Gen Alpha is Here! Are You Ready?

Even as the Millennial generation makes its way into independent school admission offices with their toddlers in tow, marketers tell us that Generation Alpha (their kids) are already a formidable part of buying and selling everything. This article in Ad Age is both instructive and terrifying.

"[A] way to reach Alpha kids—and their parents' wallets—is to tap into a rising crop of child influencers who have their own Instagram pages and YouTube channels with subscriber counts well into the millions.

"The kingpin is Ryan, a 7-year-old boy from Texas who has been doing online toy reviews since he was a 4-year-old. His YouTube channel, Ryan ToysReview, now approaches 18 million subscribers. Ryan, whose last name is undisclosed to protect his privacy, first began posting reviews, but has since expanded into science experiments and games. Neither Ryan nor his parents returned a request for comment.

"'The new biggest celebrity to a kid is not Michael Jordan anymore, it's Ryan ToysReview, [their] favorite YouTuber," says Julia Moonves, VP of sales and business development at Pocket.watch, a Los Angeles-based startup that partners with young influencers on content and product development."

Will "child influencers" come to drive school enrollment decisions made by parents? Maybe they already do well outside our awareness.