VOLUME
12
Heard
on the Playground
What's
New This Month
Tech
Trends
Kids
Tweens
Teens
Trend
Watch
Upcoming
Events in Youth Marketing
Heard
on the Playground
September
11, 2001
What
do kids think about the tragic events of September 11? How are they coping?
In this monthís Heard on the Playground we asked and hereís
what we heardÖ
Many
kids found out what happened while they were at school. Some did not hear about it until they got home or while at
a friendís house. But
the reaction was immediate and overwhelmingókids were scaredóand
they still are.
How
could something like this happen, they want to know.
To find out kids turned to their parents, especially mom,
and to their teachers for information and explanations. They began
looking at newspapers and magazines more.
Turning to their friends and the TV, all in an effort to
understand. The kids we talked to never thought anything this awful could
happen in their lives.
Daily
life has definitely changed for these kids.
Shoot ëem up video games suddenly seem too real and kidsí
heroes have switched over night from sports figures to police officers
and fire fighters. Thereís
more to think aboutómore homeworkómore sadnessómore reality than
fantasy. Kids aspire now to be architects and engineers so they can
help rebuild the twin towers and the Pentagon.
Truly, a kidís world was turned upside down that day, too.
But
kids are resilientóthey like hearing the stories of rescueóstories
that make them feel happy and safe again.
Wanting to do something, they donate their allowance to the
Red Cross and observe moments of silence.
They wear t-shirts with the American flag.
And they support the president.
They give him an A grade for all he is doing but many donít
want him to attack Afghanistan but rather try peaceful negotiation
instead.
ìDonít
send armies and weapons because itís mean and hurtful,î says nine-year-old
Ryan who says he fears WWIII. Ryan has a message for the terrorists,
tooóa practical message he hopes will make his world feel safer
againÖ
ìYou
can hate us,î he says, ìbut you donít have to hurt us.î
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What's
New This Month
Coming Soon to Theaters
Packed with Screaming Girls Near You
Even
though it is the Backstreet Boys who had a song about being ìLarger
than Lifeî, it is two members of the group ëNSYNC that are hitting
the silver screen. For fans that canít get enough of the group, Lance Bass and
Joey Fatone will both be making their feature film debuts in the
Miramax film ìOn the Lineî which premieres October 26.
In
a nutshell, the film follows the old ìBoy meets girl. Boy
doesnít get the girlís name or phone number. Boy and his friend
comb the city to find the girl.î plot. Lance plays the role
of boy, named Kevin, and Joey tackles the role of his buddy Rod.
While the ending is not given, it is certainly more than
likely that there is a happy ending, at least on the screen.
It is hard to tell how millions of girls will take to Lance
ending up with the girl of his dreams, be it fiction or reality.
Of
course, music will play a vital part in the film. The soundtrack includes a duet by Lance Bass and the Reverend
Al Green, remakes of several Al Green classics, and a new song performed
by Joey Fatone as well as two new songs from ëNSYNC.
Be it on lunch boxes or in movies, todayís pop artists are
using both old and new mediums to stay in the lives of their fans.
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Tech
Trends
Conversation for the Water Fountain
Adults
arenít the only ones that like to play Monday morning quarterback.
According to a recent report by the Amateur Athletic Foundation
and ESPN, 42% of children ages 8 to 17 visit sports-related sites
on the Internet.
Eight percent of the kids who use the Internet for
sports information do so on a daily basis and 32% do so a couple
of times a week. The
majority (57%) said that they check out these sites less than once
a week. Boys were much
more likely to be in the first two groups with 12% logging on daily
and 38% logging on a couple of times per week.
Aside from time spent online, there are some other
differences in usage of Internet sports sites between boys and girls.
Boys are more likely to visit websites on professional sports
than girls, 84% to 74% respectively.
On the other hand, girls (72%) are much more likely than
boys (46%) to visit sites about high school, college, or Olympic
sports.
The top three sports boys look up
on the Internet are NFL Football, NBA Basketball and baseball, both
major and minor league. For
girls, the top three are Soccer, NBA Basketball and NFL Football.
Most of this sports-themed web surfing takes place at home
(75%), but school (34%) and a friend/relativeís home (21%) are also
popular spots for sports craving individuals.
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Kids
All Dressed
Up with Somewhere to Go
A
holiday that brings roughly $6 billion dollars in spending is just
around the corner, and weíre not talking about Columbus Day (Thatís
Monday, October 8 for those wondering).
Halloween is the second largest holiday in terms of dollars
spent, right behind a little holiday in December.
