SEPTEMBER 2003

What do you see as the key to responsibility in marketing to kids under 12?

Michael Moynihan: Lego has a very clear idea of what our core values are for kids. A lot of that is very much geared around making sure that what we do improves kids' lives in some way, shape, or form. It goes beyond just simply selling products. Everybody from our owner on down is very much focused on this whole notion of child development and something that we call "playful learning."

It's not learning in the traditional sense of ABC's and 1,2,3's, but it's more learning in terms of expanding your ideas in creative and critical thinking and social relationships. It's the more cognitive side of development than just pure scholastic learning. That form of learning, we think, is invaluable for kids to lead happy, healthy lives.

Our model is to leave kids better off than when we found them. It's not just a matter of saying -- let's close a sale. We have very clear marching orders from our owner about that. Lego is a family-owned company, now in its third generation. Our mission is first and foremost to build the brand through its values, in the belief that the business will take care of itself. That's how we view our responsibility. We hope that others who are marketing to kids are following somewhat similar guidelines.

Phyllis Ehrlich: The key thing is to make sure that whatever you're marketing is an appropriate brand and an appropriate fit for kids. At Cartoon Network, we have a very family-focused brand, so we have a tremendous comfort level in being able to market our own brand to kids. Then, when we expand those efforts to promotions, we are also working with many of the top companies in the marketplace and in the business.

Gary Fassak: One of the most important things we do is to make sure moms are always in the loop. We want moms to be a part of our marketing efforts. The trust starts and rests with mom. If you sit in the focus group and listen to moms talk about Binney & Smith and our brands, there's an absolute bond between the brand, mom, and the kids.

So, we do a lot of things to make sure we deliver on that expectation that moms have. We put a lot of effort into listening to the consumers who buy and use our products. We make it easy for kids and their parents and teachers to reach us -- by phone, by letter, over the Internet.

Our website is a good example of how we ensure that trust. On our website, we use a double opt-in policy. Again, we want kids and their moms to feel secure with us. Privacy and parental oversight is a critical factor in underscoring and guaranteeing that trustful relationship.

"Lego's model is to leave kids better off than when we found them." -- MIKE MOYNIHAN

Steve Rotterdam: Marketers need to remember that there's no such thing as casual communication with kids. If you tell them something, they're going to take you at your word for it. So you literally have to watch your language. If you're disingenuous or sneaky or too clever, they'll pick up on it immediately and it'll come back to haunt you.

A number of years ago, several marketers started so-called kids' clubs. What some of them didn't understand was that kids take that word "club" very seriously. They have their own clubs amongst themselves, and to them, a club is a long-term proposition. These marketing programs were, in fact, not clubs; they were one-off promotions masking themselves as clubs. Kids who "joined" (usually by sending in required proofs of purchase) never received any follow-up communications and, in effect, were never able to realize any benefits from the "club." And that ultimately worked against the marketer. While they may have been able to achieve a short-term volume goal, they alienated their target for the long-term, leaving them feeling ripped off and taken advantage of.

Burger King understood this dynamic in creating their Burger King Kids Club almost 20 years ago. They've continually refreshed the concept and, in spite of a plethora of ad campaigns over the years, have never abandoned it. Sure, they dial it up and down in importance from time to time, but it's always been there and is one of the better examples of an organization committing to something like that and sticking to it.

Which marketing tactics do you think are the least appropriate when marketing to kids, and why?

Moynihan: I don't know that there are as many tactics that are inappropriate as much as the execution of certain tactics. In television advertising, for example, there can be very inappropriate commercials.

We know that kids have very different needs and mindsets than adults. One of the primary mistakes that we are often cautioned to avoid making is that you can't treat kids like they're little adults. Talking down to them is very inappropriate.

We also make sure that what's in our package provides a very good, solid experience and that we're not over-promising in any way. But it really is more in the execution of tactics than the actual tactics themselves.

Ehrlich: The thing that I find the most offensive is marketing that does not take kids' intelligence into play, or that speaks down to kids, or that doesn't give kids the credit they deserve for being very savvy and bright in today's environment. Kids understand marketing from a very young age and know when they're being sold to.

"One of the most important things Binney & Smith does is make sure moms are always in the loop." -- GARY FASSAK

Rotterdam: Ads on the back of men's room stalls. I don't think that would be a good use of dollars to reach the youth market (laughs). The area that does require the greatest amount of thought and concern on the part of marketers is in-school marketing.

Personally, I think it is totally appropriate for particular brands to sponsor and supply in-school materials. The fact is that budgets are continually being slashed at schools -- music, arts education and even sports in some parts of the country -- they're all in danger.

Why shouldn't brands that are part of kids' lives help and support these activities that otherwise would be cut or eliminated? What VH1 and their partners have been doing with Save the Music is a great example of the right way to do things in schools. Their materials are relevant and their cause is just. Unlike some others who attempt to play in this arena, they don't come off as corporate opportunists whose value to the schools gets called into question by parents, educators and kids themselves.

Fassak: The least appropriate tactics are just the reverse of responsibility! That would be talking to children without parental involvement. Not having mom in the loop. Taking advantage of having access to kids. Moms have told us they feel really comfortable when their children are on crayola.com, unsupervised, because they trust and know the content. That's important.

