For more than fifty years, Kinder Surprise has fostered the curiosity of generations of children. An iconic product offering a unique combination of three elements: the surprise, the toy, and the treat. But our world has changed, so the way children play, interact and learn. How to ensure Kinder Surprise stays relevant while keeping true to its values and making sure the iconic physical product remains at the core of the experience?

The way children play, interact and learn has changed as physical and digital worlds are blurring; raising new expectations among today’s families. Parents want to make sure digital isn’t purely a distraction but also help their kids grow, and children claim learning is easier when it feels like play. To meet families’ new expectations, Applaydu promises to unleash the iconic tiny Kinder Surprise figurines from their physical limitations, opening a safe and imaginary world where kids can now interact further with their toys through stimulating & educational games. As an enhancer of playability, Applaydu was created to bring together children's thirst for entertainment and parents educational expectations.

Applaydu is primarily designed for kids from three to nine years old, hence the importance of staying close to their universe. Applaydu was designed to be inspiring and reassuring for kids:

- Characters: introduces kids to a diversity of emotions and personalities thanks to 3D characters with amplified proportions.

- Environment: provides a creative universe that inspires by using realistic materials & crafted design.

- Interface: supports kid’s development with intuitive and easy-to-use controls & contextual user interface design.

We wanted Applaydu to be not only entertaining, but also useful/educative?, that’s why Doctors in Children Education from Oxford University helped us create a collection of games that could support different areas of child development, with different levels of difficulty that dynamically adapt to the kid's learning time. Making each play session an opportunity to learn.

Applaydu is a free edutainment mobile app launched in August 2020 in a hundred countries in six different languages. Created for the whole family, the app encourages bonding moments where parents and children can play and learn together. Intended for children aged from three to nine, the app delivers one of the first Augmented Reality (AR) experience dedicated to kids, at a massive scale.

Applaydu allows kids embark their toys in personalized adventures where each decision and action will craft the outcome of the story. As this was a first for this target audience, we created our own technology called procedural narrative tool in order to shape all stories crafted by kids into readable books, illustrated with their own creations and decisions they took during their playing experience. As kids aged three to nine do not necessarily know how to read, it would become a bed-time story moment where kids and parents can share quality time together.

To support kids’ growth, Applaydu offers a collection of games co-created with doctors in Children Education from Oxford University, with educational potential across different areas of child development such as Communication or Mathematics, and development of cognitive skills like memory or attention. Kids will encounter characters who will challenge them through stimulating games with different levels of difficulty that will adjust to each kid’s learning curve. If the kid is struggling in a memory game for instance, the next sessions would be a bit easier to really favor the most adequate learning curve.

Designed as an artistic crafted universe made out of cardboard, Applaydu’s universe introduces kids to colors, shapes

+10 million app downloads since its launch

87% of parents state that Applaydu enhances playing moments between them and their kid(s)

84% of parents state that Applaydu offers their kids a chance to learn something new

+8.2% net increase for the overall likeability of the toys, fueled by the fact that the great experience with the app results in a significantly higher evaluation from app users compared to non-app users

+43% net increase in family togetherness

+28% net increase in value for money