Time for brands to step up to meet the needs of kids today

In the latest EMEA Spotlight, Catherine Driscoll, WARC Commissioning Editor for the region, takes a look at the growing force of Gen Alpha, and highlights the challenges this generation faces, as well as opportunities for brands to help them flourish.

Unless you have young children, the growing force of Gen Alpha might not be on your radar. Comprising of children born since 2010, there are more than 2.8 million Gen Alphas born every week making a global population of nearly two billion and counting. 

Gen Alpha is set to be the largest generation in the history of the world, as well as the first fully-global generation connected through digital devices and social media with an unprecedented fluidity around geography, culture and societal norms. Understanding this young cohort and their parents offers important lessons and opportunities for advertisers and agencies in an increasingly digital world.

Already influential and increasingly independent

Gen Alpha are not only consumers in the future, but also have a significant influence on family decisions and spending today. Circana research shows that €295 per head is spent on toys each year for children under 12, more than three times as much as adolescents (€89/head). 

And it’s not just parental spending. The Insights Family research has found Gen Alpha is fast becoming the most independent and financially astute generation. Across the EMEA region, a significant 31% of 10-14-year-olds report earning their own money, a 51% increase over just two years. The research shows this trend extends even to younger kids, with a similar number (28%) of 6-9-year-olds saying they earn their own money. 

“As financial independence becomes more commonplace at a younger age, the influence of kids and teenagers on all industries will continue to grow,” explain Stavros Triseliotis and Sophie Tanner of The Insights Family. “Therefore, it is crucial for brands to recognise them as a distinct consumer group.”

Understand changing attitudes

However, this Spotlight is less focused on consumption, than on highlighting key priorities of this cohort and where brands may need to pivot to meet their evolving needs. While Gen Alpha’s parents are looking to avoid some of the mistakes made in their digital native childhoods, brands are not always keeping pace with these changing expectations – and, to some extent, are failing to mitigate the growing risks that face children in the modern world. 

Harriet Kingaby and Jake Dubbins, Co-Chairs of the Conscious Advertising Network, highlight the uncomfortable fact that advertisers and the platforms they advertise on are not doing what they can to tackle the issues of child safety. They share the updated Children’s Wellbeing Manifesto, which maps out how the industry can move from compliance to leadership. 

The manifesto is formed of six principles and sets out how the rights of every child must be respected, protected, and fulfilled in the digital environment as in the physical world. As the authors say, “The reasons for acting are commercial as well as moral. Ensuring children’s rights and wellbeing not only enhances a company’s reputation but also strengthens risk management and investor confidence in ethical business practices.”

Beyond media: The importance of offline

For a generation of children now, smart marketers also need to look at their parents’ attitudes. Helenor Gilmour, Director of Strategy at Beano Brain highlights the opportunity for brands linked to “Millennial parents’ emphasis on their children’s happiness and mental health and the strong desire for their kids to spend more time outdoors playing and exploring independently.” The Beano Brain research found a huge 85% of parents want their child to have the opportunity to spend time outdoors to play and explore independently. But child safety fears and the lure of social media are curtailing their freedoms.

This desire for real world interaction becomes even more pressing in the teenage years. In an increasingly digital society, there are few brands that provide genuinely inclusive experiences for teenagers to hang out in person. Cheryl Calverley & Paul Billingsley, leaders of the #IRLrevolution and founders of THE DEN, share their call for inspiring, safe places for teenagers to socialise IRL. They also highlight those brands that are getting it right providing spaces “where teenagers are genuinely free to be together and be themselves. Space where they are not looked at, frowned at, intimidated, moved along, unwanted, or discriminated against.”

Family first

Many of the themes across the Spotlight – online safety, freedom to play outdoors, prioritising family experiences – are brought together in an inspiring article by Gen Alpha ‘whisperer’ Emma Worrollo, founder of The Playful Den. She highlights six actions and strategic behaviours commercial organisations that design for kids could take that will positively uplift the quality of kid culture.

As Emma says, while kids’ brands aren’t always the start point of problems, “We have a responsibility to look around and say ‘hey, there’s something over there not right... let's help fix it.”