Be more toddler

Looking for an innovative way of sparking improved customer engagement? Try embracing your inner child

On the whole, toddlers get a pretty bad rap. But when it comes to customer engagement, brands could learn a lot from these tantrum-throwing tyrants.

Don’t worry, we’re not advising you to hand your Twitter to a tech-savvy threenager or run every campaign past a focus group of under-5s. We’re simply saying that little children have certain characteristics that could really help a company’s customer engagement strategy.

1. They know how to get attention

If a toddler is being ignored do they just sit back and take it? Uh-uh. They kick. They shout. They scream. They hold their breath. They disrupt in increasingly innovative ways. Which is something modern marketers could learn a lot from.

“The process of intelligent disruption for the advertising industry will accelerate into the next decade. Those unprepared will be left behind as they will not see the clear and present threat and by the time they understand what has happened it will be too late,” says Consumers in Motion Group founder and CEO, Daniel Hodges.

2. They are not afraid to ask why (over and over again)

If there’s one questions toddlers love to ask, it’s, “Why?” “Why are we going to the shops? Why are we driving this way? Why did we turn that way? Why? Why? Why?” As a parent, it’s an incredibly frustrating question to answer, but as a marketer it’s an extremely important question to ask. Well, go on then.

Why have we chosen this message?

Why are we targeting this audience?

Why are we using these channels?

Why? Why? Why?

3. They make the ordinary amazing

To an adult a bird is an animal that may or may not do its business of your jacket. To a toddler, a bird is an incredible flying creature with wings and a beak. To an adult, a bus is a method of getting from A to B. To a toddler, a bus is a magical machine with doors that open and shut and wheels that go round and round (all day long). We could go on, but you get the picture. Toddlers find the joy in the seemingly mundane and display absolutely zero cynicism. Which is an attitude that will help you to produce your best the next time you receive another engagement brief, last-minute task or re-write request.