In this special live episode, recorded at KidsScreen in San Diego, Andy and Emily take to the stage to moderate a deep-dive panel on one of the most talked-about new preschool IPs in the market right now: BeddyByes.

Born out of the very relatable chaos of lockdown-era bedtimes, BeddyByes is a new show from Jam Media designed to help young children wind down — and it's been built with real intention, from the ground up. Joining Andy and Emily are John Rice, CEO of Jam Media and co-creator of the show; Richard Goldsmith, EVP of Kids and Family at Blue Ant Media, who handles worldwide distribution; and Vienna Downs, also from Blue Ant, leading consumer products and licensing.

Together, they walk through the full journey of bringing BeddyByes to market — from the initial creative spark and the challenge of pitching a "bedtime show" to broadcasters, to landing deals with the BBC, RTE, Disney Junior, and Moose Toys. The panel covers the deliberate, step-by-step distribution strategy, what it really takes to build authentic consumer products around a new IP, and why owning a clear niche might just be the smartest move a brand can make right now.

It's an honest, energetic conversation about what it looks like to build a franchise the right way — with great content at the centre and the right partners around the table.

Hey there, Andy Williams here. Now, this is a slight change to our normal service.

The upcoming episode is a live recording of a panel on the new preschool IP BeddyByes, which Emily and I moderated and co hosted at KidsScreen in sunny San Diego. Unfortunately, Jo can be with us as she was hosting a session herself at MIP London.

Anyway, without further ado, here's our panel on BeddyByes at Kidscreen. Welcome everyone. This is our session on BeddyBys. Just a quick heads up before we get into it.

This is also going to double up as a recorded live episode of the Kids Media Club podcast. So any cheers or claps will be on the episode and will be warmly received.

Can you. There is an audience out there. This isn't just a fever dream. Yeah, great. Really great to be speaking to the Beddybyes team today.

This is Andy Williams, I'm Emily Horgan. We are the hosts of the Kids Media Club podcast and we speak about loads of the themes that this franchise is embodying at this stage.

We speak about everything everywhere. Distribution, we think we speak about, you know, building the rocket ship in real time.

And so we're really excited to get into the case study here today. Beddybyesers is a new IP coming from Jam Media.

They've made lots of great moves in terms of setting up the distribution the toy around what success for a franchise can look like. And I think in today's climate, having an original IP coming through with so much potential is definitely something worth spotlighting.

So that's what we're here to do today. Really delighted to have the team with us. Could I do a quick intro down the line and who you are and what you are doing on Beddy Buys?

That would be great. So let's start off.

I'm Vienna Downs and I work for Blueant Media, formerly Thunderbird Entertainment.

I am responsible for consumer products and licensing and my role in building the Beddybyess brand is to help take the storyline from the screen into parents and kids hands. So that's consumer products.

So that's what I want to do is to extend the wonderful storytelling that John has created and bring it into homes every day.

I'm Richard Goldsmith, EVP of kids and family sales and brands for Blue Ant. John as the dad and I'm Uncle Richard to the brand. I manage the worldwide media sales and the brand. Turn it over to John.

Thanks Unk. Yeah, I'm John Rice. I'm CEO of Jam Media and co creator and executive producer on Buddy Vice. Delighted to be here.

Awesome to have everyone here. We're really excited to get into the conversation.

I need to warn the audience that when we ran, when we did run throughs for this panel, there is so much meat to get through in the conversation. So if we don't get to questions, the guys will be here afterwards. But let's show you what we're talking about.

We've got a video for Bebbybyes here to show the audience in case you haven't caught it. This wonderful show. So hopefully we can roll the video with seamlessly right now. Hello, my name is Mimo and this is my best friend Baba. Hello.

We live on planet Baddie Pies and these are the tweeties. The tick tock clock always tells us what time it is. He go on big adventures with Go

Go who can change into a plane, a rocket or a helicopter.

When it's playtime, we visit the play tree. We get to choose a fun toy to play with. Yay. Three things to choose from. We have so much fun.

Gorgeous. John, could you just talk a little bit about what inspired the show and the kind of the development of the idea?

Sure.

I mean, I suppose that in households with kind of very young preschoolers, bedtime is often the most, sorry, the most emotionally loaded part of the day. And both myself and the co creator of Betty Boys, Alan Shannon, were experiencing this ourselves.

