Inside Labubu’s Global Takeover: What Every Brand Can Learn About Fandom and Hype
- Ivonna Young
- Jan 26
- 7 min read
TL;DR
Labubu didn’t go viral by accident. Pop Mart engineered a system designed for obsession: gamified purchasing, open-ended world-building, emotional character design, and a community model that made fans co-authors of the story. The result was one of 2025’s biggest global cultural phenomena. This breakdown reveals the strategic mechanics behind Labubu’s rise and what founders can apply to build highly engaged, emotionally invested customer bases in 2026.
If Erewhon taught us that brand worlds drive loyalty, Labubu shows us that fandom drives velocity. Pop Mart took a niche art toy and turned it into a global sensation because they understood something most brands miss: the psychology of collecting, the power of co-creation, and the influence of subcultures.
Labubu’s growth wasn’t fueled by traditional marketing. It was fueled by community rituals, character-driven storytelling, and the behavioral patterns that make people want not just to buy, but to belong.
This is the level of strategic clarity founders need heading into 2026. When you design for emotional attachment and participation, you unlock a completely different level of demand.
The Strategy Behind Labubu’s Global Phenomenon
1. Gamified product design that taps into people’s need for small moments of joy
Pop Mart doesn’t just sell toys. They sell the thrill of possibility. The blind box model is grounded in gamification: randomness, reward cycles, rare pulls, and the psychology of “completing the set.” Every purchase becomes a micro-adventure that keeps customers coming back (WGSN Insight, 2025).
This part often gets overlooked, but it matters: consumers today are craving small moments of joy. After five years of instability, disruption, and cultural fatigue, people want something light to look forward to. The surprise-and-delight category — from miniatures to blind boxes to collectible micro series — is booming because it gives customers a tiny emotional lift during otherwise ordinary days.
Labubu taps directly into that need. The excitement of not knowing which figure you’ll pull, the hope of getting something rare, the ritual of opening the box — all of it creates a burst of joy people are actively seeking.
Founder insight:Small emotional hits create big retention. Design your product experience to deliver excitement, not just utility.
2. World-building with light IP taps into escapism and the return of “portable realities”
Labubu works because it gives people an escape. Pop Mart uses “light IP,” where characters have personality cues but no rigid storyline. That freedom lets fans project their own emotions, narratives, and identities onto the character (WGSN Insight, 2025). It feels familiar to the SIMS generation and the nanopet generation, who grew up creating worlds, caring for pocket-sized companions, and building stories that reflected their inner lives.
Today’s consumers are craving that same kind of escape. Not in a childish way — in a coping way. After years of instability, digital overload, and collective anxiety, people want spaces where they can craft their own realities and soothe their minds.
This is not theoretical. Recent data shows: • More than 40 percent of U.S. adults report experiencing anxiety symptoms in the past year (CDC, 2024). • Searches for “adult comfort toys” and “stress-relief collectibles” have grown steadily for three years (Google Trends, 2022–2024). • Fandom-based hobbies like figurine collecting, building miniatures, and cozy gaming have surged across Gen Z and millennials (WGSN, 2025).
Labubu gives consumers a tiny world they control. A character they can shape. A moment of calm and creativity they can hold in their hands. This emotional utility is a huge part of its appeal.
Founder insight:Escapism is not frivolous. It is a modern coping mechanism. Brands that give people small worlds to step into build deeper emotional loyalty.
3. Cultural liquidity: moving through subcultures with ease
One of Pop Mart’s biggest advantages is cultural liquidity. Labubu moves effortlessly across fashion, anime, streetwear, beauty, K-culture, and digital fandoms. This isn’t accidental. Pop Mart intentionally designs aesthetics, themes, and product formats that sit at the intersections of multiple cultural communities (WGSN Insight, 2025).
This fluidity also positioned Labubu perfectly for the micro-trend of the moment: charms on your bags. From luxury totes to mini crossbodies to backpack clips, Labubu became a natural extension of self-expression. It fits the rise of personalized accessories, “bag personalities,” and the broader shift toward wearables that double as conversation starters.
Most brands struggled to ride this trend without feeling forced. Labubu fit it instantly because it already lived at the intersection of fashion, identity, nostalgia, and play.
This ability to slip into different cultural lanes is a major reason the character feels omnipresent without oversaturation.
Founder insight:Build a brand that can travel across cultural spaces. Fluidity expands your reach without diluting your identity.
4. IRL environments engineered for virality and community rituals
Pop Mart treats physical retail as an extension of fandom. Their stores, exhibitions, and installations are built for unboxing videos, photo moments, and social sharing. But the real magic happens outside their four walls.
