Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: Social Media Strategy
Josalyn McMillan
The children’s animated television show Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (DTN) premiered on PBS Kids in 2012. Centered around the character Daniel Tiger from the hit children’s television series “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood,” DTN is a spinoff following the lives of the children in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
The current marketing goal for DTN is to increase viewership of episodes on PBS Kids rather than views on regular TV or the mobile app. PBS Kids is a timeblock of the PBS stations dedicated to original children’s programming. It is currently available on streaming services such as Hulu Live TV and Amazon Prime Video.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Growing up in the digital era means that children now learn how to use electronic devices and navigate the web much earlier than with older generations. However, DTN’s current marketing strategy focuses social media on the parents of their target audience.
DTN has social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook. While DTN does not have its own YouTube channel, clips from the show are posted on the PBS KIDS channel. The Facebook and Instagram accounts are, of course, targeted towards parents of young children, and the content focuses on updates about the show and audience interaction. These channels are ideal for informing parents about broadcast times, episode content, and increasing brand awareness.
I believe DTN social media admins have the opportunity to post about more of the content featured on the show. These socials are also great places to utilize paid advertisement. As many online resources, apps, and games that DTN has, there is not much about these products on the company’s social media. Posting about apps and other resources for parents is a good way to encourage engagement across channels.
While there are posts on social media informing about show updates, I do believe there could be more frequent posting as well as more accessible resources to be able to find and watch the show
IMAGERY
Research on brand imagery tactics for children’s products have revealed that strategies and visuals work differently for different age groups.
“As children, we are much more open and experimental in our preferences, favouring secondary colours and special effects, such as glitter and metallics, over muted tones. In fact, research indicates that many of our adult preferences may be learned (which may account for the vast cultural differences that exist), since babies consistently stare longer at long-wavelength colours, such as red and yellow, rather than those of short-wavelengths.”
Bright imagery, primary colors, and animated characters are already successful tactics to gain viewership for television programs. It is important to also keep those factors consistent in marketing as well. As for social media channels marketed towards parents, “[They] love scrolling through feeds filled with cute kids doing adorable things. So use that! Showcase vibrant photos and videos of kids immersed in your activities,” says software company Desygner.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Demographics are an important factor in marketing. They are the foundation for which a brand plans everything that reaches the public’s eyes. According to PBS Publicity,
“58% of all U.S. television households (over 130 million people) tune into PBS member stations over the course of a year.
60% of [their] audience lives in rural communities.
Americans across the political spectrum watch PBS. Nearly two-thirds of [their] audience identifies as Republican or Independent (63%).”
They are serving a wide range of the population, so it is important to vary marketing strategies. PBS has also made great efforts to provide easy access to education, especially for underprivileged children. One of their efforts includes their Ready-To-Learn project, which entails the creation of an 11 hour block of educational television programming. According to PBS, this program was shown to greatly increase literacy in children. This is a successful program that PBS and DTN would greatly benefit from advertising more widely. Expressing these values will really resonate with audiences, especially parents.
STRATEGY FOR INCREASED VIEWERSHIP
According to Dash Social, the four more important factors of a TV marketing campaign are audience engagement online, viewership numbers, brand awareness, and customer acquisition and retention.
One solution for increased viewership is collaborations with kid friendly influencers. There are many content creators, especially on YouTube, who create kids' content. To reach the eyes of the target audience, it is important to advertise in places they will already be watching. Collaborating or seeking promotion from kids’ content creators is a great way to introduce DTN programming if the audience has never been exposed to it before. “The connection these influencers have with their young audiences makes them effective partners … [they] bring a sense of trust and relatability to marketing, which helps children feel more connected to the brand,” says the digital marketing blog Highzeal.
Something DTN and PBS do well is accessibility accommodations. Even though accommodations for disabilities are becoming more common, they are not universally implemented, especially in entertainment. However, DTN offers episodes featuring an ASL interpreter, making the show accessible to hearing impaired children. This is a feature that should be much more widely marketed and implemented within their social media channels.
Sources
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Sources •
Desygner Team. “Revolutionize Your Kids Activities Business with Dynamic Marketing Techniques.” Engaging Marketing Strategies for a Thriving Kids Activities Enterprise, Desygner, 24 Jan. 2024, desygner.com/blog/industry/how-to-market-kids-activities-business.
Highzeal Technologies. “Social Media Marketing for Kids.” Highzeal.Com, 26 Mar. 2025, highzeal.com/blog/social-media-marketing-for-kids#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20considering%20marketing%20to%20a%20younger,skills%20like%20kindness%2C%20creativity%2C%20and%20teamwork.%20More%20items.
McLean, Nash. “The Best TV Marketing Campaigns of All-Time.” Dash Social, 27 Apr. 2023, www.dashsocial.com/blog/tv-marketing-campaigns.
Nahai, Nathalie. Webs of Influence. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, (2nd Edition). Pearson International Content, 2017.
PBS Publicity. “PBS 2025 Fact Sheet.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 2 May 2025, www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-2025-fact-sheet/.