About four years ago we had a two year old and a three year old in our respective households and it was locked down and of course all routine kind of went out the window with lockdown. And we were looking for, I suppose, nourishing content that might help our kids to wind on a little bit before bed basically.

And we found that there was this real scarcity of it and we found from talking to other parents and ourselves that often parents quite guiltily sometimes go head to YouTube where often the content probably isn't geared for more mindful experiences. Often it's, it's high energy, high octane, bright primary colors.

And we just saw that there was a gap in the market, you know, for this kind of content. And this underserved audience deserved a little bit better than, you know, the vast majority of stuff that is out there.

They do represent about 5% of the world's population. And yet there wasn't, you know, content that was being designed specifically to cater for this part of their needs.

So we set about creating Beddybyes.

Really though I suppose that the inspiration came through it from, you know, we've been in business for 25 years creating entertainment brands for kids, but this one we approached slightly differently in that we were Looking to solve a real world problem that we were actually having. So it became something kind of bigger as a result of a problem trying to be solved than an actual problem. Entertainment.

Yeah. And it's that routine driven thing. I think, like, that was when. When Beddybyess came on my radar and we spoke about it for the first time.

That was the thing that resonated with me immediately. In the world of on demand, we've forgotten that kids have routines and programming and media can be a great help around those moments.

And I think, Betty, like you said, the gap in the market, even though it's we live in an on demand era, bedtime still happens.

It does. And nap time, I mean, sometimes bedtime can occur two or three times in a day for the very young. Yeah, yeah.

And it is a show that I think that is there for an on demand world. I think that previously that there probably wasn't that much content created for this age group.

Because often, you know, around the world, they don't measure audiences below the age of four. So if they don't measure them, they don't exist. A lot of linear broadcasters don't have bedtime slots, so it's hard to fit into their schedules.

But this is very much an on demand play. The parents can utilize it as a tool whenever they really feel the need.

And how did you balance that kind of the emotional regulation aspect of it, but without making it feel too instructional? Kind of.

So, yeah, no, totally. The last point that we want the audience to feel is that, you know, that it's time to go to bed, they'll quickly turn off the show.

And when you say, you know, when you're pitching it as a bedtime show, often people, you know, get kind of turned off that it's a bit niche, but it's not. This is a little bit more than that. I mean, it's kind of. It's a joke journey to bedtime.

But along the way, we bring in an awful lot of the challenges and the relatability that kids of that age would experience. So it kind of starts as the promo might have illustrated through this kind of creative play.

Then it goes on to the meal part of their day, the latter few hours of their waking day, really. And then it's onto the bed or onto the bat. And then along the way to learn about nutrition, food, nutrition, hygiene, brushing teeth.

And gradually the tempo decreases as each episode goes on. And they are not asleep, but they're prepared for sleep.

Yes. And how did. So what kind of creative decisions did you make at the Start.

You talked about the fact that in some ways it was a response to a real world problem which you had experienced yourself. What were the first creative kind of decisions that you think had the most impact in terms of building that?

Yeah, I think that it was really, I think the format and really kind of nailing the format to the wall and carving it out in stone. We knew that that age group felt comfortable in a level of predictability and

kind of knowing when you say the format, like, what you mean, like the sections of the show and how it would flow between each of them. Okay, fine.

Yeah. And that's very much like visually represented through the TikTok clock there.

You know, there's audio and visual cues that take them from each kind of vignette to the next. And. Yeah, that's. And that is, you know, that is throughout each episode that is there and, you know, very much there for, for all to see.

And almost like lightly hypnotizing them, I think a little bit bringing them like down as each level goes. It does start off as a kind of a quite a. Not a high tempo, but a. But a.

But a slightly upbeat tempo, and then gradually peers itself back into kind of quite a minimalist, kind of orchestral kind of motif.

And when you. So you've got the. You've come up with the idea, you've started to kind of develop that. How did you. What.

Who were the key kind of partners and support that you. You kind of called upon and brought in to kind of start developing the idea?

Well, we're fortunate. So we've got. We've got a studio in Dublin and we've got a studio in Northern Ireland in Belfast.

So there's quite supports in both of those territories in terms of developing content. So we look for funding basically from that.

The funding for usually, I suppose because we're kind of insecure producers in a way that we'd like to have in our satchel going out a Bible, a couple of scripts, and ideally a trailer. The funding didn't allow for a trailer on this. Actually. Dave, I might just give you a little look at the Bible that we use.

