Our mission as researchers and strategists in the youth realm is to help our clients create inspiring experiences for kids and families.
Kids are different
Sounds lofty, but really it comes down to helping kids do the work of growing up, and helping them have fun. This requires playing to where kids are developmentally, sparking their imaginations, and fostering their natural tendencies to explore the world and express themselves.
Leaders and innovators in the field, our team is immersed daily in exploring the role of media and products in the lives of kids and parents. Combining academic and work experience in social psychology, child development, education, and media production, the Insight Kids team has developed innovative and engaging ways to talk to kids and parents and garner meaningful insights from them.
Over the past decade, we have conducted hundreds of qualitative and quantitative studies to inform the development of youth brand strategies as well as consumer products, TV shows, movies, websites, games, books, museum exhibits, outreach materials, learning curricula, and nonprofit initiatives. Our work has helped clients develop strategies and offerings that are not only good for business but also good for kids and families.
We feel lucky to play this role in kids’ lives, and to have them as our muses. Also, it’s pretty cool to be able to watch cartoons, play video games, and pretend with dolls for a living.
Our Clients
Delivering a hardcore “casual” strategy
Warner Brothers
Warner Brothers came to us with a task that was anything but nonchalant. They sought a deep understanding of the casual online gaming space and its gamers. They needed a clear picture of casual gaming’s present and future that would inform their strategic business decisions.
We started by defining casual gamers—not only by their ideal game genres, but by the key emotional benefits they sought from playing games, their media consumption patterns, properties that appealed to them, and their engagement patterns with advertising and competitors.
Our next stage of analysis pinpointed the key gamer segments who represented the most opportunity for Warner Brothers in the casual online gaming space. We determined that casual online gaming had a bright, solid, and serious future. We left Warner Brothers with a strategic direction to follow for a high score.
Painting the world orange
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon and Insight kind of grew up together. We started working with Nick when they were just a little splat, testing pilots for favorites like The Rugrats, Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, The Fairly OddParents, iCarly, Drake & Josh, and the ever-porous SpongeBob SquarePants.
As Nick grew from a beloved TV network to a family entertainment behemoth, our projects together became increasingly strategic, tackling topics like gaming, consumer product needs, sibling relationships, social media, and the gigundo, ongoing task of building their united, multi-platform brand, ensuring that each sub-brand has its place in the family, and is headed in the best direction.
We’re very proud of this collaboration, and look forward to an animated future together.
Playing well abroad
Hasbro
Ah, Baby Alive, adorable expert at peeing and pooping, among other talents. She is the top baby doll in the US, and Hasbro came to us to help translate that success abroad, starting with Europe and Latin America.
Passports in hand, we designed what is perhaps our most adorable study to date. Through qualitative focus groups, in-home play dates, online doll diaries, and shop-alongs, we uncovered what drives girls’ and moms’ allegiance to baby doll brands in each market, and also garnered detailed perceptions of Baby Alive.
We delivered Hasbro a unique brand hook for each market, a clear understanding of which dolls would work best, and insights for retail. In sum, we provided an international strategy to go goo-goo ga-ga over!
The new elephant in the room
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment came to us for help with reinventing everyone’s favorite elephant. They were creating a new Babar animated series, Babar and the Adventures of Badou, and had specific goals and aspirations for international property distribution. Corus sought to understand how to build on Babar’s heritage and position this exciting new world to kids and families in the US and Europe.
To understand how kids and moms were connecting with the property, we did qualitative research that was very hands-on, evaluating all pillars of the brand from branding to broadcast and toy directions.
Watching kids “play” Babar was a trunkful of fun!
At study’s end, we provided the Corus team with clear brand positioning as well as the product directions that will resonate most with moms and kids.