July 2007 Trends: Men Kids

Kids Marketing
Some Junk-Food Ads Cut From Kids' Diets
Eleven of the nation's biggest food and beverage companies are junking ads for junk food on kids' TV shows. Products include candy bars, soda pop and sugar-laden cereals, including such brands as Trix — famously advertised for decades as being "for kids."

Big Food Cuts $1B in Kid Ads; Pols' Hunger Still Not Sated
Critics Call for Media Companies to Follow Marketers' Lead and Reject Junk-Food Spots
If big food thought its landmark concession to voluntarily shift, yank or otherwise banish some $1 billion in kid-targeted junk-food marketing was enough to quell critics, it was wrong. Now those critics are going after the media companies that used to enjoy the marketers' big bucks.

Nick Hopes to Ride Out Kids Marketing Scrutiny With Diverse Clients
The kids' upfront kicked off with a "splat" last week when Starcom inked the first deal of the season with Nickelodeon across its multiplatform brands. Comprising the Viacom Kids and Family Group (which includes Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Nick.com and Nick Magazine), the deal was based on quarter-hour program ratings and includes a series of joint research projects set for late 2007 and early 2008 that Starcom will use to illuminate children's changing media consumption.

Childs Play
Who says online toy sales are a bust? Not eBeanstalk
Brian Gordon and Patrick Moore admit to being challenged in the gift-giving department. A few years ago, the two friends and colleagues got to talking about how bewildered they were by the truckloads of items at toysrus.com. "We asked ourselves: 'Wouldn't it be great if someone would tell us what to buy?'" says Gordon. Thus sprouted the seed for eBeanstalk.com, the Norwalk (Conn.) online seller of age-appropriate toys they started in September.

Toys for Toddlers From PG-13 Movie
Warning: "Transformers" is steering toward your toddlers.
At least that's the complaint from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, an advocacy group based in Boston. Last week, the group complained to the United States Federal Trade Commission that DreamWorks and Hasbro were going after preschoolers with their "widespread and irresponsible" marketing of the coming movie.

 
websites to watch - kids
Webbliworld
A virtual world that kids can explore, inhabit, belong to and share. It is a world that promotes caring, responsible behavior and gives kids the opportunity to voice their opinions on topics that matter.

Yahooligans!
The ultimate kid-friendly search engine. Based on the popular adult Yahoo! site, it‘s a safe place for children to look for information and has a great list of age-appropriate reference links.

Zwinky
A customizable social avatar that helps people create and express their online brand or persona.

CBC Kids
An extension of CBC's educational and entertaining programming for kids targets specific ages like preschool, afterschool and teens. Activities include non-violent games like Canuck Rally and interactive horoscopes.

Time for Kids
Current events, news and intriguing stories from Time Magazine.

Ask Jeeves Kids
A search engine for answering simple kid questions like, "How does an iceberg form?" or "What causes hiccups?"

 
technology - kids
Keeping Tabs on Kids' Phones
Software Monitors Calls and Messages, Sends Parents Alerts
A new software application called Radar, can be wirelessly downloaded onto a kid's cellphone to digitally monitor the phone's activities, including incoming or outgoing calls, emails, text and photo messages. Alerts are sent notifying parents of any contact with unapproved people. Radar comes from eAgency Inc., Newport Beach, Calif., and is geared toward 8- to 14-year-olds.

Young Surfers Spurn Banner Ads, Embrace 'Widgets'
A study of attitudes about online advertising shows that, not surprisingly, preteens and teenagers don't like banner ads and other interruptions from marketers. But the study found that in the right circumstances kids enjoy playing with ad-related features on their personal pages in social-networking Web sites.

Preteen Back-to-School Wishes Go Hi-Tech
According to a recent comparison shopping survey of 500 preteens conducted by Web site ShopLocal.com, preteens want more than paper, pencils and protractors for back-to-school supplies. 73 percent of kids between the ages of seven and 12 want to head back to school with their gaming systems in hand, and an equally strong 70 percent want a new computer.

 
interesting articles

Study: Friends Determine What Is ‘Cool' Among Young People
MTV, Nickelodeon, Microsoft Release ‘The Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground' Multichannel News
When it comes to influencing young people, friends are often the best brand marketers. That's one of the key takeaways from a new global study about youth and technology called "The Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground" from MTV, Nickelodeon and Microsoft, which used both qualitative and quantitative methodology to talk to 18,000 "tech-embracing" kids (8-14) and young people (14-24) in 16 countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Among Kids, it's About Niche Networks
Toon Disney, Nick Toons and Noggin are growing
When it comes to kids television, Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network are still way out ahead, continuing their decades-long domination. But it's the tiny niche cable networks that are seeing the big increases in kids 2-11 viewership.

Keeping Tabs on Kids' Phones
Software Monitors Calls and Messages, Sends Parents Alerts
Wall Street Journal
July 25, 2007

When I was a teenager, my parents monitored my use of our house phone in ways that I considered annoying. I griped about not having a phone in my room and needing to hang up by a certain time each night. Getting my own line was out of the question. And much to my teenage chagrin, Mom and Dad were fond of chatting with my friends if they answered the phone before me.

