Coming completely out of left field, the people of the Internet seem to have unanimously decided the toy of the season just a month shy of Christmas Day.
Zhu Zhu Pets are a little robotic hamsters that wheel around, make cooing noises and respond to environmental stimuli. As is always the case with the hot toy of the year, Wal-Mart stores across the U.S. are sold out, Moms are losing their minds trying to find the things for their kids, and hamster scalpers on the Internet are making a killing. Individual Zhu Zhu Pets retail for $8, but they’re going for upwards of 60USD on stores across the Web.
My reaction when I saw the Zhu Zhu Pets in action for the first time was”Really?” You would think that in the age of the iPhone the must-have Christmas toy would be something mind blowing. On the contrary, it seems like the simplicity is a draw for some people:
I have no desire to play with a Bratz doll that looks like a hooker, or tickle a furry puppet who has a little bit of sugar in his tank. But I wouldn’t mind playing with a robot hamster, they are cute and they don’t make much noise. -Newsblaze
At first I thought that this hamster phenomenon proved my theory that there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to which products become THE Christmas Toy for any given holiday season. Then I realized how wrong I was. Furbies, Tickle Me Elmo, those little robot dogs that were big a few years back, and now robot hamsters? It’s all so simple. Kids just want cute animals with cold, robot hearts.
Haven’t they ever seen The Terminator?
One thing that Zhu Zhu Pets’ manufacturer Cepia LLC did really right (besides landing a huge contract with Wal-Mart) was employing an army of influential mommy and daddy bloggers and sending them free Pets for review on their blogs and on Youtube. One of the more popular video reviews is currently sitting at over 36,000 views. This is a great example of how easy to can be to reach your target audience if you’re able to leverage existing online communities. True, it would all be worthless if kids didn’t absolutely love the things, but for some reason they really, really do.
Original photo by Flickr User cdrussorusso
About the Author: Jon is a former adbuster and perpetual media junkie who shares well with others. He spends his days concocting social strategy at SmarttNet, a Vancouver Internet marketing firm. Follow him on twitter!
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