As online product placement and advertising spend aimed at kids continues to grow, UK-based digital entertainment platform SuperAwesome has launched the Kidfluencer YouTube Network, which will connect advertisers with a collection of pre-approved, family-centric video content.

SuperAwesome’s digital platform currently allows brands like Hasbro, Mattel and Lego to reach 250 million kids per month across mobile, web, virtual worlds and online video, and the new Kidfluencer Network will extend this reach by applying the company’s kid-safe marketing approach to the depths of YouTube.

At launch, the Kidfluencer Network of specialized family YouTube creators and distributors includes FamilyGamerTV, DHX-owned Wildbrain, Diagonal View, Studio71 and TaDaKids. Going forward, all paid-for content coming from these creators – from unboxing videos to product reviews – will go through SuperAwesome’s kid-safe standards and will be clearly labelled with the company’s Safe Ad padlock logo.

“We’re not talking about pre-roll advertising. We are looking at what we can do to help the online video ecosystem in the kids market,” says SuperAwesome CEO Dylan Collins. “Digital advertising spend is growing 30% to 50%, and through working with 160 different brands and agencies, we’ve seen their  marketing spend go through our platform, and we are seeing more demand for kids online video creators.”

And speaking of the company’s platforms, Kidfluencer YouTube Network will enable brands to use PopJam, the social content mobile platform acquired by SuperAwesome this past September – roughly two months after SuperAwesome secured a financing round to the tune of US$7 million. Beyond enabling its expansion further into the YouTube realm, that Series A funding allowed SuperAwesome to grow its team through two significant hires: Jeff Imberman, formerly SVP of sales and marketing at Nickelodeon, recently joined the company as chief revenue officer alongside Paul Nunn, who joined SuperAwesome as chief commercial officer.

Nunn was most recently MD at mobile publisher Outfit7, where he was credited with leading the company’s YouTube strategy surrounding the popular Talking Tom franchise.

Both hires were timed with the company’s expansion into L.A. through a new West Coast office.  In fact, close to 50% of SuperAwesome’s business will be conducted in the US this year, according to Collins, who says his company saw its revenues triple in 2015.