Kids Industries and WWF rally for final Webby Awards push as voting closes today

The final hours of voting for this year’s Webby Awards are now upon us, and so too are the chances to see the UK’s own Kids Industries storm the charts and take home the Family and Kids award for its collaboration on the popular WWF app.

The app, called Amazing Planet and developed to help educate children about the world they live in, is one of five shortlisted children and family-geared applications and features alongside the likes of The Cat in the Hat Invents kids’ app developed in partnership with Dr Seuss, the PBS Kids Video app, and Duolingo ABC.

Kids Industries has been involved in the development of the WWF app, Amazing Planet, one that utilises technology to help children learn about the environment and the world around them. From an AR map that is regularly updated with the weather, temperature, and animal species living across the globe, to information packs with activities and AR stickers that bring scaled down versions of the Earth’s creatures to the palm of your hand, the WWF app calls itself ‘no ordinary subscription product.’

WWF is one of the world’s largest independent conservation organisations, active in nearly 100 countries. Its supporters – more than five million globally – are helping the organisation to restore nature and to tackle the main causes of nature’s decline, particularly the food system and climate change.

“We want a world with thriving habitats and species, and we want to change hearts and minds so it becomes unacceptable to overuse our planet’s resources,” reads a description included within the finalist’s bio Webby Awards bio.

Voting for this year’s Webby Awards will close today, May 6th and winners will be revealed on May 18th this year.

Kids Industries is encouraging anyone considering voting to do so here: https://bit.ly/3v7OfL4

“The natural world is really important to preserve and we think this product is a great way to share this motive with younger generations,” said the team.

Hyve Group introduces Spring & Autumn Fair Online Marketplace

Hyve Group has detailed the launch of its Spring & Autumn Fair Online Marketplace, an online platform that will enable global partners across the wholesale home, gift, and fashion sectors the chance to trade throughout the year.

The Online Marketplace is a brand extension to the heritage brands Spring & Autumn Fair, two live events which are now complemented by a 365 digital trading platform. It will allow brands to access serious, vetted buyers all year round, deepen relationships started at the live events at the NEC, generate leads and take online orders.

Buyers can find new products from brands, discover new brands online, build their collections and shop with ease throughout the year.

Officially launching on May, 4th 2021, the Online Marketplace will initially be home to 50 curated brands across the gift, toy, homeware, beauty, and wellbeing categories but will also be open to more brands at a discounted rate.

Speaking on behalf of Hyve Group, Julie Driscoll, managing director UK retail and fashion, said: “With the Online Marketplace we are giving our retail community an additional trading platform. Spring and Autumn Fair are the first omnichannel retail trade events in the UK to do this. As we move forward, our focus is on re-fuelling retail for 2021 and beyond, supporting our community in recovering from the pandemic and building back stronger than ever.”

Event director for Spring and Autumn Fair, Jessica Dawnay, added: “We are so excited to be able to offer our audience even more value than before. As the UK’s leading retail trade shows, it is our duty to bolster the retail industry.

“Whilst we know that nothing will ever replace the experience of touching and seeing products at an in-person event, we are excited to be able to bring our community together all year round via digital and omnichannel solutions such as the Online Marketplace.”

Project and digital marketing director, Karin Hausmann, said: “2021 is our new product development year and we are investing to support our customers as they build their future products. We are very excited to be launching the Spring & Autumn Fair Online Marketplace.

“Our top priorities are quality and curation, and we are committed to continuous evolution and building a platform that answers our brands’ and buyers’ needs. Our heritage makes us a trusted partner.”

Hyve Group is partnering with Events United to offer this digital ecommerce platform. Owned by Picaflor, Events United specialises in creating digital extensions to physical events with extensive experience within the retail sphere.

On top of its digital development, Hyve Group will also be launching a Curated Meetings programme for 2021. Designed to connect the community at its in-person shows, the Curated Meetings programme will connect pre-qualified buyers, who are actively sourcing, to relevant, high-quality suppliers through pre-scheduled one-to-one meetings.

