Brand-defining original content, continued cross-platform acceleration, and a stretch to serve millennials like never before are the hallmarks of this year’s kids Upfront market.

This year Disney Media Sales and Marketing is representing 17 new series, 28 current series, the Radio Disney Music Awards and two new original movies across Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD. At least two of the new series – Disney Channel’s animated Tangled: Before Ever After and Disney XD’s adaptation of the theatrical Big Hero 6 – are extensions of past film hits for the Disney family. Additionally, Chris Nee, the creator behind hit series Doc McStuffins, is bringing Disney Junior a new project, Vampirina, based on a Disney Publishing title about a young vampire girl whose family moves from Transylvania to Pennsylvania.

To hammer home its engagement delivery in specific sectors, brand and agency execs at Disney Upfront events this month heard not only from different Disney Channel divisions, but in the context of the different demographics the company serves: moms with preschoolers, kids 6-11, tweens 9-14 and millennials.

“We’re taking a different approach,” Rita Ferro, EVP, Disney Media Sales & Marketing, tells CynKids. “We have audiences that are core to Disney Media, and our discussions are about how we engage with each of them. What’s the content that most resonates with each sector, what are the insights that are driving conversations, broken down by audience. So the conversation is how we engage mom in her first screen, which tends to be mobile and social, and kids in their screens by creating programs that take advantage of audiences across the ecosystem.”

No longer a destination for curated content, Sprout is on track to double originals in 2016 and triple the count by 2018. “We know our consumers are engaged with our brands, so the challenge now is proving this for advertisers,” says Laura Molen, EVP NBCU lifestyle ad sales. Molen says the network has been working with a research company to gauge brand engagement, and the net averages more than 50 minutes of total viewing in an hour. “The co-viewing combined with this engagement has really translated to product consumption for advertisers.”

New series Dot, which launches in September and follows a highly tech-savvy young girl, is opening up advertising avenues in the electronics space, Molen notes. Upcoming series Kody Kapow!, about a Chinese-American boy whose grandfather teachers him mixed martial arts, is aging up the audience a bit, she says, which should translate to new ad verticals.

Cartoon Network’s new release slate is topped with one of the net’s most beloved and successful properties – the new Powerpuff Girls series, which debuts April 4. “Engagement starts with story,” says CN chief global content officer Rob Sorcher. “Cartoon Network puts animation talent at the core, driving content for all screens. Engagement also means being everywhere the audience is, requiring IP executions in many different forms – including custom advertiser content integrations.”

PBS Kids, too, continues to feed the pipeline with new original content. On deck from the network is Splash, a series from longtime collaborator the Jim Henson Co. That series and others will help fuel the launch of a 24/7 PBS Kids channel this fall to complement its existing offering.

At its early March presentation in NY, Nickelodeon execs detailed a new season that includes 650-plus episodes of new and returning series. Several new live-action entries demonstrate the network’s power play into the sports world, building on its Kids’ Choice Sports Awards summer event and telecast. Newbies include sports bloopers and user-generated content hub Crashletes, hosted by New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, and All In with Cam Newton, featuring the Carolina Panthers quarterback helping kids achieve their dreams.

Nickelodeon has seen a ratings rise for its preschool-focused Nick Jr., and will bolster existing series including PAW Patrol and Blaze and the Monster Machines with new projects Rusty Rivets and Sunny Day.

“We have worked hard to deepen our relationships with our audience, our partners and the creative community to keep our momentum growing, and we remain unwavering in our mission to put kids first,” Cyma Zarghami, president of the Viacom Kids and Family Group, said at the Upfront.

“We are programming these different platforms content-specific. We simply want to offer our sellable assets to advertisers in the same way families and kids are consuming it,” Joe Hogan, EVP of Turner emerging ad sales, tells CynKids. Hogan and his team this year are hosting meetings at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, where brand execs can see the ideation of content across platforms. “We’re showing them how we are ideating for each platform and how a show could start on mobile or start as an app and make its way to a linear show or just stay in that space. There is no one correct recipe,” Hogan says.

For the K6-11 market, based on learnings from its 2015 original movie Descendants, Ferro says, “We know kids want to own content, create content and share the content. Wherever the kids are, we will have content on that platform. YouTube is really important, they want to share.” On the older end of the Disney kids demo, Ferro says the company is accelerating the presence of Disney talent as social influencers, particularly in the 9-14 tween market now that Maker Studios and its associated talent are members of the Mouse family.

Cross-platform content and sponsorship opportunities are also top of mind for the new PBS Kids channel, which launches 24/7 this spring. Lesli Rotenberg, GM of children’s programming at PBS, tells CynKids there will be “more opportunities for potential sponsors to associate themselves with PBS Kids programs and get a broader reach as we reach more kids and families on more platforms.”
 
Brands are connecting the dots among platforms, too. “Our targets are seamlessly moving from platform to platform as they consume content on-demand, so we’re absolutely looking at everything holistically now,” says Carole Louie, Clorox Associate Director, Global COE, Media. "What’s critical is understanding when certain platforms may be more important for the audience, and why. That understanding also helps us determine when they will be most receptive to our message, increasing engagement. It’s the intersection of the right target at the right time with the right message that ultimately drives our spending decisions."
 
In fact, Clorox’s longstanding partnership with Disney began in the digital arena when they developed custom programs to meet specific brand needs. "Today, we’re working more closely with Disney to understand what new opportunities they have in development and how we can get involved at an earlier stage,” Louie says. "This enables us to build even stronger programs that deliver on Clorox objectives but also fully leverages the strength of the Disney equities.”

“We have a tremendous resonance with millennials because they grew up on Disney brands and there’s a big story around social and mobile and how they continue to connect with us,” Ferro says. “It speaks to the broadness of our content,” she adds, noting the high amount of content from fan art to Disney character tattoos that are shared around the Internet.

A stronger embrace of millennials means a stretching of brands that the company is partnering with. This past year Disney worked with Coffee-Mate on a campaign around the new Star Wars movie, an activation with Verizon tied to the film, and a partnership with Facebook around Small Business Saturday that featured Muppets characters, Ferro demonstrates. “It provides a different extension that we can add to the mix, and at the end of the day it’s still all about families and how to speak to the different subsets that make up families,” she says.

Nickelodeon’s Upfront presentation included a strong push for millennials, with previews not only of content young parents can share with their own kids but for devotees of the network’s classic fare with ‘90s content block The Splat. Betting on proven winners that hold big appeal for millennials, Nick is planning a new two-part animated Hey Arnold TV movie, and a new series based on the game show Legends of the Hidden Temple. A TV reboot of 2003 film School of Rock premiered earlier this month after the Kids’ Choice Awards.

Millennial moms are a key demo in the Sprout universe, Molen says. “The median age for parents watching Sprout overall is 37,” notes Molen.  “That’s 14 years younger than the cable average and 16 years younger than the general TV number.”

Lynn Leahey: Editorial Director @Lynn_Leahey
Roberta Caploe: Publisher @robertacaploe
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group 

Cynopsis Ad Sales: Mike Farina | VP, Sales | 203-218-6480
Cynopsis Job Listings Sales: Trish Pihonak | Director of Operations | 203-899-8459

Copyright Cynopsis 2016