Kids don’t watch telly anymore – or at least, not in the linear, scheduled way they used to. Digital streaming services and gaming platforms have changed kids’ viewing habits for ever – and in doing so, have disrupted the marketing status quo.
What was once a simple TV ad is now a fully integrated, multiplatform campaign, running simultaneously across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube (every teenagers’ top three news sources, in case you’re wondering).
Add immersive gaming into the mix and advertising to kids is a whole new world – and one that is constantly changing. Founder and ceo of award-winning insight, strategy and creative agency Kids Industries, Gary Pope explains why marketers and brands need to ensure they don’t get left behind.
It won’t come as news to you that today’s children carry a device in their pocket that enables them to engage with your brand in ways previously unimaginable to most senior marketers, who way back when only had to think about press, radio – and if they were really lucky – TV.
And it also won’t be news to you that Generation Alpha, as those under 12 are futuristically labelled, are the most digital savvy and engaged consumer cohort to date.
You’d think that everyone might have cottoned on to these very basic realisations, but in a recent statement to the House of Commons, (former) Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Minister Nadine Dorries, expressed her utter amazement that children were watching their TV content on something called YouTube.
Seems the internet is news to the (former) minister responsible for digital media in our country. Today’s reality is that kids don’t live in a twee hybrid existence somewhere between Swallows and Amazons and The Faraway Tree. They are defining the 21st century for goodness’ sake.
The new digital age
When we were kids, a digital platform was something that Mario used to jump around as he bounced his way toward Donkey Kong’s destruction. Today, a digital platform is a world of interactive media opportunities that enable, empower and engage – and I am not even going to utter the ‘M’ word.
The volume of channels now available to children is a marketer’s dream. A cornucopia of brand comms opportunities. You can build complete immersive worlds with your brand name plastered all over them and your brand purpose entwined within the fabric of the experience itself.
You can adorn each child’s avatar with a unique digital outfit and charge through the nose for it. You can even digitise a mascot and sell kids’ stuff that the regulator says you can’t across traditional media.
And therein lies the rub. As Uncle Ben is too often quoted as saying: “With great power comes great responsibility.” You’d have thought we’d have gotten our heads around this by now, wouldn’t you? Sadly not. Quarterly reporting trumps responsibility. Here’s an example…
Tony’s TikTok comeback
Tony the Tiger, that great orange and black anthropomorphic purveyor of the world’s leading frosted flakes is back. Off our TV screens for nearly 15 years as part of the advertising ban that led to an 18% decline in cereal sales, he has respawned as a VTuber (that’s a virtual vlogger to you and me) across social platforms. He’s been popping up on Twitch and TikTok specifically… two of the places where kids are spending most of their time. Even if access is supposed to be barred for those under 13.
So, you can’t make a 30” spot and air it on TV, but you can create a virtual celebrity with his own branded space that’s constantly shown in the places where children are actually spending their time. And in that branded always-on environment, he can espouse the virtues of this leading HFSS breakfast until the internet runs out.
And of course, it goes without saying that these experiences are deeply interactive – thus ensuring greater engagement, recall and – ultimately – request. These platforms are infinitely more powerful than TV – they demand interaction as opposed to passive consumption and that is essentially how recall works. We learn and retain by doing.
So who’s to blame?
But it’s not the brands I’ve got the beef with, and although they should know better it’s not even the platforms. It’s actually the regulators that need a good hard kick in the shins, as they don’t even seem to realise this is going on. Or maybe they do but aren’t acting on it. Either way, they are not making themselves accountable.
So what to do? If the regulator is not going to take responsibility, then we marketers have to. If you sell stuff that kids love please, please do the right thing and play by the rules – even if they are quite woolly.
Twitch, TikTok, YouTube, Roblox – they all give you everything you need to connect with the digitally native children of the 21st century and they do what they do very well. But the platforms are not important, it’s what children do on them that really matters – and that is ever evolving.
With great marketing comes great responsibility
As new big boys of the media world try to widen their audience and please their investors, it is our responsibility as marketers to advise them and go down an innovative yet responsible route.
Children will always gravitate towards the next shiny toy – a little like Andy dropped Woody for Buzz – but to engage the children of this generation, Marketers need to be aware that what’s working now, might not work in just a few short months.
Crafting a clever campaign that goes with the grain is only half of it, you really do need to know your audiences and make sure you’re insight-led every inch of the way. And above all, keep in the right lanes so that even if the regulators aren’t keeping up with the kids, you can.”
