SuperAwesome Launches Kids Connected TV Ad Marketplace

New initiative extends the biggest kid-safe ad platform to OTT and VOD kids inventory across U.S. and U.K.

SuperAwesome, whose technology powers the kids digital media ecosystem for brands and publishers, today unveiled the Kids Connected TV Marketplace, enabling advertisers to safely reach kids across OTT and VOD inventory.

Used by hundreds of kids brands to safely engage with the under-13 audience at scale, SuperAwesome’s Trusted Content Marketplace already reaches half a billion kids each month across mobile, desktop and online video. The addition of premium kids OTT and VOD content now extends this into a crucial part of kids' new viewing habits.

Although kids are shifting their viewing habits from TV to digital devices, the fact remains that they still want to watch TV content. The popularity of TV content for kids remains incredibly high, but they want to watch it on their terms: their choice of time, their choice of device. Engaging across Connected TVs, VOD and OTT is a critical part of any brand media strategy who are trying to reach the under-13 audience.

Lillian LeBron, Partner, Beacon Media

Disney and Nickelodeon saw viewership among children between the ages of 2 and 11 years old drop by 33 percent and 50 percent, respectively, from 2010 to 2015, in favor of content on digital platforms (source: Business Insider Intelligence). However, research shows that TV content itself still remains popular with this centennial generation (source: SuperAwesome Insights Report 2017), being consumed across a number of services and platforms in parallel with games and video content.

OTT and VOD consumption is subtly different from programmed TV as it allows kids to effectively curate their own viewing schedule. It also removes the phenomenon of channel and ad-skipping.

Kids' data privacy rights are becoming an increasingly high profile topic in the U.S. Any digital engagement by brands is required to be compliant with the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA). SuperAwesome's 'kidtech' is specifically designed for these privacy requirements and is now used by virtually every brand and agency in the kids' digital media sector.

The company's REX technology allows companies to programmatically access the Connected TV Marketplace while ensuring full data privacy for kids and COPPA-compliance for partners.

Lillian LeBron, Partner at Beacon Media, the leading U.S. kids media planning and strategy agency, stated that "although kids are shifting their viewing habits from TV to digital devices, the fact remains that they still want to watch TV content. The popularity of TV content for kids remains incredibly high, but they want to watch it on their terms: their choice of time, their choice of device. Engaging across Connected TVs, VOD and OTT is a critical part of any brand media strategy who are trying to reach the under-13 audience."

SuperAwesome CEO Dylan Collins stated: "The kids media landscape is being fundamentally reshaped with more and more digital content replacing less and less programmed TV viewing. As the ad platform of choice for every major kids brand and agency, we want to ensure the greatest possible audience reach for our clients: OTT and VOD are a key part of this so we're delighted to announce the Kids Connected TV Marketplace."

About SuperAwesome

SuperAwesome powers the kids' digital media ecosystem.

SuperAwesome's technology is used by hundreds of brands and content-owners to safely engage with over 500M kids every month. The company has pioneered the 'kidtech' market: technology which delivers digital media functionality with a 'zero-data' design to ensure total safety for kids.

SuperAwesome has reshaped the kids' digital media landscape with their kid-safe tools and technology including AwesomeAds (the biggest kid-safe ad platform in the world), REX (the first kid-safe programmatic ad filter), PopJam (social content tools for U13 engagement) and Kids Web Services (kids/parent authentication).

SuperAwesome was recently named the eighth fastest growing private technology company in Britain (The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 2017) as well as one of Europe's fastest growing companies (Financial Times 1000: Europe's fastest growing companies). The company was awarded a Breakthrough Technology Award at the Campaign Creative Tech Awards 2017 for REX, the world's first kid-safe programmatic ad filter.

Led by serial tech investor and entrepreneur CEO Dylan Collins, the company's rapidly growing global team is headquartered in London with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, please visit us on the web, our blog, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Source: SuperAwesome