Marketing for Cooking-Toys Might Need a Few New Ingredients

By Cara Brooke Schultz

Advertisers in the toy industry should pay attention to a new demographic: male ages 2-11. Yes you read that correctly, 2-11.

According to a recent Adweek article, data over a five-month period ending in February showed significant numbers for the Food Network, “The overall male audience for Throwdown with Bobby Flay is 36 percent, but jumps to 47 percent in the 2-11 age bracket; overall male audience for Iron Chef America, also 36 percent, jumps to 45 percent in the 2-11 bracket. And on TLC, the audience for Cake Boss, 30 percent male overall, jumps to 36 percent among those boys.”

It seems as if this large audience is going unnoticed—or maybe not? After taking a quick look through a few Web sites, I noticed more cooking-toys being manufactured in primary colors rather than in pastel pink and lavender. Another subtle difference, boys were being integrated into the advertisements alongside girls for the toy packaging. The Adweek article, “Half Baked” explained, “Today, male celebrity chefs are driving the current food craze and more boys than ever are watching those shows.” 

 

Although most of the toys are still advertised for young girls, keep an eye on how advertisers might soon be changing their ingredients for this stale recipe. 

 

Comments

[Cara]

Thanks for the comment! We are talking specifically about "cooking toys," not toys in general. If you could find that study, please don't hesitate to share it. I would love to read more about that TV media study and how toys are male-gender focused.

[Catch Phrase]

I feel like boys have been the primary target for toy advertising, despite all the pastel colors and girl items. Maybe things have changed in the past couple years, but I remember looking at a TV media study that showed over 50% of toy ads were boy focused (cars, action figures, etc). The link to the same study is dead, but when we're talking about toy ads are we talking strictly TV here or otherwise and has there been changes since that study that now are asking advertisers to RE-focus on boys?