MUMBAI: January 18-19 saw a major seminar happening in Mumbai. Indian and international marketing gurus met and discussed how to make children watch more TV and spend more on consumer goods.

Aptly called "Kid Power-India 2000," and co-sponsored by the three major children's services in India -Kermit, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon - the seminar had all the big names in the television industry as well as those from advertising agencies and consumer goods companies, addressing the children's market, discussing strategies and ideas on how kids can be one of the biggest and most powerful consumers grouping of them all.

Statistics show that children between the age group of 4-13 years constitute almost 30% of India's population which roughly translates into a population of 400 million. It is also a known fact that children influence the family-decision making process.

In the light of these facts the big brains sat together, made presentations and studied the psyche of their potential consumers, discussed strategies such as cross-promotion, outdoor marketing, online marketing, special programmes for the children in the rural areas and many more such innovative and interesting concepts to reach out to this huge market segment.