How Do You Market to Someone Who Doesn't Care?

FirstClub does a lot of pop-up activations in housing societies. They wanted something to give children.

The trouble is that children are ruthless consumers. They have no interest in your marketing objectives. They do not care about your brand story. They will not engage with something merely because an adult thinks it is "good for them." (Especially because of that!)

So I started with a different question. What did I enjoy as a child? and that took me back to Telekids.

For many of us growing up in or around West Bengal, Telekids was not a newspaper supplement. It was an event. You coloured the pages, solved the puzzles, and you were allowed to cut things out. What a joy!

(It was also where my first poem was published. I was in Class 3. See I remember it even now - imagine the connection Telekids formed with us!)

The interesting thing is that children have changed enormously since then. But not in the ways we imagine. They may consume reels instead of comic strips. They may swipe instead of turn pages. But they still love the same things.

They like discovering things. They like solving things, making things, showing things to other people. That insight became FirstCub, a kiddie newspaper for kids (and the kid in you!).

(Undertaken as Creative Director at Sane Difference)