Today, things are different. Many parents buy cellphones for their preteen children to keep in touch and as a safety measure. Teens have the luxury of their own cellphones that some parents won't even know how to use.

But cellphones introduce a host of problems. Parents have no way of knowing with whom their children are talking or text messaging, nor do they know what is being said in these calls or in text messages typed in abbreviated slang. Digital photos and videos can be captured and sent from one phone to another in seconds, and smart phones with Web-browsing capabilities bring the Internet and instant messaging to kids wherever they are.

This week, I tested a new software application called Radar that can be wirelessly downloaded onto a kid's cellphone to digitally monitor the phone's activities, including incoming or outgoing calls, emails and text and photo messages. Alerts are sent notifying parents of any contact with unapproved people.

Radar comes from eAgency Inc., Newport Beach, Calif., and is geared toward 8- to 14-year-olds. Though Radar doesn't yet work on the most basic cellphones and has limitations, including not notifying parents when a child uses a phone for Web browsing or instant messaging, eAgency says these improvements and others are in the works for future versions. Overall, Radar performed well and was user-friendly enough for tech-shy parents.

The company charges a monthly fee of $10 for one user or $15 for a family, which enables monitoring of up to five accounts. There's no limit to the number of people who are alerted to a phone's activities, as they don't need to download Radar. Instead, notifications are sent via text message and/or email to a parent's mobile device; they're also collected on a Web site where all activities are listed together.

EAgency is careful to note that its software application isn't spyware, lurking in the background of the device without making itself known. In fact, whenever the child's phone is turned on, a message says it's being monitored by Radar. This message also appears on the phone once daily.

For now, Radar only works on all BlackBerrys regardless of carrier, and eAgency has a deal on its www.MyMobileWatchdog.com1 site that can get BlackBerry Pearls free of charge for certain customers. But many parents' kids already have basic cellphones or don't want their kid to have a BlackBerry. In roughly a month, Radar will work with devices that run Microsoft's Windows Mobile software, though this doesn't help much, as these devices function more like BlackBerrys. Radar will be available for regular cellphones, like Motorola's Razr, by mid-September.

I tested the product using a BlackBerry Pearl as the kid's device and an LG Chocolate phone as the parent's device that would get alerts of phone activity. To get Radar running on the Pearl, I sent a text message with a download link in it from the company Web site, and loaded the application onto the BlackBerry in a few seconds.

I used the Pearl as anyone might, adding names, numbers and emails of new friends and contacts that I wanted stored in my BlackBerry. I also used it to make and receive calls, and to send and receive emails and text messages. Every time any of these activities took place with an unapproved person, the parent phone was notified within seconds, as was my account on Radar's Web site and the email addresses that I set up with my account.

Unknown people are automatically considered unapproved until you go onto the Radar Web site to change their status in your account. I accessed this account on MyMobileWatchdog.com with a username and password. EAgency asks that you call the number on its Web site the first time you set up a Radar account so that it can walk you through how the software application works with your child's phone.

The account home page on Radar's Web site is a clean space, organized using tabs at the top and six shortcuts in the center of the screen, including "Alerts," which shows a comprehensive list of all the alerts.

Alert notifications are simple, stating who did what, when it was done, and what the message or call involved, such as the content of a text message or the documented length of a phone conversation. Radar won't record phone conversations. Mobile alerts can be received via email (on a smart phone) or text message (on a regular cellphone or smart phone). After using Radar for a few days, I realized some text message alerts were truncated due to the SMS standard that limits messages to 160 characters. So though your child might send a message with 100 characters in it, your alert might contain only 90 of those because characters are used up by notifications such as, "Katie has received an unauthorized text message from..."

Radar's Web site offers a text message abbreviation dictionary so you can decipher what your kid is actually saying when he or she types "JTLYK" (just to let you know).

During testing my BlackBerry Pearl received an MMS, or Multimedia Message Service, containing a digital photo. My parent phone and email account were notified through a message with a link to this photo.

Alerts are also generated whenever a child adds a new contact to his or her device. A list of the most recent contacts added to the child's device conveniently appears on the Radar account home page. By marking someone as "Approved," a parent agrees not to be notified of contact between that person and the child. People marked as "Unapproved" and "Suspicious" will generate alert notifications.

Reports documenting your child's interaction with specific people over certain time periods via text, email or voice calls can be generated at the click of a button. These reports can be printed out or digitally exported from Radar's site using Internet Explorer as your browser.

For $10 or $15 monthly, Radar might be worth a try, especially with very young kids. But until Radar is available for the phones most popular with kids, parents will have to continue with their tried and true methods of keeping track of their kids' phone use.

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Study: Friends Determine What Is ‘Cool' Among Young People
MTV, Nickelodeon, Microsoft Release ‘The Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground'
Multichannel News
July 24, 2007

When it comes to influencing young people, friends are often the best brand marketers.

