Armed with a fresh outlook, we continue to build and boost our brand affinity
By Anu Sikka – Head, Creative, Content and Research, Kids TV Network at Viacom18
2021 was a year of fresh beginnings for everyone except for the kids as they were still confined within their homes with online schooling and no on-ground activities. Even as viewership stabilised with online classes, the kids’ entertainment genre witnessed massive transformation as kids got more time to view content, thereby largely increasing the demand for fresh content.
With a focus of keeping kids at the core of everything we do at Nick and with the much learning from the past year, we turn our focus on the following areas:
Relatable content
When creating content for the most loyal sets of audience, there is always a need to creating new storylines and character to which our viewers can relate. Among all the kids channels that existed in India, at that point of time, we always felt that the characters what we create in India are more their relatable with the audience. And this is what motivates us to create more of relatable storylines and characters. We aim to strengthen kids bond and bring them closer to the characters.
Screen agnostic content
Nick and Sonic shows do well across all the platforms, so it doesn’t matter from which platform the child is consuming the content. Building a strong story, stronger content developing the characters is what we are aiming at. We are working on creating the relevant and interesting storyline and character so that the kids can watch them through any platforms.
Indigenous content
Storytelling is an art and it is our responsibility as content creators to make the kid understand the emotions through the language and communication. Creating your local character and owning the IP is that you have full control in terms of storytelling and development of character and the storyline. We have successfully identified white spaces and created path-breaking localized content appealing to children in India. With local home-grown Nicktoons such as Happy & Pinaki – The Bhoot Bandhus, Ting Tong, Golmaal Jr., Motu Patlu, Shiva and Rudra to name a few, Nickelodeon has introduced kids to new genres of entertainment.
It may suffice to say that 2021 has been a year of fresh beginnings and new perspectives for all of us in different manners. Armed with a fresh outlook, we continue to build and boost our brand affinity. As we march towards a new year with more determination and enthusiasm, we will continue to shape our content strategies by making them more relevant, engaging and relatable for our young target group.
