Note to advertisers: Kids are key family buying influencers

Kids’ purchasing power is soaring. If you’re a parent like me, this should come as no surprise. They have enormous influence in the household, from what to watch and where to eat to vacation choices, car purchases and much more. The list is endless, which makes the marketing opportunities huge.

With HappyKids—Future Today’s owned and operated advertising video on demand (AVOD) streaming service—our research showed that 67% of our HappyKids parents are heavily influenced by their children when deciding where to shop and what to buy. We also found that families talk about streaming TV ads more than any other media platform.

In fact, they talk about in-program ads more than about what’s going on in gaming or being promoted on TikTok or by social influencers. With HappyKids, 87% of viewers 9 to 12 years old talk about the ads they see with their family. And the behavior of younger age groups is nearly identical: 86% of kids 6 to 8 years old and 78% of kids 3 to 5 years old talk about HappyKids ads.

Kids today are also watching more TV than ever before, a likely result of changing habits that came with COVID. HappyKids viewing time increased more than 160% year-over-year in 2021. And considering that parents are now spending more time with their families—another trend accelerated by COVID—it’s no surprise that co-viewing has also reached an all-time high.

This opens the door to reach both highly engaged young audiences as well as their parents at the same time. We found that only 13% of kids watch HappyKids alone, and this drops to less than 4% for kids under 6.

As a result, kids and parents are becoming much more aware of brands they see on CTV and are having meaningful conversations about them. Kids have an opinion and it’s brand-specific. We are learning that brand loyalty starts at a very early age, setting the stage for advertisers to have potential lifelong consumer fidelity.

The seismic shift from linear

AVOD channels that are focused on kids and family are getting greater viewership and engagement, even as linear cable TV viewing is becoming less enticing. More than half of U.S. consumers now prefer using free ad-supported video services to reduce or eliminate costly subscription fees, and research shows that 91% of our HappyKids audience say they seldom watch cable TV.

In addition, AVOD ads are twice as relevant to viewers’ interests than those seen on cable or broadcast TV. What this means is simple: great brand recall.

It’s crucial for the market to keep up with trends like these, and vital to our ability to be effective partners with consumers. Kids’ “approval” of household purchasing decisions is causing a shift in the advertising gears for many companies intent on becoming “family brands.”

In short, if you’re not buying kids programming, maybe it’s time you should. Just ask the kids themselves.