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The number of children and young teenagers in the UK who are

regularly accessing the internet is mushrooming, as more schools and

households get access to the web. As Greg Childs, BBC programme executive

for children’s new media, puts it: ”About a year ago, the internet was

generally regarded by children as a fairly nerdy activity. But there has

been a strong shift in the past 12 months. The internet has become a cool

place for kids to be.”

The commercial sector has noticed this growing trend. Disney is

relaunching its 12 European web sites to help make them more attractive to

children.

”We’re taking the net very seriously,” says Jaki Ellenby, Disney’s

marketing and production director of European web sites. ”It’s becoming

second nature to kids. As the technology gets better, it’s going to be

something which children use more and more.”

The children’s online audience in the UK is already more than two million,

but there is clear evidence it is growing rapidly as internet access

becomes cheaper and faster. Each month, online service AOL attracts about

150,000 children to its kids-only channel and120,000 teenagers to its teen

areas, and the figures are climbing.

The government is one of the key drivers of this change, insisting that

all schools should be wired up by the end of the year. Walk into most

schools today and you will probably be confronted with a bank of modern

computers linked to the internet.

So what are the advantages and pitfalls of using new media to reach the

growing online audience of children? And who is taking the lead in this

new area? ”It is still very early days,” says Disney’s Ellenby. ”But at

this stage, it’s important to understand what the children need from the

web, so that when the majority go online you aren’t just waking up at that

point.”

With a net generation emerging, new-media marketers are keen to promote

their brands in this new online culture to reach the consumers of

tomorrow. ”The internet is a medium which belongs to kids,” says Jon

Cousins. managing director of youth multi-media agency Fundango.

”They are going to own it. They’ll decide how the net is going to shape

up.”

Nickelodeon UK, which has screened the hit cartoon series Rugrats since

1993, started being pestered by its viewers to provide an online presence

about three years ago. The company responded by setting up a web site

providing support material for the TV channel and now supplies content

services to AOL, including chat rooms where children can talk to

Nickelodeon actors and the channel’s cartoon characters. Kids in their

thousands are visiting the sites.

Nickelodeon’s head of new media Eddie McKendrick believes that the web

enables brands aimed at kids to convey more information than is possible,

for example, in a magazine ad or a 30-second TV promotion. But it has to

be written in a language which young web users understand. ”All the

content we provide online is written specifically for kids,” explains

McKendrick. ”The tone is never patronising. We present information in a

way that they can easily digest - in small chunks. After being in school

all day, they just want to surf around and enjoy themselves.”

Lego’s marketing team are highly-motivated converts to the net and after

the recent success of their Slizer toy campaign (see panel, p31) they

believe the interactivity of the new medium will re-write the traditional

rules of marketing to kids.

This is also the experience of Fundango. ”Children want the net to be

really, really interactive,” says Cousins. ”They want instant

feedback.

When you call up a web site, it’s there instantly. It is not like waiting

a week for a comic to come out.”

With the net generation becoming increasingly important to traditional

media owners, the Telegraph Group has just launched T2online

(www.T2online.com), a new weekly online magazine within the Electronic

Telegraph, which is designed specifically for children. It is based on the

new Saturday children’s supplement and features celebrity interviews,

sport, competitions and links to leading youth-orientated web sites.

Some new-media marketers expect that kids will increasingly meet online to

chat and share information. The BBC has already anticipated this and is

expanding its online service for children. ”Online communities are very

important to us,” says the BBC’s Childs. ”The net has the capacity to make

young people feel they belong in some way, and this will become important

for this country. We intend to lead the way.”

But any new-media marketing activity aimed at children is overshadowed by

the need to be highly sensitive to parental concerns. According to AOL’s

head of advertising, Ian Maude: ”Kids lap up online competitions and

promotions and, if you get the level of interactivity right, they can be

very successful.

But we have to make sure that children are not exploited on the

internet.”

Disney is using the story of the three little pigs to warn children that

if they give their email address to an innocent-looking sheep on the net,

it could turn out to be the Big Bad Wolf in disguise.

As well as wanting to reassure parents that its site is safe for children

to visit, Nickelodeon is determined to avoid any accusations of causing a

child to run up ”the telephone bill from hell” by keeping them online for

too long. With this in mind, it makes a lot of computer games available

which can be downloaded from its web site. The idea is that kids can still

sit at their computers, play with the games and be reminded of

Nickelodeon, but without being on the phone.

Advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority says that the

strict rules which govern traditional media advertising to children still

apply on the internet. So no ad can be run which might cause harm to a

child or exploit their vulnerability, and rules governing direct appeals

to purchase have implications for e-commerce sites or for banners that are

linked to an opportunity to buy products. ”Advertising to children is

always a sensitive issue. But advertisers should not be afraid of

advertising to children on the internet,” it says.