Dave, if you wouldn't mind playing the Bible, but just having the background and then we go out into the world and we, we. We pitch it. But we didn't have the funding, as I said, for a trailer. So what we did was we, we. We did very much kind of enhanced storyboards.

So that kind of became our, our pitch deck. And we did a full episode out with these. And this is. It circles out in these, in this storyboard.

So you can see very quite, um, details and remained pretty much the same as what the, the, the end result was and we would pitch it.

And the remarkable thing about it is after the pitching we found that as we sent on the materials that the broadcasters and potential partners were like, oh, you forgot to send us the trailer. And I said like, well there was no trailer. I said yes there was. But Al, my partner is very good. He's got very velvety tones, hasn't he Richard?

He's well able to kind of to tell a story. So they thought that there was a trailer attached, but there wasn't. So, so that's it.

We, we usually tend to get to about 80% of what the show will be at this point and then we wait for partner and financier input and then that will help kind of to mold it into what it's finally going to be. We brought in a child psychologist, Dr. Jacqueline Harding, quite early on just to see if we were on the right track. And largely we were.

But she certainly helped with, with kind of shaping it around, you know, what, you know, children of that age expectations were and indeed their parents. And then, then yeah, fell down to the pitch and financing and all of that.

And what was the, how did it kind of land initially when you were doing the initial pitches? Were people surprised about it being a show kind of really centered around bedtime?

What was the kind of initial reaction and feedback you got to that?

Like I suppose when the BBC we kind of went to first and interestingly we were, we had, we had a set up to, to pitch it and in between setting up the meeting and the meeting they had a commissioning day where they quite explicitly said that we're not looking for any bedtime shows. But, but we did pitch it to them. They did have a great reaction to it. We could see that.

I, I thought that the bedtime slot, which is very coveted in the uk, you know, was looking a little bit dusty and we, we kind of said, you know, look, this is probably, you know, more modern than some of the, the other content that's there.

And yeah, so they went with it and then rt, our national broadcaster in Ireland, came on board and then we went to Cartoon Forum where we dressed in pajamas and pitched it and we brought in some other broadcasters, scandies and stuff and then Richard and some other distributors were hovering around. We went with Richard because he just got it and just exposed this kind of passion for the project.

And then, yeah, then we were at the races in terms of with the Irish and UK tax credits and some other incentives, we were able to get it financed. And then the adventure kind of started from there.

That's amazing. I mean, it looks gorgeous. Did you have to kind of almost pitch the idea of the real world problem to the channels as much as the creative?

Did you have to persuade them of the kind of necessity for it in that respect?

Yeah, I mean, I think because it came from a kind of a, you know, a personal place, it was, it was easy to express, you know, firsthand experiences that we weren't alone. And we'd done quite a good bit of research, you know, around the challenges the parents had around and their major challenge.

70% of parents would cite, and this is universally like bedtime, as being the most challenging part of their day.

Many too would say about, you know, nutrition and getting them trying out new food things, which we cover as well, and indeed hygiene, brushing teeth and, and, you know, and washing face and hands and stuff like that. So all of those are covered within the series. So we're able to, you know, I suppose reframe it.

Not so much as a show about bedtimes, but a show that will echo the latter parts of their day.

Yeah. What was your reaction to the pitch, Richard, when you saw it, were you just like, yep, I'm in. Get it?

Yes. I've known John for decades and the minute I saw the show, I was blown away. I think I said to John, this is your crowning achievement.

Everything about it was beautiful. I had previously in my very long career done two other bedtime shows, so I learned a bit about it. And from a creative standpoint, it was a home run.

From a business standpoint, I recognized the massive opportunity to do a series that was a tool for parents because I knew that the on demand play views would surpass other content and that the consumer products opportunity was more significant than a typical show.

Yeah, that makes sense. And then what was going through your mind from a business perspective in terms of long term partners on distribution, on consumer products?

Like where, where did, where did your thinking go to?

Well, the first step was to help John close the financing and then the next step was to show the series to. There's 25 platforms in the world that are the big, the biggest broadcasters and biggest streamers in the world. We always go there first.

I like to expose series and opportunities to the entire group of our clients and see what the reaction is. And very, very early on, several years ago, also meeting with the heads of the toy companies.

Step one was to secure a US Network and a global streamer. We had also asked the toy companies that we wanted to work for

what

their hopes and dreams would be for a platform. So we knew going in that we could narrow our focus in the US and for streamer. We went through six months of negotiations with the platforms.

