News Analysis

Gather round: it’s Storytime

Tristan Brooks, managing director at Storytime Media, a new data-led specialist agency launched in July, tells Toy World how its innovative approach and deep expertise will benefit clients.

How are you feeling about Storytime Media’s first few months – are things shaping up as well as you hoped?

It’s been positive, despite the challenging market. We wanted to build an agency that’s set up for today’s digital media landscape, and one that uses data in smart ways. We already represent nine advertisers, which the four of us are very proud of. What we’re building resonates with our clients, which is exciting and breeds positive energy amongst the team.

How does Storytime Media stand out from other agencies?

Three main things make us a bit different. Firstly, we’ve been invested in by an established data partner, giving us exclusive access to its industry leading expertise and tech capabilities. We’re working together to build some unique, truly smart data products specifically designed for this category and for the purchaser journey.

Secondly, our people make this business. The four founders – me, Matt Smith, Sean O’Connor and Kurt Lusher - have worked together for almost a decade and have significant kids’ media and toy expertise. This knowledge is put to good use across all our client accounts as each founder leads day-to-day business, giving our clients constant direct access to experts. Given our size and set up, this provides our clients with speed and flexibility, building resource around their requirements.

Finally, our flexible hybrid business model can range from managing media, creative and content requirements, through to supplying our data services. This opens many more interesting opportunities and conversations versus operating as a traditional media agency and widens the scope of who we can work with.

What can you tell us about Storytime Media’s new kids’ digital platform, KidStack?

We’re really excited about KidStack. Over the past decade we’ve seen huge growth in kids’ digital media time and the number of digital media vendors in this space has also increased. Many agencies operate an outsourced model in which most of their kids’ digital media is bought via these third parties. There’s nothing wrong with this model, and some vendors have exclusive rights to content, but digital media is growing, and the landscape is becoming ever more data driven.

We wanted to take more control over the process, which is why we’re building our own fully compliant kids media platform. KidStack will bring us closer to the data, allowing us to make quicker decisions and ultimately deliver better value for our clients. We’ll continue to work with key partners to complement and enhance KidStack.

How will Storytime stay ahead of client needs over the coming years, given how quickly the media landscape is evolving?

Things are moving quickly, and AI is only accelerating this. We’re constantly thinking about (and embracing) what’s coming next because in this market, you can’t afford to stand still. This is an exciting time, and we have a smart, motivated team in place. As long as we keep pushing each other to be better, we’ll continue to shape our offering and bring new opportunities to our clients. We’re not following or mirroring anyone: all our energy is going into building an agency we think is right for both our clients and the market.

What else should our readers know about Storytime?

Change is happening at pace. Media campaigns are mainly digital now, so owning that data and using it smartly is reshaping how we advertise to parents and kids. This is why we’re so excited to launch Storytime Media.

To hear more about how our expertise could benefit your Q4 media campaigns, contact me on tristan@storytimemedia.co.uk