Pie Face, TV and Children's viewing
At Christmas my children sat down to write their letters to Santa. This task consisted of grabbing the Argos catalogue and picking almost every toy that was on offer. As they were doing this and shouting out random toy names such as Doggie Doo and Gooey Louie, my attention was eventually spiked when my 7 year old pronounced that he wanted Thunderbirds for Christmas. After speaking with my wife to try and work out where my son’s new found interest had originated from, she informed me that he hadn’t actually watched the revived 70’s puppet show but had seen ITV’s promotions. After a quick survey of my children’s toys it dawned on me just how TV centric they were, from Disney to Turtles onto Dora and Peppa, most, if not all of my children’s favourite toys are from their most loved TV programmes
Yesterday a piece of research hit the media news regarding Children’s TV viewing habits and the shift that we are currently seeing. (https://bit.ly/1Qy1ywL) Such headlines as “Young people spend more time online than watching TV for first time” and “Time spent online 'overtakes TV' among youngsters” were accompanied with the usual social media comments of “TV is dead” and “We don’t even own a TV”, such comments are becoming as tiresome as the phrase “this is the year of the red button” which we heard tirelessly about ten years ago.
Thinkbox responded with a very good, data-led argument and yet despite this, a lot of people in media still believe that TV’s powers are waning and sometime soon, nobody will watch the “Box”. Despite this belief, in December 2015 Toys and Games brands invested far more in TV than they did the previous year (Nielsen), they obviously still believe that TV continues to play a crucial role in bringing their product to the children of today.
Alongside the research released yesterday, another article appeared in the Scotsman, detailing the top selling toys of Christmas 2015. Most, if not all, were significant spenders on TV, some brands like Lego, already have huge brands and large organic demand, but some products don’t, Pie Face is a good example.
Pie Face had the 5th largest share of voice in December on TV. In case you are unaware of what Pie Face is then let me explain: it’s a game where as an unsuspecting parent, you rest your chin on a little platform and await to be smacked in the face by whatever delight your little angel has left on the splatter….sort of bringing “Get your own back” to parent’s homes, delightful! The toy was so popular that videos started appearing across social media, where you could watch celebrities being splatted with said toy.
According to the article in the Scotsman, (https://bit.ly/1JI4eXg) Pie Face was the 5th biggest selling toy in the UK at Christmas, was this a consequence of a heavy TV campaign, probably…….
The internet is playing a crucial role in our children’s lives, from helping with homework to watching a vlogger play the latest level in Minecraft, however, children’s TV viewing still remains as strong as 2014 and for every Shopkins episode viewed on Youtube, millions are tuning in every month to CITV, Nick Jnr and Cartoon Network.
Yes, young people have far greater choice now, they don’t have to sit with their parents watching Emmerdale Farm, they can view what they want when they want and when they grow up and have a TV of their own, they will do just that. Additionally, there are a growing number of people who believe advertising on TV to children should be banned altogether, such is the effect it has. Whether we like it or not, TV stills plays a huge role in shaping our children’s imagination, wants and ultimately, their young lives.