Kid Influencer Partnerships

Insight Kids recently released a new study that says eight out of ten kids will tune into a movie or TV show that features a known YouTuber or Instagramer.

This is no surprise to us here at Ultra. Last year as part of our Kidtopia presentation we took a deep dive into the kid entertainment landscape and discovered that Generation Z sees no difference between the content they watch on YouTube and the shows they watch on TV (or more likely, on streaming services). It’s all entertainment to them of equal quality and validity.

It’s no surprise to companies like Pocket.Watch either. Pocket.Watch is further blurring the lines between YouTube and Hollywood by giving some of the most popular social media stars in the kid space a wider platform with toy brand deals, big budget shows on streaming services like Hulu and Netflix and partnerships with Nickelodeon.

In an age where brands are increasingly leery of the YouTube landscape because of high-profile scandals and glitches, content creators are looking to move beyond the restrictions of the platform. Companies like Pocket.Watch offer social media stars something new, a guarantee of respectability. And from the brand side, you can bet that Pocket.Watch has done extreme due diligence in vetting these entertainers, bringing peace of mind to the brands and networks that choose to partner with them.

As Sarah Chumsky, VP of Insight Kids pointed out in 2017, “Since most kids are already device-agnostic—looking for TV anywhere they can find it—content is the future focus of the medium, not individual devices.”

This jump from the phone screen to the big screen makes perfect sense to a generation of kids who rank Jojo Siwa, Shawn Mendes and LeBron James as equal in celebrity status.

It also explains why YouTubers like Kandee Johnson and Ricky Dillion ended up voicing characters in DreamWorks Trolls film. To the right kids, these two are as big a draw as Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake.

Pocket.Watch goes beyond traditional entertainment and, in our 360º world, is publishing books with their stars, and creating apps and games that take the content into new, and now expected places.

As social media stars look to find a more sustainable future and brands look to discover new ways to reach a generation of kids with an overwhelming amount of entertainment options it is inevitable that even more niche social media stars will extend to bigger and bigger multiplatform success.