How Advertisers Target Kids on TV

Once upon a time advertisers relied on TV as the best medium on which to get their messages across to children. Since the advent of 'Saturday Morning Cartoons' in the 1960s, TV stations worked hard to create a slot in the schedules where advertisers could have access to a young audience glued to the tube by zany animations.

Today things look a little different. Kids are no longer as likely to be staring at the TV, they'll probably be getting interactive on their mobiles or the Internet instead. Still, advertisers may have spotted through their market research that TV is a medium going through a downturn - but they're keen to use it while they can.

Why Advertise On Television?

Though the Internet may be popular, advertisers know that kids still watch a lot of television. It's estimated that by the time they reach school age children will have spent 5,000 hours watching their favourite programmes. In Australia, kids spend up to a quarter of their spare time watching the box.

How Adverts Become The Main Event

When adverts aimed at children first emerged in the 1950s, they followed a similar format to their radio forerunners. Brands would either sponsor segments of a particular programme or pay for a 30 second advert in the commercial breaks which surrounded it.

By the 1980s advertisers realised they could capitalise on the popularity of cartoons with children and make adverts into programmes in their own right. Animated shows such as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Care Bears and Transformers were basically extended adverts funded by toy manufacturers. These shows created a dramatic fantasy world around the characters, a world which children could only access by buying the toys featured in the shows. Surveys show that by 1988, 64% of ads placed in commercial breaks during kids programmes related to these cartoon tie-in toys.

Critics were vocal in their attacks on these programmes. Campaigners maintained that by effectively 'telling' children how to play they were limiting kids' imaginations - while others pointed out the problems in screening adverts masquerading as cartoons.

Product placement

Thanks to new digital home recording technology, parents can effectively edit out ads for children before they even reach the remote. This obviously doesn't stop the marketing message of branded shows in the vein of He-Man getting through - but it does mean that advertisers have to work harder to get value-for-money from their TV spend.

One way channels can entice advertisers is through product placement. The overall market for the technique is worth over 2 billion dollars worldwide, with advertisers paying participants in soaps, dramas and family shows to been seen using their products. Although product placement in shows aimed at children is banned in the UK it's common practice in other countries. For example, on the American version of Pop Idol the judges can be seen sat behind bottles of a certain soft drink before they make their decision.

In Europe, the practice used to be outlawed - but dropping advertising revenues mean that there's pressure on EU networks to include it in future programmes.

The Future

As TV's advertising revenues continue to fall there is a glimmer of hope for advertisers who still hanker for TV exposure. As children get more interactive through surfing the Internet, talking in chat rooms and using social networking sites - a 'multi-channel' advertising approach is becoming more effective.

This may include a TV show which serves as the introduction to an on-line world, or a kiddie-friendly talent contest where children can talk about the show on branded chat rooms. TV may not be the dominant force in advertising it once was, but it may still have a place in the way we experience media in the future.