The challenge of advertising children’s products
By Sara Mendonça. Published on August 10, 2020
When we talk about segmentation for marketing purposes, we usually think about one thing: Who is going to buy the product we are advertising?
However, when talking about children's products, segmentation is not clear: the consumer and the buyer are different targets with different decision-making impulses. Even though buyers and consumers are separate individuals, children, as we know, have a big contribution to the parent’s decision-making process. In fact, according to a 2019 NRF study, 87% of parents surveyed in the United States say that they are influenced by their children when it comes to shopping (MarketingCharts).
Children can be particularly vulnerable, requiring special care in child marketing and advertising so that their rights are protected. That is why legislators have been adopting increasingly restrictive measures, with heavy penalties for advertisers who sometimes don’t see the importance of “painting within the lines” of children’s rights. Articles 10 and 11 of the European Union's SSCA Directive, for example, prohibit product placement and presentation of sponsor logos during children's programs in the Member States (European Commission Directorate-General Justice and Consumers).
It is therefore imperative that marketers who work with children's products find not only the best language to communicate with this audience but also the best means to convey their advertising.
On the other hand, it is necessary to look at consumer trends. What content do children consume? A study by PWC in the United States shows that between 2014 and 2018 television has lost 50% of its children audience. Mobile devices are now the favourite screens for kids.
But child communication on mobile devices comes with its own challenges, which is why technology appeared to help regulate and comply with rules for advertisers and publishers.
In May 2019, Google announced that it would only allow advertisers to place ads on children’s and family apps on 10 networks worldwide. In September 2019, Apple announced that it would apply even tighter restrictions, making almost all networks or programmatic platforms not compatible with kids’ traffic. It is in this context of innovation that KIDOZ Inc. appeared, a kid-safe technology used in most mobile apps and one of the few certified by Google and approved by Apple. It has an advertising network that helps the world's biggest brands reach and engage with children safely across thousands of mobile devices, reaching more than 100 million children monthly across multiple countries (Canadian Insider).
KIDOZ provides an essential set of services that gathers children's brands, publishers and families while entrusting brands like Disney, Hasbro and Lego to advertise their products through a wide range of apps, games and websites, with premium content 100% dedicated to children. It offers advertising solutions from hundreds of publishers for children, which, together with intelligent contextual targeting, delivers excellent results: CTRs (clickthrough rate) above 5% and VCRs (Video Completion Rates) around 85%.
To ensure maximum safety for children, all content (apps, websites and creatives) made available on the KIDOZ network are reviewed manually, and no personal user information is shared with advertisers. It is fully compatible with both GDPR (European Union) and COPPA (United States).
In Portugal, Brazil and South Africa, the commercialization of KIDOZ are overseen exclusively by YDigital Media, which not only work with KIDOZ as a network but also develop creative ads best adapted to available formats.
