Kids

Kids channels bring alive superheroes with experiential marketing

Published

10 years ago

April 25, 2016

MUMBAI: Kids have a special bond with their fictional superheroes that often calls for a reel to real life interaction. There is a certain charm about a Motu and Patlu surprising kids in a mall or a Chhota Bheem paying a special visit at a child’s home to celebrate its birthday. This is a bond, a charm that on-air promotions can seldom create.

Channels understand this well, and over the last few years have been very proactive in making their flagship characters larger than life and iconic for their fans. Activities can range from a simple meet and greet, retail activities, costume parades, to creation of entire fantasy lands to be enjoyed by the tiny tots at the channel’s expense.

“With our constant experiential marketing initiatives we have taken our characters out of television screens, thus making them a part of every child’s daily life. A significant part of our marketing initiatives through school contact programmes, meet and greets, retail activities etc., are focused at creating memorable experience on ground for children with our toons,” shared Viacom18’s kids cluster EVP & and business head Nina Elavia Jaipuria.

Not too long ago, Nickelodeon and ABP came together with plans to give kids in Kolkata a chance to not only meet Motu Patlu but also engage at the carnival with loads of games. The entire City Centre mall was converted to get the look of Furfuri Nagar and kids got a chance to win super cool Motu Patlu merchandise as well.

Turner International, that owns popular children’s channels Cartoon Network and Pogo, has been known to reinvent the wheel for connecting with their audience through innovative on ground activations. In 2014, Cartoon Network organized the first ever CN Super Toons award in Mumbai, it was a spectacle to witness performances, cartoon characters and an audience of over 9,000 kids and parents.

For Pogo, last year the network had engaged the consumers through Bheem ka Fitness Formula and Mighty Raju Ka Space Station. Both the activities were based on highly relevant themes and proved to be very engaging.

The network also makes it a point to have regular touch points at schools and education centres or School Contact Programs (SCPs). “Over the past decade, Cartoon Network and Pogo have been conducting annual SCPs that target students across the country with innovative and socially relevant concepts packaged around the brands. SCPs by both these channels reach out to over 1 million students across 11 cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ludhiana; (CN only): Coimbatore, Amritsar; (Pogo only): Chennai,” revealed Turner International, executive director and kids network head, Krishna Desai.

For a very long time kids have grown up watching reading and playing with international super stars. Therefore it was a challenge for kids channels to have their home grown characters inspire the same awe that their international characters did. Solidifying the connect that kids shared with these onscreen characters and making them aware of the ease to relate with them was a fine way to do it.

In fact Discovery Kids revved up its experiential marketing in 2015 and heavily promoted its home grown character Kisna through it. In December 2015, the network launched the Discovery Kids Joy Express in partnership with Rapid Metro Gurgaon and so far over 3000 kids and their parents have so far come on board and enjoyed the DiscoveryKids Joy Express.

“The initiative includes many activities such as exciting games, art and craft, puppet shows, magic shows and a chance for kids to meet their favourite character Kisna. The Discovery Kids Joy Express is operational every weekend from 12noon to 4pm from the Sikanderpur Rapid Metro Station. In addition to this, Kisna has visited several cities across the country to celebrate festivals and other occasions with kids in that city. Kisna visited Jaipur in January to celebrate Makar Sankranti and joined kids in kite-flying,” shared a Discovery Kids spokesperson. Kisna also regularly visits malls, amusement parks in various cities to connect with young audiences. The aim of these activities is to bring alive the on-screen experience and get children to meet their favourite character Kisna, face-to-face.

As per Disney India Content and Communications, Media Networks – head and VP Vijay Subramaniam, it is not enough to engage with the character but it should be within the world that the story is set in. “The affinity loop is very straight forward for us at Disney India. We are constantly researching awareness, likeability and favourites. Experiential is critical when it comes to driving likeability of characters as well as shows. We have proprietary research that we constantly carry out to measure these three attributes, which have shown that it is important to give an opportunity to engage with their favourite characters once that is established,” Subramaniam explained.

Disney took the third season of Arjun, its first home grown show, to the kids by having engaging mall greets that also included performance and kids were allowed to interact with their superhero Arjun in an immersive and fictional environment.

While no amount of marketing spends can earn an eight-year-old’s loyalty towards a favourite star, channels are increasingly considering setting aside a part of their marketing budget annually for outdoor activities. “Though the plans are pretty dynamic depending on the need of the hour or our focus point, approximately 40 to 50 per cent of our marketing budget goes into creating experiential engagements for our target audience for both Disney Kids and Hungama,” Subramaniam shared.

On the other hand Nick usually sets aside 20 to 25 per cent of its marketing budget for on ground and experiential marketing efforts as per Jaipuria.

However creating an amazing on ground experience alone isn’t enough for the kids’ channels. Without backing it up with a well strategized social media and digital follow up, some of these events could turn into missed opportunities. Therefore each one the players keeps a ready social feed to take its experiential interaction online and create more impressions on its characters and shows.

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Kids channels bring alive superheroes with experiential marketing

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Kids

Om Nom bites into India as Warner Bros. Discovery picks up the series

Published

4 weeks ago

January 20, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: The little green hero is making a big leap east. Zeptolab has struck a major distribution deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing its hit animated series Om Nom Stories to audiences across the Indian subcontinent.

