How content can do wonders to your brand when kids are stuck at home

Since Covid-19 has locked us down in our homes, it's been a 'boredomic' (pandemic of boredom) for our kids who are trying to manage their new abnormal. One of the silver linings of this stay-at-home situation is that the coronavirus has emerged as the new villain among kids, and finally, all of the strict mothers are spared of titles like 'Mogambo Mom'.

But it's not been easy for parents to manage household chores and work from home wherein kids coolly walk in fish-faced, bawling away, during meetings or webinars. So then, how are parents keeping their kids engaged for entire days together, indoors? With content.

A small dipstick revealed the wide variety of content genres that kids (between the age-groups 4-9 years) are watching nowadays. Their responses included a healthy mix of books, games (AR and non-tech), role-playing, TV shows, OTT shows, movies etc. In short, a lot of edutaining content is being consumed at home.

Ritu Mukherjee, a mother and content professional, said, "Content is being explored, experienced in the form of reading physical books, Spotify podcasts for kids, audio story apps like Hey cloudy, songs, rhymes on Hey Google via JioSaavn, a good dose of video content chrome cast on TV (YT Kids, Netflix Kids, Disney Hotstar Movies).”

Jyothi C, a mom and social worker stated that her son, Kabir, loves wildlife shows and documentaries on Netflix. While, Sonal Shah, a homemaker has a son and daughter who made their own movie called Dino Park.

A lot of parents also mentioned that their kids watched YouTube shows around art, craft, dance, music, etc. A recent report by Techcrunch revealed that YouTube would be investing a humongous $100 million in kids' content centred on character and value building through life lessons. 

Little wonder then that a recent report by BARC stated that there has been a spurt in kids' content viewing by 39%, especially during the lockdown times. That's a no-brainer. What is interesting to see is what kind of kids content is trending, and how some brands leveraged this to connect with their audiences.

So, which content genres have been a hit with kids during the lockdown?

Some of the clear winners that emerged in the preferred content genres are:

• Content with messages of goodness through books or TV/ OTT shows.
• Content with life lessons and life skills through focussed learning methods or courses.
• Content with edutainment value on OTT / YouTube like Jalebi Street / Creative Galaxy.
• Content with pure learning like online workshops or classes.
• Content with knowledge building like science or environment studies.
• Content with pure entertainment.

Going forward, the kids' content industry is definitely going to swell if nothing else. With limited school timings and no other source of entertainment, until life limps back to normal, kids' content creators have a great opportunity to leverage the need. And so do brands.

Brands targeting kids as an audience making the most of this opportunity

With major streaming media owners like YouTube Kids, Disney+ Hotstar, Voot and independent kid stars with their own YouTube channels, it's a potential gold mine for brands to engage with kids. If not with the existing platforms, they can create their own content. For instance Hobby Ideas, the Art and Craft Division of Pidilite, 'crafted' an engaging content strategy during the lockdown to bond better with their primary target audience.

Bhavna Mishra

Bhavna Mishra, Content Manager, Pidilite Industries, said, "We created educational content through art workshops or online media for the kids using our portfolio of products. The content is pre-planned, researched and developed to suit the kids of various age groups. Our special artists teach art/craft like marbling on paper for cards on FB live or Instagram live sessions, especially on special occasions like Fathers' Day and Mother's Day in the last couple of months. We had some fun live sessions namely bubble painting too. As the online schools begin, we have initiated Saturday Art Classes live tutorials to engage them."

Also read: Authentic, relevant and need-solving content always finds a way amid clutter, says Shantanu Bhanja of Pidilite Industries

For working parents like Neha Shastri, or homemakers like Vidhi Shah, content like the Mahabharat, Ramayana and Krishna are a way to engage and educate kids about the country's epics.

The Indian superbrand of storytelling, Amar Chitra Katha, which thrives on mythology and history, is helping such kids stay in touch with their traditional roots.

Preeti Vyas

Preeti Vyas, President and Chief Operating Officer, Amar Chitra Katha, commented, "During stressful times, it is a human tendency to reach out for the comforting things, be it comfort food, music or content. Comfort helps alleviate anxiety. Content like comics, for instance, Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle fall right into this category. We found Indian parents from all over the world, downloading our apps and enjoying our content along with their children. Our ACK Learn Workshops also saw a fabulous response with children signing up to learn creative writing, listen to stories, make their own comic books and engage with our editorial teams."

Amar Chitra Katha's children's brand Tinkle, which is over 40 years old, created innovative packaging for the food brand Soulfull's new line of healthy snacks to access content digitally from the packaging. This is a win-win for the brand as well as the content platform to collaborate and reach out to add value.

Trends and tips from brand experts on creating content to engage with kids

Pidilite's Mishra reiterated that content engages, connects and builds a community for the brand leading to brand loyalty. "The power of content marketing was more effective during the lockdown period when most of our online platforms saw multi-fold growth figures for the brand and engagement too. For instance, our #ArtFromHome contest got a humongous response of 30,000 entries," she added.

Also read: Pidilite's art and craft platform Fevicreate and UGC platform Momspresso launch #IndiaCraftingMemories challenge

As for the new trends in content marketing for kids, Mishra pointed out two things:

1. Brands must offer age-specific content, i.e. what will work for a 4-year old might not work for an 8-year old.
2. Interactive content and augmented reality modules will work well.

Vyas of Amar Chitra Katha added, "Hybrid models like phygital content will come into play with the importance of digital deliveries shooting up. For instance, our regular issues of Tinkle will be digital, but once in a few months we will come up with printed versions too."

Even a brand like Google launched its Summer Camps for kids to activate their creativity and keep them busy with edutaining content like learning about water bodies in a fun way.

As younger kids are going to spend a lot more time at home and less time schooling, their lifestyles are going to be redefined for the coming months. With this, anxiety and depression might seep in naturally. But brands can certainly create tremendous value by solving these problems at hand, like Sesame Street and Headspace, leading apps in online meditation have created 'Monster Meditations', mindfulness content to teach kids meditation and cope with varying emotions.

Our kids are our future, and our future must be bright. Besides parents, it is the content creators and brands who have the power to decide what content kids will consume and what they will learn from it. And with this power comes great responsibility.

Use power responsibly.