What Children Teach Their Parents

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Kevin Downey]
Networks targeting kids and teens have been whacked in recent years by a slowdown in advertising from core categories such as toys and certain types of food. That’s now prompting many of those cable outlets to aggressively chase after brands not typically associated with the prepubescent crowd. Commercials for cars, full-service restaurants and travel destinations are popping up on Cartoon Network, Toon Disney and other kids networks. Nickelodeon, for example, signed Chevrolet to a multimillion-dollar deal last spring. The network has also lined up sponsors like automaker Kia alongside more-traditional advertisers -- as General Mills, Hasbro and Burger King -- its 19th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards April 1. Media buyers expect to see more such adult-targeted advertisers in this year’s kids upfront, the annual ad market soon to get under way. Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen last year estimated that the kids upfront generates about $970 million in ad revenue; other media buyers say the actual amount is closer to $800 million. The key for networks to attract previously adult-only advertisers is twofold: the influence kids have but also “co-viewing,” a term the cable industry uses to refer to children’s watching TV the old-fashioned way: with their parents. Advertisers sell to both. Several recent research reports have highlighted the influence of children, including an upcoming study from Disney ABC Kids Networks Group. In the study, conducted by Strottman International with mothers and their children age 6-14, Disney found that 92% of kids are influential in purchases made at discount stores, while more than 80% influence purchases at specialty stores, malls, and grocery and drug stores. Disney also found that 38% of mothers say their children are influential in deciding on vacations; 33% say the same about computers; 32%, cellphones; 30%, large electronics; and 28% say kids are influential in purchasing automobiles. Nickelodeon has conducted similar studies and found in 2004, for instance, that nearly 90% of parents ask for their children’s opinions when purchasing products for the kids. But two-thirds also ask for input on family purchases, and one-third ask for their kids’ opinions when buying products for themselves.
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