Advertising to Children and Teens: Current Practices

Advertising to Children and Teens: Current Practices A Common Sense Media Research Brief SPRING 2014 Advertising to Children and Teens: Current Practices A Common Sense Media Research Brief Table of Contents Introduction ................................................ 5 Findings ...................................................... 7 Television advertising ............................................................................... 7 Product placement and embedded advertising ....................................... 8 Cross-promotions .................................................................................... 9 Online advertising .................................................................................... 9 Mobile advertising ...................................................................................13 Integrated marketing campaigns .............................................................14 Conclusion ............................................... 15 References ............................................... 17 © 2014 COMMON SENSE MEDIA ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN AND TEENS: CURRENT PRACTICES 3 Introduction The average American child age 8 or The media environment for children and teens has changed older spends more than seven hours dramatically in recent years, and so, too, has the advertising environment — perhaps even more so. In the past, advertising a day with screen media, watching to children and youth consisted primarily of 30-second TV TV, using the computer, playing video ads; now it includes product placements, immersive websites, games, and using hand-held devices advergaming, viral marketing, mobile ads, social-media marketing, and precise behavioral and location targeting. More (Rideout et al., 2010). Even much than ever before, advertising and entertainment are inex- younger children, age 2-8, spend tricably linked. In many cases, the content is the ad. nearly two hours a day with screen With all the focus on how children and teens are affected media (Common Sense Media, 2013). by media, the advertising embedded in all this content is And through virtually all these media, sometimes overlooked. The purpose of this research brief is children are exposed to advertising. to provide an inventory of the new techniques and methods being used to market to children and teens, and a review of what we know about the extent of children’s exposure to advertising and marketing messages through media. The brief highlights where research is scarce, incomplete, or outdated and offers some thoughts on the need for important new areas of study. © 2014 COMMON SENSE MEDIA ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN AND TEENS: CURRENT PRACTICES 5 Findings Inventory: How Children and Teens Are Advertised to Today Television advertising. Children and teens still spend One study that relied on Nielsen data estimated that children more time watching TV than they do using any other type of age 2-11 saw an average of about 25,600 TV ads per year media, an average of approximately one hour a day among and that more than 40 percent of their ad exposure was from 2- to 8-year-olds (Common Sense Media, 2013) and more shows whose audience is not primarily children (meaning than two-and-a-half hours a day of live TV among those 8 and less than 20 percent of the audience is children) (Holt et al., older (Rideout et al., 2010). TV viewing is gradually shifting 2007). Some studies focus specifically on quantifying children’s from “live” programming (i.e., watching shows as they are exposure to particular categories of television advertising, aired) to viewing online or on mobile devices (Nielsen, 2011) such as food. For example, a study using Nielsen data deter- or to programming that is either ad-free (such as on premium mined that children age 2-11 viewed an average of 14 food cable) or recorded on a digital video recorder (DVR) and or beverage ads a day in 2004, 12.3 in 2008, 13.4 in 2010, watched later, so the ads can be skipped (Common Sense and 12.8 in 2011 (Rudd Center, 2012). Adolescents (age 12-17) Media, 2013). In addition, some portion of children’s viewing saw slightly more, an average of 13.2 a day in 2004, 13.1 in is on networks that don’t have traditional advertising, such as 2007, and 16.2 in both 2010 and 2011. Studies using Nielsen PBS or the Disney Channel. Nonetheless, live TV viewing data also can quantify the number of ads seen in specific continues to dominate young people’s TV viewing (Rideout product categories. For example, the Rudd Center (2012) et al., 2010; Common Sense Media, 2013), and the bulk of determined that, as of 2011, fast-food restaurant, candy, their viewing is still on ad-supported platforms. and cereal ads accounted for just under half of all food and beverage ads seen by children and adolescents (Rudd Children’s exposure to traditional TV ads is the most straight- Center, 2012). However, very few academic or public-sector forward type of exposure for researchers to quantify, and yet researchers are able to purchase Nielsen data. even data on this relatively simple measure is hard to access in the public arena. Content studies can count the number and type of ads in a representative sample of television shows, but such studies don’t reflect the mix of programming actually watched by children or teens (some commercial-free, some prime-time, some children’s, some cable, some broadcast). © 2014 COMMON SENSE MEDIA ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN AND TEENS: CURRENT PRACTICES 7 Product placement and embedded ad- One of only a handful of studies to document children’s exposure to product placements on TV focused on food- and vertising. Many companies are now incorporating their beverage-related placements (Speers, Harris, & Schwartz, 2011). products into the programming that audiences are viewing (TV, Using Nielsen data, this study found that, in 2008, Coca-Cola movies) or playing (games). Instead of featuring a company’s accounted for 15 percent of all product placements that product or brand in a separate, distinct ad, companies pay to occurred on TV and 70 percent of all placements viewed by have their products and logos appear during the program children. Due to the large number of children in the audience itself. According to the New York Times, this type of brand for “general audience” programming such as American Idol placement has become a “hot trend” in advertising, “going (nearly 2.2 million per episode in 2008) and the fact that Coke beyond the realm of traditional advertising and into the world doesn’t advertise directly on children’s shows, children actually of editorial and entertainment known as content marketing or viewed nearly 10 times as many Coke “brand appearances” branded content” (Elliott, 2013a). through embedded advertising than through traditional TV Embedded advertising is a term the FCC uses to encompass commercials (a total of 198 during the year, or three to four several types of brand placement — for example, product times per week) (Harris, 2013). placement (the use of a branded product in a production) and To date, researchers haven’t settled on a methodology for product integration (the incorporation of the product into measuring exposure to this form of advertising; they haven’t the dialogue or plot of the program or game) (Cain, 2011). even decided whether it’s a matter of simply counting the Embedded advertising now occurs across media platforms, number of exposures to an image of the brand’s logo or product from television to movies to video games. In a video game, or somehow factoring in the length of the exposure and/or product placement might involve a character passing an “ad” for whether dialogue is included or the “story line” of the episode a product in a virtual world — perhaps a billboard for a soft is driven by the product. It is also difficult to know how to drink — or passing a vending machine in a “hallway” of that world. compare such exposure to a child or teen’s exposure to Although this practice isn’t new, it has become more attractive discrete, longer-form advertising. Preliminary research indicates to companies as consumers have been watching more “time- children have a harder time identifying “embedded” content as shifted” TV and fast-forwarding through ads, making them advertising and understanding the persuasive intent behind it harder to reach through traditional advertising. (Owen et al., 2013). At this point, there simply are no accurate In 2002, Coca-Cola struck one of the most visible product- measures of the extent or impact of young people’s exposure to placement deals at the time when it paid to have a glass of product placements and other types of embedded advertising. Coke placed in front of each judge on American Idol (Carter, 2002). In the first half of 2007, Coca-Cola appeared 3,054 times on broadcast network programs (Story, 2007). Product integration can go well beyond mere “placement,” such as when an entire episode of “The Apprentice” revolved around a competition to design Burger King’s new Western Angus Steak Burger (Porter, 2008). 8 ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN AND TEENS: CURRENT PRACTICES © 2014 COMMON SENSE MEDIA Cross-promotions. Advertising to children and teens Online advertising. Online advertising has funda- continues to rely heavily on cross-promotional tie-ins with mentally changed the nature of marketing to children and popular cartoon characters, sports stars, and Hollywood youth. In the beginning, online ads were nothing more than celebrities. These can range from free movie-character toys static “banner ads”: images

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