One of the leading streaming platforms in Latin America launched an animated film with great potential in the region and needed to connect with kids aged 6 to 12 effectively and with contextual precision. To achieve this goal, Kidscorp acted as its strategic partner to run this awareness campaign in Mexico. The challenge was to reach the audience through the spaces where they naturally consume content, YouTube and gaming apps, with messages that resonated and environments that reflected the brand's values.
Strategic context
U18 is the audience that determines and influences decisions about what content is consumed at home. With decision-making power (63% influence the family subscription) and purchase intent (75% buy products related to the movies they watch), the 6 to 12 audience is key to service retention.
The brand is one of the most recognized among U18 audiences in Latin America, but it competes directly against YouTube and gaming, the same spaces where Kidscorp operates. Efficient U18 media investment requires not only reach but contextual precision: taking the message to the right place at the right time, through brand-safe inventory that is relevant to each age segment.
The strategy
Kidscorp designed a strategy with two differentiated buying lines: one optimized for the younger segment (ages 6-9) and another for the older segment (ages 10-12). This approach made it possible to adjust budget and creative according to the specific consumption behavior of each group, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach that wastes investment.
Execution was deployed through two complementary formats. YouTube was used in the Instream Non-Skip format to build massive awareness with guaranteed audience retention. At the same time, the pre-roll format in gaming apps drove engagement and active consideration.
What set the strategy apart was the rigorous application of blacklists and whitelists of apps and channels. Instead of buying generic U18 inventory, Kidscorp mapped and prioritized only the spaces highly aligned with the target, in gaming apps and on YouTube channels. This curation eliminated budget waste and maximized contextual relevance, ensuring every impression reached the right audience.
In addition, the 4 different creatives developed for the in-app format allowed flexibility in communication, reduced message fatigue and ensured the campaign stayed relevant throughout the period without saturating the audience.
Execution and results
The campaign reached 13.4 million impressions (exceeding the plan by +6.7%), generating 12.1 million views with an overall VTR of 90.18%. It recorded 106,097 clicks with a CTR of 0.79%. A key achievement was efficiency: the campaign ran 24.55% below the planned budget, demonstrating optimization at every stage of the buy.
YouTube delivered 10.3 million impressions with a VTR of 90.52%, showing that the non-skip format was effective at retaining the audience. The line achieved +8% more impressions than initially projected while keeping costs 7% below plan. These numbers confirmed that YouTube is an effective mass-reach channel for awareness.
The in-app format delivered 3.1 million impressions and outperformed expectations on engagement. VTR was 89.11% (above the 80.08% benchmark), and even more importantly, CTR reached 3.42%, +15.5% above the 2.96% benchmark.
The combination of both formats worked as a conversion journey: YouTube built massive top-of-mind in a passive context, while in-app activated consideration in an active context. Together, the two formats covered the full funnel, awareness and action, without concentrating the budget in a single channel.
Conclusion
This campaign was a success story of U18 awareness execution with concrete financial results, achieved through the combination of formats, inventory curation and creative diversity. The client has expressed satisfaction with the results and its intention to keep working with Kidscorp on future campaigns. It is a clear demonstration that Kidscorp's methodology, based on smart inventory curation, precise targeting and rigorous measurement, is the standard the U18 market demands.