Kidz Bop used to announce new albums on channels like Nickelodeon, airing ads that showed off its latest compilation of teeny-bopper pop songs as its titular kids danced and sang along on the TV screen.
While the kids’ music group still makes similar ads, they’re not just targeting younguns during their Saturday morning cartoons anymore. Now, they’re in the metaverse.
For its milestone Kidz Bop 50 album, the group has partnered with developer Gamefam to orchestrate a popular game takeover in Roblox. When players visit Really Easy Obby (“obby” being Roblox slang for an obstacle-course game), they’ll be met with metaversal Kidz Bop assets throughout, all accompanied by the group’s new original song “Certified BOP.”
Artists like Cher, Coldplay, and Zedd have all announced projects in Roblox last year, making Kidz Bop just the latest musical group to head to the platform for promotional purposes. But with parents of Gen Alpha reporting that 65% of their kids play Roblox, per the opinion research firm Civic Science, Kidz Bop might be finding its most natural audience fit yet.
“Kidz Bop has been around for 20 years. When it first came out…it was almost like a revolutionary way to reach the younger generations for the music industry,” Ricardo Briceno, chief business officer at Gamefam, told Marketing Brew.
Target identified: the youth
Though brands will continue to target Gen Z, especially as Zoomers’ purchasing power only expands, there’s growing interest in influencing Gen Alpha—and digital worlds like Roblox represent one platform where they might be able to connect.
“Gen Z and Gen Alpha move very seamlessly between what they do in real life and what they do in this digital world. To them, it’s an extension, a continuation of the world,” Briceno said. “So the same way that you would engage with a brand in 3D, IRL, in an experiential way, you would engage with a brand on Roblox.”
The Kidz Bop activation involves digital billboards, customized avatars, new songs, and a preexisting “obby.” Briceno said taking this particular route helped bring the new music to an already primed audience, since the Kidz Bop-branded takeover integrated into a game that, according to the platform, has attracted more than 274 million visits.
“A lot of brands, a lot of IP, obsesses over creating their own world, their own experience,” Briceno said. “But driving players to those experiences, [or] letting them know that it’s there to begin with among the millions of experiences that exist on Roblox, is really, really challenging. So here you have the opportunity to bring your IP to an audience that already exists that we know will receive the IP with open arms.”
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It isn’t just artists that are taking this integrated approach. Earlier in January, acne-care brand Differin also made its Roblox debut with the Level Up Lobby, which appeared in existing Roblox experiences like NewSmith, Teamwork Puzzles 2, Carry A Friend, Paradise RP, and The Floor is Lava. The activation involved interactive mini-games, engagement-incentivized rewards, and a real-life component that allowed players to upload a receipt for a Differin product to receive a special power-up.
Immersion is important for brands looking to fit in on the platform, according to Briceno. For previous music artists’ campaigns, like the ones for Cher and Coldplay, Briceno emphasized that the branded aspect was coherent with the gameplay instead of appearing as an interruptive ad. With Kidz Bop, Gamefam took the same approach.
Though it’s too early to see the results of Kidz Bop’s campaign, Briceno said this strategy has been well-received in the past, and Cher’s Roblox activation correlated with a spike in Spotify streams. According to statistics from Warner Music Group provided to Gamefam, there was a 20% uptick in streams of Cher’s holiday album from users under the age of 17, and an 18% increase in the 18–22 age group.
How to be a power user
Getting on Roblox might mark a step toward reaching a younger audience, but standing out among the metaversal landscape might be a little more intimidating. To tackle it, Briceno says that brands should remember that while Roblox is digital, it’s still a real-feeling world.
“When you go to Roblox, it’s like going to Disneyland,” Briceno said. “When you’re in Disneyland, you want to go on the Star Wars ride. You don’t want to watch the movie or watch a billboard about Star Wars.”
Briceno said he thinks marketers should view Roblox as a form of experiential marketing rather than as a place for static ads or branded videos. While there’s room to supplement with more traditional digital advertising, he said the focus should be on creating events that are engaging.
“Ultimately, your audience are people that are in multiple places at the same time, and the more that you are able to surround people with the right message at the right moment on the right platform, the more successful your marketing program will be,” Briceno said.