Nostalgic Lessons from the Toy Shelves

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Last holiday season I turned to the toy shelves for some inspiration on how to develop experiences that are simple, elegant and delightful to use. This year, I did the same thing and found that the top toys this year took their inspiration from the past.

In 1998, America was still being seduced by the classic good looks of George Clooney on network TV (ER) and the best selling album (yes, album) was the Titanic soundtrack. It was a different time but one thing that 1998 had in common with 2013 was that the owl-like Furby was one of the top toys of the holiday season. According to the Toy Retailers Association, the top toys this season also included the latest Nerf gun (first introduced in 1991), a Coast Guard Lego set, a new version of Monopoly and a robo-dog that looks strikingly similar to Sony’s AIBO which was first developed in 1998.

Some might say that success of these toys might have as much to do with parent’s nostalgia as pure interest from the little ones for whom the toys are made. Indeed, the number of throwback items does fit nicely into the infantilization of America narrative. But I think there may be something more, or at least something else we can learn from this.

2013 also saw the resurgence of another medium from the distant past, podcasting. Audioblogging lazed around the aughts but never really took off as a mainstream success. I know there are those of you for who have been aficionados of podcasts since 2004 but for most people it was one of those things that came and went without much fanfare. 

That’s been changing over the last couple of years and reached a zenith last year with podcasting hitting the mainstream in a big way. According Edison Research the percent of Americans who had ever listened to a podcast in 2006 was 10%. In 2013 that number it was 29%. One is six indicate that the’ve listened to a podcast in the last 6 months. Apple announced that it had reach 1 billion podcast subscriptions last June. 

All of this success even garnered a few mentions in ancient media srouces like Time and Forbes:
Despite Being Oh-So 2005, Podcasting Is Drawing Listeners and Advertisers Alike (TIME Aug. 2013)

Funnymen and iPhones: Why the Podcast is Finally Coming into its Own. (Forbes Apr. 2013)

Some of the success is due to technology. The recording equipment became more affordable so the ability to create a semi-professional show is now available to almost anybody. Apple also allowed seamless background downloading which opened the door for the development of easy to use podcast apps. As a result, it has never been easier to subscribe to and listen to a podcast. 

The upheaval in other mediums like radio also meant there was a lot of talent looking for a new medium. Adam Corolla and Marc Maron are both comedians and and former radio personalities who have used podcasting to restart their careers. Marc Maron’s podcast WTF is so successful that he managed to parlay it into a TV series that premiered this year on IFC. The podcast “Stuff You Should Know” enjoyed a brief stint as a TV program on the Science Channel last year.

What lessons can we take from nostalgia driven toys and the emergence of podcasts as an important and significant medium? I take it as a lesson to take a step back and focus on innovation as opposed to invention. Things change so fast in these days and the thing that was new and big last week is old news today. The fast pace means we’ve surely left some useful things behind in our relentless drive forward. What product, service or technology is right if front of us that is just waiting for the right idea and right talent to reach its full potential?

Maybe what the world needs now is a Furby themed podcast…Oh wait Radiolab already did a podcast episode on the Furby.