Social media marketing for children’s brands have a commitment to work towards a better life for us and our planet. In the race for net zero carbon, one of the most important aspects of ensuring we continue our hard work is to educate the future generations who will become the stewards of our Earth. Our population is ever increasing, and the best way for us to ensure a sustainable future is through education.
As adults, we should lead by example, and if you’re in the business of children, you’re probably already doing a good job of that. We understand that talking to kids about sustainability can be tedious or superficial. They either don’t want to hear it, or what you tell them isn’t in depth enough to make an impact. We’ve all been there! Here, we outline some of our ideas for introducing sustainability to your younger customers.
What’s Your Angle?
If you already have a focus, social media marketing for children’s brands is a bit easier. If your brand is toy focused, work on the character development. You can support charities or encourage education with your mascots. It’s overwhelming at first to try to whittle down your choices, but it’s worth it to provide high quality content for your customers.
Pull together some priorities
Everything always works better with a plan. We’re not saying you have to write up a 10 year sustainability plan complete with crystal ball predictions, but some ideas would help. Sustainability covers a lot of ground, from biodiversity to household recycling, so there’s a lot to choose from when putting together your priorities. Think about what you personally believe in. If you have a background in environmental science, why not focus on plants? Coming from construction? Consider vehicle pollution. If you don’t have a clue where you’d like to start, why not choose something that will set you apart from the competition? Instead of looking at plastic pollution, consider green energy! Instead of rhino conservation, look at something like endangered insects!
Focus on Teachable Moments
If you’re having trouble working sustainability into your social media marketing for children’s brands, start with ‘teachable moments’. They’re usually defined as moments in a child’s daily life where you’re able to reinforce best practice and life lessons. Something as simple as showing your character’s turning off lights when they leave the room would be perfect. Or perhaps taking the time to separate their recycling after a day at the park. There are a few shows that do it really well if you need inspiration. Look to Octonauts for understanding underwater creatures’ struggles. Interested in recycling and composting? Peppa Pig’s pretty good at it. If you want an allround classic, look to The Lorax. Those media are full of ‘teachable moments’ done well and can serve as great inspiration.
Help to Empower Children
Start a scheme that will engage and empower children to make their own decisions and join the fight for sustainability in their own way. Depending on your audience’s ages, there are a number of choices you have to drive engagement. Perhaps you can run a design and invention competition for plastic clear up devices. Younger audience? Something simple like a ‘draw an endangered animal competition’. Sell a specific toy or product? Capitalise on user-generated content by asking them to dress-up, or take a picture with your product in ‘the wild’. From that, you can run give-aways or even design a version of their invention as a toy that becomes a limited-run product! Using social media marketing for children’s brands can be tough at times, but it can also be creatively freeing! You have so many avenues to explore in terms of content, and a great range of campaigns you can run.
Add Value to Your Products
Consider setting up a few free downloadables/printables for your customers. Especially with this year of lockdowns, parents around the country will be looking for free activities for their kids. If you can offer those, linked to your social media,and repost completed colour-ins, for example, you’ll drive engagement. Think activity packs, colouring pages, word searches, and more!
It’s hard properly taking advantage of social media marketing for children’s brands, especially when most of your audience isn’t old enough to have it. That being said, parents are very likely to be active and highly engaged on social media. How about a few live sessions on social media? If you have an ambassador or mascot, let your customers know when they’re going to go live on something like Facebook or Instagram, so they can join with their children.
Consider your packaging, perhaps there’s a way where you can make it more recyclable, and then make it fun for kids to try themselves? This is another example of a ‘teachable moment’. All products come in packaging, right? Packaging = waste. So, if you’re able, post on social media about how your packaging is now 100% recyclable, and encourage your customers to dispose of them correctly. All it takes is a simple sentence and diagram on the back of a box, and anyone of all ages can understand it!
Partner with Relevant Charities
If you have a particular area you like to focus on as a brand, then it’s always good PR to have charitable links. If you can afford to, giving a percentage of your rofils to them each year will certainly be a good start! This is always a nice addition, especially when you’re able to encompass it into your branding. As a business, you’ll have extra features on your accounts, such as linking business partners and utting up adverts that drive engagement to both you and your charitable organisation’s websites.
If you’re interested in how your children’s brand can help the fight for sustainability, then don’t hesitate to contact us for expert marketing and PR on 01376 386850, or send an email to [email protected]