Cha-Ching: Money-smart kids

HONG KONG—Most successful investors would say that their skills in handling money were learned at an early age. Usually, their parents or guardians have a big role in instilling in them sound values related with money management.

Prudential Corporation Asia (PCA), which operates life insurance and asset management businesses across countries in the region, says it believes in the crucial role of financial literacy for the very young ones in helping economies perform well. For this reason, the multinational company has invested in a worthwhile project involving money-management education for kids.

In particular, PCA embarked on a multimillion-dollar investment that involves the production of a television show for kids that airs on Cartoon Network. The cartoon television show, titled “Cha-Ching: Money Smart Kids,” is geared toward teaching very young viewers the concept of money and how to manage and prudently use it.

PCA is encouraging parents to introduce the program to their kids, saying the show will aid in the parents’ teaching of money management for the kids.

Cha-Ching, an English slang for “cash,” is a 10-episode program, with each episode running for three minutes, that has started to air this month and will continue to be aired repeatedly until January 2012. The program focuses on the four concepts related with money management, namely, earning, saving, spending, and donating.

The show, which is in English, is aired in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.

“Children have to learn early that money is not something that fall on trees and does not simply come out of automated teller machines,” PCA chief marketing officer Julie Lyle tells Asian journalists during the launch of the television show earlier this month.

“At an early age, they have to be taught that money is something that is earned,” Ms. Lyle adds.

Besides the value of working hard to earn money, Lyle says, the program also teaches children how to save, how to properly spend, and the value of giving back to society through donations. All these values will be taught using interesting cartoon characters, catchy musical lines, and easy-to-digest story lines, she says.

Cha-Ching has six main characters who introduce to young viewers the traits that they should either adopt or avoid to become good in money management. The characters include Justin, Charity, Pepper, Bobby, Prudence, and Zul.

Con Apostolopoulos, director for Turner Media Solutions that is in charge of production of the Cartoon Network show, says the company is thrilled to partner with PCA for the production of Cha-Ching. He says this is the first extensive financial literacy program for kids that Cartoon Network is airing.

Apostolopoulos says producing a financial literacy program is a bit more difficult than coming up with any other type of cartoon show. This is because a financial literacy program is aimed at not only entertaining kids, but also ensuring they learn the concept of money management by simplifying even technical concepts. Apostolopoulos says it is important that story lines comply with the objectives of PCA.

“We communicate with PCA in every step of the production process to make sure we achieve the objectives,” he says.

Apostolopoulos adds PCA made the right decision to partner with Cartoon Network given the latter’s wide reach in several Asian countries, including the Philippines. Cartoon Network is, in fact, the No. 1 television station for kids as far as audience reach is concerned in the Philippines and neighboring countries.

Barry Stowe, the chief executive officer of PCA, says that investing in the show falls under PCA’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) function.

Stowe says that while the company invested a significant amount of money for the show, the intention is not to actually generate profit from it. He says the key objective is to promote financial education for the very young ones and to teach of children proper money management.

“This is not an investment for our business, but an investment for the communities we operate in,” Stowe says when asked how the company expects to recuperate its investments from the show.

He adds that if the show would eventually encourage parents to buy financial instruments from PCA for their kids, then that would just be a bonus.

“This project may actually benefit not only PCA but even our competitors,” Stowe says, explaining that if the TV show would indeed encourage households to buy financial instruments, then the industry in general would benefit.

Lyle says that if the TV show proves to be a hit, then PCA may consider financing the production of more episodes and make the program run for the long term.

A survey conducted by Oracle Added Value and commissioned by PCA showed that most Asian parents agree that the value of money management should be taught to kids at an early age, and that they believe they have the biggest role in making that happen.

However, teaching children money management is not always easy. The survey results further showed that most Asian parents just give money to their children every time the latter ask for it, without explaining the value of working hard to earn it.

Stowe says Pru Life, in investing in the TV show, would like to help parents in their role of honing the money-management skills of their children.

“We developed this financial literacy program in response to the growing need of parents to teach children sound financial management,” Stowe says.

Stowe says that through the show “Cha-Ching,” PCA hopes to make teaching sound money management to kids to be easier task.