We structured a deal with Disney. That was our dream deal, quite frankly. And everything that we do is very methodical and in steps. There's a certain cadence to how we do these.

Once we had the Disney deal worked out, then we knew which toy companies were interested in.

I didn't want them to make an offer before that because having a great partner like Disney, Disney Junior, Linear in the US and Disney in the US and worldwide was a big deal.

And then so step two, toy deal, step three, a publisher and the products that initially come out being toys and publishing, it's always the foundation. And that is how we started and very focused. Like, you know, as I said to John, like, it's like an MBA strategy.

I said, john, this is ours to screw up, you know, so we knew,

no, it's yours to screw up.

We knew that we had a huge opportunity here and we really wanted to move slowly.

So the other strategy was to roll it out first in the uk, get our feet wet there, then the US and Australia, so focusing first on English language markets. And here we are today.

And it's like such a Rolodex of partners that you have. So, you know, you've got the BBC and RT in the home markets. Then it's, yeah, as you said, Disney globally, but Disney Junior locally as well.

You've got that linear, that linear underpinning which I think is important in preschool and everything everywhere. And that's additive. And then on the consumer products, we've got Moose. And then on publishing, it's publishing.

We can't say yet, but I can tell you that all our preeminent partners and all of our partners thus far are the same teams that worked on Bluey. So we.

Was that, Was that a casual flex working on Bluey? No, it's awesome. It's really, it's a really, really great. It's a really, really great list of partners that you have.

The one partner you haven't mentioned is YouTube.

So I'd love to hear what your thoughts were on that because that can be a difficult one to land the premium partners and still carving out space to activate on the biggest kids platform in the world.

Yeah.

So part of the great pleasure of our business being, you know, the kids business is really small we have, you know, those of us who've been around a long time have really deep, long relationships. John and I have been friends for years. Vienna and I worked together at Warner Brothers years ago.

And one of the great pleasures of negotiating was with my old friend Rick Clodfelter and trying to figure out things together. When you have these deep relationships and you know people well, you can have really honest conversations.

And then when business affairs and legal is brought in, Kavi, who's sitting over there also, everything was just really lovely. Certain platforms have the attitude about grabbing all the rights.

In today's world, we have to ensure, as the brand manager and representative for the brand owner, that we can have as much control of YouTube and social media as possible. Because YouTube is our major marketing for kids, obviously, and social media for parents and caregivers.

And so our rule over the years has been we have to reach out to parents several times a week on social media. And so it was very important to us that we had a good deal of control of YouTube and social media.

And the other thing was, is that we needed in the major markets to also have a broadcast window. And Disney understood that because they knew that this was the best way to monetize the brand. And that's how we structured it.

And ultimately there are partners for media and including in YouTube. I'm not saying that we just grabbed the rights and we're not working with them. We literally have a meeting with that team every other week.

And Disney, the YouTube channel, Disney Junior has 28 million subscribers, and our YouTube channel probably now has 600 subscribers. So the partnership really allows us to work with their YouTube channel and then also on a secondary basis to grow ours.

Right. And how.

What would your advice be to producers that are facing pressure to kind of relinquish the rights to the YouTube rights from a broadcaster, because that. That's often a big challenge, is that part of the deal is you get the. You could get the funding, but you give up a lot of the.

The rights over YouTube.

Yeah, it's really weird. I was reading Barry Diller's autobiography. Barry Diller was the chairman of Fox and Paramount, and he's one of the titans of Hollywood.

And Barry Diller has one of his rules is don't compromise and walk away from the deal if you don't get what you want here. We knew that the series was important to us and to Disney. And my attitude about doing business is basically that everybody has to walk away happy.

And, you know, the most important thing of this entire panel and of our business is content. What John and Al and the team created is really the most important thing. And so it's our responsibility to make sure that it's well taken care of.

But if you have something that people want, they'll work it out.

And the good thing is, is that in our talks with Kavi and Rick, they've been to this rodeo before, you know, they've done many, many, many deals, and they know what we collectively need to build a global brand.

And I would say that again, like, my perspective is always that it's based on relationships and that as a brand owner, you know, if you can't sell it to anyone and your only deal is to give in uncertain things, you have to do that. But in the meantime, if you can get a deal, you should do your best to get what you want.

Yep. And do you feel like the studios and the broadcasters that that mindset has evolved and shifted a bit anyway, in terms of YouTube and.

And relinquishing some of those rights to kind of. To allow.