That's one of the key takeaways from a new global study about youth and technology called "The Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground" from MTV, Nickelodeon and Microsoft, which used both qualitative and quantitative methodology to talk to 18,000 "tech-embracing" kids (8-14) and young people (14-24) in 16 countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

In the study, MTV Networks and Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions studied 21 technologies that impact on the lives of young people: Internet, e-mail, PC, TV, mobile, instant messaging, cable and satellite TV, DVD, MP3, stereo/hi-fi, digital cameras, social networks, on and offline video games, CDs, HDTV, VHS, webcams, MP4 players, digital-video recorders/personal video recorders and hand-held game consoles.

As for the friends connection, Circuits indicated that advertisers and content companies that want to engage youthful audiences must understand the changes taking place in how they lead their lives. Almost all young people use technology to continuously communicate, express themselves and be entertained. The various devices enhance, rather than replace, face-to-face interaction, according to the study.

To that end, a majority of respondents said most of the Web-site links (88%) they viewed and the viral-video content they downloaded (55%) came from friends' recommendations.

Audiences also wanted more control of what they watched and when they wanted it. Young people expect content to be on all platforms -- mobile, computer and TV.

"Traditional youth marketing considered opinion formers and influencers to be a small elite, but these days, the elite has become much larger," said Andrew Davidson, vice president of VBS International Insight at MTV Networks International, in a prepared statement.

That notion is underscored by survey results showing that technology has served to dramatically increase the number of friends groups. Globally, the average young person connected to digital technology has 94 phone numbers in his or her mobile, 78 people on a messenger buddy list and 86 people in their social-networking community.

More specifically, the survey found that the number of friends for young males more than doubles between the ages of 13-14 and 14-17, jumping from 24 to 69. Moreover, the survey found that boys 18-21, who have on average 70 friends, are the most social group -- not girls aged 14-17.

Their technological immersion aside, the generation of digi-kids are not geeks -- 59% of 8- to 14-year-old kids still prefer their TV to their PCs, while only 20% of 14- to 24-year-old young people globally admitted to being "interested" in technology, which facilitates but doesn't capture their lives. All the same, they are expert multitaskers, able to filter different channels of information.

Still, Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground found that what kids and teens do has not significantly changed in 15 years. For young kids, watching TV (85%) tops the list, followed by listening to music (70%), hanging out with friends (68%), playing video games (67%) and spending time online (51%).

Becoming teen-agers changes things somewhat. Among those 14-24, the favorite pastimes are listening to music (70%) and watching TV or hanging out with friends, tied at 65%. Next came watching DVDs (60%), relaxing (60%), going to the movies, (59%), spending time online (56%), spending time with girl or boyfriend (55%), eating (53%) and hanging out at home (49%).

"The survey revealed a strong dynamic between TV and the Internet, especially for 14-24s. Young people watch TV for stress relief -- 60% of the sample said they watched most of their TV lying down. The Internet, on the other hand, is cognitive and active, especially if kids are using it for homework or social situations," Davidson said.

On the advertising front, the survey indicated that kids still enjoy good creative, especially on TV. While respondents indicated that "best ad they've seen recently" is still overwhelmingly on the small screen, marketers have the opportunity to extend their digital advertising across the other technologies kids are engaged with, including IM and social-networking sites, especially since 47% of youth IM each other about "what is on TV right now."

"Far from being a background medium, TV is the only medium they use while not multitasking at all," Davidson said. " Linear TV is the medium for introducing people to new things they weren't searching for in the first place."

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Some Junk-Food Ads Cut From Kids' Diets
LA Times
July 19, 2007

Eleven of the nation's biggest food and beverage companies are junking ads for junk food on kids' TV shows.

Products include candy bars, soda pop and sugar-laden cereals, including such brands as Trix — famously advertised for decades as being "for kids."

The voluntary pledge was announced at a Federal Trade Commission forum Wednesday morning in Washington. Companies aim to placate legislators who may crack down on food marketing amid rampant childhood obesity.

But critics say that the self-regulated pledges don't go far enough, and that advertising guidelines without an industrywide standard or method of enforcement won't do much good.

"We shouldn't be counting on the food industry to safeguard public health," said Susan Linn, a Harvard professor and co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. "Corporations are bound by law to increase shareholder profits, not to promote the well-being of children."

The pledges, from companies such as Coca-Cola Co. and Hershey Co., vary widely but largely restrict advertising on programming or media targeted at kids younger than 12.

That's a sore point for critics, who say that kids don't watch only cartoons and Nickelodeon shows. According to Nielsen data, for instance, Fox's "American Idol" attracted 2.4 million viewers ages 2 to 11 years old in May. Coca-Cola is a sponsor of "American Idol," and its messages appear frequently throughout the program.

The other companies involved are Cadbury Adams USA, Campbell Soup Co., General Mills Inc., Kellogg Co., Kraft Foods Inc., Mars Inc., McDonald's USA, PepsiCo Inc. and Unilever.