Under the agreement, Warner Bros. Discovery has acquired the series for exclusive Pay TV broadcast and non-exclusive digital streaming in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The move marks a significant expansion for Zeptolab as it pushes one of its most successful original IPs into one of the world’s fastest-growing entertainment markets.

As part of the deal, all 26 seasons of Om Nom Stories will be rolled out across Cartoon Network, Pogo, Discovery Kids and Discovery+, offering both linear and digital access to the franchise’s slapstick humour and expressive, dialogue-free storytelling.

“We’re incredibly excited to partner with Warner Bros. Discovery to bring Om Nom Stories to the Indian subcontinent,” said Zeptolab executive producer Manaf Hassan, noting that the broadcaster’s reach and legacy make it a strong fit for the series’ growing global fanbase.

Warner Bros. Discovery, meanwhile, sees the acquisition as a natural addition to its children’s portfolio. Warner Bros. Discovery head of factual entertainment, lifestyle and kids for South Asia Sai Abishek, said the series aligns with the network’s focus on cheerful, imaginative and universally appealing content for families across the region.

The timing adds an extra layer of significance. The expansion coincides with Om Nom’s 15th anniversary, underlining the franchise’s staying power and its evolution from a mobile game character into a global animation brand. With this latest bite at the Indian subcontinent, Om Nom’s adventures look set to find a whole new generation of fans.

Kids

Colour outside the lines Chhota Bheem sketches a new play with Faber Castell

Published

1 month ago

January 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: If childhood memories had a colour palette, Chhota Bheem would likely be right in the middle of it and now, quite literally, in children’s pencil boxes too. Green Gold Animation has announced a landmark licensing partnership with Faber-Castell India, marking the global stationery major’s first-ever licensed character collaboration. The association brings Chhota Bheem to a specially curated range of student art and creative products, blending everyday learning tools with one of India’s most recognisable homegrown characters.

The move is a notable expansion of Chhota Bheem’s footprint beyond screens, reinforcing the character’s status as a multi-generational IP that has steadily grown from a television favourite into a cultural constant. For Green Gold Animation, the partnership signals a sharpened focus on extending its intellectual property into daily touchpoints, where entertainment meets education and habit.

In its first phase, the collaboration will roll out Chhota Bheem-themed products across key student art categories, including watercolour cakes, wax crayons, poster colours, sketch pens, oil pastels and creative bundling kits. The range is aimed squarely at school-going children, tapping into Bheem’s strong emotional connect while encouraging imagination, creativity and hands-on expression.

Green Gold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka noted that Chhota Bheem’s journey has long moved beyond episodic storytelling. He said the partnership reflects a deliberate attempt to embed the character into moments of learning and creativity, while building a more purpose-led licensing ecosystem around Indian IP through collaboration with a globally established brand.

From Faber-Castell India’s perspective, the tie-up marks a strategic first. Faber-Castell India director marketing Sonali Shah said the collaboration opens a new chapter by pairing the brand’s long-standing reputation for quality and safety with a character that already commands trust and affection among Indian children. The aim, she added, is to make creativity more engaging and relatable without diluting product standards.

The launch will be backed by a 360-degree promotional push, spanning digital campaigns, social media storytelling, creative usage content and on-ground retail activations across select markets. Both companies have confirmed that this is only the starting point, with additional Chhota Bheem-themed products across new categories planned in the months ahead.

Headquartered in Hyderabad, Green Gold Animation continues to scale its ambition of building globally competitive Indian IPs, with Chhota Bheem leading the charge. This latest collaboration suggests that the brand’s next phase of growth may be less about what children watch and more about what they create.

Kids

Sony tightens grip on Peanuts with $457 million stake buy

Published

2 months ago

December 22, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

JAPAN: Sony has doubled down on the power of legacy brands, snapping up a majority stake in the Peanuts intellectual property in a late-year deal valued at about $457 million.

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan have acquired the roughly 41 per cent holding in Peanuts Holdings LLC previously owned by Canadian children’s entertainment company WildBrain. The move lifts Sony’s ownership to 80 per cent, with the Schulz family retaining the remaining 20 per cent.

The deal brings one of pop culture’s most durable franchises, home to Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang, firmly under the Sony umbrella. The characters were created by Charles M Schulz, whose daily comic strip ran for half a century before ending in 2000.

Sony had already been a long-time partner in the business. The latest transaction consolidates control and sharpens the group’s hand as it looks to keep the characters front and centre across film, television, music and consumer products.

President and group ceo of Sony Music Entertainment Japan, Shunsuke Muramatsu, said the additional stake would allow Sony to further elevate the Peanuts brand by drawing on the group’s global reach and creative expertise, while preserving the legacy of Schulz and his family.

President and ceo of Sony Pictures, Ravi Ahuja, said the combined ownership gives Sony the ability to protect and shape the future of the characters for new generations, expanding their relevance without diluting their charm.

Peanuts long ago escaped the confines of the comic strip, cementing its place in popular culture through perennial television specials such as A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. More recently, WildBrain kept the franchise active with animated series including Snoopy in Space and The Snoopy Show.

Now, with Sony firmly in control, the message is unmistakable. In an industry obsessed with the next big thing, nostalgia still sells and Sony is betting big on a doghouse that refuses to age.