| Marketing |
| Written by Marjorie Teresa R. Perez / AdMix / joyetteperez@yahoo.com |
| Monday, 23 November 2009 18:38 |
|
As such, they’ve developed characteristics that set them apart from previous generations. The years that span from preteens to early adulthood have always been a stage of exploration and curiosity; now, the New Gen must find ways to navigate the seemingly infinite sources of information and possibility. Both opportunities and challenges are vast for the New Gen. They know this, and have responded with a depth and maturity perhaps never before seen at such a young age.
Based in Hong Kong, Carr directly oversees television and interactive advertising sales for the properties that Turner Entertainment represents across 11 offices. He is responsible for 14 television channels: Cartoon Network’s India, Australia, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Pakistan and Southeast Asia feeds; WB and POGO in India; Boomerang in Australia and Southeast Asia; Turner Classic Movies (TCM); and HBO in South Asia; as well as eight Cartoon Network online destinations and the TCM, WB and POGO web sites. Many would say that Cartoon Network has an advantage attaining its high level of intimacy, because it offers the best in animated entertainment, drawing from the world’s largest cartoon library of Warner Bros. MGM and Hanna-Barbera titles. First, the network is more than a brand. It is the No. 1 channel for kids in Asia-Pacific and is currently seen in over 61 million cable homes in the region. Online, Cartoon Network reaches 3.4 million unique visitors a month in Asia-Pacific. Its vision has now grown to a global level, with popular original series as Ben 10, Ben 10: Alien Force, Chowder, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, and is also home to many innovative programming blocks like Good Morning Scooby and Chunky Weekend Toons, reaching a worldwide audience. So why does Cartoon Network continue to crush everyone in terms of market share? In developing Turner Entertainment’s Web 2.0 advertising revenue business across markets, Cartoon Network built a market around kids (and even adults) who embody its greatest brand attribute—innovation. The channel has once again come to represent leading-edge technology solutions that are part of day-to-day life. Today Cartoon Network is embedded tangibly and emotionally in its consumers’ habits and practices. In the process, it has created a brand community of epic proportions. “When we talk about market trends, it’s more than TV. It continues to dominate with 77 percent of advertising revenues. Internet users summed up 43 percent [71-percent cafés, 27-percent homes] and 68 million mobile users with 60-percent penetration,” Carr said. These are good things. In fact, they are critically important things. But this columnist feels that creating an emotional connection with Cartoon Network goes a step further. To get kids to carry your brand around in their hearts and minds, you have to stand for something, and that “something” needs to resonate with your community. Whether it is the exclusivity of the network or the comfortable familiarity of “connecting with kids,” one of the most important factors in engaging Cartoon Network is making the leap from consumers’ minds to their hearts. Carr drives its sponsorship and promotions team to deliver market-leading partner integration opportunities across brands. It strives to engage in a dialogue with all its consumers’ senses. Visually, it engages consumers with amazing strategic partnerships of connecting brands (bringing consumers), regional converge (local relevance) and delivering ROI (moving product). The Chowder Chow-Down Summer Stunt 2009 is an example of a 360-degree campaign that has simplified its core message and offer, and communicates a consistent shared message worldwide. This is not to say that other campaigns do not ever modify their approaches for regional relevance, but it does mean that any fanatic of the Cartoon Network knows what to expect from the brand. “The Chowder Chow-Down Summer Stunt had 13,668 kid entries via online, SMS with 11,000 clue cards [competition and promotion]. The HP Toon Creator Awards got 26,000 individual entries [175 from schools and 5,200 school entries] and generated 2.5 million animations viewed (with 151,000 animations created. The Ben 10 Game Creator connected 60,000 kids averaging 30 minutes per visit. Two games were played every second with 60 million games played and 350,000 games created,” he furthered. Games, an enormous growth area that has surpassed Hollywood in size, provide a variety of options for in-game sponsorships, tie-ins and product placements. At the same time, networked games and sites are creating enormous platforms within which kids interact. This social connectivity of digital media is a central point that marketers habituated to traditional, one-way media must grasp. “The challenge for marketers is how best to utilize that space. They can’t ignore this new media,” Carr stressed. More content will be dynamic, he noted, the large multiplayer game platforms and virtual universes are filled with dynamic content that is in perpetual creation by participants. They are also taking advertising materials and creating new things with existing logos, mascots and commercials. New technology will increase interactivity through new media touch points. Effectively, all new media will be used for direct-response activity. “Gaming is king but video is catching up,” he added. More screens in kids’ lives will be filled with video, with 78 percent using Internet applications and 62 percent watching videos. Plus, the use of Internet zoomed up at 45 percent, 23-percent handheld video games and 23 percent play video games (via TV). Mobile penetration is growing at 38 percent among kids aged 7 to 14. According to Carr, all businesspeople today need to be fully literate in the world of new media. Games, blogs and web sites are not obscure destinations visited only by teenagers with a lot of free time on their hands. Instead, these channels have enormous audiences that include both genders, all age groups and (increasingly) rural populations. Admittedly, there is still a gap between rich and poor—the so-called digital divide. However, even in places in rural India there are programs underway to bring digital access to the populace. Already, nonmetros and small towns in India account for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s Internet users. No marketers should dismiss digital channels as being irrelevant to them. “New media will continue to attract ever larger audiences. Consequently, marketers will shift more of their activities to these channels. However, marketers will use them as one-to-one channels, not as ‘mass’ media,” he said. Perhaps the most profound impact will be seen in the most vulnerable of traditional media: television. TV has already gone through major changes over the years, such as the development of cable, and the resulting explosion of targeted channels. But while cable lets people watch more tailored programming, they are still passive viewers. Internet will take television into the digital world. Television will evolve to have all the goodies that come along with digitalization. Carr has 16 years’ combined experience in broadcast and digital-media sales. Prior to appointment at Turner, Carr was partner and director at International Media Representation Co. Pty. Ltd., managing blue-chip international media groups for Australia and New Zealand. He has extensive experience in media buying and communication-strategy development from working in leading advertising agencies, such as John Singleton, OMD and McCann Erickson; on key multinational clients, including Coca-Cola South Pacific, Nestlé Australia, Colgate Palmolive, Levi’s, Pepsi Co., Microsoft Asia Pacific and Marriott Hotels. Carr had also spent four years at the Turner headquarters in Hong Kong as advertising sales account director for CNN. |
The New Generation is coming of age in a unique time. The modes of media have multiplied. Links around the globe are as prevalent down the street. Influences and ideas, cultures and connections are fluid, omnipresent and ever changing, traveling at the speed of data on the Internet. The New Generation represents the first generation to grow up assuming this is the way the world operates.
What sets the New Generations apart? In a roundtable, Jeremy Carr, vice president, regional entertainment advertising sales for Turner Entertainment Networks Asia Inc., revealed that approximately 3.7 million kids aged 7 to 14 in Manila, Cebu and Davao have spending power with total pocket money of P34.5 billion (91 percent kids) and total gift money of P7.6 billion (96-percent kids), amounting to P42 billion per year (vs. P37 billion in 2007). Boys and girls alike shared their interest in TV shows with 27 percent and 33 percent, respectively.