Nickelodeon and Roblox Encourage Good Deeds in Reality and Online for Kids Relief Campaign

Nickelodeon wants to encourage kids to spread kindness in the real world—and in the metaverse. 

Today, Comic Relief US announced its second annual Kids Relief campaign in partnership with Nickelodeon. Titled “Game to Change the World,” the interactive and virtual-to-real-world campaign aims to empower kids to do good deeds in reality and online.

As part of the campaign, kids can go on hybrid missions digitally on Roblox and in real life from Aug. 27 to Sept. 20.

Comic Relief US, the nonprofit force behind Red Nose Day, focuses on facilitating positive change in communities, and its partnership with Nickelodeon looks to combine entertainment, creativity, and storytelling across different platforms to drive engagement, awareness, and action.

The organization kicked off a similar initiative on Roblox last year, partnering with Wonder Works Studios. That campaign led to 6 million gameplays and 2 million views of an online concert—which, according to the group, surpassed previous highly publicized Chainsmokers and Elton John concert experiences on Roblox.

This year looks to be even bigger.

“We knew we wanted to make it bigger and better,” Alison Moore, CEO of Comic Relief US, told ADWEEK. “We knew we wanted to drive more scale. Because the more scale we have, the more awareness and donations we receive. Nickelodeon was a perfect place.” 

The campaign is split into three parts that kids and their families can all participate in. The first, which takes place from Aug. 30 to Sept. 13, is a scavenger hunt in collaboration with Nickelodeon’s Roblox games, SpongeBob Simulator, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Battle Tycoon, where kids can go into the Kids Relief Simulator online to learn about the power of good deeds by playing different games on a quest to fill Power Packs with magical surprises.

Moore said the reason the campaign incorporates SpongeBob and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is because those two franchises align well with the mission. She added that SpongeBob has a nostalgic element that resonates with both younger and older children.

“Those brands, in particular, believe in the ability for young people to drive change in the world. That’s part of their entire reason of being,” Moore said. 

For the second part of the campaign, kids can attend a music festival in Roblox starting Sept. 13 with a lineup that features Conan Gray, Alexander Stewart, Poppy, and d4vd. Last year, Comic Relief US featured BoyWithUke in the festival but expanded this year’s event to feature a bigger lineup.

Finally, Kids Relief US and Nickelodeon Our World will allow kids to organize local activities, from backpack drives and school supplies collections to volunteering in their own communities. 

Moore said Comic Relief US took a hybrid approach to reach kids online and also get them out into their communities.

“There’s many powerful things about being online, but anytime we can encourage seeing each other in real life, we want to be there, too,” Moore said. “It’s also a way to pull parents in. It’s a reminder that the community you play with on games is fantastic and important, but the community in your neighborhood is just as powerful, and you, as a young person, have agency in both of those spaces.”

Roblox reported in its second quarter that it had over 32 million daily active users of Roblox games under the age of 13, up from last year’s daily active user count of 28.2 million for the same age group, according to Statista research.

Taking this into account, Moore said Roblox and gaming platforms like it are spaces where organizations and brands should continue to have a presence to reach young generations.

“For us, gaming is a huge opportunity to create little magical moments to connect, and I think that’s the right things for most brands,” Moore said. “Most brands want to find where young people are at.”