The Spanish toy market has a shape that no other European market shares: it peaks twice, and the second peak is the bigger one. Christmas matters, but 6 January, the day of the Three Kings, is when a large share of children in Spain actually receive their presents. A campaign planned for 25 December is planned for the wrong date.
The calendar that decides the year
Work backwards from 6 January. Retailers build their catalogues in early autumn, media plans start in October, and by the first week of December the creative is already running. A brand that commissions creator content in December has missed the season.
Two smaller peaks matter too: Dia del Nino in some regions, and birthdays all year, which is why evergreen play content keeps earning long after the season ends.
Filming children is not like filming anything else
This is the part that decides whether a toy campaign is safe.
Consent is from the parents, in writing, and specific
Which platforms, which countries, for how long. Generic consent is not consent.
Minors cannot be the ones selling
A child can play; a child should not be delivering a sales pitch or telling other children to ask their parents to buy something.
Personal details stay out
No school uniforms, no house numbers, no full names, no routine that reveals where a child is every Tuesday at five.
The creator decides what the child does, not the brand
A brief that requires a specific reaction from a small child is a brief that will fail.
Advertising to children carries its own rules
Price must not be trivialised, capability must not be exaggerated, and what is not included in the box must be clear.
Many brands solve all of this by working with parent creators who film hands and play rather than faces, or with adult creators who demonstrate the toy themselves.
The briefs that work
| Brief section | What to write |
|---|---|
| Real play | Three minutes compressed into thirty seconds, without staging a perfect moment. |
| Assembly and first use | What is in the box, batteries included or not, how long setup takes. |
| The parent explanation | Age range, durability, noise level, how much space it needs. Parents buy, and these are their questions. |
| The gift moment | Filmed with care, and with consent. |
Practical notes for the brand
Send stock early, because delivery in December is a lottery. Confirm what may be claimed about age ranges and safety marks, and provide the exact wording. And agree usage rights with a clear end date, especially for anything featuring a child, because content with minors should not run indefinitely.
Where to go next
Toys reward planning and caution in equal measure. Our complete UGC guide for brands covers briefing, usage rights and how to run creator content as a repeatable process.