What types of kids marketing programs have performed best for you in your work?

Fassak: What performs best for us are programs that are experiential and interactive. We want our brand to go places. There's the Crayola Factory -- a 20,000-square-foot creativity and visitors' center as the cornerstone in Easton, Pennsylvania, the color capitol of the world. This year, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the crayon, Crayola is on a tour of the U.S. It's the ART-rageous Adventures Tour. A custom-designed bus, covered in color from bumper-to-bumper, gives kids the chance to create, celebrate and make Crayola history by helping us build the world's largest Crayola crayon.

In Baltimore, we have Crayola Works. Crayola Works is our first creativity studio and store. It's a 20,000-square-foot interactive retail space and studio experience. In fact, it's the kind of place you can't get kids out of -- literally -- because they walk in and there's so much around them and it's all about creative expression. We have a wall they can use window markers on; we have a wax exhibit where they can dip wax and build cool things.

One of the partners we have is Howard Johnson's and they actually offer -- in combination with the partnership -- Crayola rooms. You can actually book your Howard Johnson's reservation and get a Crayola room -- they even get adults requesting it. It's set up in a real colorful, fun way with lots of things to do there. We also do creativity workshops on a Royal Caribbean ship, so if you're on the ship with your kids, they can go off and do that.

Ehrlich: Some of our most effective efforts create compelling reasons for kids to get motivated and get involved. We constantly work hard to come up with unique, different or innovative ideas -- whether we're putting together a fantasy-priced sweepstakes or engaging kids in certain activities, sweepstakes or online activities.

One of the things that we've found to be very successful is an understanding of the dynamics of how today's kid operates. Today's kids are multi-media kids and they're very often multi-tasking. So they're watching television, but they're also extremely adept at the computer. They're instant messaging and engaging in a variety of ways. So, we've done several large promotions that involve interaction between the television and our programming as well as driving back and forth to our website cartoonnetwork.com, as well as having retail components

Rotterdam: Overall, kid-centric programs that have worked best for brands I've worked on have shared a single trait -- they've been crafted to be appreciated by kids as relevant experiences, not overt marketing ploys. We see a lot of promotions out in the marketplace, especially on the Internet, that propel kids through some sort of gauntlet as a requirement for getting to some sort of satisfaction. That, in and of itself, is not an issue. But the gauntlet can't be so overwhelming or onerous that kids give up on it when all they really wanted to do was simply register for a sweepstakes, or get a free download of something.

Ideally, whatever one's tactics are, they should be invisible and not overwhelm anybody -- and not just kids. There's a tendency for websites or promotional programs to be so in love with themselves and so overcomplicated that a kid is quickly turned off and opts out. While kids don't mind being marketed to, they don't like it to be so obvious. To them, it's like watching a bad magician; unless it's tongue-in-cheek or ironic, no one wants to see the wires.

"Marketers need to understand that there is no such thing as casual communication with kids." -- STEVE ROTTERDAM

Moynihan: The programs that work best are those that are most ownable by Lego. For example, the Lego Club is a unique marketing vehicle for us. We have about 1.5 million members in the United States. It's a publication that goes out every other month to kids throughout the country. It basically updates them on new products, as well as different creations that other kids have made using Lego. The idea is to try to help them aspire to do different things with Lego.

That has been a phenomenal marketing vehicle for us because it keeps kids fully engaged, and it creates more of an experience out of Lego than just simply a one-time product offering. We really try to avoid the trap that toys sometimes fall into, where it's here today and gone tomorrow -- kids play with it for maybe fifteen minutes, then it goes away.

So, our philosophy is very much that we're trying to market a brand as opposed to products. Event marketing has also been very successful for us. We like the term 'hands-on, minds-on' where we will go into various public venues. We have a tour going right now, to 20 cities throughout the country, and it's basically celebrating Lego and all its values. The tour this year is called the "What Will You Make Tour." It's a whole series of various activities that really celebrate Lego building and what our values are.

What is the greatest untapped opportunity in marketing to kids?

Ehrlich: That's a good question. I still think that there's a great potential online. I think that certain advertisers have still been a little bit slow to embrace the online world as a kid's marketing vehicle. You can really engage kids in activities, via gaming with different levels of interaction -- that really can keep them entertained and engaged for a long period of time. There's still a lot that can be done in that area and we're working on some creative ideas right now.

I also see a great opportunity for marketing to kids for those companies that have healthy products for kids. We're doing a great promotion with Albertson's Stores that ties in with the National Watermelon Board, Sunkist, and Del Monte. It's a great promotion because it promotes healthy eating and fruit during the summer months. And it has all kinds of great activities and we've included some of our classic cartoon characters in that mix.

Rotterdam: Any kid born after 1993 has grown up with the Internet and has never experienced the world without it. The opportunities for meaningful interaction, to encourage kids to spend time with your brand, in your brand's environment, are unlike anything else -- especially when combined with the awareness building of television and the power of print.

