Getting kids excited about filling out their wish lists. That is the challenge of toy advertisers every fall. Traditionally, this was done primarily through TV. Declining viewing time and less advertising space around kids programming is a problem. This means this means innovating to still achieve the desired impact. For Spin Master, STROOM has therefore developed a new strategy. This revolves around a prominent place for branded content in the campaigns aimed at girls aged 6 to 12.
Capitalize on popular media brand among target audience.
One possible strategy to grow as a (new) brand is to partner with a strong media brand in the target audience. In the target group girls 6-12, Tina has been a strong brand for decades. This makes it the perfect match with Spin Master's target audience for the new products: Purse Pets, Cool Maker Shimmer, Me Body Art and the updated Cool Maker Nail Salon.
Purse pets are 3 interactive bags that respond to touch, blink their eyes and can give over 25 reactions unique to each type of Purse Pets pet. The Shimmer Me Body Art is an all-in-one set to design your own temporary body art with foil, glitter and jewelry. The Nail Salon is a tool to stamp the most beautiful designs on your nails.
To introduce these products, we have partnered with Tina. Tina is an authority on everything to do with beauty & fashion. Therefore, this title like no other can convey the message in a way that enthuses the target group.
Tina girls are playful and increasingly interested in love, fashion, celebrity news, influencers and beauty. With a monthly gross reach of 780,000, Tina is the largest media brand for young girls. Tina is their "go-to" for inspiration in the magazine and online on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Tina has grown from magazine to a multimedia platform that knows how to reach girls online on the platforms they use: Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. They do this with TinaTV with their own vloggers.
New ways to reach young audiences in changed media landscape
The kids media landscape has changed dramatically by 2021, making reaching kids through television a challenge. Until 2020, 70% of children could be reached through TV. Due to the elimination of advertising opportunities on Z@ppelin, Zapp and Telekids and the change in viewing behavior, the reach for television ads has decreased by at least 30% among children compared to 2020. In addition, viewing time for linear children's programs has declined to below 9 hours per week. This decline is mainly visible at commercial channels. There, the average viewing time decreased by about 30% compared to the beginning of this year. At the same time, viewing time to video on-demand such as Netflix, YouTube and social media use has actually increased significantly among children.
With this innovative media effort, STROOM has found a way to stay in touch with this target audience in a different way, but just as effectively. Olga Opaleva, Brand Manager at Spin Master says this is a perfect fit. They want to communicate directly with the target audience, "We usually try to talk directly to our consumers - through TV or digital campaigns. But lately this is becoming more and more challenging, especially in the case of new brands, such as Purse Pets. Unfortunately, it's not always the case that audiences are ready for your communications message, no matter how beautifully and thoughtfully produced. Partnering with Tina allows us to target our audience not only with the right message, but also on the right platform and at the right time, when they are ready and looking forward to discovering new brands."
Building reach, contacts and awareness
A content collaboration provides the space to explain more about the USPs of products and show how to use them. For this campaign, we partnered with Tina vlogster Anique. The videographer, singer and dancer has 771k followers on TikTok and 50k on Instagram (@Aniquedreamon).
With this local hero of the target audience as the face of the campaign, desirability among the target audience is stimulated. Another advantage is that through the content collaboration, the target group can be reached on social media through the Tina accounts on Instagram and TikTok which the kids use a lot, but where advertising under 18 is not possible. In addition, a longer YouTube video, ads and sponsored product tips are deployed in the magazine. Through this multimedia deployment, we reach the target group over several weeks through different platforms. This is how we build reach and contacts. By partnering with Tina, we also have control over brand safety because we know the campaign will be seen in a safe environment for children.

This diverse mix of channels suggested STROOM to reach the target audience at different times with different types of content. The deployment was spread over several weeks, both online and in print, for the most optimal reach and contact frequency. All this exactly in the period when children start making wish lists for the holidays.
This achieves Spin Master's main objective: "We mainly wanted to build fast and effective reach ." Says Olga. "I didn't expect the campaign to do so much in the hearts and minds of the girls thanks to this highly engaging content."
The results exceeded our expectations. Within a month, the videos were rated on YouTube and TikTok with more than 100,000 views and 11,000 likes. This took full advantage of TikTok's strong algorithm, spreading popular content to the target audience like an ever-growing snowball.
The campaign is still in full swing and is exceeding set media goals. For Spin Master's brands, this is an opportunity to be relevant and wanted in a different way. "Awareness is one thing, but this collaboration helps us to enthuse the target audience to take the products into their homes." Thus Olga Opaleva.