The team will be trialing the concept at Autumn Fair 2021 with a full roll out of the programme expected for Spring Fair 2022.

Edutainment Licensing secures NSPCC Buddy partnership with Kennedy Publishing

Edutainment Licensing has secured a new partnership with Kennedy Publishing for its NSPCC ‘speech bubble’ mascot, Buddy. The campaign will start on May 26th in the publisher’s Busy Time, and will continue in Get Busy on June 24th.

Kennedy Publishing is a leading publisher in the children’s magazine sector, with a portfolio of over 50 children’s magazine titles, licenses for over 30 properties, and a global readership of over 15 million. 

The NSPCC’s Buddy is a bright green ‘speech bubble’ mascot used to communicate the NSPCC’s ‘Speak Out. Stay Safe’ (SOSS) campaign, which has so far reached 90 per cent of primary schools nationwide. 

The age appropriate assemblies and workshops are delivered to children across the UK to encourage them to speak out if something is worrying them.

In February this year, the NSPCC held an online assembly with the help of TV stars Ant and Dec, as volunteers were unable to deliver assemblies in person due to school closures. It has since been watched more than 600,000 times.

The Buddy page will feature the key message from the campaign alongside an activity for the child to enjoy and engage with.

“We are excited to be working with the dynamic team at Kennedy for Buddy,” said Denise Deane of Edutainment Licensing. “We know that they passionate about creating high-quality, engaging content that helps support their young readers’ development and are grateful for their support.”

Sophie Rowlands, licensing director, Kennedy Publishing, added: “We are proud to support the NSPCC in our pre-school magazines which offer unique, play-based learning opportunities. Buddy will join a wealth of popular character activities that encourage children’s imagination and creativity.”

Spin Master launches toy and game recycling scheme with TerraCycle in the US and Australia

The global toy company, Spin Master has partnered with the international recycling organisation, TerraCycle to launch its own toys and games recycling scheme across the US and Australia.

Through the Spin Master Recycling Programme, consumers will now be able to send in Spin Master toys and games to TerraCycle to be recycled for free. Consumers will simply have to sign up to the TerraCycle programme page and post their used toys using the prepaid shipping label provided.

Once collected, the Spin Master toys will be cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products, such as park benches and picnic tables.

“As a global company that creates innovative toys and games that inspire magical play experiences, we recognize the need to help preserve our environment for the benefit of the children we entertain today and for generations to come,” said Tammy Smitham, Spin Master’s VP of communications and corporate citizenship. “Our program with TerraCycle gives our well-loved toys a reimagined future while also reducing our impact on the environment.”

TerraCycle CEO and founder, Tom Szaky, added: “The Spin Master Recycling Program is a perfect chance to engage the next generation through sustainability in a fun and approachable way.

“This program makes it easy to show your children that recycling and the environment don’t have to be relegated to the classroom – kids can grow into responsible environmental citizens with every toy they outgrow and recycle with their parent’s help.”

In addition to diverting waste from landfills, Spin Master has made other environmental commitments including streamlining manufacturing processes to prioritize recovery and recycling, alongside goals to reduce plastic packaging and offset self-generated carbon emissions annually.

More information on Spin Master’s CSR Strategy and initiatives aimed at protecting the environment are available at https://www.spinmaster.com/en-US/corporate/corporate-social-responsibility.

The Spin Master Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization in the United States. For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling programs, visit www.terracycle.com. All Spin Master toys and games are eligible with the exception of the Kinetic Sand brand.

Family fortunes | The Insights Family talks its ‘game changing’ Portal 4.0 and the ever growing business of family market intelligence

This week witnessed some pretty major new developments for the kids’, parents, and family market intelligence outfit, The Insights People, which not only revealed its re-branding to The Insights Family, but also welcomed its new chairman – in the form of Simon White – and unveiled its ‘game-changing’ new client tool and platform, the Portal 4.0.

