News
 The
10 Commandments of Youth Marketing
In their book, Marketing to The New Super Consumer:
Mom & Kid, three authors introduce the concept of
the "4I4L" (four-eyed and four-legged) consumer, and
present insights gleaned from extensive research on
young consumers. Here are the top 10 observations
from the book - the Ten Commandments of Effective
Ads for Kids.
1. Remember their ages
Be mindful of the cognitive development of your ad's
target age group. As the book discusses in other
chapters, kids of different ages think and process
information differently. Younger kids operate on a
much simpler level than their older counterparts.
Your target age group must understand the ad before
it can act on it.
2. Grab their attention
Grab your audience's attention early and hold it.
Many kids, especially younger ones, cannot refocus
their attention once they've moved it to something
else. So if something confuses or bores them in your
ad, they "leave" it and cannot mentally come back.
3. Link your brand to the story
Kids, especially younger ones, tend to remember
things in story form, including ads. Having a brand
that is strongly linked to the story told in your ad
increases the chances that kids would remember it
when cruising the aisles.
4. Make the brand memorable.
Further build on the theme of brand recall, using
mnemonic devices such as jingles and characters
(e.g., Kid Cuisine's KC the Penguin and Kellogg's
Tony the Tiger) will help kids remember your brand.
5. Be literal
As most people with children already know, kids are
very literal. What they see and hear is what they
get. Therefore, don't make your messages or claims
too vague or abstract. Kids will either misinterpret
or not even comprehend the point you're trying to
get across. For example, if your product comes in
certain flavors, tell the child exactly what those
flavors are.
6. Watch out for distractions
Kids pay attention to the strangest things -
sometimes the wrong things. Younger kids suffer from
"centration", and will centre their thoughts and
attention on just one part of your ad or product
that stands out to them. It might be the little
kitten in the ad; it might be the cute baby; but
worst of all, it might not be the product or the
message.
7. Use humor, music and anticipation
Humor, music, and anticipation increase kid
involvement. Kids are all about fun, and nothing
says fun more than jokes, tunes, and the element of
surprise. Any combination of these can serve as a
hook for your ad. But make sure the child
understands the joke. If not, he or she will think
that you are just stupid.
8. Don't pick on living things!
Here is one out of left field. So far we've been
talking about "dos," but we felt it necessary to
include one "don't." Make sure your ad does not show
kids picking on other kids or animals. Kids' picking
on adults is okay, and cartoon animals picking on
each other might be okay, but our research with many
commercials found that in general it's better to
show the nicer side of kids.
9. Think about gender bias
Boys will be boys; girls will be either - but it's
best to show both. Girls respond to either boys or
girls in ads, but boys will usually not respond
favorably to ads with girls as the only talent.
There are a few exceptions to this - for instance if
the girl is an athlete. Even with this, however,
girls respond better to actually seeing girls in an
ad.
10. Test before committing
Before committing the big bucks on media, make
certain that your audience likes the ad. Likeability
is still the strongest, most important part of any
commercial to a child.
- 'Marketing to
The New Super Consumer: Mom & Kid' by Greg
Livingston, Tim Coffey, and Dave Siegel. As
published in TheWisemarketer.com
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Melissa Data
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