Just placed a couple of games for Jetix on Freeloader (Jimmy Two-Shows and Kid v’s Kat) and got me thinking of the various ways clients can get kids content out there. Trying to get ‘more bang for your buck’ has always been the mantra at small, nimble digital agencies, and with budgets being squeezed, it’s never more true… or needed. There are still the big ‘full service’ giants that go into auto-pilot and fill their media buying spreadsheet with banners and basic media creative placements.

There’s definitely a sliding scale when it comes to being clever and it seems to go something like this.

Brief: Our kids website has everything on it but we need more hits. Help!

Here are a few solution (in order of cleverness)

1) Run a competition to win a Playstation on the site (of course, only the audience already there will see it)
[PRICE 3/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 2/10]

2) Run a basic banner campaign wherever a quick Nielsen report says your audience are. That’s Yahoo, MSN Today, Google, Disney and the BBC Homepage (and we all know how many 8 year olds use MSN Today)
[PRICE 4/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 3/10]

3) Run a basic banner campaign where your audience actually are. That’s Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Miniclip and CiTV (better, but on these content rich sites, can be hard for banners to stand out)
[PRICE 4/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 4/10]

4) Run ‘in banner games’, probably in MPU formats where your audience actually are. See above. (Much better result on the media placement than a standard banner. As long as the “play game” message is clear)
[PRICE 5/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 6/10]

5) Run an integrated promotion on highly trafficked a site that actually engages your audience. Support it with tools and content that makes their lives better. Maybe an upgrade to an existing avatar maker or a chance to be famous. (Giving your audience tools to enhance the experience they already value is the key point)
[PRICE 6/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 6/10]

6) Rip the good games from your client’s site and get them placed on highly trafficked (and mostly free) game sites. Freeloader, Addicting Games, Shockwave etc. (every kid likes games. These sites may be crowded, but they are popular. Hard to target a certain age or country though)
[PRICE 3/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 7/10]

7) Create a bespoke game a put it on Miniclip (known for high quality content and trusted. Not cheap to place a game but the numbers usually stack up. Sometimes double figure click-throughs and engagement times of over 10 minutes)
[PRICE 9/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 9/10]

Some take a fair while to build momentum. Some (banners) will die as soon as they stop running. Some, like Miniclip come on instantly with big numbers, so you’d better be ready to deal with them.

However it’s done, main point is to be certain of your end goal (or “what success looks like”) and to know EXACTLY who your audience is. Don’t assume it’s kids when it may well be parents that decide for them you need to reach. Use stats. Know what the new formats are. Know what the innovative new ‘cool things’ are. Know what the various creative delivery platforms are launching next. Know what partner sites want to achieve and try and help them achieve it, they may give you more promotion. And lastly, know where your audience actually is. I despair at Nielsen ratings and Net Promoter scores. They are wildly inaccurate for the kids market as they seem to include a fair amount of their parent’s activity too, so need to be backed up with a pinch of common sense.

Over the next few months, we (Digital Outlook) has a few varied and cunning marketing strategies in the kids space, so it’s a good chance to see how they perform against each other. Always keen to find new ways… as long as they hit target head-on. Will keep you posted.

About a year ago, we had a tricky brief. Make a website for kids without a brand, any content or characters… but make it promote a show coming up soon… which you can’t mention. Hmmm… easy peasy.

Turns out the show in question was the new Famous 5 On the Case, a new take on the Enid Blyton series of books. Our solution was to ‘live the values’ of the Famous 5 but creating a site for kids to share their survival skills, whether country or city based. It was also aimed at grown ups with the intention of them passing down their hard-earned knowledge to the next generation. How to shine a coin with a lemon? How do you chain your bike up properly? How do you make a boomerang from lolly sticks? The answer to these questions would be be answered. Everyone knew it was a tough brief and were actually rather amazed that there was a solution at all. All go so far.

We set about scoping, considered a big tech build but found a number of off-the-peg content sharing and UGC (user generated content) products. We hired a company, created “Secret Skillz.com”, got all the people we know to make some initial videos, upload them, sat back… and waited.

And waited. The avalanche of video entries never really materialised. A year on, the site has eventually made way for the official Famous 5 microsite and the lessons have been filed under “Great idea, just didn’t work”.

Essentially,

• The lack of a cool brand meant there was no kudos in being seen on this site
• There was no real reward for uploading, therefore no incentive to upload
• Kids don’t really have access to all the kit and equipment to make the videos
• Kids don’t really upload videos. It’s just not really allowed. And parents can’t be bothered
• The ‘off-the-shelf’ product was actually fairly expensive once monthly charges were added
• We should have tested the broad concept WAY earlier on real kids
• If there’s a glaring ‘untapped niche’, there’s probably a reason. Kids UCG is one of them

What WAS important is that without taking a risk now and again, the web would be a very dull place. Ok, so this one may not have worked quite as everyone hoped, but the next solution will be much better for it. We were open and honest at all times and it’s just one of those things. Learn, move on. At least we tried and at least it wasn’t a dull, safe banner campaign. And some of the videos made it onto the new Famous 5 site, so it wasn’t all wasted. Here’s me cutting an apple without an knife and making a Monkey Fist rope ball. I clearly have no shame…

Since the recession, I seem to referring back to my old work more and more as budgets require more simple solutions, i.e. cheaper. The stuff I used to do in Flash 4 was relatively sophisticated at the time, but on reflection, it’s a bit clunky. Still, you have to know where you’ve been to know where you’re going and all that.

Main point is, my old flash examples page was a shocker. SEO wasn’t even invented back in those days. And an extra bonus, you can look at it on an iPhone… until you need to look at the flash pages anyhow.

So far, there are 86 examples. Maybe half of what’s actually worth showing, which is a bit mind boggling. No wonder I’ve gone grey!

They’ll be more to come as and when it appears but take a look and fiddle with whatever catches your fancy…

In the meantime, here are a few of my faves…

• Early Flash 4 microsite for Digimon
• Skimmer (my favourite game)
• The Mr. Men site
• Bra Blaster game
• Discover Pirate Island on Google Earth