Nickelodeon is a name that many of us think of once we — or our kids — get past a certain age, but the network just announced a partnership that includes the National 4-H Organization as a part of Our World, a global initiative to activate kids’ individual and collective agencies.
The multiplatform initiative — which will live across Nickelodeon’s linear, digital, and social platforms — will be supported across Paramount Global divisions. Our World will launch in the United Kingdom and Mexico later this year and in additional markets through 2024.
Other partners include Ashoka, the Association of Children’s Museums, ChangeX, and The Aspen Institute. These organizations, in tandem with Nickelodeon, will work to drive systemic change to ensure that every kid grows up knowing they are powerful enough to create change.
“With Our World, Nickelodeon is building on its longstanding prosocial legacy and community relationships, harnessing the power of the brand’s iconic franchises and global ecosystem, as well as the expertise of our coalition of partners to upskill, uplift, and empower kids around the world,” said Marva Smalls, Executive Vice President, Public Affairs, Nickelodeon and Executive Vice President, Global Head of Inclusion at Paramount. “Through this initiative, we will provide accessible pathways to encourage kids to take action, no matter how small, and inspire them to believe they can make a difference.”
In 2022, Nickelodeon conducted a study and spoke to more than 800 kids, aged 8-13; their responses provided an incisive look at a generation of kids facing unprecedented, complex challenges that are taking a toll, both emotionally and mentally.
Nickelodeon asked kids if they felt they could effect change; almost half (46 percent) said they could not. Our World is built on the principle that nourishing kids’ relentless optimism and joyful creativity is needed now more than ever.
Our World will focus on the healthy development of youth agency as a key component to a thriving childhood. It will include a digital destination that links kids, parents, and caregivers to developmentally appropriate activities, as well as to partner organizations with additional resources.
The brand will also amplify kids’ experiences, telling their stories across its global ecosystem of platforms. Additionally, Nickelodeon will leverage its proprietary research on youth agencies in kids under 13 to inform a recurring newsletter for national and community-based youth-serving organizations.
Nickelodeon’s Our World aims to cultivate youth agency, helping kids gain the skills to contend with the rapidly changing world around them, and will be implemented through an alliance of pioneers in community-driven social innovation.
