It gave me great pleasure to read a recent article in The New York Times outlining the process of Nickelodeon’s newest digital product – an iPad app for kids. Like any new product there were some surprising outcomes – but instead of getting slimed, Cyma Zarghami, president of the Nickelodeon Group, and her team got it right. And it’s a great blueprint for anyone thinking about building a new digital product.
Here is a short list of the things they got right:
1) They didn’t rush in. They weren’t the first kid app out there, their biggest competitor Disney was. Instead they sat back and waited “until the cable channel had more information about how its audience used mobile devices.”
2) They talked to customers. They spent “two years asking 9- and 10-year-olds what they want to watch on the iPad.”
3) They listened to customers even though it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. What they heard was they wanted “very little actual television.” Instead they “preferred to play games and watch short clips on apps…”
4) They made lemonade out of lemons. Clearly intending to focus on episodes, the snippets, in reconsideration, became a great asset. They realized the “Nick app could help the channel develop new series and stars, based on which clips, actors and characters drew the most attention.” Brilliant – the app became a testing ground for the bigger entity – creating an important business continuum.
5) They shared their results with other Viacom properties. Too often in big companies one group has great success while others falter. However, in this instance the outcome of “Nickelodeon’s strategy — based on extras rather than episodes — signals how Viacom may approach apps for its other cable channels, including MTV, Comedy Central and VH1.”