Labubu fans have created their own IRL rituals: trading circles, meetups, swap events, and themed gatherings where people style their figurines, compare collections, and build friendship circles around a shared obsession. In New York City, fans have even organized Labubu “fashion shows” in Washington Square Park, dressing their figures, walking them down makeshift runways, and filming content that spreads across TikTok and Xiaohongshu.
These aren’t brand-led activations. They’re community-led experiences — the strongest proof that Pop Mart understands how to ignite culture, not just participate in it.
Founder insight:When a community starts creating its own rituals, your brand stops being a product and becomes a cultural event.
5. Collector psychology as a business model, especially in a tight economy
Pop Mart understands the emotional drivers behind collecting better than almost any brand. Labubu taps into completionism, rarity-based status, the thrill of the hunt, and the emotional comfort of having something that feels personal and meaningful. These aren’t surface-level triggers. They speak to how people cope, how they express identity, and how they build small rituals into their day (WGSN Insight, 2025).
In a tight economy, emotional ties become even more important. When consumers reduce discretionary spending, they prioritize purchases that feel meaningful, comforting, or connected to identity. Collectibles thrive in downturns because they provide emotional value at a relatively a ccessible price point. Labubu gives customers something that feels special, expressive, and grounding — a feeling many people are actively seeking when the world feels heavy.
This emotional utility strengthens loyalty, encourages repeat purchases, and creates long-term demand far beyond the novelty of a single drop.
Founder insight:In a challenging economy, emotional value becomes a competitive advantage. People spend where they feel something.
6. Fan language and rituals that strengthen belonging in a post-COVID world
Labubu fans created their own slang, trade circles, unboxing rituals, Discord groups, and micro-communities. Pop Mart didn’t try to control this. They amplified it. Fan-led behaviors became part of the brand’s identity, not a side effect (WGSN Insight, 2025).
This sense of community taps into something deeper. Since COVID, belonging has become a core emotional need. Studies show that loneliness has increased across nearly every age group, with the Surgeon General calling it an “epidemic of isolation” in 2023.
People are actively searching for connection, identity anchors, and low-pressure ways to interact with like-minded communities.
Labubu gives fans a shared language, shared rituals, and a shared world. It transforms a collectible into a membership signal. When people trade, meet up, show their pulls, or co-create content, they feel connected to something bigger than themselves — which is why the community keeps growing.
Founder insight:Brands that create belonging win. When customers feel like they’re part of something, loyalty becomes instinctive.
7. Data-led localization without losing global identity
Pop Mart uses real-time data from TikTok, Shopee, and social platforms to localize product mixes and character variations by region. Labubu in Tokyo looks different from Labubu in Paris or LA, yet the core identity remains consistent (WGSN Insight, 2025).
This gives the brand global scale without losing local relevance.
Founder insight:Think globally, execute locally. Regional nuance builds loyalty faster than broad messaging.
What Founders Should Take Into 2026
1. Gamification increases retention
Design systems that reward repeat participation.
2. Storytelling should invite participation
Fans adopt characters they can shape, not just observe.
3. Subculture alignment expands reach
The more cultural lanes you can travel through authentically, the bigger your audience becomes.
4. Retail is the new content engine
Experiential spaces generate organic marketing at scale.
5. Collector psychology fuels demand
Tap into identity, emotion, and reward cycles.
6. Community language is an asset
Let fans define elements of your culture.
7. Localization is a growth multiplier
Adaptation builds trust across global markets.
The digital lesson from Labubu’s rise
Labubu’s digital presence thrives because Pop Mart lets the community lead. They curate, amplify, and honor fan content rather than controlling the narrative. Their role is to guide the world, not govern it (WGSN Insight, 2025).
Founder insight: Digital communities scale when fans feel ownership, not instruction.
Final Thought
Labubu proves that fandom is a growth engine. When you understand emotional drivers, empower community, and design a world people want to participate in, your brand moves from transactional to cultural.
At The Lavender Agency, I help founders build marketing strategies that make impact. Strategies rooted in insight, behavior, narrative clarity, and operational alignment. Strategies that remove guesswork and unlock real demand.
If you want your 2026 strategy to reflect what actually drives growth, now is the time to build it.
Ready to create a marketing strategy that drives real growth? Book a discovery call today.
This blog is part of our series, “Marketing Wins of 2025 and What to Learn for 2026.”
Here’s what came before and what’s coming next:
Previously in the series:
Up next:
Skims’ Playbook for Culture-Driven Growth
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References
WGSN Insight. (2025, May 8). Brand case study: Pop Mart. https://www.wgsn.com/
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