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Lovely to be a part of such an interesting panel at my first The Children's Media Conference. Thank you Jodie Morris and Gary Pope for all of your hard work and prep in pulling this together!
Kids' Media | Digital Content Strategy | Audience Engagement | Global Distribution | Organisational Leadership | D&I Champion
Thinking back to last week at The Children's Media Conference and feeling grateful for the opportunity to spend time with so many brilliantly smart, thoughtful and genuinely lovely people from across our industry. I got to see some thought-provoking sessions, learn some new things... and hopefully managed to deliver a useful 60-mins of insightful discussion on digital distribution too 🤓 For those who missed it, our session 'Digital Distribution: Everything, Everywhere?' attempted to navigate the what, where and when of distribution & audience engagement in a highly fragmented media landscape - and to offer content creators useful tips on how to cut through the noise and grab kids' attention. Is it as easy as just putting everything, everywhere, all at once? (spoiler... the answer is no!) Amongst other things we discussed: 🔎 The importance of understanding your audience - investing time in identifying exactly who you're trying to reach, what matters to them, how they consume content etc. There are loads of freely available insights, newsletters, and thought leadership pieces that can help you - take the time to be informed. 🔮 Consider discoverability from the start - if you're in early development of a project, think about how you might be able to give your content an advantage when it comes to finding an audience e.g. are your stories answering a clear audience need? How might your characters exist in a multiplatform world? What could make it stand out? 💫 Be authentic - both in terms of your content (make your stories relatable and relevant to those you're trying to reach) and your platforms (create content that's tailored to work on specific platforms - don't just cut up episodes and hope they'll fly) 🖥 YouTube is a vital part of the mix if you want to reach kids. Around 400m children, globally, use YouTube every month. Make sure it's a part of your strategy. And take the time to understand Roblox (a huge platform - 77m daily users, 40% of whom are under 13) even if it's not something you're ready to jump into just yet. 🤝 Ensure alignment with stakeholders and partners when it comes to expectations and objective setting! Do you want to prioritise reaching mass audiences, or creating a dedicated fandom? Are you building a long term franchise, or hoping to make a quick buck on YouTube? Are you willing to invest in marketing? Have honest conversations up front and set realistic targets - it will make everyone happier. 🙏 Be patient! It takes time to build audiences and to build a successful IP - go in to things aware of the journey ahead, keep the faith, pace yourself, listen to your audience, respond to useful data, and don't expect overnight miracles. Thanks one last time to my excellent panel Kate Smith Nathan Wilkes Jonathan Shrank and Lydia Mossahebi and to our Exec Gary Pope - it was a pleasure to wake up early and power through Thursday morning with you all ☕ 🚀