If you’re planning a European media buy and think kids in Holland are pretty much the same as kids in Italy, you might want to crack open a copy of Quest before you commit any marketing money. Published in December 2004 by Jetix Europe, this media planning bible is overflowing with TV viewing and entertainment consumption stats on kids in 17 different countries.

To avoid being dismissed as mere propaganda, Quest ventures beyond the Jetix empire to paint a complete broadcasting picture including all terrestrial, cable and satellite channels that transmit kids programming. The book is broken down into sections that take a look at things such as: when kids in each country are out of school and likely to be glued to the tube; television viewing habits (complete with illustrative charts and graphs detailing channel ratings and audience share data); and a breakdown of TV terminology for the uninitiated.

There’s also a region-by-region overview of promotional events that advertisers may want to market around, such as rock concerts in the Netherlands, in-store events in the U.K. and Serbia’s Children’s Day holiday.

Quest was compiled by Jetix’s new commercial sales unit, which the company set up in London last spring to offer its clients and advertisers cross-media solutions that are sensitive to the cultural differences dividing Europe. ‘We had advertisers and agencies coming to us who, while having a specific knowledge of one territory, did not have a clue about another,’ says Mel Alcock, executive director of commercial sales and development. Quest addresses that knowledge gap by exploring the unique assets of each territory, and then follows up with a look at how Jetix’s portfolio of broadcast outlets, on-line platforms and publishing businesses can implement a comprehensive pan-European media plan that’s tweaked for each territory.

Granted, advertisers and agencies using this resource could decide to spend their ad dollars with other channels. But Jetix is controlling the circulation of Quest in a way that should give it the first crack at pitching clients. Alcock and his team won’t simply mail the book to interested parties; instead, they’re insisting on presenting it face-to-face. ‘It’s a methodology that allows us to get in front of key decision-makers,’ he says.

Another way the commercial sales unit will stay in touch with Quest’s audience is through updates, which will be sent out as replacement pages that book owners can easily snap into their ring-bound binders. The frequency of these updates will all depend on how often research sources such as MédiaMétrie and BARB release new ratings information.

At press time, the team hadn’t scored any new ad contracts as a direct result of publishing Quest, but Alcock is confident that new business will start to come in soon.