
Amy:
So, we have one more question. You mentioned how we could support safeguarding with AI. Can you give examples of what that might look like? We're in the last minute, guys.
Raj:
Yeah, I mean, the simple thing is, obviously, AI could review content faster. This is already happening in places like YouTube, but I think with open conversations, we know that issues are happening with roadblocks. We have technology to track users around the internet, so why can’t we have technology that tracks inside of spaces as well?
Jelena:
It feels like it should be possible, and when it isn't being used, it feels more like a choice.
Raj:
Yeah, it feels like they're using general legal laws for children, but there should be more control within these spaces, keeping them safe and as walled gardens. I think that’s where AI can really help. It’s about speed—because we are using it in certain places, but the speed at which we’re doing it isn’t where it needs to be.
Amy:
And I think we have a couple more comments. One person said, “Super helpful, thank you.” And then the last question: Why do you think there haven’t been more Pokémon Go-style blended reality experiences?
Jelena:
Oh, that’s a good question.
Raj:
Media. The first thing is, right now, in London, you wouldn’t want your phone out hunting Pokémon. But I don’t know, I think we had a campaign pitch with Pokémon, talking about using Roblox. It felt like a good idea.
Jelena:
But other brands could have done it.
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