Pitching to Kids

By JEANNE McDOWELL

Executives at Nickelodeon Networks aren't kidding when they say they're going to take the Nick brand "everywhere that kids are." In May the Viacom-owned kids-entertainment company partnered with Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts to open the first Nickelodeon Family Suites by Holiday Inn, a $110 million theme resort in Orlando, Fla. Drawing on the success of its wildly popular series like Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants, which racked up $1.5 billion in retail sales alone last year, Nickelodeon is positioning itself at the center of the technology-driven environment its audience inhabits. TurboNick, launched several weeks ago on a broadband video platform on Nick.com lets kids watch full-length episodes of their favorite Nick shows online, sometimes even before they air on cable. Through a deal with Verizon Wireless, Nick loyalists can download three-minute videos of Blue's Clues or other shows on their mom or dad's cell phones. Even the family car is now a Nick zone: in a partnership with General Motors, episodes of Nick's series are programmed into GM Chevy Uplander SUVs equipped with specially designed portable digital systems.

Nick TV shows play in 100 countries. With Viacom's recent $160 million acquisition of Neopets, a global online entertainment network, Nickelodeon becomes the biggest player in the kids-online-entertainment business. Is there anywhere Nick won't go?