I don't know what you're relinquishing. You need to sell it better. Like collaborating on the collaborating. Because you're collaborating with Disney app rights, right?

Yeah, it depends on the platform.

Very good point.

Yeah, I think it depends on the platform. And I mean, you're talking about the global platforms, you're talking about all the broadcasters we work with worldwide. Everybody has.

I have a client who runs a big network somewhere in the world, and she doesn't allow absolutely any rights to go, you know, no YouTube, no social media, no subscription VOD. And in fact, you know, there's like, she has this famous language in her agreements that addresses that. It really depends on the platform.

I think that if you're a platform that. That knows that having having products in the market isn't just revenue generating, but it's also drives viewership.

I encouraged them to go out and embrace these platforms and explain to them how it'll help build their business. And it's taken them years and years and years to get that trust. But still, some platforms are stuck in the past. And it's understandable.

I mean, if you have something that someone's paying for, like Disney junior or Netflix or Hulu or what have you, and then all of a Sudden all your content is available for free. It kills their business model. So you have to window it and also respect that these companies need to protect their business.

But it's also, you can understand it, right? And like, I'm happy to name it. Like, it is a challenge for many public service broadcasters.

And that's natural because they're on the hook to local license fee payers. Right. That is, their remit is to serve local. So interfacing with the global reality of YouTube is. Yeah, there's an inherent conflict there.

And it's a tough one to advocate for.

And I'm sure it's a tough one for them to advocate internally when they're dealing with adult teams and sports teams and news teams and they're like, but for the kids stuff, we need to do it this way. So I feel for the position that they.

You're right. But like, for example, some of the most important meetings that Vienna and I have in our lives are with Walmart and Target.

Ultimately, that's where we will make the most money in our businesses.

And when we sit with Walmart and Target quarterly, we have to show them a plan of not only everything we're doing in marketing, but also exactly what the YouTube schedule is for the next quarter, exactly what we're doing on social media. And the nice thing is that the operations that I've always run, we control everything.

We control the distribution side so we can guarantee what we're doing on YouTube and social media and television and the consumer products. And that's, you know, very unusual because we can just look the executives at those retailers in the eye and say that.

But what people don't understand is that if you don't promise that to the toy companies and the publishers and the licensees and all the people that we work with, then you have no business. So it's all strategic. And people like Rick, for example, who've been around for a long time, understand that. And it benefits everybody.

Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, you can observe from the outside of the rights collaboration with Disney on Bluey. Right.

And that's one of the reasons why that show is where it is today.

I would say I'm obsessed with the routine driven factor of it because I just think it's something that's been so neglected for numerous years in On Demand Vienna. I'd love to talk about how that routine driven factor ended up influencing strategy or the line roundup in consumer products.

Absolutely. It was everything. It was the foundation for the strategy for consumer products.

This show is such A natural extension for products and a wide range of products. And actually, it's more categories than it even is products. I can give you an example.

Typically, as Richard had mentioned, we will sign and launch a toy partner and a publishing partner. And then there's categories that follow, like bedding will follow a couple seasons later. Apparel may follow, and then sleepwear will follow apparel.

But because of these, the routine that this show reinforces, every single episode of playtime, meal time, bath time, story time, and sleep time, These categories are natural extensions in consumer products.

So you may see betting launch with toys and publishing, for example, because it's such a strong category and there's that connective tissue between product and show. So show to shelf. So, absolutely 100%. The routines really influenced the overall consumer product strategy.

And. Well, can you.

Can you convey how the chart that you did that explained to the toy companies, every licensee in the world, why this was a phenomenal product opportunity? The three buckets.

Yes, absolutely.

Richard's auditioning for co host Andy.

Yep.

Yeah. So one of the unique selling propositions of this is that we can hit multiple areas within consumer products.

So, for example, you have your natural toy and play extension. Everyday play super easy. Right. When kids want to emulate the show. So whether that's figure play, plush play, and then you've got the daily routine.

So you have all these products that ladder up to playtime or mealtime. So think tabletop decor and tabletop products for mealtime. Think food play from mealtime. And then you go into brushy time or bath time.

Think of all the products there you've got. Bath is gonna be a huge category for us along with hba.

So bath, whether it's like bath bubbles and crayons that you play with in the bath, and then you've got your move into story time.