In line with the sweeping changes across the children’s and parents’ media and entertainment landscape, The Insights Family’s new platform now holds proprietary data collected from surveying over half a million children and parents across 17 countries every year, providing over 600 million data points for its customers to view, filter, and analyse. By anyone’s standards, that’s a lot of data.

Here, Licensing.biz catches up with Nick Richardson, founder and CEO of The Insights Family to explore the trails being blazed and the paths being carved by a Manchester start-up that over the course of the last four years, has made its international presence well and truly felt.

To kick us off, Nick, can you give us a bit of background on yourself and how The Insights Family came to be?

I grew up in Manchester and graduated Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree in Marketing Management. As part of that degree, I had a placement with Mattel Toys – where I worked on the Hot Wheels, Matchbox and Tyco brands.

After graduating, I worked in senior marketing and commercial roles for brands and agencies such as ExxonMobil, Momentum Worldwide (part of IPG group), Just Marketing (now CSM Sport & Entertainment), Hilton Hotels, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, and PennWell (now Clarion Events).

As a marketer, I have always been naturally curious and creative – and have worked closely with data. I have had several roles where I was responsible for auditing existing research, developing research, and using this information to redevelop commercial strategies.

After 10 years of living in and around London, I decided to move back to Manchester. When I returned to the city, I enrolled on an Executive MBA course. During this course I started to see an opportunity to develop a disruptive and highly innovative research business which could be scalable, so I started to look at which industries were lacking data and insights.

During a catch-up meeting with SuperAwesome’s Matt Lester, who I had worked with while leading Hilton Hotels F1 sponsorship, it became very apparent that kids’ lives were unrecognisable from when I worked at Mattel in 2002/2003.

However, the ways in which companies were approaching their marketing had not really changed. Companies who operated in this space needed help and support to understand what was going on, what it meant, and ultimately some clarity and confidence to make decisions to evolve their previously tried and tested approach.

That was the challenge, so we made it our mission to do that, a mission which still burns hard in everyone who works for us.

You guys haven’t seemed to stop this past year, with international growth at a phenomenal rate. What has the thinking been behind the growth you guys have seen? What’s driven the growth? Does having operations around the world mean you’re set up with holidays for life?

Since our launch in 2017 and as the business developed, it soon became apparent that a lack of data on the kids and parents’ ecosystem was not isolated just to the UK – but there was a need on a global basis that nobody was fulfilling. Therefore, we set our vision to be the global leaders, and made it our business to achieve that.

While we are now operating in 17 countries, our international team of researchers and developers are driving these developments from our Manchester HQ. The growth has been quicker than I could have ever imagined, which is down to so many factors from our initial investor, some lucky breaks, but most importantly it is down to the culture we have created, and the incredible efforts and collaboration from all our team.

Once we and other countries come out of Covid-19 restrictions, I cannot wait to see our team and get to travel more, no doubt with a few extra days rolled on for the odd holiday.

Speaking of developments, there latest major development from you guys is the Portal 4.0, a new platform for clients, destined to ‘change the way it all works for them’. This sounds exciting. Can you tell us about this one?

Firstly, everything which made Portal 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 so special remain. The ease of use, real-time data, and the ability to view, filter, interrogate, and analyse the data intuitively remain.

However, with all the feedback we have captured, we have not only made hundreds of small but significant improvements and enhancements, but we have also now integrated all the cutting-edge innovations which we have been working on in the background.

First and foremost, the portal holds all our propriety data, collected from surveying over half a million kids and parents across 17 countries every year. It provides over 600 million data points to view, filter, interrogate, and analyse.

In addition to that, it houses all the tools we have been developing, such as our Media Mix Compass – which is a media planning tool that enables clients to compare 11 different categories of media, based on their reach, preference, and time spent.

The platform also includes clustering tool Persona Perspectives™. Powered by cutting edge Machine Learning and utilising the latest theory from the world of psychology, clustering will unlock previously unseen insights into an audience and fanbase. This tool was developed with a team of academics at Manchester Metropolitan University.