The pledges all loosely follow U.S. Department of Agriculture dietary guidelines, but to varying degrees. General Mills, for instance, will stop marketing to kids anything with more than 12 grams of sugar and 175 calories per serving. But sugary cereals such as Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs still pass the test. And Kellogg's policy, which was introduced this year in response to threatened litigation, still allows Frosted Flakes cereal and Fruit Twistables snacks to be marketed to kids, said Margot Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"This gets rid of marketing of the very worst junk food," she said, "but it doesn't mean that only truly healthy foods are going to be marketed to kids."

The pledges are a good first step, Wootan said, but it is important for entertainment companies such as Nickelodeon Networks and the Cartoon Network that sell ads during children's programming to get involved.

In a statement, Nickelodeon called the moves "very important and positive steps forward in setting new nutritional guidelines and marketing standards."

Cartoon Network said, "We are encouraged these 11 companies are taking additional steps to provide kids with a healthier line of food options."

Other changes the companies will make include limiting the use of licensed characters to sell food to kids and introducing ads that use brands to promote more healthful lifestyle choices.

The move comes amid an increased threat of legislation to limit junk-food marketing aimed at children. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine published a report emphasizing the influence of food marketing on kids, which galvanized legislators into action. A task force on media and childhood obesity led by Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is working on a report on media and childhood obesity.

If the task force determines that these pledges do not go far enough, legislation may follow, said Gary Knell, the task force's volunteer chairman and the chief executive of Sesame Workshop, an educational organization.

But the companies say they can do it on their own, with some help from the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which will monitor the pledges. Participating companies have signed a contract and agreed to provide information showing how they've complied with the pledge, said C. Lee Peeler, executive vice president of the council.

"We're very committed to the concept of self-regulation," said John Faulkner, a spokesman for Campbell Soup. "All of our advertising is reviewed by our CEO, and we look very seriously at what the message is."

Campbell has pledged to reduce sodium in its kids' soups 25% and to market only "better-for-you" foods during programming targeted at children younger than 12.

Many of the companies, however, say that it is a parent's role to limit a child's intake of unhealthful foods, and that restricting advertising can only go so far.

"All of our products are wholesome and suitable for consumers of all ages," said Diana Garza, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola. "It's a question of balance."

Garza said that Coke did not want to overstep its bounds and interfere in parents' role in making decisions about their children's health.

Los Angeles mother Susan Sanford, whose 11- and 14-year-old kids have sometimes nagged her for products such as Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Yogos or Dibs, agrees. Sanford said that it's her role to decide which products they can and can't have.

She worries that pulling ad dollars from children's programming could affect the quality of the shows and wonders whether the pledge is useless anyway, since her kids see junk food ads nearly everywhere else.

"Media is everywhere," she said.

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Big Food Cuts $1B in Kid Ads; Pols' Hunger Still Not Sated
Critics Call for Media Companies to Follow Marketers' Lead and Reject Junk-Food Spots
Advertising Age
July 23, 2007

If big food thought its landmark concession to voluntarily shift, yank or otherwise banish some $1 billion in kid-targeted junk-food marketing was enough to quell critics, it was wrong. Now those critics are going after the media companies that used to enjoy the marketers' big bucks.

Even as 11 major food marketers announced plans to abandon or trim those efforts toward younger children, critics are clamoring for more -- more restrictions and more marketers. Regulators and watchdogs are now pressing for similar action from media companies, including Viacom, Time Warner and the broadcast TV networks, along with ConAgra and Chuck E. Cheese. Not to mention calling for the head of Burger King's king. "These are laudable initiatives, but make no mistake: More companies need to be involved, pledging to make more meaningful changes in products, marketing and media messages," said Federal Trade Commissioner Jon Leibowitz.

Among the pledges made last week: Coca-Cola and Hershey won't aim advertising at kids younger than 12. Mars/Masterfoods won't advertise any of its candies to kids but might at some point advertise its better-for-you snacks. PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Kellogg, General Mills, McDonald's, Unilever and Campbell Soup will limit all their marketing of food to children younger than 12 to more healthy foods. Finally, Cadbury Adams will either target all its Bubblicious ads to kids older than 12 or picture healthy lifestyles in the ads.

But that might not be enough. Speaking at the FTC/Health and Human Services forum on obesity, where the pledge was unveiled, Lydia P. Parnes, director of the FTC's bureau of consumer protection, said significant industry players have stepped up to plate, "but I join other panelists in asking [the others], 'Why aren't you here?'"

Policies in review
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., called the action an "important step forward," but he added he "would like the media industries to come forward with their own set of voluntary commitments. We haven't heard anything from Nickelodeon or the Cartoon Network, and they have a responsibility to join."

There were some hints the pressure was having an effect.

Burger King said in a statement to Advertising Age that it was reviewing its children's-advertising policies.

"Burger King Corp. complies with all [Children's Advertising Review Unit] guidelines with respect to kids' advertising. ... At this time, we are in the process of a review and will be forthcoming about any changes to our current procedures," the company said.

Chuck E. Cheese said its advertising doesn't promote specific products.

