In conversation with Sonali Bhattacharya, Head of Marketing – Kids TV Network, Viacom18

Nickelodeon India has recently announced the launch of the seventh edition of the Kids Choice Awards with an aim to provide kids with an opportunity to express their opinions and voice their choices. With six phenomenal editions including one virtual edition, Nickelodeon India’s Kids Choice Awards has established itself as one of the noteworthy IP in the kids’ category.

To understand the thought that intrigued Nickelodeon India to launch the awards, the platform-specific marketing tools that the brand incorporated to ensure relevance and how has the kids’ category evolved over the years, Agency Reporter reached out to Sonali Bhattacharya, Head of Marketing – Kids TV Network, Viacom18.

Agency Reporter – The Kids Choice Awards features specially curated contests and sessions to captivate young minds. Please shed light on the thought and strategy that intrigued Nickelodeon India to launch the awards.

Sonali Bhattacharya – Through the research that we do every quarter, we have learnt that children don’t like being spoken down to, in fact, they like to be treated as an equal. The biggest insight of the Kids Choice Award is that we empower kids and give them a voice to express their choice which no other platform or award show has done so far. We provide them with an opportunity to decide their favourites across multiple categories, making them the prime heroes of this IP. With Kids’ Choice Awards, we are working towards conveying the importance of being able to make independent decisions. And that according to me is what makes Kids’ Choice Awards a success year on year. Our belief in the property and our promise to always stand by kids, no matter what is happening in the outside world, is what really paid off. As long as kids are empowered to express their opinions, KCA will continue to succeed.

Agency Reporter – Captivating the attention in the kids’ category is a very challenging task. What tried and tested marketing strategies have proven successful for your brand?

Sonali Bhattacharya – Nickelodeon has always had the best interest of its young viewers and ensures to use an omnipresent approach to cater to the young minds. Whether the kids are buying a toy, or want to eat a pizza or a burger, we make sure to be present on every possible touchpoint, be it on-ground, digital or social. Leveraging our own platform, the Nickelodeon franchise, which reaches out to 52 million kids in a week, has always been our biggest strength. We connect with our audiences in every way possible be it through brand partnerships, integrations, etc. Beyond entertaining them, we also ensure that our characters engage and motivate our audiences. For instance, our latest edition of the ‘Together For Good’ campaign, emphasized the importance of #TakingABreak and encouraged kids to do what makes their hearts and mind happy. We brought this message alive through our Nick toons Chikoo and Bunty. The campaign particularly touched upon a topic that is the need of the hour and yet not so openly spoken about.

Going ahead, we will make attempts to go back on-ground during summer, as it is an important season for Nickelodeon. The audience will see a lot of our tent poles, campaigns and initiatives take peak form in the summer months. Our focus on virtual multi-screen strategy will continue to be the same as before. We will continue to engage kids through every possible conceivable screen and definitely take the hybrid approach.

Agency Reporter – Nickelodeon India’s Kids’ Choice Awards witnessed a runaway success with 1.5 million votes in the first edition. What are some platform-specific engagement tools that Nickelodeon has used to reach its target audience on social media?

Sonali Bhattacharya – We have garnered the same number of votes this year as well which is a bigger achievement than last year, given that the market is slowly opening up in terms of other means of engagement mediums. Despite this, we are seeing the same excitement and energy for KCA. It has remained at the peak of 1.5 million which is a great achievement, proving that our campaigns are on the right path. Year on year, engagement levels with Nickelodeon for Kids’ Choice Awards continues to soar. Our engagement tools are a mix of social media platforms – Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. The access and penetration of the internet has deepened, giving kids across the country access to good content, no matter where they live. We regularly launch filters on Instagram and recently launched one for Holi. We have partnered with food brands to offer character and show related food items. We did it for the launch of our 11th homegrown IP ‘Chikoo aur Bunty’ and it worked fabulously. We continue to be present across multiple touchpoints to captivate our young audiences’ attention.

Agency Reporter – With 6 successful years of Kids’ Choice Awards, what are some major changes that you have witnessed in the kids’ entertainment category since the first edition? How does Nickelodeon look at these changes to further deliver its message with more clarity?

Sonali Bhattacharya – For the past 6 years, the Kids’ Choice Awards has globally established itself as a prominent property in the kids’ category. We started KCA as an on-ground event until the pandemic hit us. Given the challenging situation, we had to pivot our plans overnight to continue to engage with our audiences. We ensured that the pandemic does not stop us from fulfilling our promise of entertaining and standing by the kids no matter what circumstances we face. Here’s when we took a leap of faith by going virtual last year. Receiving 1.5 million votes is a testimony of our success with KCA. The biggest reason that KCA is successful is that it gives its young audiences the freedom to choose their favourites across categories, empowering them to express their choices. Witnessing this success, further led us to introduce newer categories for our audiences. Beyond just providing entertainment, KCA has engaged with young minds and motivated them to voice their choice. Year on year, through KCA, kids are proactively voicing their opinions. With every edition, we are working towards innovating ourselves to reach out to the kids. We have moved beyond the television screen and are engaging with kids through a multi-screen approach. We are innovating our touchpoints with gamification, influencer engagement, social media contests and exclusive brand collaborations to stay relevant.

Agency Reporter – Kids’ Choice Awards provides young minds with a platform to put forward their opinion. What IPs is Nickelodeon planning to launch to increase its engagement with its audience?

Sonali Bhattacharya – Our summer campaigns are taking shape and will go live over the next few weeks. The April-May-June quarter is a crucial one for us. We have a lot of engagement lined up along with our tentpole IPs that include episodes of our toon characters. As the nation unlocks and things are gradually moving back to normal, we are hoping to do some on-ground activities to make them experience all that they missed in the past two years. We have the Kids Choice Awards culminating on 27th March which will be available for them across multiple screens. We will telecast the whole episode on the channel, across social media and OTT. This edition also marks our foray into the Metaverse, where the audience will get a chance to have an immersive experience of the Kids Choice Awards. It is something that’s never been done before in the category in India or even globally.