Eager to reach a captive audience of free-spending, affluent kids, major companies are now reaching into summer camps to promote new products.
Every year, the camp industry persuades parents that their youngsters will experience social and emotional growth, form lasting memories and have fun during a typical eight-week session that can cost as much as $10,000.
Those camps, however – with all the slick brochures, glowing magazine ads and camp-branded merchandise – have remained largely off limits to outside marketers seeking to reach kids in droves.
Only a handful of companies, mostly cereal and soft drink players offering free samples, have gained entrée to this captive and potentially lucrative audience, and those that do have usually taken the back door.
Forever Wild, a New York company that started out producing concerts and other summer camp events, is one of the few companies to market products directly to kids away at camp.
This summer, it relied on a common camp activity, the scavenger hunt, to put Hasbro’s new ChatNow toy into kids’ hands at some 50 camps. To solve the hunt, kids had to use the two-way talking device – similar to a cell phone with a built-in camera and text messaging – to decode clues and complete tasks.
The company also held a much wider promotion for Nickelodeon, in which kids at more than 1,000 camps got to watch new programs coming to the Nicktoons network, mostly on rainy days when they were kept indoors.
Forever Wild CEO Larry Lieberman said no money exchanged hands with the camp owners, who agreed to participate because they believed the kids would enjoy the activities.
“No one wants to feel like their kids are getting coupons to fast-food restaurants,” Lieberman said. “That’s not part of the camp experience.”
The obstacles to getting into camps are many, not the least of which is that most private, sleepaway operations – the preferred destination for kids with more affluent parents – are typically single, family-run businesses.
That means marketers have to approach each individual camp, of which there are thousands.
Another difficulty is that camp owners are naturally protective of their charges. Many see their mission as providing an idyllic, rural experience for kids, absent many of the attractions and pressures of modern-day life.
Despite the obstacles, some marketers are undeterred, and there are even signs their interest is increasing.
“Summer camp is a key to reaching hundreds upon thousands of children in an organized way, and businesses are attracted to that,” said Tim Millbern, director of advancement for the American Camp Association, the main camp organization.
Millbern said recently more marketers have been reaching out to the organization, hoping it will serve as a conduit.
“Everyone is sensitive to the idea of marketing to kids,” he said. “We as an organization are trying to filter out those that are okay. We hate to do it, but the reality is someone has to do it.” With reporting by Jack Tycher