AI Summary
5 min readWhat makes a toy go viral
When 13-year-old Juju — known to her friends as an expert squishy dumpling collector — opened her first dumpling toy on TikTok, she didn't know what color it would be. "The part of like unboxing it and not knowing what you get is like pretty fun," she says. Her first one happened to be a super rare blue glitter. "What are the odds? It's like I don't know. But it's like pretty rare." That video set off a chain reaction: her friends saw it, bought their own, made their own videos, and soon squishy dumplings — rubbery, gel-filled toys with smiley faces in miniature plastic steamer baskets — were lining store shelves and spawning a resale market. Juju's mom Lila became her "squishy supplier," driving her to Five Below so often she once stopped at three or four stores on the way home from work. "That's probably my most embarrassing moment," she says.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:03) **The Squishy Dumpling Phenomenon Begins** - A 13-year-old collector named Juliana ("Juju") demonstrates the viral toy craze by unboxing squishy dumplings on her kitchen table.
- 2 (04:40) **The Business Strategy Behind the Viral Sensation** - The episode shifts to analyzing the deliberate business tactics that turned a simple toy into a cultural phenomenon.
- 3 (09:01) **Lesson 1: Innovation with a Small 'i'** - RMS CEO Zach Barber explains the first key strategy: tweaking existing toys to make them trendy rather than inventing from scratch.
- 4 (12:05) **Lesson 2: Add Surprise (Mystery Mechanics)** - The squishy dumpling's original 2020 version languished until Zach added mystery packaging, turning it into a surprise-driven product.
- 5 (15:24) **Lesson 3: Artificial Scarcity (Limited Drops)** - Zach introduces scarcity by releasing limited series with rare "mystery" dumplings, creating FOMO (fear of missing out).
- 6 (18:48) **The Psychology of Scarcity and Dopamine Hits** - The episode delves deeper into how artificial scarcity and limited releases sustain consumer interest and drive sales.
- 7 (20:17) **Going Viral: The Luck of User-Generated Content** - Zach describes the moment the squishy dumpling went viral on TikTok, driven by unpaid user content.
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Show Notes
Today on the show, we have the story of the once-humble squishy dumpling and what it teaches us about how to make a viral hit and how to manufacture it, without getting left holding the bag. Hear it all firsthand from the creator of this trendy toy.
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This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
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