Viacom18 geared up for 7th edition of Kid's Choice Awards; forecasts audience engagement will be much higher this time

The Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards has established itself as a marquee property in the kid’s entertainment space in India and has had numerous A-list celebrities endorsing and performing for it. The awards are all set to return with its seventh edition in an interactive digital avatar this year. 

The awards took place virtually last year owing to the pandemic situation, but they clocked a high engagement rate and recorded 1.5 million votes. In an interaction with BestMediaInfo.com about the upcoming seventh edition of the awards, Sonali Bhattacharya, Head - Marketing, Kids Cluster, Viacom18, said that they are expecting the engagement to be much higher this time. 

“We had to pivot two years back to a completely virtual format when the pandemic hit us. That's when we decided that even though the circumstances around us are changing, we will not go back on our promise of always being there for a kid and always entertaining them no matter what the situation. We took a very brave step by keeping KCA (Kid’s Choice Awards) alive online, even though it is a marquee property. We opened up the campaigns on every possible screen. So, a large part of it, of course, rested on our franchise channels. We talk to 52 million kids every week and we used that to the fullest,” Bhattacharya said. 

“In addition, we opened it out on social, OTT, digital platforms to make it completely platform agnostic. I think it paid off because we got the highest number of votes ever, 1.5 million, last year.  I am happy to announce that we've touched that number this year as well which is a big feat. Despite things opening up we have seen the engagement and amount of love for KCA grow,” she added. 

This year the Kids Cluster of Viacom18 is also venturing in the Metaverse to give the kids an interactive experience from the safety of their homes. As per Bhattacharya, no one else in the kid’s entertainment space has entered the metaverse space as of yet.

“We'll host the screening on the Decentraland platform to create an immersive experience for our audiences,” Bhattacharya said.

Speaking about the advertising and sponsorship response to the new edition of the Kid’s Choice Awards she said the teams are in the process of finalising the deals. She said the property has always garnered the attention of brands as it gives a great forum for brands to meaningfully interact with kids and their families. 

Further, the summers are an important period for the kids' entertainment property because of vacations in schools. As per Bhattacharya, the Network has seen a positive advertising and sponsorship response for the channel. 

“Our franchise share (among channels) is the highest with a 32% share. The sentiment around the kids' category and the leading brand that we are is definitely looking optimistic. Things had taken a beating during the pandemic in terms of advertisers but they are looking good now. I think it's too soon to tell what level it's going to hit; we are going to have to wait and watch.”

Bhattacharya also spoke at length about the campaigns it had carried recently. She stated the examples of ‘Creatively Yours’- that aimed at immersing kids’ in activities like dancing, cooking, clay pottery, among others, virtually. Their ‘Yoga Se Hi Hoga’ campaign was also applauded by the Aayush Ministry. 

“These are very strong campaigns built on great insight, that if you relate to kids in a manner of their liking it will always strike a balance. I would say innovation is in our DNA, we take important steps in connecting with audiences and we realise how important it is to strengthen purpose and meaning in any sort of brand communication. We keep collaborating with like-minded brands, through in-show integrations, promo integrations. All this is in addition to the pureplay FCT. There's a lot of immersive integration that we end up doing for our clients and that is only set to grow,” Bhattacharya said. 

Info@BestMediaInfo.com