Obviously, publishing, that totally makes sense, but it can extend farther into, like nap mats, cozy throws, and then you've got bedtime, which clearly bed is gonna be a huge caddy for us, such as bedding and sleep toys. And then the third bucket is tools for parents. So John had mentioned how this show was created to help solve a problem.

The show solves a problem, but we have this unique and wonderful opportunity to solve a problem in the home, in kids, hands in, parents hands every day, outside and beyond the screen.

So.

So we want to create, and we will create products that help parents with their take their child through the day, help with the child's emotional regulation. So, for example, the TikTok clock is so very important. To the show and we're going to bring that into homes.

And that will be a product that help guides the families, whether the child or the parent, through the day. As well as sleep aids. That's going to be also a very important product type for us as well.

So those are the three buckets, the natural play and then the routines that ladder up to each category and tools for parents.

That's wonderful. And they kind of arise so organically out of the show, all of the things.

Absolutely. And I think that's one thing that's so important. Authenticity is so important to all of us.

And the show is authentic and we want the products to be authentic too. We're not label slapping, we're not force fitting something. This is a natural extension.

And how did you kind of ensure that the partners that you found were the right partners for the show and for the products as well?

Yeah, it was really tough. We were in a really great position that the RFPs that we've done and that we're continuing to do are very competitive, were very competitive.

So we had Cream of the Crop to select from. And it was not an easy process, I would say.

Some of the things that we look for are a partner that shares the same brand value, a partner that understands the importance of the show, a partner who shares our values as well, a partner who's interested in long term brand building, not just really quick wins, a partner who is best in class in their category, a partner who shares our requirement for high quality and safety, a partner who's got great relationships with buyers. It's.

We look at a lot of things and we're very fortunate with the partners we've signed on and we look forward to signing on a lot more wonderful partners.

And when, again, like when we get involved in a brand immediately, even if we're developing a show and we have the first drawing, we're always talking to the retailers and the toy companies and the publishers throughout the year. And our first meeting with a very large retailer, when we showed Beddybyess, the executive said, this is absolutely beautiful. I love it.

I love that it's a niche. You're going to own bedtime across this entire retail chain and in every category.

And so one of the other messages that we wanted to convey to you today, which very early on when Jocelyn and I were talking about this panel and is that if you have a great show, you know, business is tough now, everybody knows that in our industry, if you have a great show and you have a great plan, and particularly we like niches where things can stand out from all the clutter. There's a lot of opportunity out there.

Yeah, totally. No, and that's like one of the, one of the major pieces that really works for this brand, Moose.

A few things like Moose met the needs that you guys were looking for. They're obviously a really interesting company and a great brand to have announced. A great partner to have announced with this.

Yes, absolutely. We're so incredibly happy with our partnership with Moose Toys.

Yeah.

Very happy about that partnership.

Yeah.

It's like every time Vienna sends me the samples that Moose do or prototypes and stuff like that, I regress back to being a four year old boy on Christmas Day. It is just so exciting to see just the innovation that's coming out of them, really.

It's, you know, just how deep they have dived into the brand and just saw aspects of it that we had never seen in it. Yeah.

And really just bring it out and really closely looking at the play patterns that are just naturally built into the show and then being able to take them and put them towards retailers, it's incredibly exciting what they're doing.

Yeah. Again, it feels like it's so organic to the show.

The characters lend themselves to being kind of recreated in a way that you can play with them, but it feels organic to the show and they're part of the spirit of the show as well. It's great. You've done a great job with that.

Yeah. And I mean, we've had a long discussion on eyes. Right.

Like the eyes are the soul to the characters and we want to really try to capture that and recreate that in our product. So, yeah, we dig deep and we have partners that are good with that.

Right.

That they, that they want to get it right. And so, yeah, that's one example of, of the partnership between the creators of the content and our consumer product partner.

Consumer products partners and ourselves.

And the other thing is a lot of distributors and a lot of licensing agents, which is basically what our role is, aren't collaborative with creators. And we talk throughout the week. We have regular calls.

John's involved in everything and his team, again, we're the aunt and uncle and he's the dad and. And I think, you know, John and I had a talk a while ago that, you know, we're one of the few companies in our space that actually really involved.

Yeah, no, and they want us to be, I think, you know, most of them, you know, do appreciate, you know, I guess. Yeah, we are the father and the mother and the uncle and.

Yeah, we want input and that input is largely, you know, it's welcomed and, you know, they've changed aspects of the design or whatever like that, built around our notes, which is great. And yeah, it's a very collaborative process with all of them. We'd never set out on as we were making Betty buys for it to be a toy play.

