You’ve got to be kidding

Pocket Money Marketing

What?: As the music industry realises the true buying potential of the ‘Tween’ (pre-teen) generation, there is a desire to harness new platforms in order to market music to the rising tide of young consumers:

* Mattel is launching a series of four-and-a-half-inch tall Barbie MP3 players designed to look like dolls.

* Customisable avatar site Zwinky is set to expand upon its 4.7m user base with the launch of Zwiniktopia a new virtual world for pre-teens.

* Sandisk announce their ‘Sansa Shaker’ MP3 player aimed at children, which changes track simply by shaking the device

* Diminutive pop-punk Avril Lavigine is targeting Stardoll, the ‘paper doll dress-up community site’ with 7m female users – in the 7-17 bracket – by placing herself into the virtual world

* Disney Extreme Digital launches its social networking website aimed at users under the age of 14 in order to create a ‘kid community’

So what?: The list of products, web portals and TV tie-ins targeting music to an age group in single figures is simply too long to print. The age old adage of ‘Get em while they’re young’ isn’t as much a driving factor here as cold hard cash is. Geppetto Group research estimates the 8-to-12 set spends a whopping $51 billion. Two of the top five biggest selling US albums of 2006 were ‘High School Musical’ and ‘Hannah Montana.’ The shows – huge amongst Tweens – jointly enabled Disney to sell 10 million CDs last year from its two franchises.

Pre-teen immersive worlds – such as Zwinktopia, Club Penguin barbiegirls.com, Disney Extreme Digital – are also on the rise as companies start to be less afraid of the legal implications of marketing to a tricky demographic. Research also suggests that pre-teens have a huge sway over the spending power of their parents, affecting purchases across the board. “Tweens are more like children than teens, they hold onto their loyalties much longer,“say Geppetto Group. Sweet music to any advertiser’s ears.

Expect the music industry to continue to bring the hammer down hard on global piggy-banks.

www.stardoll.com

http://zwinky.smileycentral.com

www.barbiegirls.com