Connecting to Kids

Paper routes must be a lot more lucrative these days.

According to Census Bureau figures, kids 19 or younger account for about 79 million, or 29 percent, of the U.S. population of 278 million. That proportion is expected to remain constant as the total population reaches 300 million by 2010.

In 1999, children under 12 spent $28.5 billion dollars in the marketplace, while their teen peers spent $138 billion. And children of all ages influenced parental spending to the tune of $248.5 billion, according to statistics compiled by Jim McNeal, a College Station, TX-based consultant (and former Texas A&M marketing department staffer.)

Those numbers, of course, don’t include the millions of parents, grandparents, and Uncle Eds whose purchase behavior can so often — and so easily — be influenced by their young charges.

“They are a big influencer of family purchase decisions,” says Wayne Carlstedt, president of Wilmington, NC-based Premium Image Group. “A major factor is that you [so often] have two working parents, with limited time, trying to satisfy the wants of their children.”

Marketers these days are finding it more and more difficult to satisfy the needs of young consumers. Thanks to advances in media and technology, kids have developed more sophisticated tastes — and more demanding personalities — than earlier generations.

But despite their advanced computer programming skills, their increasingly adult-like world-savvy, and their precocious understanding of the marketing message, they are still kids. Here are seven ideas marketers should keep in mind to ensure they’re making the right connections.

Play Their Games

These days, the average child is probably more competent technologically than the average brand marketer (and certainly more so than the average editor). When targeting a generation that has grown up on computers, the Internet, and high-tech videogames, marketers should cater to this hunger for technology.

“The Internet is like the telephone to them,” says Barb McDonald, account supervisor at DraftWorldwide, Chicago. “It’s always been there. It’s their encyclopedia.”

That’s why CD-ROMS are now replacing plastic figurines as cereal box premiums, and why nearly every kid-focused sweepstakes or contest has an online-entry component.

Atlanta-based Cartoon Network last September drove cable-watching kids to the Web during a week-long in-house promotion tying in with its “Toonami” weekday block of action-adventure series. In a campaign called Intruder, the network ran interstitials in which robot host Tom and his spaceship were destroyed. Viewers were encouraged to log onto cartoonnetwork.com with a code word given on-air to vote on ways to put them back together. The “total immersion cartoon event” boosted both online traffic and on-air ratings.

“We took advantage of what a kid’s daily life is like: watching television and going on the Internet,” says Phyllis Ehrlich, vp-promotions and marketing for Cartoon Network.

Music, too, has advanced well beyond the days of the See ‘N Say. Tiger Electronics hooked up with McDonald’s last fall to launch Hit Clips, mini-music players that hold postage stamp-sized recording cartridges. McD offered kids 60-second tunes from the latest boy bands (and Britney) for $5 each. Simon Marketing, Oak Brook, IL, handled.

“Kids five and six years old are now paying attention to music,” says McDonald. “They never used to, and it’s creating lots of marketing opportunities.”

Even the decades-old sports card giveaway can get modernized. Skippy peanut butter, a brand of Unilever, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, is currently giving away four circular cards of New York Yankee baseball star Derek Jeter on jar tops. The cards direct kids to peanutbutter.com, where they can enter a code to receive downloadable multimedia versions called Digibles, along with a special viewer application developed by New York City-based Internet software developer CyberAction, Inc. The digital cards feature both audio and video components. Placed side-by-side onscreen, the cards form a mini-poster.

Respect their Privacy

While new technology is opening more marketing doors, it’s important to keep in mind the dangers — and legal pitfalls — of using new media to reach kids.

“You don’t ever want the backlash of a child getting hurt or downloading porn,” says Gina Mace-Sands, director of consumer promotions for Saban Consumer Products, Los Angeles. “The Internet is so huge, and it’s so easy to connect to other sites that may not be good ones.” Burger King had CD-ROM manufacturer eGames “hobble” the software the chain gave away to kids for exactly that reason (January PROMO).

In addition to avoiding societal ills, marketers also must fully understand where to draw the line when it comes to enticing youngsters. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), enforced by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, has regulated the content of kid-focused Web sites since last April. It restricts data collection, spamming, and sweepstakes and contests.

Saban took steps to make sure an upcoming promotion with parent Fox Kids and brand partner Jel-Sert is COPPA-compliant. Launching this month and running through August, the effort will promote Saban’s popular Digimon animated series with an instant-win game on 12 million packages of Jel-Sert drinks and ices. The prize pool boasts 100,000 items. Supporting TV spots and P-O-P displays will drive kids to foxkids.com, where they can play interactive games. Jel-Sert packaging also contains a secret code allowing them to log on to play a “top-secret” enhanced version.

