According to neatorama.com, due to open in 2010, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be a theme park at Universal Orlando based on the world’s most famous scar-faced boy. 

The 20-acre park will be located in Universal’s Islands of Adventure, which are themed “islands” built around a lagoon and currently comprises Seuss Landing, Marvel SuperHero Island, Toon Island, Jurassic Park and The Lost Continent. 

And we hope they serve butterbeer, too!

How will marketers make the transition from book to movie to themepark? We’d like to hear your thoughts.

This latest post on Ypulse highlights how many girls who are still lucky enough to receive an allowance that are aged 8 to 15 have seen a significant increase in saving habits. Even though some parents are not discussing messy financial situations kids are still very much aware. And because of this, kids are more inclined to help out around the house and are asking for much less.

Meredith from Ypulse goes on to discuss how the “spoiled brats” label of Gen-Y may soon be gone altogether from the next generation. What are your thoughts?

According to AdAge.com, those nifty apps are a perfect way for marketers to get their product in the hands (literally) of their target audience. Though this is great for marketers is very bad for social skills. Lenore Skenazy says, if you’re a parent wondering what happened to your child who was just about to burst into the world, but got sucked into a smartphone instead, this may be the time to invent a killer app of your own: the unpaid phone bill. She claims that the apps are a great way for kids to waste time and dollars instead of playing with their friends or engaging in other activities–i.e., homework.

Are you seeing apps as a way to market to your target audience?

No batteries required.

According to MSNBC.com, Toy-makers have gotten the message that Mom and Dad want to buy toys that will be enjoyed over and over: dolls, games, arts and crafts, activity toys like yo-yos, sporting goods such as scooters. Lego is doing extremely well in this economy, and Crayola had the biggest sales week in the history of the company right before Christmas, when nearly everyone else in the industry was scraping by.

But what about the must-have electronic toys for kids and teens; i.e., Wii/Xbox360?

As marketers, what will you do to your marketing strategy to increase revenue in the budget conscious present and future? We’d like to hear your thoughts.

A new study came out recently about how kids between the ages of 6 and 11 use the internet.  MediaPost covered the report released by Mediamark Research & Intelligence.  According to the study, over the past 30 days, 71% of kids have logged onto the internet.  The study reveals that children usually log onto the internet at home, but not in their room, and to play games.  The kids who are into style tend to be more tech savvy.  Also, the most popular websites for children are for television channels, and three of the top five are the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and the Cartoon Network.

For more on the study, read the article at MediaPost.

Scholastic, the epitome of children’s book publishers is facing a backlash against its distribution of toys in their book clubs. According to the Associated Press, the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood — a national coalition of educators, health-care professionals and parents — launched a protest campaign Monday asserting that Scholastic has exploited its unique access to schools by marketing an array of non-book products in its monthly book club fliers.

If Scholastic stuck with selling toys that were educational in nature or corresponded directly with the education efforts of the books; would they still be in hot water? We’d like to hear your thoughts.

BrandNoise recently posted that the Ugly Doll phenomenon has “taken the US by storm.” Each Ugly Doll comes with its own story line and background, and the general public has seemed to take a special interest in it.  Could this be replacing the age old Barbie doll?

TV Guide no longer includes MTV and The CW in its grid listings, even though it extensively covers such TV shows as The Hills and Gossip Girl.  It continues to carry the listings for such youth channels like The N and Toon Disney (soon to be Disney XD).  An official at the magazine cited only having 70 available grid spots for prime time hours as the reason for no longer including the listings.  See Variety for more on the story.

Could TV Guide be doing this because th next generation of TV watchers uses set top boxes or the internet to find out what’s on TV?  Do you think this was a good move by the magazine?

With high success targeting the young girl generation with Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and the Jonas Brothers, Disney now looks to target the 6 – 14 year old boy demographic.  They’ll do this by launching a new television channel and website called Disney XD.  Disney has some franchises that have been popular with this market such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Cars, but have not been able to capitalize like with the franchises targeting the young girls demographic.

Disney XD will replace the current television channel Toon Disney and feature shows that appeal to the marketing, one being “Aaron Stone” a series featuring action, adventure and video games.  DisneyXD.com will offer games, music, video and social networking.

Using both television and a new Web portal, Disney hopes to introduce boys to a host of new live-action and animated shows, original movies, new music acts and games. And Disney executives also hope to leverage boys’ love of sports, using the company’s ESPN brand, which will likely collaborate on original programming and other sports-themed topics for Disney XD.

For more information, read the article here at The Wall Street Journal.

The nearly-dead language of Yiddish may see a new revival as some Jewish families are adopting Yiddish versions of popular children’s classics for their youngsters. Yiddish House, LLC is run by Zackary Sholem Berger and his wife Celeste Sollod who feel that offering Yiddish books to children provides a wider spectrum of global and language understanding.  

“One reason to translate, broadly speaking, is the same as the reason [Jews] go to Israel or Eastern Europe … it fosters a cultural connection,” said Berger.

“The majority of our buyers are not buying for Yiddish-reading kids.” They’re looking for some sort of connection to Judaism and Jewish culture, he added.

The jury is still out on how well these initiatives will do within the Jewish community; however, it may prove to be very important to cultural understanding of the community itself. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

For more information, please click here.