Kid Youtubers in Spain and Their Practices as Toy Marketing Influencers on YouTube

Abstract

This paper analyses the audio-visual content of the channels of Spanish child YouTubers in which the children interact with toys within a certain narrative to promote them and raise brand awareness without their audience identifying that content as advertising. The paper compares the data on the videos analysed during and outside the Christmas period, focusing on channels with the highest numbers of followers. The Spanish case is significant as it involves top influencers in the world in the toy sector, surpassing even the pioneering channels such as EvanTubeHD (USA). The authors viewed 250 channels and 3,633 minutes of content produced by the YouTubers most followed in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The paper lists the names of presented brands, the type of products advertised and the advertising formats used, as well as the marketing resources and potential breaches of advertising legislation by the content (in 97 % of cases). The conclusion is that this communication practice requires an in-depth review and analysis by various stakeholders who participate in it, including regulatory and legislative bodies. Besides, the authors have identified a need for further research that would contribute to describing the structure of those practices in a manner similar to this research. In addition, they highlight the importance of considering and identifying this content from the perspective of its persuasive nature, as the majority of the content analysed offered no visible or audible signs identifying it as such, thus contributing to adults and children perceiving it as the content of an informational or entertaining nature, rather than advertising.