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.