We've tried that in the past and often kind of created quite cynical content around it.

This was born out of the pure desperation of a parent needing to get their age deep. I feel that very.

Just getting a show off the gordo it was. But I think that when you do, at least for a company like us, that I suppose is creatively driven for creating audiovisual content.

When you do try to shoehorn in early on, you know, make an overt play for it being a toy opportunity. We've always kind of failed dismally at that when it's.

When it is the creative that's driving it and there's an authenticity, I think that will bring partners to the table.

Yeah.

Amazing.

Wouldn't be the Kids Media Club podcast if we weren't from.

Yes.

Jumping to ask a question with so much enthusiasm.

Yeah. So my question was going to be what does it mean to market a preschool?

That was going to be my question.

And that's kind of to the group really. How is it different now, marketing for preschool IP brand in today's environment?

Well, it's really. Again, as I mentioned before, you're really wanting to reach the parents and the caregivers. Right now, social media is the most effective.

The rule that we have with our brands is that you reach out to that audience at least three or four times a week. We've spent a huge amount of time working with John and the team on what that content is. So it's a mix of advice, starting with bedtime.

Dr. Harding's involved in that. We'll bring on other experts that deal with mealtime and. And other issues that parents are having.

So the.

The purpose of our social media first and foremost is information. Secondly, offering activities and clips and fun things that they can share with their kids.

YouTube From a marketing perspective is the most effective way to reach the kids as well as obviously the platforms that we're on. And then we work with agencies and outside companies. The most effective form of marketing there is digital advertising.

So we're going to support our television platforms in the major markets with digital ads. It's the most effective way to reach once we're in retail. It's very scientific.

So for Example, in the United States, we know every single store where our products are, and we can buy digital advertising to target parents of preschoolers that live within 30 miles of that store.

And our experience over the years and our colleagues that know it better than us, that run the toy companies, that is the most effective way to drive sales through. And the other thing that Vienna and I just started doing recently was using influencers, hiring mom influencers that can do the same thing.

And when we kind of went through that journey and we're learning how to

do it,

what we did was, is that we hired mom influencers who weren't only popular influencers, but they were popular, like with the Target crowd or the Walmart crowd.

And then as we got into it and learned more, they really need to be either in the store with the product or they need to be, like in the home, in the bedroom, for example. We did an influencer campaign for one of our brands that had bedding, and they were in the bedroom, the mom setting it up. So that is the.

Those are the areas of marketing that we focus on.

Yeah. Joss is hovering.

One quick, really quick Richard lesson that, you know, you would have the audience take away from your experience at beddy buys so far. Let's start with you, Vienna.

The lesson, the takeaway. Well, I guess that when lightning strikes, it doesn't happen often. And I feel like this is maybe flitterbugs in a bottle.

When lightning strikes, set yourself on fire and get working.

So, no, this is. Collaboration is important. Having the right people, the right partners, the amazing content. Yeah. So this is.

I'm so happy and proud to be a part of this. And I realize how uni, unique and rare it is. That's my takeaway. Yeah.

Content number one. Content is king or queen or whatever you want to say. It's all about great content. My job is easy. I have an iPad. I show, John show.

I take people to great meals. It's all about the great content. That's the hub of this, of our entire industry.

Great content and great dinners. Yes. I would say the takeaway for me is that there's still an opportunity out there. There's still risks that are being taken for to create new ip.

There's people that will still get behind you in the world of franchises.

I think that, you know, it feels like the time is running out for the franchise and that there is going to be more space out there for original creations. And yeah, the lesson that I would learn is to stick with it, and I hope you do, too.

There's life in the oil industry. Yes.

Yes.

Oh, that's a good note to finish on.

That is a very good note.

All right. Well listen, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. Thanks to the panel.

We need we do need to share that Joe Redfer and our usual other co host who couldn't make it today. So we miss you, Joe. Sorry you didn't make it to San Diego. We're very grateful to have the opportunity to bring our listeners to kids.

Absolutely.

San Diego. Can you please do the sign off?

I'll do the sign off. So thanks so much to our wonderful panelists and thanks to you guys as well. And thanks to our listeners at home. Please like and subscribe.

And we'll be sadly not in sunny San Diego next week but back in Rainy island in England.

It'll be March. It'll be March.

That'll be nice and sunny. Well, that's great. So thanks very much everyone.