DEMYSTIFYING MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ADVERTISING WITH A CHILDREN’S TV STATION.

As the Head of Partnerships at Akili Network, I spend most, if not all my time working on securing brand partnership deals. In just one year, Akili Kids! has become the NUMBER ONE tv station for households in Kenya that have children under the age of 14 years, which make up 66% of the Kenyan population. In addition, we are the ONLY Free to Air children’s TV station in Kenya, available on all major platforms of DSTV, GOTV, Startimes, Zuku and all FTA platforms.

Despite all this, my greatest task remains convincing brands that they will get value while advertising with Akili Kids!, a children’s tv station. Most of them have trouble believing that. So I thought perhaps, I’d address the two common misconceptions out there.

Misconception 1: Parents and Caregivers Do Not Watch Children’s TV Stations.

This is untrue.

In a recent report, ‘Making Screen Time Family Time’ out of the 3,000 families in the study, 62% confirmed there was co-viewership in their homes. The study also noted that there was a 23% increase in the viewership sessions of children’s content since the covid-19 pandemic hit.

 Co-viewership is not only unique to the West, as a matter of fact, Akili Kids! thrives on co-viewership. As per our November Geopoll survey, the channel has a weekly viewership of over 5.4 million children and 4.3million adults between 6am and 6pm. This means that parents and caregivers indeed watch the channel. That is not all, it is very impressive to see parents on our Facebook page inquiring about changes in programming because they got home from work looking forward to watching their favourite show on Akili Kids! only to realise the show is no longer airing at the usual time. This clearly tells us that parents and caregivers watch the station. Another form of evidence is the thousands of SMS' we receive daily, weekly and the parents phone numbers we have compiled to form a solid data base.

Misconception 2: Children do not influence purchasing choices in the home.

I always look forward to Friday evenings because I get to pick my son up from school and spend some time with him. Last Friday, he was especially happy. I could see him run towards me with so much excitement. He gave me a big hug and said ‘Dad! You have to get me a piggy bank first thing tomorrow!’ He even went a step further to describe the exact bank we would be getting this piggy bank from. The specificity in his details was astounding and I had to find out where he got all this information from. Apparently, a lady from one of the local banks had visited the school and talked to them about savings and getting a piggy bank. Best believe, the next morning I was woken up at 6am to get ready for our piggy bank errand.

This is Pester Power! And children thrive at it.

The moment a child gets an idea about something they would like to own, they will not rest until they have it. They will not stop talking about it and will pester their parents who will eventually cave in, (if I’m being honest, we do it for our own peace of mind). Children influence a lot of decisions at home. A study done in Australia revealed that children under the age of 18years influenced up to 70% of the home purchasing decisions. In the United States, children under 12 years added influence on their family marketing decisions that reached up to US $165 billion on some consumer products!

Clearly, pester power is a marketing tool that can no longer be overlooked.

It is very easy to spot to a great brand in the making. Akili Kids! is undeniably a force to reckon with. As we continue to be the safest destination for children all over Kenya, I am positive that more brands will become aware of the opportunities they have been 'sleeping' on and finally see the great value in advertising their products on our channel.