Kelley Smith

Enough time has finally passed to allow the generation of kids who grew up in the 90s to look back.  This is the generation that gave the world social media.  Many of them, including me, are recent college graduates who are filling jobs that didn’t exist 5 years ago.  But they didn’t spend the past week sifting through jobs on Linked In.  This week, the boy wizard who shaped their childhood made box office history when it made $168 million opening weekend.   This may have been the conclusion of the of adventures of Harry, Ron, and Hermione but the 90s generation is clearly not giving up on the magic just yet. But is anyone listening?

Nickelodeon is.

A different kid of magic seems to have also captured this generation.  Over the past few years, 90s kids have been asking for their cartoons back.  They have joined fan made Facebook pages by the millions, tweeted about it, and searched for videos on YouTube.  For the most part, fans all had the same message: bring back 90′s Nickelodeon! A Facebook group titled I Want My 90′s Nickelodeon Back has  over 1,320,000 likes.  Shows like  Doug, Rugrats, and Hey Arnold! have over 4,000,000, 1,900,000, and 1,000,000 likes, respectively. This generation of consumers probably does not realize how seriously their causal and often misspelled commentary is taken. But when millions of fans create something this big, the message is hard to ignore. So what is a marketing department to do when a target market spells out exactly what it wants all over the internet?

In a midnight to 4:00 am block called The 90′s Are All That, Nickelodeon gives these consumers exactly what they have been asking for. “There is an entire generation of young people who literally grew up on these great 1990s’ series, and many of them have been vocal about wanting to see and experience these shows again,” said Keith Dawkins, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Nicktoons and TeenNick. “TeenNick caters to the older segment of the Nick audience, so it’s the perfect place to reconnect these shows to their original fans and introduce them to younger viewers for the very first time.”

The best part is Nickelodeon doesn’t keep these types of comments to the board room and press releases.  As seen in the TV advertisements below,  the marketing team wastes no time telling the “grown up” 90′s kids they have been listening.  “Millions have asked for it!” Kenan Thomson announces proudly  on a familiar orange coach.  Viewers seem to already know what is coming within the first 5 seconds of the advertisement.  Nickelodeon also released an ad that asks fans to join the “midnight society.” But fans already have. The evidence was on the internet long before this ad. Nickelodeon is just finally making it offical with a Facebook group of their own. The ad finishes with Watch. Discuss. Obsess.  As if we haven’t been already.

So grab a seat and some orange soda. The fun begins tonight at midnight!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 25th, 2011 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.