Hello! Here we are!
We were just going "can that strictly music stop!"
and it actually has - which is always nice.
This must be fun for you! We're over in The Greenhouse right now
with Splendiferous Marketing, and Carly welcome!
Thank you! We're really excited to be here.
Yes - so you are the...?
What's your title?
Director of Storytelling (That is a title! That is a title and a half!)
I'd get a little tattoo like that - that would be nice.
And is this your first year at Toy Fair? It's our first year exhibiting
So, I was here last year as a visitor, so Splendiferous has only been going for just over a year
So it's still very early days for us, but yeah it's really exciting to be here this year.
So what made you - we're going to find out what you actually do?
What made you - was last year a bit of a recce?
It was yeah - so it was really early days. So before Splendiferous
I spent just over ten years marketing,
working at companies like Disney, PlayStation, Early Learning Centre
and also setting up partnerships with the likes of LEGO, LEGOLAND,
and KidZania as well
so all very much in this space, and I just wanted to do something on my own.
So, yeah! Good for you Misses! I absolutely love that!
So, what actually is this? So - Splendiferous Marketing?
It says here "The Secret of Marketing to Mums"?
Now Gav likes to take the royal mick
out of me, but
...as a new mother myself...
this is talking to me!
Absolutely, so what I found during my career was that lots of brands make the same mistake
and that is once you've got a product that's aimed at mums
they seem to try to sell to ALL mums in the same way
because they think that once you are a mum, you all become the same person
Oh my gosh and... are you a mum?
I've got two small boys, so yes absolutely and it's clearly not the case!
So what we do at Splendiferous is,
our core product is marketing strategy, and what that means is that
every single project that we do starts with a piece of insight work.
So, we'll take for instance - if it's a UK brand -
the mums of the UK, and segment them based on
demographics, age of child and all of those usual things
but also things like parenting style,
or media behaviours, or social media habits
so we can build a really nice picture about all of the different types of mum that you've got in that market
And then we can match the brand with whichever segment we think is their target - if that makes sense?
And from that point onwards we can then work out what messages would work
for that particular audience.
So, we provide things like a list of buzzwords
that brands can then weave in and out of their marketing.
We'll provide recommendations around what social media channels they should use.
So the clients that we've got, for instance, are very varied
so we work with start-ups all the way up to people like Infantino, we've worked with as well
So, lots of the start-ups have very limited time and resource
And rather than advise them to try to do all social media channels at one time
We'll advise them to do - you know, it might be that their particular segment is very active on Facebook or Instagram
And it is such a science, isn't it?
I mean I'm very much on social media with my own presence
and it is such a science around who, when, what - you know, how
Exactly - it's just knowing where to start really.
So that marketing strategy piece of work
is all about giving recommendations about where to start
Yeah, and that's our main project.
And how's it - I think it's brilliant, actually -
and how's it been received by people?
Really well! So bizarrely there aren't many companies that do this
- that specialise in this particular area.
I think you really have hit on something actually! Yeah, I feel like we have.
And the clients that we've got, as I say, they're very varied
and the feedback that we've been having is just phenomenal
so we've had people, we been brought on board by people like
CMOs who have years and years of experience in marketing
expecting us to come in and be able to help a little bit
and they're just overwhelmed by the amount of information we can provide
and the insight and, you know, just providing
detail about how you can talk to mums and target them specifically.
And also it's worth it for the mums really as well because you don't want to have sales information
shoved down your throat every five minutes.
Well that's the thing as well, you know we're too tired and too overwhelmed
anyway with stuff, and actually
there are some things that you do need and you do want
and I don't know about you but I very much go to my
friends, my parent friends and go - "Oh are you using that?
Is that any good? Great - I'll get it!"
But as you say, it's just a minefield otherwise.
A minefield - there are so many products, I mean you only have to
look around here to see how any stands there are, and every stand has got
a slightly different audience, so it's just worth
targeting - rather than trying to do everything at once -
just focus and you can be much more effective, and it's more cost effective as well
so it works for everybody.
It's so good, I'm so please for you. So I mean, are we anticipating a busy year for you this year?
We are - so last year's been manic, and this year we've got
the book coming out, so just after the summer we've got our book coming out
"The Secret of Marketing to Mums"
and hopefully that will provide a nice little intro.
That's a - do you know what? That's a - that is a great book.
Thank you! I mean that is a great book! So when does that come - when are you launching that?
Just after the summer it's going to come out.
So if people want a FREE copy: come to the stand, say hello to us, leave your details
and as soon as the book comes out, we'll send a FREE copy to you
Well there's an invite - there's an invite!
Well, thank you so much! It's an absolute pleasure to meet you
and as a mother to another, I just want to say..
Well done - working mums! I'm very much flying the flag this week.