Costumes sales are an approximate $1.3 billion dollar (22%)
slice of that big Halloween pie with candy taking up another $1.9
billion. The remaining $2.8 billion dollars involves everything
else from pumpkins to decorations to parties and cards.
So
what will kids be wearing this year?
A recent study by Disguise, Inc., an international costume
maker based in San Diego found that there is not a ìmust haveî costume
this year. Instead,
parents of children ages 0-9 listed more traditional characters
like princesses and pumpkins.
The top six costumes overall for girls and boys consisted
of a Princess, a Pumpkin, Power Rangers, Winnie the Pooh, Barbie,
and PokÈmon.
The
survey of 614 parents took place before the events of September
11. Disguise, Inc.
noted that many retailers had contacted them about firefighter and
police officer costumes, but due to timing those requests could
not be met. That doesnít
mean that kids wonít get creative in their efforts to emulate societyís
newest heroes.
With
the new Harry Potter movie set for release next month, donít be surprised
to see multiple bespectacled kids on broomsticks either.
While there are always certain costumes that seem more prevalent
than others, kids and adults alike love the opportunity to transform
into someone or something else, so any costume is possible.
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Tweens
Songs for a Cause
Kids
of all ages continue to look for ways to help a good cause.
Now, some of their favorite artists are going to give them
a way to help while they listen to a new song that is sure to be
one of the most popular and most played of 2001.
Michael Jackson is heading up an all-star benefit
single to help survivors and families of victims from the September
11 attacks. The song
entitled ìWhat More Can I Giveî will include some of the most popular
artists among tweens like Destinyís Child, Nick Carter of Backtstreet
Boys, his younger brother Aaron Carter, Usher and Mya.
Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake have committed verbally
but their participation on the project has not been confirmed.
With the ability to create a $100 million dollar
brand themselves, tweens will play a big role in helping the project
meet the $50 million dollar goal Jackson has set.
The chances are that ìWhat More Can I Giveî will surpass
Elton Johnís tribute to Princess Diana ìCandle in the Windî as the
highest selling single of all time.
There are many other musicians donating portions
of ticket sales or donating money.
Bono of U2 and Jermaine Dupri are producing another all-star
single, a remake of Marvin Gayeís ìWhatís Going Onî.
It will feature artists like Alicia Keys, ëNSYNC, Britney
Spears, Destinyís Child, P. Diddy, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani
and several other tween favorites.
It was originally intended as a benefit for World AIDS Day
with proceeds to help AIDS research in Africa, but now half of the
proceeds will go to the United Ways September 11th Fund.
Tweens already have a passion for music and a desire
to help out causes, so any song that comes out to benefit victims
of this tragedy will have a great deal of success.
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Teens
Keeping Their Nose to the Grindstone
The
Horatio Alger Association recently released the 2001 State of Our
Nationís Youth, a study of 1,014 teenagers that were identified
as freshmen through seniors in high school.
It included information on schools, extra-curricular activities
and their future plans.
Multitasking
has become a way of life for tweens and teens.
While for tweens this means instant messaging friends while
talking on the phone, doing homework and watching television, it
is much more for todayís teens.
They
are working part time jobs while participating in after school sports
and clubs as they juggle their homework and making plans for the
future. They also know
that this is only the beginning for them, with 92% saying graduating
from high school means moving on to some form of higher education.
In fact, 84% think that college is critical or very important.
There
is no down time for these teenagers, with 85% of teens saying they
are involved in at least one activity in their school.
This includes 49% that participate in at least two and 30%
that take part in three or more.
Some of the more popular activities are sport teams or clubs
(59%), bands, choirs, or orchestras (26%), and drama clubs (16%).
On
top of all of these activities, 43% of teens hold a job outside
their school, with a great deal of this number coming from high
school juniors (59%) and seniors (68%).
Of the teens that work, 73% work over 10 hours per week and
27% work over 20 hours per week. Sixty-three percent of teens say they work simply to earn extra
spending money while 25% do so to help save for college or help
their families pay bills.
In
a society that hardly seems to slow down, teens have taken on the
world and gotten involved in as much as they can, leaving the laissez
faire attitude to tweens and kids, who only do homework, chat in emails,
talk to friends, listen to music, watch televisionÖall in preparation
for multitasking in the real world at the ripe old age of 13 or 14.
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Trend Watch
Pop Goes the
Wet Seal
There
is going to be a lot of tween and teen girls dressing like Ana Maria,
Ivette, Rosanna, Nicole and Maile in the near future.
