In the night garden…

In the night garden

Kids love it.

Some adults moan about the use of ‘improper language’ encouraging kids to keep up the googoo gaagaa speak (both sides can quote stats, for what it’s worth, I think it’s positive), but you can’t ignore the fact for legions of parents and children, In the night garden has affirmed itself as one of the top kids TV programmes in a very short space of time…

In the Night Garden is best described as; ‘a modern televisual interpretation of a nursery rhyme picture book’. Quite a tall order, but when you consider that this is a staple in the ‘bedtime hour’ on cbeebies (BBC’s dedicated children’s TV channel), it presents itself as the modern day equivalent of a bedtime story. Its about a magical place that exists between waking and sleeping in a child’s imagination.

We even have Knight of the Realm David Jacobi narrating. Perfect pre-bed time fodder.

The whole programme is executed flawlessly. Gentle intro, upbeat story / crazy funtime, and as we start the wind-down, a recap of the story, all the characters slow, and pack themselves off to bed. And then at the end, it’s your turn to go to bed too little one. Genius…

Carry this through into every possible merchandising opportunity going, and we have some very happy creators, and some parents lighter in the wallet.

The BBC / Virgin cynically deleting all shows from store-able hard drives in the build up to Christmas aside (ensuring everyone bought the DVD box set to keep up the bedtime routine), we have a shining example of how to make money from the pre-school market, without being seen to be aggressively marketing to them. After all, none of us want the Daily Mail brigade up in arms calling on tighter government regulations…

Hats off chaps, well done.

Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And a massive Pontipinites fan, even though they haven’t got the gravitas to carry an entire episode all on their own…