Bangkok--6 May--Prudential Life Assurance
Prudential Life Assurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited celebrated its 20th anniversary in Thailand by launching the “Cha-Ching” Money Smart Kids programme through a Family Day event held in Siam Paragon,Developed by the Prudence Foundation, Prudential’s charitable arm in Asia, in partnership with leading children’s TV channel Cartoon Network, the Cha-Ching programme aims to instill knowledge and skills around smart money management in children through animated music videos and an integrated media platform that includes TV social media as well as mobile applications.
In Thailand, the Thai version of Cha-Ching began to air on Boomerang, Thailand’s number one kids’ channel, in March 2015, every day throughout the year. All 16 episodes of three-minutes Cha-Ching music videos will be aired to help strengthen the financial literacy capabilities of children in Thailand.
The Cha-Ching Family Day event was filled with fun activities and was joined by talented mom, Took Chanokwanan along with her kids; Nong Prae and Nong Poom sharing the idea and how to educate kids to realize the importance of developing sound financial management habits.
Marc Fancy, Executive Director of Prudence Foundation, said “We believe that good money habits need to be inculcated at a young age. That’s why Cha-Ching focuses on children aged 7 to 12 years old. The main objective is to educate the kids about the key concepts of smart money management which are Earn, Save, Spend and Donate in a fun and interactive way.”
Arjan Wes, Chief Marketing Officer of Prudential Thailand, said "This year we celebrate our 20th anniversary in Thailand. The Cha-Ching financial literacy programme is one of our long-term commitments to the communities here. From 2012-2014, Prudential Thailand has arranged “Cha-Ching” school contact program in 43 schools reached more than 5,000 students across the country. The partnership with Boomerang has enabled the educational programme to reach 11 million households every day. We hope that children will gain important life skills from the programme and become financially responsible adults in the future."
On the partnership with Boomerang, Phil Nelson, Senior Vice President and Managing Director – North Asia and Southeast Asia Pacific, Turner International Asia Pacific, said “As a result of an excellent partnership between Turner and the Prudence Foundation, millions of Cartoon Network viewers around Asia have been both informed and entertained by Cha-Ching. We are very excited to expand this effort and launch a local Thai version of Cha-Ching on Boomerang – the country’s number one kids’ channel”
Research by Prudential in 2011 found that 95% of Asian parents place importance on teaching their children about money management but only 13% think that their children have adequate money management skills. From this “Cha-Ching Money Smart Kids” was developed to teach young children about the basic principles of money management through a fun and educational musical animation. Cha-Ching is accessible by several mediums: Boomerang & Cartoon Network, YouTube, Facebook, the Cha-Ching website and a customised school curriculum programme based on the programme.
Across Asia, Cha-Ching is now available in nine languages and it currently reaches 26.5 million households across Asia through three daily broadcasting feeds. Online, since its launch in 2011, www.cha-ching.com has accumulated a total of 71 million page views and the Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ChaChingFan, has 130,000 fans. In addition, Cha-Ching’s YouTube channel has achieved over 2 million video views and 4,000 subscribers.
Schools across the region have also embraced Cha-Ching’s money management concepts as learning tools, incorporating them into key learning programmes in education establishments in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. To date, over 160,000 children across the region have been in contact with Cha-Ching’s school programme.