• Nickelodeon is part of the global media company Viacom and is a multimedia entertainment brand targeted at kids

• Its core target audience is 2 to 11 year olds

• The US channel launched on April Fool’s Day 1979, followed by the UK launch on 1 September 1993

• The brand diversified in the UK in 1993, with Nick Jr – a channel dedicated exclusively to pre-schoolers and Nick Replay, a time-shifted version of the original. Nick Toons launched July 2002

• Nickelodeon, or Nick, is the most-watched children’s television station in the United States and its programs are extremely popular – 47 of the top 50 children’s programmes are shown on the Nickelodeon cable channel

• Nickelodeon produces movies, books, magazines, records, toys, web sites, live tours, theme parks - to complement their core products – the television programmes themselves

What do we know about?

What are the core values of the brand?

Nick’s mission statement says:‘We put kids first’‘We provide innovative, diverse and original series programming inventedespecially for kids’ ‘This includes comedy, adventure, variety, news and game shows’‘We take our role as the market leader in the kids entertainment industryseriously’ ‘We empower young people, and this helps us to better understand them.At the end of the day, we know that what is good for kids, is good for business’‘We use our influence on children to positively promote healthy lifestylesincluding our ‘Let’s Just Play’ physical activity campaign and by licensingcharacters such as SpongeBob Square Pants and Dora the Explorer throughhealthy food brands’

This suggest that Nickelodeon are very aware of how important brand imagehas been to their success – they have managed to balance associations of ‘fun’,‘original’ and ‘relevant’, with associations of ‘safe’, ‘wholesome’, and ‘healthy’

– gaps in the market

• The company recognises the need to continuously update and regenerate itself in order to maintain its position as market leader

• One genre of programming they have little experience of is Reality TV

• They recognise the huge success already achieved in the UK with the genre, particularly with adults or older teenagers

• They are currently looking to commission a new kids reality tv show for their upper end age range (9-11 year olds) in the UK

• They want a show that will reflect their traditional values but still appeal to this notoriously ‘hard to target’ age group

The judgement criteria therefore are:

• A British production• Must appeal to boys and girls aged 9-11• Kids must be at the heart of the show• High level of entertainment value essential, but must be ‘age appropriate’• Must score ‘fun’ and ‘cool’ points with the target age group• Low level investment risk (guaranteed ratings winner) • Low on budget, high on quality • A kids twist on an already successful adult format would be ideal

The Simulation Task

• You work as part of a creative team at ‘Serious Productions’• Your managing director wants to consider a range of proposals to

try to secure the Nickelodeon contract• She has decided each team at the company will focus on

reworking a well-known and previously successful adult reality format into a pitch that will match the Nickelodeon criteria

• She has selected a range of formats that she considers would be possible to successfully re-work/ loosely base an idea on

• Each team should consider the options, then bid for one of them - in one sentence. If she likes your one-sentence bid, you will get to work on that format. If not, you can bid again until you are successful

• At this stage, you are in competition with the other teams to secure the format your team would like to work on (so don’t hang about – one simple idea is all you need!)

Your proposal• You will be told how much time you have to develop your proposal (approx 30 mins) and to

plan your actual pitch (approx 10 mins)• You will present your pitch next week. 5 minutes per team max.• All your team members should be involved in the pitch• The proposal that most successfully meets the judgement criteria will be pitched by Serious

Productions at the meeting with the Nickelodeon executive team• If we win the contract, a bonus will be paid out to the winning team• If we lose, the management will be forced to ‘consider the position’ of all our employees

Your finished pitch must identify the following:

Title, sub-genre, setting and characters Similarity to the original format Differences to the original format The structure and content of a typical episode How your show meets the judgement criteria Why your show should represent the company in the competition

And remember – keep it simple!

May the best show win!

Choose one format from the following: