Organizers of the 2017 Kidscreen Summit (Feb. 13-16 in Miami) announced that Dr. Richard Weissbourd, director of the Human Development and Psychology program at Harvard University will open this year’s event with a presentation of new research exploring why and how media unconsciously undermines the development of empathy and caring in today’s kids.
Dr. Weissbourd’s keynote will address the importance of fostering tolerance and understanding in the generation growing up in the current socio-economic climate, and explore how kids’ TV producers and media platforms can help children and parents learn positive lessons and counteract 21st century trends to negativity.
The full Kidscreen Summit program is online now at summit.kidscreen.com. Additional highlights include:
Emotional Scheduling: How kids are organizing their own media lives
Kids today are accustomed to having access to what they want, whenever they want it. But as it turns out, programming schedules still make sense to them, and they organize their media lives around factors like where they are, who they’re with, and what they’ve been doing or are about to do. Dubit’s David Kleeman discusses this new concept of “emotional scheduling,” which is critical to driving discovery and retention for anyone creating media for children.
From Toys-to- Life to Life on Netflix: A Skylanders Academy case study
Activision Blizzard’s Skylanders almost single-handedly created the $4 billion toys-to-life category. And tasked with bringing the bestselling video game franchise to TVs around the globe, content arm Activision Blizzard Studios scored a worldwide deal with Netflix for Skylanders Academy, created by showrunner Eric Rogers (Futurama). In this session, the creative team behind the show will delve into its adaptation process and what we can expect to see next.
Little Big Kids: Preschoolers ready for life
Viacom recently undertook a huge global study of preschoolers—an adventure spanning 12 countries, 6,500 families, social media diaries and in-depth ethnographies—to find out what it means to be under six years old today. Christian Kurz, the company’s SVP of Research, Insight and Reporting, will for the first time unveil these latest findings on our youngest generation. And as an added bonus, real preschoolers—equipped with GoPro cameras—will give you a glimpse into their world.
Surviving, Scaling and Making Money in the Kids Digital Space
Is there a way to create and deliver fun, engaging and strictly regulated digital content to this generation of kids, but also build market share, profits and long-term brand loyalty at the same time? In this fireside chat, Jeff Imberman, CRO of kids ad platform SuperAwesome—and former SVP of Sales and Marketing at Nickelodeon—will answer this critical question and show how the kids digital ecosystem is something to be embraced, not feared. He’ll also divulge how the under-13 audience is already telling brands and content creators what they want—delivering success is just a matter of really listening to them.
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