We have also added contextual data for every country which we operate in, providing socioeconomic and demographic data and insights for additional context. There are new API feeds from the likes of Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube.

A new section of the portal has also been created to house all our clients’ bespoke research projects – enabling them to utilize all the functionality of the portal as well as our persona technology.

So, in summary we have not only moved the goalposts, but we have completely rebuilt them. But don’t just take my word, I would encourage people to go and have a look and let us know your feedback.

How will this new platform position you guys in the UK and on the international stage? How will it work to help position clients on the international stage?

Despite 2020 being a challenging year, we managed to grow substantially and lay the foundations for this year – which we believe will see us essentially double in size every six to eight months.

Our new identity and portal will also provide the foundations for this. As I mentioned, there are so many significant new developments in the new portal – with our team of researchers, data scientists, and developers working with academics, and collaborating with our clients from around the world to bring in a suite of solutions.

This will see us transition from not “just” being a research company, but to a business-critical partner to clients who can use the tools such as our Media Mix Compass™ to actively shape their strategies.

One of the core approaches to our research which makes us standout from anyone else, is that we are independent, and the kids, parents, and families surveyed are age, gender, and nationally represented and not recruited through our own platforms. This means the data is not biased, has no agenda, and can be analysed on a global, regional, national, or local basis – something which I believe will be critical as we transition from globalisation to localisation.

Why is it important that clients are armed in this way with the ability to spot and react to opportunities in the ever evolving kids’ and family market?

It is my belief that research, and data is now a critical part of all our jobs. If you work in advertising, content, licensing, marketing, product development, or sales it is an essential tool to provide understanding, test our convictions and ultimately measure our results.

However, there are still large amounts of market research and data which are not accessible, and worse than that – quite intimidating. And whilst we can call default to doing a bit of desk research or talking to our own kids, if we are honest with our selves – that doesn’t really stack up. That is why we have set it to be our mission to become the world’s top brands business-critical partner. Portal 4.0 is so accessible that even my mum can use it!

Our unique approach to surveying kids, parents, and families on a continual basis enables us to identify trends as they are forming. Likewise, if we take the effects of Covid – it provides our clients with an unrivalled view of what their attitudes, behaviour, and consumption were before Covid-19, how they have evolved during the pandemic and lockdowns and ultimately what they will become after.

As far as I am aware, we are the only company in the world to have this information. We know from our industry report that only six per cent of organisations that operate in the kids, parents, and family space believe that they have a sufficient understanding of them.

Our Trend Alert™ Reports and real-time data also saw us spot the rising popularity of trends such as Fortnite and TikTok months before they exploded in popularity in the kid’s ecosystem.

However, one of the most important trends we have tracked is this generation of kids have more influence than ever before. For example, our data in the UK shows a 15 per cent increase in influence that tweens have from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021 in terms of grocery items purchases, as kids are increasingly concerned with our effect on the environment and becoming healthier.

It is therefore more important than ever to reach and engage these young stakeholders and every brand must now become a family brand.

What do you think are some of the biggest challenges to have swept the children’s and family space in recent years? What sort of picture of the future does this all paint, and how are you helping businesses ready themselves for that future landscape?

There are so many challenges. I look back to my days at Mattel – and cannot believe how much the landscape has transformed. If we are all honest, it has probably taken the best part of a decade for the industry to recognise this, and the scale of the change.

I would like to think that we have helped the industry and individuals to not only recognise the changes, but also understand the implications and be best positioned to transform their approach across their business.

As for the biggest challenge – my view would be the impact of digital, this impacts all aspects of an organisation and business. It has transformed everything, from advertising and media to the need to be a content curator and syndicator. Plus, the arrival of new digital centric IP.

It has been challenging, but it is also extremely exciting as there are significant opportunities that come from this – and that is why we do what we do, to mitigate the risks and accelerate the opportunities.

For you, what is the most exciting part of working in the children’s and family space? To what extent is this a market that leads change across the consumer landscape, and how does it shape future trends?