To get around the traditional sensitivities, most new-media campaigns

aimed at children have tended to avoid an obvious direct sell, instead

concentrating either on an educational angle or seeking to create a fun,

interactive experience, with the intention of building a relationship with

the online audience.

”You have to tell children something they don’t already know,” explains

Fundango’s Cousins.” To kids, knowledge is everything. When they discover

something new, it gives them a feeling of being in control and empowers

them among their friends. It means that you have got to keep refreshing

what you offer them. You cannot keep your web site the same for a long

period.”

Being a brand which is trusted by parents can be an advantage. However

those companies who do not immediately appeal to children, like Marks &

Spencer (see panel, p32), have opted to create their own standalone

internet identity to appeal to the net generation.

Virgin Net does not offer a kids-only area, as it believes that it could

artificially restrict a young person’s surfing experience. ”Some

children’s channels can be quite condescending. We want to encourage

children to look at a lot more than that,” says a Virgin Net

spokeswoman.

It is common sense to realise that not all kids are going to stick to

their safe, designated areas. Research (see panel, below) will be

increasingly important to marketers find out where they are surfing,

particularly when, unlike TV, the internet has no regular prime time

spots.

Major confectionery companies such as Mars and Cadbury’s have not yet

launched any significant online campaigns aimed at children - Cadbury’s

says that, while it regards the internet as useful for targeting young

males, ”it isn’t as effective as mass media”. However, the industry is

watching developments closely, and new-media agencies are reporting that

they are steadily receiving more briefs to target online kids.

The pattern of how kids consume media is changing fast. Increasing numbers

are using CD-Roms as well as, or even instead of, books to revise for

exams or do their homework, for example, and many are playing online.

All wired up and eager for more, it seems that the net generation has

truly arrived.

There have been no formal complaints so far about advertising on the

internet aimed at children, but the ASA recommends that any marketer who

feels unsure about the regulations should consult its free copy advice

service on 0171 580 4100.

CASE STUDY

LEGO SITE ATTRACTS EARLY ADOPTERS

Toy manufacturer Lego experienced the internet’s marketing power at first

hand when it launched its range of Slizer robot toys early this year. Now

it is planning to invest in more interactive campaigns.

One of the key aims of the launch was to target young opinion formers of

seven years and over - early adopters of the internet - who were invited

to visit the planet Slizer on the web to find out more about Lego’s new

space-age toys.

Different media channels were selected for the campaign, which kicked off

with a 10-second teaser on TV giving out the Slizer web address. Two weeks

before the toys appeared in the shops, half a million postcards went into

children’s magazines and comics to hammer the web address home. Lego hoped

that early adopters would spread the word around schools about the latest

discovery they had made on the net.

Aimed at picking up more of the young online audience, a banner ad

campaign, created by Incline Media and bought by Media Vision Integrated,

ran for six weeks on sites such as AOL, Virgin Net and BT Internet,

linking through to Lego’s web pages (www.lego.com). Young web users were

encouraged to meet characters such as Ice Slizer and Judge Slizer for the

first time.

”It has been a phenomenal success in the UK and Europe,” says Lego’s brand

manager, Marco Ilincic. ”We have had to increase manufacturing capacity to

meet demand.”

Lego is convinced that the internet is ripping up the traditional rules of

marketing to kids, and the company is holding strategy meetings with

portal sites to discuss how they can become more immersed in the online

youth culture and continue to build atmosphere and excitement around new

product launches.

”It is interactivity which is now the key. You can’t stick a print ad in a

comic and expect it to interest children, or simply run TV ads during the

afternoons or early mornings. The format is changing and kids’ brands that

don’t change their approach will have difficulties,” says Ilincic.

”The internet is a medium which kids’ brand managers ignore at their

peril. It is a form of media which is difficult to understand, but it is

becoming the basic language of kids. Although the internet is small, the

growth is frightening and getting involved now is very cost-efficient.

You stand to lose very little.” While the internet did not spearhead the

campaign, it did enable Lego to reach those kids who were perceived as

being a little more ’streetwise’ and, through traditional processes of

peer pressure, demand for the Slizers grew.

CASE STUDY

M&S TARGETS KIDS SUBTLY WITH CYBERSTORE

Retail giant Marks & Spencer has abandoned all obvious, overt references

to its famous brand on the new, stand-alone education section of its web

site, which is targeted at the expanding young online audience.

Designed by pres.co, the section has a distinctive, futuristic feel about

it and when you enter it for the first time, you travel on a virtual

aircraft to your destination.

Rather than offering any direct links to products, the site offers

competitions, fun information on popular subjects, such as ice cream, and

also features an online gallery of colourful pictures submitted by

schoolchildren.

”We launched it in response to increasing demand from schools and

universities for information about our retail business,” says Andrew

Morrey, M&S head of e-commerce.

Called the Cyberstore (www.marks-and-spencer. co.uk/education), the

section does offer information about the company, but there is absolutely

no hard sell and you could easily just visit the site for entertainment,

which is one of the marketing objectives.

