No Kidding: How kids influencers in the age group of 6-12 are wooing brands

• Apple, Disney, Netflix and Amazon annually spend $2-3 billion on high quality kids content. Some brands like Lego, Apple, Fit Bit have already started honing their alpha strategy.
• The alpha generation, born in 2010 and after, is tech-savvy and spends the most time on devices. It is now the ‘New Gen Z’ for marketers.
• One of the key ways to get through to them is to partner with kids influencers.
• We speak to Apaksh Gupta, Founder & CEO, One Impression -- who has recently worked with 10 kids influencers for an OTT giant. He tells us how much potential these child influencers hold and what kinds of brands are interested in working with them.

The alpha generation is marketing’s newest power broker. These kids don't just go to a shopping mall, spot a vibrant toy and make a scene until their parents agree to buy it, unlike us. They go online, watch kids influencers and make an informed decision. Forget toys, they also influence their parents’ decision to buy a gadget.

This generation, who are young children of millennials are tech-savvy and might soon take away the brand attention from Gen Z.

Kids are now one of the fastest-growing online audiences and are spending more time online. A kidtech ecosystem is emerging that would enable brands to advertise to children. These kids have no inhibitions speaking to Alexa and surfing a tablet like any of us, which is what makes them important for marketers as their screen time spent is the highest. And the way to reach them is via child influencers.

According to Indian Kids Digital Insights 2019, a study conducted by Totally Awesome, 73% of kids ask their parents to buy something after seeing recommendations online by kids influencers.

As per the research, these kids charge Rs 1-2 lakh per branded video, which is at par with other millennial beauty bloggers. The study says that the kids digital ad spend will reach $1.7 billion by 2021 globally, equating to 37% of total kids ad spend.

For young influencers under 30, Instagram is the most preferred medium and for these alpha stars, on the other hand, YouTube is the main stay.

While globally, we have kids influencers like KCStauffer with 3.2 million followers, Fashion Laerta with 555K, in India, this is a fairly new space. There are around 10 to 12 kids influencers like Anantya Anand (2.5 million subscribers), Nihal Rajagopalan who also appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and has 35,000 subscribers, My Miss Anand (4.83M subscribers), Wonder Girl Ayat (172K subscribers), Samreen Ali (1.75M subscribers), Varchasvi Sharma (63.9K subscribers), and Aanya Joshi – Kids Fun Learning (99.2K subscribers).

We speak to Apaksh Gupta, Founder & CEO, One Impression -- who has recently worked with 10 kids influencers for an OTT giant. He tells us how challenging it is for an agency such as One Impression to monitor a kid’s growth trajectory, how much potential these child influencers hold amongst their audience, what kinds of brands are interested in working with them, and how strong this emerging ecosystem will be in a few years.

Gupta says the process of working with a kid influencer is longer and tougher.

“Kids influencers are a bit difficult to deal with because typically they don’t understand how finance works. The process is a bit difficult because you have to speak to their parents, make them understand how content and brand partnerships work and then they communicate the same to their child and help them shoot their video,” elaborates Gupta.

However, Gupta says it has become a great medium for parents to recognise their kids’ talent. Social media has given them the space to explore their personalities.

It is not new that young kids are earning money in one month that we earn in a year because of TikTok and YouTube. However, children under 14 are also making one lakh a month via branded partnerships.

“Kids influencers, as an industry, is setting a tone for young kids to use their talent early on which had no platform years ago,” says Gupta.

One Impression is also working with a few brands who cater to kids in co-creating some influencers for them as there are very few in India. In such a scenario, brands want to set tonalities before teaming up with influencers and that’s where Gupta’s expertise comes in.

With Gupta’s partnership with kid brands, he is also hopeful to co-create a community of kids influencers in India this year.

Watch our video with Apaksh Gupta to know more.