As Nelson Mandela once said “children are our greatest treasure. They are our future”. Being a proud father of my daughter, I am so proud that we as a business provide children, parents, and families with a voice to shape their worlds. And of course, with the speed of technology evolution it is incredible to witness the impact of this on their and their parents’ attitudes, behaviour, and consumption – and how brands need to evolve their thinking to remain relevant.

To get freemium access to our award-winning real-time portal, please visit:

https://try.theinsightsfamily.com/toynews

The Insights People rebrands as The Insights Family and launches Portal 4.0

The kids’, parents, and family market intelligence outfit, The Insights People has officially rebranded as The Insights Family, with a renewed purpose of ‘being the voice of children. parents, and families,’ as well as a ‘business-critical partner for the world’s top brands.’

 The company, which provides real-time data on their attitudes, behaviour, and consumption patterns, surveys more than 362,100 kids and more than 176,800 parents across 17 countries each year.

Amid the latest development for the company, The Insights Family has also launched its latest version of the award-winning insights platform, Portal 4.0. The newest iteration includes 11 new features, enabling brands to view, filter, interrogate, and analyse all of its data.

The new tool also includes Persona Perspectives, which has been developed by the in-house team of data scientists and developers in collaboration with academics, utilising Machine Learning. It’s hoped that the tool will unlock previously unseen insights into a brand’s audience and fanbase.

Portal 4.0 also launches with Trend Tracker, Country Context Tool, new data dashboards, and the ability to track API data from third party sources such as YouTube and TikTok.

As well as this, the platform includes the On-Track reports written by the team of researchers at The Insights Family, plus the recently launched media planning Media Mix Compass that aims to give a 360-degree view of kids’ media consumption.

Nick Richardson, Founder & CEO, said: “It is my belief that research, and data is now a critical part of all of our jobs. If you work in advertising, content, licensing, marketing, product development, or sales it is an essential tool to provide understanding, test our convictions, and ultimately measure our results.

“However, there are still large amounts of market research and data which are not accessible, and worse than that – quite intimidating. And whilst we can call default to doing a bit of desk research or talking to our own kids, if we are honest with ourselves – that doesn’t really stack up. That is why we have set it to be our mission to become the world’s top brands business-critical partner.”

Simon White, the new chairman at The Insights Family, added: “As the world moves on from the challenges of living through a pandemic, the right insights will enable businesses to act faster, with greater certainty and a reduced cost. There has never been a better time to be in this sector, with The Insights Family.

“Further, leading the way in which insight is filtered, presented, and disseminated through organisations will prove to be a unique and long-term competitive advantage. What the team has created at The Insights Family is peerless, and where it can be taken over the medium and long-term is an exciting plan to be a part of.”

Kids Industries joins forces with teams in France, Germany, and Spain to create The League

The family-focused marketing agency, Kids Industries, has joined forces with like-minded agencies in France, Germany, and Spain to create The League, a European industry network with the goal of offering international research and surveys, as well as brand strategy and design to companies across the globe.

The League currently consists of Kids Industries (UK), Com des Enfants (France), KB&B (Germany) and The Modern Kids & Family (Spain) with plans to bring on additional agencies through 2021. 

“The League means we can exchange insights and opinions across borders to the benefit of all five agencies, and share that insight with clients in FMCG, gaming, entertainment, not for profit and travel,” said KI CEO and co-founder Gary Pope. 

“But more importantly, it means we can harness our collective agency power to activate European-wide brand campaigns for clients and call on recommend trusted local partners with whom we share a core vision and values when our clients want to expand into new markets. This move is part of our ambitious growth plan for KI in 2021 and beyond.”

This week also sees The League release the results of its first collaborative insight piece: a survey of 771 parents across the UK and FIGS for a deep dive into Family Life in Europe, shining a light on the differences and commonalities in family life across the continent.

“The report shows there are marked differences in children’s and parents’ preferences from one to country to the next, which supports our ethos that our thinking about marketing to children and families should be equally differentiated, continued Pope.

“That’s what we stand for with The League, and that’s why we have all come together to create this valuable agency network.”

