Tag Archives: Pocket.watch

Pocket.watch taps Vivid to bring YouTube sensation Love, Diana toys and more to the UK

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Vivid has partnered with the licensing and merchandising specialist, pocket.watch for the launch of a new toy line inspired by the latest YouTube sensation, Kids Diana Show. According to Tubefilter, the channel totals 5bn views a month across the globe.

To support the global launch of the Kids Diana Show merchandise, pocket.watch has produced 40 episodes of Love, Diana – a live-action and animated hybrid series with stories focusing on positive lessons about friendship, family, creativity, and the power of play.

“We are delighted to be partnering with pocket.watch again and start such an exciting journey to entertain and inspire girls with Love, Diana,” said Nick Thomas, general manager of Vivid. “Ryan’s world proved that you can disrupt the traditional toy sector because children relate to and admire their YouTube superstars and want to play with their toys.

“Ryan remains in the UK NPD charts in the top ten fastest growing new properties. We are all looking forward to replicating this success with exciting and innovative Diana products.”

Working with lead partners Far Out Toys (collectables), Jerry Leigh (dress-up), Taste Beauty (bath and beauty), Headstart (dolls, doll accessories and styling heads), and HiJinx (plush), Vivid will be distributing a wide range across different product categories, price points and play experiences to allow young girls to interact, role play.

Stone Newman, CRO, pocket.watch, added: “Pocket.watch is thrilled to continue our relationship with partners like Vivid to bring Love, Diana to expand the reach of the Love, Diana franchise and to deliver fun and inspiration to young girls on a global scale.”

Pocket.watch takes Ryan’s Mystery Playdate to global markets and launches new mobile game

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Pocket.watch has detailed its plans to expand the hit children’s TV series Ryan’s Mystery Playdate to international markets, starting with Amazon FreeTime Unlimited in Germany, while Pocket.watch’s gaming division will launch a new Ryan’s Mystery Playdate mobile game called Blast.

On top of this, the studio has revealed that the show has been picked up for a fourth season by Nickelodeon amid strong ratings throughout the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

These latest developments are the culmination of a strong couple of years for Pocket.watch and the Ryan brand that also saw the pre-school nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Preschool Children’s Series.

“We’re thrilled to be deepening our partnership with Amazon to bring Ryan’s Mystery Playdate to kids and families on a global level,” said Thanda Belker, senior vice president of distribution at Pocket.watch. “As we continue to further our mission to be everywhere kids and families are, Ryan’s Mystery Playdate has continued to prove the success of a creator-focused franchise, with unlimited viability across platforms including TV and games.”

Seasons one and two of Ryan’s Mystery Playdate will be available for the first time in Germany starting July 2020 in English and August 2020 in German on the Amazon FreeTime Unlimited streaming services, with Season three becoming available in October this year.

“We are excited to bring ‘Ryan’s Mystery Playdate’ to Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, our service that delivers premium, fun, and educational content for kids,” said Kurt Beidler, general manager of Amazon Kids & Family. “Kids around the world love following along on Ryan’s adventures, and we’re pleased to offer more of that content to families in Germany.”

Pocket.watch will also continue its focus on reaching audiences digitally via second screens, with the new free Ryan’s Mystery Playdate-themed mobile game Blast, which allows fans to join Ryan in discovering the next mystery playdate by solving fun puzzles.

Players will match colours, earn power-ups, and blast through each level to unlock new guests – like a firefighter, nurse, chef, martial artist, and more – and collect them in a guest book. The game will tie in familiar elements of the popular TV show, such as unlocking mystery boxes, spinning the mystery wheel, and dropping the “hintamajig,” and will launch this fall through Pocket.watch’s gaming division p.w Games.

Finally, Nickelodeon has ordered a 10-episode fourth season of Ryan’s Mystery Playdate. This new season will feature a Playdate Command Centre which uses video teleconferencing technology, giving Playdate guests the ability to play a game or engage in an activity with Ryan remotely. Additionally, some season four Playdates will be animated, allowing viewers to travel with current and historic characters to unlimited locations, even in different time periods.

Since its launch in April 2019, Ryan’s Mystery Playdate has reached over 33 million total viewers across Nickelodeon and the Nick Jr. channel. The series also ranks number one in its time slot on Treehouse in Canada, across all 11 Canadian kids’ networks measured and saw a 45 per cent audience increase in April 2020.

 

Pocket.watch launches first London office in move to grow EMEA operations and reach

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Pocket.watch, the home of the Ryan’s World brand alongside a roster of YouTube famous IPs, has opened its first international office on London in a move to extend its reach across Europe and EMEA.

The company’s expanded global presence will be led by Danny Spronz, who will serve as pocket.watch’s managing director EMEA, and will be responsible for all business operations, advertising sales, consumer products licensing and content sales in the region.

Prior to pocket.watch, Danny was vice president digital partnerships and influencer marketing at The Walt Disney Company EMEA.

“The rate of demand for children’s programming from the biggest stars and creators loved by generation alpha across EMEA and other western territories shows no signs of slowing down and pocket.watch is uniquely positioned to fill this need,” said Spronz.

“Pocket.watch has proven time and again to be a trailblazer in the kids’ entertainment space and I am thrilled to be joining the team to help further the company’s success and reach into new territories.”

The company’s global expansion follows on the heels of NPD reporting that pocket.watch’s Ryan’s World line of consumer products was the number one new property in the UK in 2019.

To help service the global demand for premium content, pocket.watch has also entered into a partnership with Etisalat, the largest telecom operator in the Middle East, to bring the company’s premiere slate of kids programming, including Ryan’s Mystery Playdate, HobbyKids Adventures and Ryan’s World Specials, to e-Junior, Etisalat’s top UAE kids TV channel through SVOD and Pay TV.

In addition to programming, pocket.watch plans to roll out new consumer products from the Ryan’s World, Ryan’s Mystery Playdate and HobbyKids Adventures franchises within the territory in the second half of the year.

To help the studio reach an even larger global audience, pocket.watch will also expand its roster of creator partners, with the addition of Netherlands based creator JasonVlogs.

Since launching in 2015, JasonVlogs’ popular YouTube channel has amassed over 5 billion lifetime views. Pocket.watch will replicate its successful creator-to-franchise business model by working alongside JasonVlogs to develop an animated series launching this year.

Following the launch, the partners will extend the franchise into consumer products, games and more.

On top of all of this, the company is in active discussions with distributors for its exclusive, premium slate of creator fuelled content including animated series’ EvanTube’s Dollar Toy Squad and Onyx Monster Mysteries amongst others.