As a result, Nickelodeon is gearing up its formidable licensing machine to go well beyond the dolls, school supplies and pajamas that currently feature characters from Nickelodeon shows. Within the next week, the network is expected to announce that it signed a new licensing venture with personal-computer maker Gateway Inc.

Gateway computers preloaded with sounds and screen savers from Nickelodeon's "Rug Rats" and software based on its "Blue's Clues" will begin rolling into computer stores by the end of the month, in time for the Christmas selling season.

Bigger influence
Nickelodeon is also in talks with Ford Motor Co., but neither company will discuss details. In addition, the cable network has its eye on financial-services companies but declines to provide specifics.

"Clearly kids are becoming a bigger and bigger influence on product and on brand," says Todd Bradley, senior vice-president of Gateway's consumer division. "Even pre-school-aged children are beginning to use PC's, encouraged by their parents to start the learning process."

Until now, most computers targeted at youngsters have been relatively simple models from toy makers. But in a break with that tradition, Gateway's Nickelodeon computers will be just as sophisticated as any Gateway PC.

Gateway has designated its new Astro computer for the Blue's Clues and Rug Rats editions, and each will bear adult-size price tags, starting at just under $900. Parents coveting more elaborate features - like a DVD player - can add Blue's Clues and Rug Rats features to PCs costing around $2,000.The three-year Gateway pact - along with the talks for other adult licensing deals - grew out of independent research Nickelodeon commissioned last year showing how even very young children influence adult purchasing decisions. Nick began presenting its research to ad agencies and their clients this spring.

Among the findings from Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates Inc., a New York market-research firm: More than 40 per cent of parents' purchases are influenced by their children, while nearly two-thirds of parents (65%) ask their child's opinion about products purchased for the whole family. Parents also told Penn Schoen that they are increasingly asking their kids for advice on products not specifically for children, such as cars, computers, vacations and clothes.

In addition to the broad research, Nickelodeon says that automobile companies are conducting their own inquiries to validate findings originally presented to Nickelodeon by JD Power & Associates, a prominent US-based automotive-research firm, showing kids' influence on car purchases.

According to JD Power, in families owing minivans and sport-utility vehicles, 76 per cent of children age six to eight and 73 per cent of children age nine to 11 said they got involved in their parents' car buying. In addition to picking things like music options and colours, kids were most involved in choosing vehicle type, seating and minivan-door selection, Power found.

"Reaching mass adult audiences is getting more and more costly," says Nickelodeon's chief operating officer, Jeffrey Dunn. Advertising on Nickelodeon, he maintains, allows companies to target a highly influential group of viewers at a fraction of the cost of a network-TV ad. A 30-second spot on "Rug Rats" reaching 1.4 million kids aged six to 11 costs about $20,000. By contrast, reaching two million six-to-11-year-olds with a spot on ABC's "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" costs $120,000.

Marketing the Nick name, though, is tricky. In keeping with its good-for-kids positioning, the network has strict rules about how its characters can be used to market consumer goods, and it restricts the number of ads it will run during its early-morning pre-school programs.

Indirect endorsements
Nickelodeon doesn't allow overt shilling of licensed products by its characters. For Gateway, that means characters like Tommy and Chuckie of "Rug Rats" (aimed at kids aged two to 11) or Blue of "Blue's Clues" (for pre-schoolers) can't directly endorse or interact with the Rug Rats and Blue's Clues computers.

That leaves indirect endorsements. One new Gateway ad due to begin airing later this month shows a child in his bedroom tapping away on his Rug Rats computer. In between are images of Chuckie saying "Wow" every time an announcer ticks off one of the computer's features.