European Family Life insight 

The research has uncovered a number of home truths about family time across the European markets, including how shared time is spent in different territories. German and French families, it was found, spend the majority of their shared time together at dinner (86 per cent and 63 per cent, respectively), while Brits spend the biggest chunk of their shared family time watching movies on TV (81 per cent).

In Spain (79 per cent) and Italy (65 per cent), family outings come top. 

 Shopping behaviour

There are two distinct camps when it comes to the origin of children’s shopping preference. Respondents in Spain (34 per cent), France (32 per cent) and the UK (28 per cent) think children are most strongly influenced by their parents, while in Germany (33 per cent) and Italy (26 per cent), respondents say children are most influenced by their friends. 

 Parental priorities

According to The League’s inaugural report, more than half of Germans (57 per cent) regard sustainability as important when it comes to products for children, pipping educational value (46 per cent). In all other countries Spain (62 per cent), Italy (49 per cent), France (43 per cent), and the UK (43 per cent) , the product’s educational value is the top priority.

 Shopping behaviour by market: what parents know, and children love 

For about half of purchases (57 per cent in Spain, 58 per cent in France, 55 per cent in Italy and Germany), parents’ personal experience and preferences drive the decision making. That doesn’t mean children’s preferences are being overlooked as the second most common response was “I buy things I know my child loves.” 

In the UK, however, (52 per cent) of product purchases are based on the child’s preference. 

 Child’s say

Children have the most say about toys, clothes and stationery. These are often linked to characters and stories they have seen in books, on TV and in films.  

Children’s participation in making purchase-decisions is strongest when it comes to toys – especially in Germany, where they are involved in 82 per cent of such decisions (the highest international percentage).  

Buying clothes comes in second place (70 per cent), followed by stationery (56 per cent). Across all markets, more than one in three children are attracted by character licensing. In the UK it’s 45 per cent, 43 per cent in Italy, 42 per cent in Spain, 35 per cent in Germany and 33 per cent in France.  

 For more information about The League, visit www.the-league.eu

Book of Beasties embarks on mission to provide 500 London schools with children’s mental health support

The Book of Beasties, a London-based start-up and team behind the mental wellness card game of the same name, has committed to providing up to 500 schools with free mental health support to better help children through the current coronavirus crisis.

The move follows research conducted by the children’s mental wellness game developer that found that 86 per cent of teachers and parents felt the Government wasn’t doing enough to support them in addressing mental health with their children.

The survey uncovered that 78 per cent agreed that children’s mental health had been neglected in the Government’s resopnse to the pandemic and the lockdown restrictions it had implemented through school closures.

In response to these findings, Book of Beasties is aiming to reach over 141,000 children by donating games and training worth over £30,000 to some of the city’s most underfunded areas. 

This new incentive, which has been dubbed the 500 Smiles Crusade is part of the Playful Minds campaign, which is calling on the Government to increase funding for playful mental health provision for schools and parents, and launched to coincide with children’s return to school last week. 

The social distancing measures and tier 4 restrictions have put children under immense amounts of pressure, which is taking its toll on their mental wellbeing. A Young Minds study found that 83 per cent of young people had said the pandemic made their mental health worse. 

Playful Minds has raised concerns that the length of time that the restrictions have been in place will likely result in ‘a mental health crisis that could last for years to come.’

Book of Beasties has said it is focused on improving the wellbeing of children through the use of playful and creative learning to raise emotional literacy, teach empathy and encourage open conversation about mental health. 

The survey also found that more than 95 per cent of respondents agreed that children’s mental health would greatly benefit from the increased use of playful learning methods. 

Following the successful launch of a new platform to provide teachers and parents with easier access to digital mindfulness and mental wellness learning materials, Book of Beasties partnered with Great Ormond Street Children’s Charity to help support the hospital’s play team. 

Phil Tottman, CEO and co-founder of Book of Beasties, said: “While our crusade is a drop in the ocean, we hope it will highlight the dire need for better mental health support in schools and put pressure on those who can make a difference to do so. 