"Our advertising to kids does not focus on or actively promote our food products," a spokeswoman said. "We have sharpened the emphasis in our kids' ads to demonstrate the fun and activities at Chuck E. Cheese's." She added that the company is reviewing guidelines.

Public commitments
The commitments from the participating marketers were announced as part of an initiative by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The pledges are public and posted on the bureau's website, and the bureau will monitor company compliance.

The commitment comes as the FTC readies subpoenas for 44 food and fast-food companies for a congressionally mandated study on how those products are advertised to kids.

The initiative means ads for several well-known products will vanish from kids programming unless the products can be reformulated (see box above). General Mills, for example, will have to stop advertising Trix by 2009 in the unlikely event the amount of sugar in it can't be dropped.

It remains to be seen if the shifts will have any real effect. As it is, ads for the products are unlikely to disappear completely. Some will simply swap out "junk food" advertising for food with a few less grams of sugar. And there are differences among the companies as to what qualifies as children's media.

But C. Lee Peeler, president-CEO of CBBB's National Advertising Review Council, said the bureau intends to make sure the companies keep to the spirit and requirements of the initiative.

Spur innovation
And what will this mean for ad spending in the category? According to TNS Media Intelligence, the 11 marketers in the initiative spent $288 million last year on Viacom's Nickelodeon and Time Warner's Cartoon Network and another $27 million on Saturday-morning network TV.

While common sense would dictate a massive decline in ad spending, some have suggested the pledges could actually boost it. They argue that the ban could spur innovation that eventually leads to new campaigns to introduce and support more-healthful kids' foods.

A spokesman for Nickelodeon claimed the "financial impact [of the pledges] is a nonissue for Nickelodeon because most of the products [advertised on the network] already fit healthy criteria or will otherwise be reformulated."

Lance Friedmann, Kraft's senior VP-global health and wellness, said the company, which initially trimmed spending, could raise kids' spending as it develops new products.

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Nick Hopes to Ride Out Kids Marketing Scrutiny With Diverse Clients
Beyond Food and Toys, Non-kids Marketers Discover New Way to Pitch Parents
Ad Age
June 25, 2007

The kids' upfront kicked off with a "splat" last week when Starcom inked the first deal of the season with Nickelodeon across its multiplatform brands.

Comprising the Viacom Kids and Family Group (which includes Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Nick.com and Nick Magazine), the deal was based on quarter-hour program ratings and includes a series of joint research projects set for late 2007 and early 2008 that Starcom will use to illuminate children's changing media consumption.

Kellogg part of deal
The deal encompasses five key Starcom kids' clients, including Kellogg, the latest marketer to alter its ad spend in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission's crackdown on obesity. Last week, the food company announced it would put some $200 million of its ad dollars in limbo after cereals such as Rice Krispies and Froot Loops were brought under fire for their high sugar and sodium content, yet its relationship with Nickelodeon remains healthy. Of the $157 million Kellogg spent in cable TV last year, as much as half of that likely went to Nickelodeon, which made $94.4 million in cereal dollars last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

The deal with Starcom is estimated to be worth up to $150 million, based on cable ad spending from the participating marketers in 2006 -- a nice chunk for a network that took in nearly $967 million that same year. Other clients are Nintendo, Lego, Chuck E. Cheese and Buena Vista.

Though marketers such as Kraft and General Mills have pulled back their spending based on the same FCC concerns, Nick's sales chief, Jim Perry, said he has never taken a Chicken Little stance on the future of ad dollars aimed at the under-18 set.

The sky is just fine
"One could read [what's going on] as 'the sky is falling' within the world of the kids' marketplace," Mr. Perry said. "We take the issue very seriously, but some remarks that the business is collapsing is humorous to us because we've been working with partners around the obesity, health and wellness issue for the last two and a half to three years."

But one reason Mr. Perry isn't panicking is because he has worked to bring marketers to the network from a wide swath of categories since 2000. Such deals are keeping Nick at the top of the ad-supported kids cable heap, with revenues on a rapid increase from $711 million in 2004 to nearly $967 million in 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The Viacom cabler's closest competitor, Cartoon Network, finished last year with $398 million by comparison, itself on an upswing since taking in $185.8 million in 2002.

"It's not just the food companies working through [the obesity] issue," Mr. Perry said. "It's the media companies, the toy companies. If you see what's going on with Nerf, Super Soaker, Speed Stacking, Skip-It, there's a lot of new products out there that are also working to help solve this issue."

Chrysler's Jimmy Neutron effort
Automotive has also discovered that pitching kids is a good way to pitch parents. Beginning this week, Chrysler will become the latest advertiser to sign on for a fully-integrated, "multi-splatform" partnership, as Nick likes to call it. The deal extends across the entire suite of family-friendly brands such as Nick, Nick Jr., Nick at Nite, GoCityKids, ParentsConnect and its latest branded venture, Nick Hotel. The campaign is in support of Chrysler's Town and Country minivan, which comes equipped with features like a Sirius backseat TV and seats that swivel 180 degrees. Popular Nick animated character Jimmy Neutron will star throughout the campaign's ads, expected to start hitting in fourth-quarter.

