It’s a challenging time to be a kid-focused media and production company like Driver Studios.
The FTC is proposing changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule, which would require online companies to turn off targeted ads to children under 13 by default.
US state laws, meanwhile, are introducing new measures to protect children online and, in some cases, raising the threshold for the age of consent.
Driver Studios is grappling with the limitations being placed on marketing to children. The company produces YouTube content for kids as well as TV commercials and custom digital ads for brands.
It also has what it calls a COPPA-compliant ad network that only serves ads contextually, meaning based on broad age groups or content category across mobile games, YouTube and streaming.
Most of Driver’s clients have child-focused products or services, including entertainment brands like Disney and Nickelodeon and toy companies such as Hasbro and Moose Toys.
Now, one of its main objectives is to reach and target adult audiences with an interest in these brands, said Diana Horowitz, Driver’s CRO and co-chief operations officer. This includes parents and “kidults” who have overlapping interests with children (e.g., Disney movies or action figures).
Hey, kids
Driver Studios already delivers impressions to tens of millions of adults, many of which are parents co-viewing with children.
But it’s difficult to know for sure who’s on the other side of the screen: a parent, a child or both. And Driver can’t collect any data without being sure it isn’t identifying a child.
To reach households with children, but without overstepping, Driver Studios partnered with privacy tech startup Qonsent last month for help collecting first-party data that can be used to target ads to a broader adult audience.
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Through its integration with Qonsent, Driver Studios can prompt users to share information, such as their email and phone number, via interstitial ad units that also offer brand promotions or discounts.
Once users respond, Qonsent validates their information through a partnership with TransUnion to make sure it matches a real adult. Once their identity is verified, Driver Studios sends a link via email or text for users to answer security questions (e.g., last four digits of the user’s social security number) to confirm they’re the adult in the room and not a child entering their parent’s information. Then, users can redeem their offer, while Driver Studios gets to use that household’s data for targeting and retargeting purposes.
Driver Studios can then also collect additional information, such as the IP address associated with the parent’s mobile device.
Age appropriate
But to be clear, this process “doesn’t mean we’re going to start collecting data [about] kids,” said Jesse Redniss, CEO and co-founder of Qonsent.
There are no browser cookies or tracking pixels involved, and household data, such as an IP address, can’t be used to identify children, Redniss said.
And for any consented data collected through the ad unit, including email or phone number, Qonsent allows brands to generate alternative identifiers, including UID 2.0 and LiveRamp’s RampID.
But Driver Studios can use an IP address to retarget households that seem most likely to make a purchase based on engagement, Horowitz said, and help advertisers target similar households to widen their reach.
A more precise targeting approach is also “an opportunity for direct response advertising,” Horowitz said, which normally isn’t an option for kid-focused brands because of COPPA restrictions.
For example, once Driver Studios verifies an adult’s identity, it can retarget that person’s device with ads not meant for children (such as for an alcohol brand) at times when kids are unlikely to be co-viewing, such as during sessions of Words With Friends or Sudoku.
Let the playtime begin?