“We are a small company, but our primary focus is to improve the wellbeing of children nationwide, especially following such an adverse year. If that means giving away our resources for free so people can benefit from them then so be it. We couldn’t be more honoured to be helping in such a way.” 

New high score | Roblox is outpacing broadcast TV for audience reach – Kids Insights latest

Video gaming is setting a new high score for audience reach in the battle for eyeballs among streaming platforms, YouTube, and traditional broadcast TV, suggests the latest data from Kids Insights Media Mix Compass, and now is the time for toy brands to start paying closer attention.

Here, Nick Richardson, Founder and CEO, The Insights People, and Licensing.biz’s Robert Hutchins explore the latest trends and data to be shaping the shifting media landscape.

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The videogame Roblox has outscored all broadcast TV channels in both the UK and US as the most powerful platform through which to reach young audiences, according to the latest insight from The Kids Insights Media Mix Compass

And the implications if this can’t be underestimated. In fact, compounding the popularity of the video games market, which has continued to grow significantly over the last few years, the potential for it to change the way in which businesses execute the marketing strategies for brands and retailers, is enormous.

Advertising budgets should no longer be solely – or even predominantly – focused on television. The world has changed, and video games are all too often the undervalued platforms to core audiences by marketers.

According to our latest data – sourced through a recently launched Media Mix Compass – teens now spend an average of 1 hour 25 minutes per day playing video games. That’s more time than they spend watching TV.

Generally, kids spend 62 per cent of their available time on digital activities. In the US, for example, for kids aged six to nine, Roblox has a Media Mix Score (MMS) of 128 which is higher than Nickelodeon (91), Disney Channel (80) and Cartoon Network (76). The Kids Insights Media Mix Score considers the reach, time spent and preference of 11 different media types and approximately 1,500 different channels in each region.

This past year has found parents discovering new ways to get their kids to play. With that, one of America’s top toy properties LOL Surprise is joining forces with top digital gaming platform ROBLOX – creating a relationship with the 1st Doll World of Roblox on a Global level. Through these two leaders in toy/play coming together, billions of fans can now discover a more immersive and shared gaming experience.

Toy brands are beginning to become savvy to the step change in the importance of such gaming and entertainment platforms. Just this week, international toy manufacturer, MGA Entertainment detailed plans to launch its LOL Surprise brand onto the Roblox platform.

The launch will kick-off with a ‘testing phase’ through which fans can play with and against their favourite gaming influencers as they explore the LOL/Roblox world.

Elsewhere, last week Hasbro detailed the five year extension of its current partnership with Epic Games’ Fortnite to expand on its licensing programme that includes the addition of its GI Joe character Snake Eyes into the Fortnite video game.

Meanwhile, it is equally important to note the growing importance of other new media options, including esports, which now ranks as the third most powerful media type for boys aged 10 to 12 in the UK, behind only YouTube and video games.

Esports is therefore one of the biggest opportunities for advertisers in 2021. Already one-in-ten teens in the US, UK, Germany, Brazil, Mexico and Canada use Twitch, the premiere platform in the industry for live video content. While physical sporting events were halted amidst the pandemic, the League of Legends European Championship – streamed live on Twitch – boasted the league’s highest ever viewing figures, raking in an average of 819,400 viewers for the final in April 2020.

Meanwhile, even more traditional areas, such as online chess, has witnessed huge viewer numbers over Twitch, hitting as many as 140,000 viewers at a time and helping to fuel a global resurgence in the traditional game, confirmed by the International Chess Federation, that has seen manufacturers hit new record highs for sales of chess boards.

However, marketing to kids is not a one-size-fits-all activity. In the UK, teenage girls are still tuning into Broadcast TV with ITV recording a score of 124 and Channel 4 hitting 99, making Broadcast TV the second most powerful media type with this demographic.

But streaming services and video games took a huge piece from the tasty audience pie. Each year with a growing variety of different online entertainment, the trend for kids to opt for digital platforms over the traditional ones will likely continue.

