A recent Viacom study has found that preschool kids have a significant voice and influence on household purchases in Australia. Based on results from a study of Australian kids who are 1 to 5 years old, young children have the most influence in purchases that provide them with experiences.

Australian parents often spend ‘a lot of time’ or ‘quite a bit of time’ discussing certain types of purchases with their children. Some of these purchases include books, construction toys and puzzles, riding toys and small figure toys. More than half of all children 5 and under (57%) spent a significant amount of time discussing book purchases with their family and 47% were consulted for their advice before purchase.

On the other hand, kids have less input in other purchase decisions. Only 33% of children on average were asked for input on children’s food, fruit-based beverages, soft drinks, and sweet snack purchases. Kids are least involved in decisions about backpacks, costumes and dress up, and hair accessories. For example, only 28% of children regularly influence backpack purchase decisions, and only 30% influence hair accessory purchases.

Interestingly, for all types of purchases, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. viewers in Australia have much higher engagement rates than non-viewers of the channels. On average, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. viewers are 1.9 times more likely than non-viewers to spend time discussing purchases, and 1.8 times more likely to be consulted for their advice.