In the Concert Hall, It Smells Like Tween Spirit

Tweens now have their very own pop culture. They don't need ours -- so make Grandpa listen to Metallica in his own room. Cliff Chenfeld, co-owner of KidzBop, which produces G-rated and wildly popular tween music, says companies can now market directly to 8-to-12-year-olds in a way that was not possible in ancient times. "When we were kids, you couldn't slice and dice the demographic the way you can now," he says. "What's happened is there's now media outlets oriented to kids, like Nickelodeon and Radio Disney. In the old days, we maybe had a couple cable channels, MTV and no Internet."

The kids are buying. Chenfeld's last CD, "KidzBop 9," went directly to No. 2 on the Billboard album chart. Every one of the CDs has gone gold. "It's a really strong growth area in an industry that's falling," he says. Tweens now have the ability to propel artists up the real pop charts, not just the kiddie lists.

The trick is appealing to both children and parents. Of the KidzBop tunes, Chenfeld says: "Kids love them because they're the transition between preschool and pop music. Parents love them because they found something that their kids can listen to, and also because most parents are not that old, in their thirties or forties, and it is pop music."

These tweens might save the music business. No fool, mogul David Geffen and his record label have partnered with DIC Entertainment to create a new brand, SPG, to reach tweens and teens via music, television, computer, mobile phones and consumer products, and last week announced their cornerstone will be the "entertainment group" (triple threat: sing, dance, act) Slumber Party Girls.

Said Ron Fair, chairman of Geffen Records and a discoverer of Christina Aguilera: "I believe we are creating a model for a unique form of entertainment that raises the bar aesthetically for smart and savvy tweens growing up in the digital age."

Smart and savvy tweens? Meet smart, savvy Disney, the hydra-headed entertainment colossus. This is how it works: Young actor-singer-dancer stars are promoted via the company's television channels, podcasts, Web sites, movies, theme parks, DVDs, record labels, radio stations, products and concerts.

Take Aly & AJ, the singing sisters. Aly appears on the Disney show "Phil of the Future" on the Disney Channel. Together, the sibs have recently completed a pilot for Disney titled "Haversham Hall." Aly & AJ's label is Hollywood Records, which is owned by Disney. Their hit song -- a remake of Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine" -- was included in the Disney movie "Herbie: Fully Loaded." Aly & AJ are in heavy rotation on Disney Radio, which has full satellite coverage of the United States (via XM and Sirius) and 50 terrestrial stations, and is the 24/7 top radio destination for kids, tweens and families, according to Disney.

It is the textbook definition of synergistic vertical media-marketing integration. And there's more! "The four-legged consumer." The advertisements on Radio Disney plug games and DVDs and CDs -- but also minivans, pharmaceuticals and lending services. Why? Because 10-year-olds don't drive.

Mom drives, and she's (trapped) listening. Or as Jennifer Kobashi, Radio Disney director of brand marketing, put it in an article in CMO magazine ("the resource for the marketing executive"): "We know that for every three kids listening to us, we've got about one mom. We let advertisers know our station is for moms and kids in a car as they're driving. We're the last medium and the last message they hear before they step out to make that purchase."

Totally.

Anyway, as we began to mentally prepare our own outfit/hair for the concert, we got a voicemail message from Kobashi on our thick old-person's cellular phone.

"Hello, William? First of all, thank you so much for all your support. We so greatly appreciate it. I have to pass on some bad news that unfortunately we'll have to put a hold on this particular story. Basically, in touching base with the team here we're concentrating our press efforts basically on key markets where we actually have a radio station. Washington is not one of them, where we're in now. I apologize for any inconvenience. We'll have to pull out of it at this time." Etc. It was like taking candy from a big baby.