We also should keep in mind the growing influence and decision-making power of kids within the home being greater than with any other previous generation. Children have their own opinion over many other new categories, such as the purchase of a new car (which 54 per cent more kids say they influence in 2020 compared to 2019).

Although reaching this audience is more important than ever, it is increasingly difficult to do so. Growing up as digital natives, this generation have a far greater choice of what they consume and when they consume it than ever before. Therefore, kids’ attention is fragmented across a huge range of (increasingly niche) platforms, making it harder to reach a mass audience.

Brands spend just 37 per cent of their budget on non-digital spending, yet kids spend a huge 62 per cent of their time on digital, resulting in a mismatch that will cost advertisers $1.15bn in 2021.

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For more information on the Kids Insights Media Mix Compass, and to receive complimentary access to the tool and a copy of an example report please visit www.kidsinsights.com/mediamix

To learn more about the attitudes, behavior and consumption patterns of kids, parents and families, and to get freemium access to the Insights People real-time data portal, please visit: http://www.kidsinsights.com/toynews

Opinion | Toon-age day stream: How Disney+ is about to change toy licensing for good

It almost seemed by design that Disney’s subscription based streaming platform, Disney+ launched just as the Coronavirus pandemic began to tighten its grip on the UK and force the world’s population inside and away from the entertainment venues of yesteryear. And in just a short space of time, its impact on the wider world around has begun to be recognised.

Kids Brands Insights’ Steve Reece takes a closer look at the Disney+ platform and the moves already being made that will overhaul the nature of toy licensing, indefinitely.

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Netflix has vastly changed the world of what was once simply called ‘television’. The content proliferation process which has been ongoing for the last decade or more is accelerating, as lockdowns around the world have vastly increased viewing. In response Netflix is producing more and more entertainment content. But aside from the occasional freak occurrence like The Queens Gambit which saw Chess set sales soar, we haven’t seen that great an impact on toy merchandising.

Disney+ of course changes all of that, because whereas Netflix is full of content for adults with adult themes and is not focused purely on a family entertainment audience, Disney+ is all about family entertainment.

“Even coming out of lockdown, viewing is likely to remain high versus historical levels because human behaviour is habitual.”

Those who questioned whether this type of video on demand could drive merchandise sales soon got their question answered by the success of The Mandalorian. Logically though, if tens of millions of people subscribe to a service, then each piece of content must be averaging millions of views. When you compare that with cable/satellite TV which back in the old days were just about enough to drive some degree of licensed product sales, then it becomes clear that Disney+ heralds a bright new era for licensed toys.

The other effect that has been underestimated is the degree of immersion/obsession which an entertainment franchise creates. There are brands which lots of people like, and there are brands which some people become deeply obsessed with. The depth of content on offer via VOD platforms, the drip feed of the next instalment/series and the binge-watching habits of locked down people lead to a deeper immersion and bond with content brands, which in turn should drive toy sales.

Even coming out of lockdown, viewing is likely to remain high versus historical levels because human behaviour is habitual and the habits of binge-watching huge amounts of content has become deeply ingrained.

The other effect of VOD platforms is to smooth out the long tail after the content first releases. For sure, major headline content releases will drive big initial viewing, but many people don’t buy in, either because they are still too busy watching other series or because they don’t believe the hype yet. This long tail offers a longer-term payback than the traditional blockbuster movie with two sales spikes around cinematic release, and secondary release to DVD or previously to less content abundant VOD platforms.

The other key factor here is scale. At the time of writing, Disney+ reportedly has more than 95m subscribers around the world. Disney forecast more than 200m within the next year or two, but the potential could be much higher, so the effect of this platform is only going to increase.

Every so often something comes along with marks a fundamental shift in the toy business, Disney+ heralds a new age of toy licensing, it’s that big a thing.

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Steve Reece is the founder of the toy expert consultancy, Kids Brand Insight, leaders in supplying services to the toys and kids entertainment industries.