“We follow to a tee the rules and regulations of COPPA,” says Susan Bennett, director of promotions for foxkids.com. “If you’re in the kids marketplace, you better know what COPPA is.”

Entry rules only require kids to submit their first names and e-mail addresses, and clearly state that addresses will only be used to send e-mails to notify winners (who then have 10 days to return a release form carrying the signature of an adult). When the winners are secured, the database will be purged. “It’s for the safety of the user. If I had kids, I would want them to be safe as well,” says Bennett.

Bank on Stored-Value Cards

Kids like spending money, and it’s only prudent of parents to gain greater control of what they buy. Since they’re too young to assume the responsibilities involved with credit cards, the wave of stored-value cards being introduced for teens is a natural way to go. Some marketing experts suggest these little “pocket billboards” are the future of marketing to teens. “These cards will need sponsors, and it gives marketers a whole new arena,” says DraftWorldwide’s McDonald.

Visa’s Buxx card and the American Express CobaltCard are two varieties that have already hit the marketplace. They’re designed to act as debit cards, with spending limits and purchase restrictions established by parents — whose permission must be obtained before the cards are issued.

Card companies and other supporters say they’re marketing a responsible financial tool. Critics say they’re just setting up kids for future credit dependency. “We’re not empowering (teens) to do anything they can’t do now,” says Lauren Becker, vp-marketing for San Francisco-based Zowi Corp., supplier of the AmEx CobaltCard. “It’s their first financial tool, and it gives them the capability to budget and spend their money wisely.”

Originally rolled out by Zowi, the CobaltCard relaunched under the American Express brand last fall with a promotion tying into MTV’s Road Rules; the show’s finale featured cast members using the cards to purchase supplies. Becker says the company is close to announcing two new promotional partners.

Don’t Chintz on Premiums

Let’s be honest: Cracker Jack-style prizes simply don’t cut it with kids sleeping in bedrooms with $3,500 in consumer electronics.

“There has been a move to higher value [because] the little paper-based premium just isn’t doing it anymore,” says Carlstedt. “Kids grow up in an interactive, electronic media world, and their expectations from a younger age are [more] high-tech.”

Recent inventory from Premium Image Group includes a Buzz Lightyear (from Disney’s Toy Story) alarm clock for a General Mills mail-in offer and a barking spoon dangled as an SLO on Quaker Oats’s Cap’n Crunch and Life cereal brands (part of the company’s tie-in to Disney’s 102 Dalmatians last fall). “We loved that we could combine the equity of the movie, the sound chip — which is very innovative — and our cereal,” says Jeff Lichtman, director of marketing for Cap’n Crunch.

Be Cool: Be Smart

Kids are no longer ridiculed in the schoolyard for being brainy. In fact, research says many children are now more than willing to express their love of math, science, or reading, says Bob Cappalli, senior vp-business development at DraftWorldwide. Educationally themed promotions are quite common among kids brands, but Cappalli thinks the concept has plenty of room to grow. “I don’t think there’s anyone from a branding perspective trying to own the idea of empowering kids through education,” he says. “I think it’s one of the biggest opportunities.”

Keep Them Occupied

Rather than competing with TV, videogames, and the Internet for their play time, give kids something to pass the time when they’re engaged in activities they may not necessarily enjoy. While waiting for the food to arrive at a sit-down restaurant, for instance, children generally have nothing to do but, well, act like kids. Is it any wonder parents opt for activity-filled QSRs rather than attempt a nice leisurely dinner?

Denny’s Restaurants, Spartanburg, SC, tries to solve this problem with a “wait-buster” strategy that keeps little minds busy with other things. The chain is using an interactive game system called FunPad from Huntington Beach, CA-based Entertainment Systems Technologies that is described as an oversized Game Boy. The system features a full-color, eight-inch screen with games for both kids’ and adults, a display of the kids menu, and a printer that dispenses bounce-back coupons for parents.

“Kids need more than just crayons nowadays,” says Susan Schneider, Denny’s director of promotions and community relations.

Make it Fun

It’s obvious, but no less important: Marketers want their campaigns to be as alluring as chocolate milk, not prune juice.

“Kids want to do things and touch things, get in the water with the animals, and immerse themselves in adventure,” says Mandy Fillenwarth, manager of education marketing for Orlando-based Sea World. Fillenwarth’s job is to get kids excited about the theme park’s five-day summer camps (and subsequently justify the $750 tuition).

Solution? A contest launched in late 2000 by New York City-based Scholastic’s Science World magazine asked students to write essays on why they wanted to be an animal trainer. The winner, due to be picked soon, wins a trip to camp.