I had to watch this because I have two little ones and don’t watch TV all that much. It was good “catch-up” for me.

I did observe several things about the commercials, the products and their positioning.

There is far more personalization with the toys presenting in your clip. Many of them can be named or are directly associated with the child that owns them. In some commercials, the focus is on the child with the product being almost secondary–seen almost as an accessory rather than a toy.

The toys are far more interactive both with something I’ll call “intelligent response” and remote control. Intelligent response is an act or response to pre-programed stimuli such as responding to a child that says “I love you” or responding to a new pet name. It can also be responding to being held or pet. The responses don’t seem limited and in some instances I am sure that certain responses require a more complex set of commands in a sequence from the user of the toy.

I also see there are more remote control toys with a broader array of remote options. Flying combat helicopters just made it to my list! It’s a big step away from cars with forward, reverse and wheels that turn either left or right. And a dancing car is also pretty neat.

I think one of the strongest product integration is with online marketing. The virtual worlds and product connections that are being made are very interesting. The only concern is that these integrations are actually excellent exercises in data mining. With a simple online registration companies can track which products are being purchased, by whom, at what frequency, and in which demographic. You are never anonymous online and parents shouldn’t expect that toy manufacturers are any different.

There seems to be more video-related toys for younger kids, most of it very durable and interactive. And there’s a bunch of stuff for the Wii and DS, both of which I was told we are getting for our kids.

Thanks for posting!