It's the 10th such deal Mr. Perry has done with an automotive company. Chrysler's marketing chief, Dave Rooney, is just happy to have a spokesperson more likely to reach kids and their families than Celine Dion ever did.

"There's a lot of very cool inventions and gadgets that are a part of the minivan that are the exact same kind of things Jimmy [Neutron] and his characters are doing," Mr. Rooney said. "It's a very intelligent message for families and kids who appreciate more science-oriented messaging that supports engineering and innovation."

Travel and restaurants have both been increasingly large categories for the network over the last six years, with destination-based travel marketers such as Bahamas and the Cayman Islands being added to the usual hotel roundup, and food advertisers extending beyond McDonald's and Burger King into Denny's, Wendy's, Sonic and, most recently, Cici's Pizza. Beyond video games, consumer electronics is playing a larger role as well thanks to marketers such as Microsoft, Dell, Epson and Hewlett Packard.

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Among Kids, it's About Niche Networks
Toon Disney, Nick Toons and Noggin are growing
Media Life magazine
July 13, 2007

When it comes to kids television, Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network are still way out ahead, continuing their decades-long domination. But it's the tiny niche cable networks that are seeing the big increases in kids 2-11 viewership.

During second quarter, total-day viewing levels for Toon Disney, Nick Toons and Noggin, which all have less than two-thirds the distribution as the Big Three, all rose 10 percent or more.

Toon Disney jumped 11 percent, from an average 122,000 kids 2-11 in 2006 to 136,000. Noggin was up 47 percent, from 75,000 to 110,000, while Nick Toons rose 11 percent, from 54,000 to 60,000. All ranked in the top 10 in the demographic.

Meanwhile, Disney had a decent quarter but Nick and Cartoon both fell, by 6 and 10 percent, respectively, to 1.18 million and 611,000.

These numbers illustrate the increasing fragmentation in children's television as the kids' upfront is expected to draw out for months. With an overabundance of inventory, buyers feel little urgency to make deals.

Indeed, supply far outweighs demand, and that supply is only going to rise as smaller kids' networks continue to increase their distribution.

Noggin, for example, added 10 million homes to its distribution in 2006, rising from 44.9 million households in January to 54 million in December, according to Nielsen estimates.

The commercial-free network, which is aimed at preschoolers and like Nick is owned by Viacom, airs reruns of Nickelodeon shows such as "Blue's Clues" and "Wonder Pets" in addition to some original content from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. At night it morphs into the teenage-focused The N.

Noggin was primarily distributed on digital cable platforms when it was launched nearly a decade ago, and with more people switching to digital packages, that has increased the channel's availability.

The same goes for Toon Disney, which jumped by more than 5 million households last year to more than 54 million, and Nick Toons, up more than 4 million to 40 million households.

By contrast, Nick, Disney and Cartoon are all available in more than 88 million homes.

Meanwhile, in other younger viewer ratings for the week ending July 1:

Among teens 12-17: Fox was first with a 1.2 rating and 5 share, followed by the CW at 0.9/4, Univision at 0.8/4, ABC, CBS and NBC at 0.7/3, Telefutura at 0.5/2, Telemundo at 0.2/1, and Azteca at 0.0/0.

Among kids 2-11: Univision led with a 0.9/5, followed by Fox at 0.8/4, ABC at 0.7/3, NBC, CBS and the CW at 0.5/2, Telefutura at 0.4/2, Telemundo at 0.2/1, and Azteca at 0.0/0.

The top five shows among kids 2-5: 1. "Dora the Explorer" (Nickelodeon, Thursday 11:30 a.m.); 2. "Blue's Clues" (Nickelodeon, Monday 10 a.m.); 3. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Nickelodeon, Saturday 10:30 a.m.); 4. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Nickelodeon, Friday 11 a.m.); 5. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Nickelodeon, Saturday 11 a.m.)

The top five shows among kids 6-11: 1. "Hannah Montana" (Disney, Tuesday 7 p.m.); 2. "Hannah Montana" (Disney, Wednesday 7 p.m.); 3. "Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (Disney, Tuesday 6:30 p.m.); 4. "Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (Disney, Friday 7:30 p.m.); 5. "Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (Disney, Wednesday 7:30 p.m.)

The top five shows among kids 9-14: 1. "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" (Disney, Friday 8 p.m.); 2. "Hannah Montana" (Disney, Tuesday 7 p.m.); 3. "Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (Disney, Friday 7:30 p.m.); 4. "Hannah Montana" (Disney, Friday 7 p.m.); 5. "Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (Disney, Tuesday 7:30 p.m.)

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Young Surfers Spurn Banner Ads, Embrace 'Widgets'
Wall Street Journal July 2, 2007

A study of attitudes about online advertising shows that, not surprisingly, preteens and teenagers don't like banner ads and other interruptions from marketers. But the study found that in the right circumstances kids enjoy playing with ad-related features on their personal pages in social-networking Web sites.

The study is likely to prove useful for marketers trying to reach today's generation of children. It is likely to fuel a push by digital ad agencies to get marketers to experiment with new ways to advertise on social-networking sites such as Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace.