Pres.co set out deliberately to give the web environment a PlayStation

feel, both to appeal to computer game enthusiasts and to make M&S more

attractive to kids.

The Cyberstore also enables M&S to make company information easily

available which would previously have taken up a lot of their staff’s time

to provide.

The educational content of the site is geared to learning life skills,

such as team working and planning, and invites visitors to think about the

nature of shopping in the future. There is also help on how to use the

internet and a jargon-busting section to overcome any lack of

understanding of certain technical internet phrases.

M&S plans to organise focus groups with teachers and pupils to make sure

that the section grows in a way which is relevant for them.

Educational consultants were also asked to become involved with setting up

the site, and an M&S competition was organised among children to create a

character, called Sparky, to be associated with the new section.

The company believes that it is in a strong position to develop its online

appeal because the trustworthiness of its brand gives it a strong presence

in the classroom.

Of all the major retailers, it probably ranks as the teacher’s pet, and

M&S has big ambitions to build upon this advantage. Insiders say that, in

the long term, its dream would be to surpass the BBC’s online grip on

schools.

The producers of this project make is quite clear that this is only stage

one. But no one can dispute that M&S is in a prime position to exploit the

potential of the internet further, because most parents trust it and are

quite happy for their children to spend as long as they want in its web

environments.

”The response has been very good so far,” comments Morrey. ”We have had

lots of people visiting. We do have an extensive children’s range and we

hope that the section’s visitors will grow up to become M&S

customers.”

CASE STUDY

THE CARTOON NETWORK GETS INTERACTIVE

The Cartoon Network has just relaunched its web site to make it more

compelling viewing for children. ”We’ve moved it away from being a

glorified listings brochure and built up the games element. We want our

target audience to have a Cartoon Network experience, whatever medium they

are in,” says Nicky Parkinson, the network’s vice president of marketing

for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Designed by Deepend, the site (www.cartoon-network. co.uk) has moved away

from the previous domination by promotional material and now offers plenty

of cartoon character-related games such as Hong Kong Phooey’s House of

Chop, which can be easily downloaded. At the same time, a deliberate

attempt has been made to encourage kids to feel that the network belongs

to them. They are able to create their own personalised programme listings

pages and send emails to their favourite cartoon characters.

The site also recognises most kids’ passion for computer games and is

coloured in the style of a cartoon backdrop to convey the brand’s

distinctive values. ”Cartoon fun is silly and pranky. It’s about expecting

the unexpected and about giving kids permission to be naughty, although

everything turns out alright,” says Parkinson.

Parkinson says the network’s strategic approach to how it uses its web

site changed after it realised that it had to find a new language to talk

to young people, as more and more are growing up in an online world which

has its own jargon and codes of etiquette. The network’s marketing team

now sees the internet not as just a conventional marketing tool, but as an

entertainment destination in its own right.

Parkinson hopes that the more interactive site will both reward loyal

viewers who want more of the network’s characters in their everyday lives,

and attract a new, young online audience who might not have access to the

Cartoon Network through their TV sets.

WHAT THE ANALYSTS THINK

New-media analysts agree that the internet is fast becoming the new

playground for children. The number of kids in the UK between seven and 16

years old who are online is estimated at more than two million - and that

figure is rising.

”The growth of the online kids audience is irreversible,” says Glen Smith,

chief executive of the Youth Research Group. ”The only way forward is up.

It’s not going to go down - especially as kids and young teenagers are

building strong friendships on the internet.”

To capitalise on the growing interest that kids have for the internet, the

BBC is considering launching an online Blue Peter magazine, which will be

different in content to the TV programme.

Last September, the family unit of research company NOP carried out an

internet survey of 3,500 UK children aged between seven and 16 years old

and found that 18 per cent were using the internet at home, while 17 per

cent were using it at school.

At home, 70 per cent said that they used the internet for games and 62 per

cent that they were using it for school work. Email is extremely popular,

too, and 49 per cent of them said that they sent and received email at

home.

The development of research is being shaped by the influence of internet

technology. Indeed, many analysts are now encouraging children to go

online in order to answer research questionnaires, because they know that,

in many cases, children feel more comfortable with a computer than with a

pencil and paper.

”The secret of good children’s research is to create the right conditions

for them to make their responses and computers do that,” says Glen Smith,

whose company runs online surveys with schools, testing children’s

attitudes to a range of topics.

As the internet continues to expand, researchers point to two key areas

which will negatively affect the future growth of the medium: concerns

about pornography, and worries about personal security - especially the

fear that data submitted over the internet will get into the wrong

hands.

If these concerns can be removed or addressed, the marketplace will be a

lot easier to operate in.

Despite this, research houses recognise that specific data on young

people’s online consumption habits is going to become crucial to new-media

marketers, especially as they are unable to focus on fixed internet prime

times similar to those that exist on traditional media such as TV.