For those not familiar with that quintet of young women,
they are the members of Edenís Crush, the band formed on The WBís
reality television series ìPopstars.î
A joint venture between teen retailer Wet Seal and The WB
will produce a ìPopstarsî Collection, which will be designed and
sold by Wet Seal in over 450 stores nationwide.
The
collection will be displayed in designated in-store boutiques with
video screens that will show highlightís from the show.
Wet Seal will also sell the CD in the store as well as play
it over the storeís sound system.
The
premiere of ìPopstars 2î is set for October 18 on The WB, but this
time guys will be added to the mix as a new band is formed right
before millions of viewersí eyes.
With a new fashion line coming out at the same time, the
wardrobe department on the set will no doubt be dressing the new
group in the ìPopstarsî Collection.
The
partnership is an ongoing part of Wet Sealís marketing strategy to
work with their target marketís favorite talents.
In the past, they have done promotions with Sony/Epic Records,
Warner Brothers Records, MTV, Paramount Pictures and MGM.
Now fans of ìPopstarsî will be able to emulate their favorite
stars even faster, and in their eyes, thereís nothing better than
being in tune with them.
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Upcoming Events
in Youth Marketing
Kid
Clout: Marketing
to Kids 2001
November 8-9, 2001
Renaissance WorldGate Hotel, Kissimmee, Florida
The
Strategic Research Institute will bring together a range of kid
experts at KIDCLOUT: Marketing to Kids 2001 on November 8-9, 2001
in Florida. At this event, you will receive valuable information
and insights into the kids market. Presenters will take you into
the lives of kids, their friends, families and other influencers
with new insights and research that will expand your knowledge about
marketing to kids. Corporate case studies and new product developments
will help you develop successful marketing strategies for your own
business.
To
register, please call Aneissa Rosas at 212-967-0095
x 230, email arosas@srinstitute.com
or visit www.srinstitute.com/cm366.
Teen
Power 2001
December 3-6, 2001 Westin River North, Chicago
At
the fifth annual Mega Event, Teen Power 2001, scheduled for December
3-6, 2001, the Kid Power Xchange will proudly serve as your host for
a live gathering of the best and brightest teen marketers. Thousands
of marketers worldwide have attended Kid Power Xchange events, and
have reaped the benefits of hearing from renowned teen marketing gurus.
As
a valued colleague of Youth University, you will receive your choice
of a FREE workshop or $400
off the registration fee. To register, please call 800-882-8684,
email info@kidpowerx.com,
or visit www.kidpowerx.com. Be
sure to mention key code C*99WGEM
when registering to receive your choice of a FREE
workshop or $400 off the registration fee!
Licensing
to Kids
December 5 - 7, 2001
New York Marriott East Side, New York
IIR's Consumer Kids and
LIMA present LICENSING
TO KIDS conference, December 5-7, 2001 at New York's Marriott Eastside.
With a "who's who" of the licensing to kids business speaker
faculty, this is one event you can't afford to miss! Speakers
include senior-level executives from: Hasbro, Spencer Gift, Dan
River, FAO Schwarz, Infogrames, Toys R Us, Nickelodeon, Vivendi
Interactive, Cartoon Network, Sony Pictures, Disguise, Lisa Frank,
Activision, Marvel, Gullane Entertainment, Play Along Toys, Shopko,
Mead, Fun 4 All...and more! For more information, visit: www.iirusa.com/licensing/,
call
Wendy Fullem at 212-661-3500 x 3018, or e-mail: wfullem@iirusa.com...Coming
soon:
www.consumerkids.net
Talking
to Teens
January 23-25, 2002
The Roosevelt Hotel, New York City
IIR's Consumer Kids presents
the sixth annual TALKING TO TEENS conferenceóresearched
and designed to dig deep beneath the surface to explore what is
motivating, meaningful and relevant to your prospective teen consumer,
the mediums by which they are best going to respond to your message,
and how to break through the marketing clutter. This yearís speakers include executives from:
AT&T, Eastman Kodak, ESPN, Fox Family, The National Hockey
League, Pacific Sunwear, Partnership for a Drug Free America, Polaroid,
Procter & Gamble, Sony Electronics, Teenage Research Unlimited,
U.S. Youth Soccer, YM Magazine, and more, including a special performance
by SOLANGE KNOWLES! To learn more about Talking to
Teens, please call Wendy Fullem at 212-661-3500 x 3018, or e-mail:
wfullem@iirusa.com...Coming
soon:
www.consumerkids.net
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For
more information about WonderGroup please visit our website at www.wondergroup.com
For
advertising, product development, research and more, contact
Greg Livingston at theshadow@wondergroup.com
or (513) 357-2950.
See
you next month!
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