Every promotional campaign that we put forward, at least initially, has a significant print component -- ideally an interactive print component. That might be a tear-off or a game piece or some sort of interactive device that can be utilized with the core medium, like television or the Internet, or even packaging.

Fassak: One of the trends we see that we think is pretty big is the empowerment of kids and their growing influence. It's amazing. Kids influence stuff you'd never expect -- what kind of house you buy…the kind of car you buy. They have tremendous influence and they also have dollars -- kids today have money they get from allowances or working or whatever else, and they spend a lot.

It's interesting -- we're seeing this kind of empowerment in Back to School shopping. Back to School is primarily a time when parents take their children shopping for school supplies. Some kids are now going out with their friends to shop Back to School and literally making those Back to School choices themselves. To be a part of a trend like that, you need to be wired to kids. You've got to be what we call kind of "Wow" design, "Wow" marketing. You know the "Wow" experience -- when a kid looks at what you're doing and says, "Wow, that's just so cool I've got to do it, got to have it."

Moynihan: Another untapped potential is the notion of more relevant, compelling relationship marketing. Lego, as a company, through the Lego Club is very proud of that, but I think that there's considerable room to grow in terms of establishing true relationships with kids. But it's really more direct marketing than relationship marketing. Perhaps tying in our Lego Club with the event marketing that we do, and creating more of an integrated experience, might help kids feel more of a personal connection to Lego than they already do.

There's also this notion of life-stage marketing. Lego has products everywhere from age six months all the way up to twelve or thirteen years. I would love to see Lego have more of an integrated connection across all of its various brand managers and product lines. That would help ensure that we're providing a seamless Lego experience throughout a childhood as opposed to disparate product lines as kids make their way up through childhood.

"Kids understand marketing from a very young age and know when they are being sold to." -- PHYLLIS EHRLICH

Which brands do you admire most as marketers to kids, and why?

Ehrlich: I think the toy companies have always done an excellent job. The challenge for them now, as kids grow up so quickly and move on to other forms of entertainment -- even beyond toys -- that the challenge is greater to convince them that toys still have tremendous play value.

The Hasbros and Mattels of the world have done an excellent job in showing kids the benefits of some of their products. Old Navy has done a strong job in the apparel category.

In food, both Kellogg's and General Mills have done good jobs in continuing to build the legacy of their own brands and their own equities. Tony the Tiger, for example, with Kellogg's -- or the Trix rabbit with General Mills. They've recognized that some of their equities have long-term value to parents and kids and they have taken advantage of that in some of their marketing efforts.

Moynihan: In the entertainment world, there's nobody that comes close to Nickelodeon in any respect. Nick is truly exceptional at really understanding its consumers. That's the real thread across all the various companies that we admire -- they really have an extremely solid understanding of kids.

We also work with some other partners that we admire quite a bit. We've actually just recently worked with Nike to produce some bionic shoes. We sat with one of Nike's product designers for about an hour, and he talked to us about how they develop shoes. About three quarters of that hour had nothing to do with shoe development and everything to do with the consumer targets, their lifestyles, what kind of music they listen to, what kinds of role models they have and that type of thing. That was very impressive.

There's another company that we're working with most recently on a new product launch that we have called Click-Its. It's our first major entry into the girl's market, in a sponsorship deal with Limited Too, the retailer. They have a publication somewhat similar to ours, marketed to girls, which they call a "catazine" -- a combination of a catalog and a magazine. But it's all lifestyle driven. They understand this consumer group extremely well and they leverage their stores in a way that obviously captures their lifestyles.

Fassak: Nickelodeon does do a great job of understanding kids. They do a lot of hands-on kids research, just talking to kids all the time about what's hot and what's going on. They translate that really well in their brand and its marketing.

If you look at a Nickelodeon event, or a Nickelodeon movie, there are just so many kid insights in there. You can sit there and watch it and see them one after the other. They're really on their game.

Pixar just does a magnificent job of taking kids' stories and then telling them with a real hip look and feel that kids love. You've seen the movies they've done. If you've seen Nemo, you've got to love that.

Rotterdam: Gap does a great job with their communications; they capture the fun of being a kid. Land's End is also doing great things. Though a lot of it is directed towards parents, they've recently developed Land's End Kids. They have a really fun product mix and their catalogs reflect a different attitude and spirit than their traditional Land's End catalogs.

The "Got Milk" campaign is a great campaign. Kids think it's cool -- they've adopted "Got Milk" and/or "got anything" as a catch phrase and the Got Milk people have responded in kind. They've been involved with student athletes, and in using the moustache campaign. I think they do a good job of talking to kids as well, and they have a good message that's out there.

Disney continues to do an excellent job as well. I just spent a week at Disneyland with my six-year-old daughter and I remain blown away by the "princesses" who hold court there. These young women are the only characters in the park who actually speak directly to and have conversations with kids. They truly hold in their gloved hands the psyche of every little girl they come into contact with. That's an awesome responsibility.

Plus Disney seems to always remember that the dialogues they establish with kids now – on all fronts, not just at the parks – will be revisited and resonate once again when these kids grow up, become parents themselves and interact with things Disney from a different perspective. When it comes to kids, I think Disney does what they do better than anybody -- and I'm glad they do it.