The way to really interact with children and get them to fall in love with cartoon characters is to bring them to life using experiential marketing techniques.
This is the opinion of Viacom18’s kids cluster EVP and business head Nina Elavia Jaipuria, who noted the importance of taking well-known characters away from the television and part of children’s day-to-day lives in India.
She told IndianTelevision.com: “A significant part of our marketing initiatives through school contact programmes, meet and greets, retail activities etc., are focused at creating memorable experience on ground for children with our toons.”
Indeed, the network is used to running events, parades and activities that allow youngsters to come face-to-face with their favourite cartoons.
Children in Kolkata recently got the opportunity to meet loveable Motu Patlu when Nickelodeon and ABP collaborated on a fun-filled carnival at the city centre mall.
What’s more, Cartoon Network (CN) arranged its Super Toons awards in Mumbai in 2014, which saw more than 9,000 children and parents show up to watch performances by their favourite CN characters.
Executive director and kids network head Krishna Desai also noted the importance of school contact programmes (SCPs) at helping market children’s TV, saying: “SCPs by both these channels [Cartoon Network and Pogo] reach out to over one million students across 11 cities.”
It is not just TV executives who are trying to engage children in innovative ways, but technology experts too. Indeed, Sony is planning to host 500,000 demonstrations of its latest PlayStation VR headsets from June to encourage gamers to experience the new technology and purchase one once they go on sale.