In particular, the study's findings may boost advertisers' use of "widgets," which are small, easily downloaded computer programs that allow Web pages to be more sophisticated and interactive, with, say, animated graphics, videos, photo sharing, music or live chats. Media companies are rapidly recognizing the value of offering widgets to young people to make their content available online. And advertisers are starting to sponsor widget-based content as a way of spreading their marketing message or luring people to their Web sites.

Based on responses to an online survey of more than 1,200 children ages 9 to 17 and about 1,000 parents across the country, the study found that children don't want ads posted on their social-network profiles without their permission, says Samantha Skey, executive vice president of strategic marketing at Alloy Media + Marketing. Alloy based its research on a study conducted by Bethesda, Md., market researcher Grunwald Associates LLC.

"Kids have come to view [social-network profile pages] as their yearbook page. It's their collage. It's very personal," says Ms. Skey.

Children will, however, choose to post logos or promotions from advertisers on their personal pages if marketers give them an incentive, whether it is coupons and giveaways or entertaining tools, such as games, video, and animated characters. The study found that 20% of teens added content from a marketer onto their personal Web sites in the last month.

Widgets don't give advertisers any control over the type of content they'll appear alongside. But because they give consumers control, they likely fit what kids are looking for, based on the Grunwald study's findings. "The concept [of widgets] is simple. We are not going to push something in front of your screen. We are not going to annoy you. You choose what you want to engage with," says Chris Cunningham, vice president of advertising sales at Freewebs, a Silver Spring, Md.-based company that makes widgets for advertisers.

To promote the film "The Golden Compass," scheduled to hit theaters in December, New Line Cinema is running a site that lets users create a virtual "daemon" -- an animal spirit discussed in the film -- to post to their blog or MySpace pages, to add to their instant-message profile or to share with friends. Thus far, 200,000 people have created daemons and four million people interacted with them online, according to New Line Cinema, a Time Warner company.

Widgets have "so much buzz now and every advertiser wants to do a widget," says Marc Fireman, head of digital media for Reebok, which sponsored a widget six months ago. Widgets can include a link back to the advertiser's Web site, which adds to their attractiveness for marketers.

Still, popularity of widgets doesn't always translate into sales. To promote the film "Hoot," about middle-school students who take on land developers trying to build in an area where owls live, New Line Cinema last year created a program that let people download an animated pet owl to their desktops from the movie's Web site. Web users downloaded more than a million of the critters, which walk around the desktop screen, but the film was a disappointment at the box office.

"The first thing you want to do is somehow engage a consumer. Does engagement equal conversion? Not necessarily," says Gordon Paddison, executive vice president of new media marketing at New Line. "But just as with any component of marketing, media promotion, publicity and online strategy you have to find the magic sauce."

For social-networking sites, widgets have a big downside. Because of the way widgets are used -- by consumers posting the applications wherever they want -- the social networking sites can miss out on any ad revenue even when the widgets are on the site's pages. Advertisers pay only the widget maker, usually technology firms.

Indeed, MySpace says it can block widgets from its site for "commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by MySpace.com." This includes carrying ads -- as well as for other reasons such as infringing copyrights.

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Childs Play
Who says online toy sales are a bust? Not eBeanstalk
Business Week
June/July 2007

Brian Gordon and Patrick Moore admit to being challenged in the gift-giving department. A few years ago, the two friends and colleagues got to talking about how bewildered they were by the truckloads of items at toysrus.com. "We asked ourselves: 'Wouldn't it be great if someone would tell us what to buy?'" says Gordon. Thus sprouted the seed for eBeanstalk.com, the Norwalk (Conn.) online seller of age-appropriate toys they started in September.

The odds weren't in their favor. A slew of online toy sellers went bust in the 1990s, including Toytime.com, Disney-backed Toysmart.com, and Nickelodeon-backed Red Rocket. And although the U.S. toy industry had sales of $22.3 billion in 2006, only $1.3 billion, or 6%, were online.

Gordon, now 38, and Moore, 39, knew they needed an edge. They enlisted six child development specialists to find and vet toys for educational value. Toys that pass muster then go before the real experts: a panel of 700 moms called the MotherBoard who receive four free toys a year to test-drive with their kids. The result: an inventory of about 500 toys picked from more than 10,000 entries. And 90% of them can't be found at mass-market retailers.

The pair also tried to take the confusion out of shopping. The site matches toys to a child's age in three-month increments from birth to age five and identifies the skills a toy fosters, such as imagination, dexterity, or socializing. "There is no question they are doing a decent job giving parents the information they need to choose a toy," says Marlene Zepeda, chair of child and family studies at California State University in Los Angeles. Prices range from $20 for nest-and-stack buckets to $59 for a tabletop deluxe easel.

Gordon says the nine-employee company is on track to generate $2 million in revenues in its first full year, and that site traffic tripled between January and May. Jennifer Forman, a teacher who lives in Delray Beach, Fla., and tests products with her 18-month-old daughter, Lilli, says: "If the company didn't exist, I'd be up all night searching online and in catalogs for all the things I can easily find at this one site."

