The Tactics of Online Marketing to Kids
AUGUST 30, 2006
How do you talk to the kids?
By Ben Macklin - Senior Analyst
Those charged with the task of marketing to children, particularly in the food and beverage sectors, have an unenviable task. Legislation such as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as well as guidelines by industry bodies such as the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) demand that marketers be extremely cognizant of the impressionable nature of children under 13 years of age. Marketers, therefore, need to exercise a much higher duty of care toward children than to adults.
Why the recent push to restrict and regulate advertising to kids? The answer is that there is a growing view that marketers of junk food are complicit in the growing prevalence of childhood obesity. In fact, marketers of junk food are increasingly being viewed in the same light as those that market cigarettes — as purveyors of products that kill.
What do the kids think? According to Harris Interactive, when it comes to advertising tactics employed by companies, the top three liked by both kids and teens relate to celebrity and notoriety, including having a famous person use a product, placing products within a movie and having a sporting event or stadium named after a product or company. Neither kids nor teens were happy with the surreptitious activity of advertisers mentioning a product on a chat site or a blog, and they were not keen on the idea of mobile phone advertising either.
The data from Harris Interactive seem to suggest that kids and teens are reasonably skeptical about what companies tell them. Fewer than one in 10 survey respondents believe that advertisements tell the truth, and more than half (57%) say they often notice tricks companies use to get them to buy something. About three-quarters (73%) agree that companies try to get people to buy things they do not really need. These findings are likely to make marketers unhappy on the one hand, because kids at an early age know they are not being told the truth — which certainly does not reflect well on the industry — or happy on the other hand, because advertisers can cite evidence that children can comprehend and critically evaluate advertisements, and therefore there is no need to place harsh restrictions on advertising directed at them.
"What's important to remember is that the younger the child, the less they are able to distinguish between marketing message and entertainment, and the more likely they will be to accept things at face value," said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst.
Branded Web sites for children are designed to be playful and highly involving, with "brand immersion" a primary goal. Advergaming, which combines advertising with gaming, has emerged as one of the primary tools marketers have employed in engaging children's interest in their products online. These sites are often complementary to their other marketing efforts such as TV advertising, but the online platform allows marketers to potentially have a deeper connection with their target market because of the potential for repeated and longer engagement. The question that has arisen in the online environment, however, is whether children can adequately discern whether an ad is really an ad.
The recent Kaiser Family Foundation study of online food advertising directed at children revealed that 86% of the advergames on their respective Web sites had the brand logo visible within the game.
In the same study, the most popular type of advergame employed by food marketers directed at children were arcade games, followed by sports simulation games.
In the current climate, advergaming is likely to be closely scrutinized, so it would be wise for marketers to not concentrate all their resources on advergaming alone. An alternative strategy, perhaps, is to focus greater efforts on the parents, rather than solely on the kids.
Additional suggestions and strategies about online marketing to children can be found in a white paper written by interactive ad agency Refinery.
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©2006 eMarketer Inc. All rights reserved
AUGUST 30, 2006
How do you talk to the kids?
By Ben Macklin - Senior Analyst
Those charged with the task of marketing to children, particularly in the food and beverage sectors, have an unenviable task. Legislation such as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as well as guidelines by industry bodies such as the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) demand that marketers be extremely cognizant of the impressionable nature of children under 13 years of age. Marketers, therefore, need to exercise a much higher duty of care toward children than to adults.
Why the recent push to restrict and regulate advertising to kids? The answer is that there is a growing view that marketers of junk food are complicit in the growing prevalence of childhood obesity. In fact, marketers of junk food are increasingly being viewed in the same light as those that market cigarettes — as purveyors of products that kill.
What do the kids think? According to Harris Interactive, when it comes to advertising tactics employed by companies, the top three liked by both kids and teens relate to celebrity and notoriety, including having a famous person use a product, placing products within a movie and having a sporting event or stadium named after a product or company. Neither kids nor teens were happy with the surreptitious activity of advertisers mentioning a product on a chat site or a blog, and they were not keen on the idea of mobile phone advertising either.
The data from Harris Interactive seem to suggest that kids and teens are reasonably skeptical about what companies tell them. Fewer than one in 10 survey respondents believe that advertisements tell the truth, and more than half (57%) say they often notice tricks companies use to get them to buy something. About three-quarters (73%) agree that companies try to get people to buy things they do not really need. These findings are likely to make marketers unhappy on the one hand, because kids at an early age know they are not being told the truth — which certainly does not reflect well on the industry — or happy on the other hand, because advertisers can cite evidence that children can comprehend and critically evaluate advertisements, and therefore there is no need to place harsh restrictions on advertising directed at them.
"What's important to remember is that the younger the child, the less they are able to distinguish between marketing message and entertainment, and the more likely they will be to accept things at face value," said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst.
Branded Web sites for children are designed to be playful and highly involving, with "brand immersion" a primary goal. Advergaming, which combines advertising with gaming, has emerged as one of the primary tools marketers have employed in engaging children's interest in their products online. These sites are often complementary to their other marketing efforts such as TV advertising, but the online platform allows marketers to potentially have a deeper connection with their target market because of the potential for repeated and longer engagement. The question that has arisen in the online environment, however, is whether children can adequately discern whether an ad is really an ad.
The recent Kaiser Family Foundation study of online food advertising directed at children revealed that 86% of the advergames on their respective Web sites had the brand logo visible within the game.
In the same study, the most popular type of advergame employed by food marketers directed at children were arcade games, followed by sports simulation games.
In the current climate, advergaming is likely to be closely scrutinized, so it would be wise for marketers to not concentrate all their resources on advergaming alone. An alternative strategy, perhaps, is to focus greater efforts on the parents, rather than solely on the kids.
Additional suggestions and strategies about online marketing to children can be found in a white paper written by interactive ad agency Refinery.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
©2006 eMarketer Inc. All rights reserved
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