Beyblade is back, but its revival is bigger than nostalgia

Recently, we've been hearing the iconic battle cry "GO-SHOOT" echoing through Hong Kong shopping malls, as children and "Kidults" clash spinning tops in a major revival of the classic childhood game. For brands, this is opening up fresh cultural touchpoints for them to tap into new segments. 

Decades after the initial craze, marketers are tapping into this surge of nostalgia. For example, Fanta recently teamed up with BEYBLADE X and popular local YouTube creator collective JFFT to host an interactive tournament experience.

A Fanta spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the campaign targets energetic young consumers who embrace fun, spontaneity, and shared experiences—particularly "social connectors" who thrive on friendly competition. With BEYBLADE X commanding a strong following among younger demographics, the franchise offers a natural alignment with Fanta’s lively brand positioning.

The revival is not limited to Hong Kong either. In Singapore, the BEYBLADE X SEA CUP 2026 brought Bladers from across Southeast Asia to Marina Square in July, while weekly community tournaments at *SCAPE have helped build a growing local competitive scene.

Industry experts note that the revival highlights a broader, cross-generational cultural trend. Vivien Jin, strategy director at Design Bridge & Partners Hong Kong, believes the generational dynamic is the most compelling aspect of the phenomenon. "A lot of these revivals are not driven by young audiences alone," Jin said. "Millennials are still very active in shaping culture, and many are now introducing things from their own childhood to their children."

Jin added that this opens brand opportunities beyond live tournaments—spanning collectibles, personalisation, creator-led content, and parent-child experiences. "In a way, millennials may be culturally relevant for much longer than marketers expected," she noted.

While the return of spinning tops taps into deep nostalgia, Fanta's decision to anchor the campaign with hyper-local content creators sets the activation apart.

Jacopo Pesavento, CEO of Branding Records emphasised that a global brand choosing a hyper-local creator ecosystem such as JFFT—rather than importing a standardised global template—is the campaign's defining strategic move.

"Brands that win in markets such as Hong Kong right now are the ones willing to let local culture lead, instead of localising a global idea after the fact," Pesavento said. "Everything else here—the tops, the tournament, the nostalgia—is just the vehicle."

Long term momentum

In fact, Beyblades are not a youth trend, they're a millennial trigger dressed up as a youth trend.

Pesavento said, "The children spinning tops in shopping malls this year weren't the ones obsessed with Beyblades in 2002. Their parents were. So when Fanta builds a tournament around this, it isn't really chasing Gen Z. It's harvesting nostalgia from people in their 30s and hoping the halo lands on their children too. That's smart. It's also a shortcut."

To build long-term momentum beyond a single news cycle, Pesavento noted that the tournament must serve as an opening chapter. "Limited-edition packaging tied to Beyblade characters, ongoing creator content from JFFT long after the event, and grassroots community tournaments in schools and malls—rather than just one flagship spectacle—are what turn a stunt into a system," he said.

Measuring long-term impact, however, remains a persistent challenge for campaign managers. "Almost nobody can prove that spike changed a customer's behaviour six months later," said Pesavento. "That takes repeat purchase data, category share tracking in the youth segment, and the discipline to keep measuring long after the campaign team has moved on to the next brief."

He added that most brands don't do this because it's slow, unglamorous, and doesn't make a good case study slide. "If Fanta actually wants to know whether this worked, the real test isn't how many people showed up to the tournament. It's whether Beyblade-aged families are buying more Fanta in December than they were in June."

As AI and technology make more of our lives increasingly digital, there is also a growing appetite for things that feel physical, tactile and familiar, said Design Bridge & Partners' Jin. “Nostalgia can create that emotional connection very quickly.”

But consumers are also very good at spotting when a brand is simply borrowing nostalgia because it is trending.

She added the real question is whether the brand finds the right nostalgia — something that reinforces what the brand already stands for. "I would look beyond campaign engagement and track whether it changes brand consideration, preference, repeat purchase and retention over time. Otherwise, the brand may simply be remembered as one of many that rode the wave."

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