OLD PALS
The co-founders, who met in high school, stumbled into the business. Gordon previously worked as a product manager at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati and later at Markitecture, a marketing consultant company in Norwalk. Moore wound up at the same firm after stints as a marketing consultant for ESPN, HBO, and Polo Ralph Lauren. They launched eBeanstalk with $1 million of their own money. "Neither of us had kids, and that was probably an advantage," says Gordon. (He and his wife now have a daughter.) "Six experts and 700 moms are going to figure out what is best better than we or any toy designer could."

To reach affluent customers, the pair got HR departments to put links to eBeanstalk on the employee intranet sites of companies such as American Express and Goldman Sachs. They court doting grandparents by contributing 15% of every sale to a senior citizen to Play for P.I.N.K., a breast cancer charity. In July, the company will open its first brick-and-mortar store, across the street from its headquarters. Gordon and Moore are now determining whether to take on strategic or financial investors for an expansion that includes more stores and an eBeanstalk toy line. Brooke Redmond, a Hanover (N.H.) member of the MotherBoard, will be buying. "He loves them!" she says of her 15-month-old son, Ben. "These are his go-to toys."

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Toys for Toddlers From PG-13 Movie
New York Times
July 2, 2007

Warning: "Transformers" is steering toward your toddlers.

At least that's the complaint from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, an advocacy group based in Boston. Last week, the group complained to the United States Federal Trade Commission that DreamWorks and Hasbro were going after preschoolers with their "widespread and irresponsible" marketing of the coming movie.

Susan Linn, a psychologist who co-founded the organization, is particularly irked that Hasbro toys tied to the movie are labeled as appropriate for children as young as 3 years old — even though the movie is rated PG-13.

"Movie studios have been using toys to market movies in unfair ways for a long time," said Ms. Linn. "But this is a movie that was designed from the beginning to sell toys and that makes this case particularly egregious."

"Transformers," to be released tomorrow, definitely isn't for children. The live-action movie features a menacing array of cars and planes that twist themselves into blood-thirsty alien robots. The movie, based on the line of toys Hasbro introduced with much success in 1984 and directed by Michael Bay, specifically aims to maintain the brutal Transformers mythology.

In fact, the movie is packed with so much violence that one of its stars, Shia LaBeouf, has said in interviews that Steven Spielberg, the executive producer, narrowly avoided an R rating. A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America, which bestows ratings on movies, declined to comment.

For its part, Hasbro greeted the complaint with a yawn. "All of our Transformers toys both movie-related and those that are part of our non-movie line are fun and very appropriate for kids based on the age code marked clearly on packaging," a spokesman said in a statement. Paramount Pictures, which owns DreamWorks, declined to comment.

Ms. Linn's group also got a shrug from the Toy Industry Association, which monitors toy safety and standards. "We encourage parents to read the age grading on the package, which shows the appropriate age for safe and fun play," said Adrienne Citrin, a spokeswoman for the association.

But the Federal Trade Commission, which monitors the marketing of R-rated movies to children, may be the only friend the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood needs. While an F.T.C. spokeswoman, Jackie Dizdul, wouldn't say whether the agency has any plans expand its monitoring to PG-13 movies, she said, "We are very interested in what the group has to say."

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Peer Reviews Significant To Shoppers in Consumer Brand Trust
Center for Media Research
July 31, 2007

A recent survey on current attitudes towards customer ratings and reviews by Bazaarvoice and Vizu Corporation, shows that about three out of four shoppers say that it is extremely or very important to read customer reviews before making a purchase, and they prefer peer reviews over expert reviews by a 6-to-1 margin.

The summary notes that Shop.org and MarketingSherpa report usage of ratings and reviews nearly doubling in the US over the last year, while the Bazaarvoice and Vizu survey revealed that 44 percent of US shoppers consider ratings and reviews to be the most useful eCommerce site feature. Product comparison (15 percent), product navigation (12 percent), and privacy information (11 percent) followed in the distance.

Bazaarvoice founder and CEO, Brett Hurt, says "Customer ratings and reviews have moved beyond a site feature to become an important part of brand identity... In the... future, shoppers will not only have more trust in brands that offer reviews, but will actively demand this level of participation in the social commerce experience... "

Ratings and reviews by UK consumers were important for over 50 percent of online shoppers in the UK. In contrast to US shoppers, privacy and security information took center stage when making a purchase by over one-third of UK shoppers rating this as the most important site feature. The report finds that there are a relatively low number of UK sites offering a ratings and reviews facility compared to those in the US.

Sam Decker, Chief Marketing Officer at Bazaarvoice "Research shows that UK consumers actively seek out reviews, and the dependence on customer-created content will increase as UK retailers adopt this strategy."

Polling for the report was conducted via the Vizu Answers online market research network from May 16, 2007 to June 6, 2007. Multiple votes were restricted, no artificial incentives were employed and a geographic audit was performed to ensure unbiased and valid results.

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