NEWS

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

Published on: 18th March 2021

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

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