User-generated content as a source of marketing material is more powerful than ever before.
Today 44 % of 6-12-year olds in the US have access to a smart speaker and 22% own one.
There is a resurgence in podcasts with 51% of teenagers in the US now stating they listen to this audio format.
As the lines between gaming, social media and retail blur, new marketing channels are opening up and the opportunities are endless.
Kids Insights, the global leader in kids market intelligence, has just issued its 2020 Trends Across the Planet (TAP) report, which looks back over the company’s Future Forecast reports and the predictions they made. TAP looks at how the trends have started to play out and how businesses and organisations have started to incorporate these into their future thinking. The TAP report explores how changes around the globe – in particular the COVID-19 pandemic – will impact advertising, content, licencing, marketing, product and sales for brand owners.
The TAP report evaluates 11 previously predicted trends based on its extensive experience of surveying more than 240,000 children every week, across five continents and 11 countries, or more than 5,000 children each week.
Earlier this year, the 2020 Future Forecast report predicted that brands, publishers and broadcasters needed to reconsider and redefine the term audience. The TAP report reinforces this prediction by communicating that businesses need to adapt, and be adaptable. Of those surveyed, 76% of companies don’t anticipate to be operating in the same way in five years, as new technologies continuously innovate within this space. While 92% of businesses agree that companies should develop a greater understanding of the kid’s demographics, yet one in two companies do not feel fully confident that they have a sufficient understanding of their target audience.
Nick Richardson, founder and CEO of The Insights People says:
“This generation of children no longer want to passively consume content, they want to play a role in the outcome, help shape the direction and make it personal to them. Back in 2018 we predicted that there would be a growth in platforms, tools and products that enable children to co-create and influence and it will be these that will prove the most successful in engaging children. Fast forward two years and we are seeing more and more examples of this.”
Jonathan Watson, CPO at The Insights People adds:
“As the lines between gaming, social media and retail blur, new marketing channels are opening up and the opportunities are endless.”
Another predicted trend influencing where kids spend their money is the Generation Speak trend and the use of smart speakers. Today 44 % of 6-12-year olds in the US have access to a smart speaker and 22% own one. In the UK, a third of kids aged 6-12 have access to a smart speaker, a 93% increase on 2018.
Both the BBC and Snapchat are in the process of developing ‘Beeb’ and ‘Voice Scan’, respectively, which will allow users to search for filters using voice commands.
Jonathan Watson, CPO at The Insights People furthers:
“The nature of voice search is set to fundamentally change how search engines display results and therefore SEO marketing strategies. Audio content can become a new touchpoint for brands which already have an offline presence.”
Sarah Riding, Research & Trends Director at the Insights People says:
“Brands can utilise the alignment between parents and children by appealing to the family democracy that children clearly play a major part in, empowering kids to encourage parents spending could boost brand interaction and lay the foundations for lifetime customers.”
eSports has become a popular TV pastime with the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), which is the esports equivalent of football Premier League, attracting viewership of over 800,000 for the LEC final. There is an expectation that esports to be a £1bn global industry by the end of 2020, with an audience of 600 million – many of these teens.
In these changing times, one in two companies are investing more than ever into product development, content creation and collaborations, at present. However, 52% don’t yet feel fully confident that their new products due to be released will be a success.
Without doubt the message to take away for advertising, content, licencing, marketing, product and sales strategies for brand owners is to understand your audience and how to interact with them. Kids Insights can help businesses make decisions that will be effective and can offer up-to-the-minute stats for content engagement, which is proving to be the best way to communicate, right now.