| Kids stuff - not so easy... When
we consider what makes the majority of attractions successful -
there's one common denominator - yep...'those meddling kids!' They
might be a nuisance but as many family-oriented attractions are
now finding, there’s a big hole when they’re no longer
around.
Families are a major influence - children need to be happy to
keep the Mums and Dads happy (and Grannies and Grandpas) and Mums
and Dads are happy if they can educate, amuse and enjoy their days
out with their children. Happy families are what we aspire to!
So,
it's simple – just
show the children a great time. Actually, what that really means
is to hope that wherever you (or they) choose
to go, the attraction will be on the children's wavelength and
accommodate them so well that they'll take the pressure off you,
and leave the entire family happier, more in love with each other,
and feeling rewarded, educated and closer than ever. And leaving
everyone with great memories!
Let’s be realistic though. While all this may in theory
be possible, children generally get in for 'half price' but you
still have to invest in marketing to them. Perhaps it’s better
to focus on full paying grown ups?
I
reflected on my childhood, and now at the ripe old age of 45,
I find myself
taking my children to the places that impressed me
as a child - and that’s true for many of us. Children are
important, the adults of the future. Children are increasingly
important influencers and pester power is strong.
We
need to face the facts though and consider why some of your marketing
might not be working. Kids are not just kids. They also
go through life stages and need different approaches, just like
you’d target 25- 35 year olds differently to 50 – 60
years olds. James Marsh at b3 creative is an expert in 'communicating
with children' and offers this free advice
Ascertain the age of your target group very carefully. Children
can be conveniently divided into the following age groups: Up to
4/5 years (preschool and reception); 5 -11 (key stage 1 and 2)
though this is better subdivided into 5 - 7 years (key stage 1);
and 8 - 11 years (key stage 2) and 11 -13 years (key stage 3);
and 14 - 18 years (key stage 4 and further education).
In the younger age groups, language must be simple with short,
interesting sentences. Most of the communication should be through
use of images and colour, often bright primary colours. Children
of this age group respond to illustration rather than photography.
They will often read magazines and books with their parents, rather
than on their own. They want parental approval.
Decided
whether a campaign is aimed at boys, girls or both. If it is
aimed at
both, design the campaign to be slightly slanted
towards boys. Girls will generally respond but boys aren’t
interested in something seen as girlish. So limited the pink and
other pastel colours.
As
children get older and become more sophisticated, language use
becomes
more complex - jokes based on puns become popular,
for instance. There is increased awareness of what is happening
in TV, music, film and fashion. Colour palettes become increasingly
sophisticated and diverse. Images tend to be photographic or illustrations
with a "street" style.
All children love free stuff (don't we all...) but be warned that
what seems to be the height of fashion now, will be over with in
a couple of months. So if someone offers to do a campaign for next
summer using wristbands, don't say we didn't warn you.
Don't believe the hype! The number of pop groups, films and gadgets
aimed at children is enormous - and most fail despite PR campaigns.
As a rule of thumb, if it's got a major celebrity buying into it,
it'll probably work. But only probably. Teenagers in particular
have a highly-tuned bullsh** detector - if there's any whiff of
something being fake, they'll spot it. And, no matter what they
say, nobody really knows what the next big thing is...
Beware referring to your own childhood as a bench mark! The music
and TV programmes that we remember from our childhood are ancient
history to today's children. Until it all comes around again...
Make it fun and the children will come with you. Make it straight
and your audience will drift away. Remember school is where they
have to do work, outside of that is playtime!
For
more information email james@b3online
.co.uk
© Mark
Hendriksen
mark@b3online.co.uk
B3 recently
helped The Tourism Network with a project to promote the Pool of
London area to young children and families. Take a
look at what they did on www.pooloflondon.com to
download the Family Friendly Trails they helped to devise. The objective was to position
the Pool of London as the family friendly destination in London,
something no other area is currently doing. In addition to making
the trails available from the website, 15,000 trail leaflets have
also been printed and distributed through Tourist Information Centres,
local attractions, the Britain and London Visitor Centre. This
has also resulted in extensive PR coverage in national regional
and local press, on websites and London TV.
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