Animaj and Hasbro have officially launched Lumee, a new joint-venture that brings both partners’ popular kids IPs under one ad sales roof and sets out to prove once and for all that there can be a sustainable business model for kids content on YouTube.

Despite its staggering reach with kids & family audiences, it’s no secret that kids content on YouTube has faced serious economic challenges since targeted advertising was disabled in 2020 to comply with COPPA, the US children’s privacy law. Left with no robust monetization tools that are specific to kids content, there’s a big question mark around digital ROI for our industry.  

It’s this structural challenge that Lumee has a plan to tackle, leveraging the combined kids brand portfolios of both Animaj and Hasbro—including heavy-hitters like Peppa Pig, Pocoyo, Maya the Bee and My Little Pony—which generate more than 50 billion annual views on YouTube alone.

Lumee will exclusively manage ad sales on YouTube for this catalogue, in addition to  Connected TV inventory (ie, AVOD and FAST). For advertisers, it will offer a single entry point into these fragmented and often complex digital spaces. “YouTube can be very complicated for brands and media agencies to understand, especially in the kids & family space, given the constraints,” says Animaj co-founder and Lumee chairman Gregory Dray.

Underlining that what helps Lumee stand out is the transparency it offers with its premium kids brands, Dray says the increased visibility should ultimately mean higher CPMs. Lumee will match brands with shows in its portfolio that best fit whatever an advertiser’s objectives are, “offering precision without ever compromising child privacy” by tracking viewers, according to a release. 

Advertisers will have “video-by-video visibility”—which means they’ll know exactly where their ad is placed and which content their brands are supporting. 

Key to Lumee’s catalogue is its popularity across every young audience bracket, from preschool (Peppa Pig, Pocoyo), to bridge (My Little Pony, Maya the Bee), to tweens and teens (Transformers, Power Rangers). “We’re going to be able to cover the entire journey of childhood, [which] I think will be a real competitive advantage as we go to market,” Dray adds. 

Currently, Lumee is only focusing on the Animaj and Hasbro libraries. But Dray says the plan is to eventually expand with complementary third-party inventories: “We are not seeking new equity partners for the joint-venture; rather, we will selectively represent ad sales for premium third-party brands. To maintain our standard of quality and avoid becoming a broad ad network, our selection process will remain highly rigorous.”

Looking ahead, Lumee also says it will work closely with the industry to develop new COPPA-compliant tools that can measure household engagement and impact (though it did not explain how it would do this without putting children’s privacy at risk). For ad campaigns, the joint-venture also plans to supply branded content with quick turnarounds using Animaj’s AI-enhanced production capabilities.