Feature
Pre-Christmas Marketing
Take it from media In previous years, Toy World’s annual look at pre-Christmas advertising campaigns has focused very much on broadcast kids’ TV, but the times, they are a-changin’. In this piece, which features generous expert input from Generation Media, KidsKnowBest and Azure Media, Rachael Simpson-Jones takes a deep dive in the Q4 marketing space to find out how the pandemic, stock shortages, viewing habits and more are impacting toy companies’ plans.
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n the same way that it accelerated a major shift to eCommerce among retailers and consumers, the pandemic has accelerated a shift to digital viewership that, our experts tell us, was already taking place long before Covid showed up. “Prior to the lockdowns, kids were spending an increasing amount of their time in on-demand platforms, be that video or gaming - basically media they can switch on at any time instead of content
Tristan Brookes Azure Media
being scheduled,” notes Tristan Brooks, managing partner & head of Client Services, Azure Media. “This trend has been driven through growing access to digital devices and video on demand services like Netflix. With kids at home over the lockdowns, parents invested more in technology and media services to keep themselves and their kids connected, educated and entertained. This means kids are now spending more time with the media platforms they enjoy, as well as discovering new content as their media worlds expanded. There are now more households in the UK than before with greater access to content. Viewing is unlikely to shift back, so advertisers need to understand how their media worlds have evolved to be able to reach, interact and engage them.” In the first six months of this year, Jon Chambers, director of AV Investment at Generation Media tells me, kids’ TV channels reported a combined decline of -25% YOY in terms of commercial impacts. Taking a longer-term view, this figure stands at -55% over the past five years (2021 vs. 2017). “During the pandemic, the biggest recipients of audience migrating away from children’s TV were SVOD platforms such as Netflix and Disney+,” adds Generation Media’s business director of Digital, Felix Lewis. “According to Kids and the Screen data provided by Giraffe Insights, in October 2019 SVOD services accounted for 23% of viewing occasions (Live
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TV = 28%, Online Video = 24%). By October 2020, this had risen to 31% ahead of both Live TV (23%) and Online Video (21%). In the latest wave of data, however, (April 2021), we are witnessing general viewing fatigue across all platforms as viewers become more time poor. There are less opportunities for long binging sessions, meaning SVOD’s lead has been eroded to 29% and Live TV has gained share - although not time - at 26%. TV’s share however has been largely held up by the diversification of what children are watching; the greater focus on family time has continued post lockdown, meaning more shared viewing experiences such as sports, movies and Saturday night entertainment (not forgetting Love Island either). Online video, such as YouTube, has been the most consistent player throughout this entire period, and with costs becoming preferential over Live TV, it will provide the most compelling rival to TV for advertisers spends in Q4.” KidsKnowBest, an agency that focuses predominantly on digital and social, has witnessed another impact from the pandemic first-hand - the need for speed. Rob Lough, co-founder and chief brand officer, says that with the pandemic creating a situation of ongoing behavioural change, and big TVC productions becoming harder to execute on, the route to entry on digital and social media is much easier. Rob also says that his agency is seeing
