Abstract:

The philosophical underpinnings of Nickelodeon's approach to research can be summed up in three words: Listen to kids. As much as possible, we try to let kids run Nickelodeon for us. Our entire business revolves around understanding them and responding to their needs in a way that reinforces their perception of our attentiveness to them. Accordingly, we plug in to kids every way we can. We employ a portfolio of research tools that is diverse and well-integrated. Our commitment to developing new research tools and embracing new methodologies is ongoing. One of the keys to Nickelodeon's success with research has been the willingness of programmers, producers, developers, and marketers to learn from it. We have concentrated on creating an environment in which the utility of research is maximized. This paper is divided into five parts.