Warc, 3 June 2014
LOS ANGELES: The notion of what is acceptable when marketing
to children is likely to be pushed to new limits by Amazon's latest venture
which will see it stream a popular children's cartoon on the same page as
associated merchandise.
The online retail giant has teamed up with Hit
Entertainment, a division of toymaker Mattel, to create a content hub on
Amazon.com selling episodes of Fireman Sam along with the opportunity to buy
various related items – toys, games, lunchboxes etc – the New York Times
reported.
"This allows us to test the boundaries of how a kids'
franchise can be activated," said Sid Mathur, a Hit Entertainment vice
president. "At the same time, it allows Amazon to transition from a place
that simply fulfills consumer demand to one that also creates consumer
demand."
Groups monitoring how businesses sell to children will be
less than impressed by a statement from Peter Larsen, an Amazon vice president
who said: "We're always looking for ways to make parents' lives
easier".
Other company spokesmen were more reassuring, as they
expected children would access cartoons through subscription services.
"Kindle FreeTime doesn't allow kids to buy things and contains no
ads," stated Nate Glissmeyer, Amazon's director of digital product
management, Kids and Kindle Products.
Mattel decided against the traditional route of selling the
show to a TV channel, building an audience there and then persuading retailers
to stock themed merchandise. A quicker route, it felt, would be to tap into the
increasing trend for children to consume cartoons via streaming services and
on-demand apps.
"Netflix would have brought reach to a certain set of
consumers," Mathur said, "but Amazon brought that and something else,
namely a giant retail platform."
This development could mark the beginning of a lucrative new
direction for Amazon, which could set up similar deals with a range of
programming, from home decorating to cooking.
"These programs are product placement from beginning to
end," according to James McQuivey, a Forrester Research analyst.
"Amazon is perhaps the only video distributor in the world that can let
people immediately act on those impulses."
Data sourced from New York Times; additional content by Warc
staff
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