We all love toys. They’ve played a significant role in our childhood and followed us through to adulthood. This is because their value is only as strong as the marketing that’s gone into promoting them. Which is why we continuously crave the new line of Lego remote control robots or simplified doll houses.

The marketing gurus have followed us through to where we now frequent, social media. Their strategies have kept us engaged through the years, and most marketers can learn from the techniques that go into growing communities in the toy industry. Here is a list of toy companies on social media and what we can learn from them.

Lego

Perhaps the most iconic of all toy manufacturers, Lego has grown with each generation. It’s build an empire on building blocks offering an array of toys. On Facebook it has over 11mil fans, who are both young and old, while it has over a million YouTube Subscribers.

Its strategy is a varied mix of how to guides and new toy releases. What sets Lego apart from most toy companies, is that it not only promotes its range of toys, but also movies and video games. The dynamic content also ranges from video and flat images to gifs.

Each social media post seems to tell a story that shows the power of imagination is all you need to use Lego toys. As a result, it generates an impressive amount of engagement from its audience.

Hot Wheels

Who doesn’t remember begging their parents for a Hot Wheels 1961 Austin Morris Mini Cooper or ’65 Mustang Fastback? From 1:18 to 1:64 scale toy cars, the brand has offered a variety of products to the youth and evolved to also accommodate adult collectors.

 

Although their primary focus is children’s toys, Hot Wheels chooses to target adult collectors on social media. Its strategy has proven to be a success with over 1,3mil likes on Facebook and 49.4k followers on Twitter, and 131k followers on Instagram. As you might notice, their primary platforms are Facebook and Instagram, with Twitter’s presence being a secondary concern.

It’s not hard to see why the brand would choose to target adult collectors, as this is the primary audience on social media networks. Instead of trying to entice parents, the brand brings nostalgia to the table, allowing for a culture of hot-rods to persist and perhaps making it possible for parents to pass their love for die-cast toy car collector editions to their children.

Barbie

Made by Martell, Barbie is probably the most popular doll manufacturer around. While there has been a lot of controversy around its portrayal of women, the manufacturer has continued to permeate through culture, attracting a large audience on social media. On Facebook, it has one of the largest audiences totalling over 13mil fans while its Twitter audience is pegged at over 260k.

Its strategy is simple, and targets parents. This may seem like a problem since most of their product users are children, but where it wins is trying to attract parents to join the communities instead. On Twitter, for example, most of its posts are about motivation especially around wellbeing and work. The idea is to show how Barbie is relevant to today’s culture, making the products ideal for children.