What could be better than a brand partnership that allows you to unleash your inner child? We kicked off our fun-filled partnership with ZURU Toys at the very beginning of 2023, and since then, we’ve been working alongside the client to create creative and innovative influencer campaign strategies to showcase their latest releases to engage a broad audience, from competitive kids to young adults who love collectible items.
From the beginning of our partnership, our ultimate aim has been to partner with creators across Europe on YouTube and TikTok to scale ZURU’s influencer activities and ensure that ZURU can rely on us to not just reach guaranteed targets, but exceed them.
ZURU’s goal was to amplify mass brand awareness of their toys, but advertising and working age restrictions can present a challenge when marketing a product that is aimed at a Gen Alpha audience.
First of all, users have to be at least 13 to use TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube unless the account is managed by a parent, which puts ethical hurdles in place, second of all there are of course rules and regulations when it comes to the hours that minors are allowed to spend doing paid work.
After having spent a lot of time researching and reporting on Gen Alpha, we were able to devise a moral and ethical strategy in which we would work with adult creators with young audiences to promote ZURU Toys. After all, we know that 55% of kids want to buy something if their favorite YouTube or Instagram star is using, wearing, or consuming it, so it’s not entirely necessary to work with children themselves to tap into a younger demographic.
We established that it would be essential for ZURU Toys to integrate into content that connects with families in European Markets, and reduce their reliance on working with “Kid Creators”.
Throughout 2023, we’ve focussed heavily on developing market-specific strategies, sourcing creators in each European market, and streamlining the partnership. In total this year, we worked on 39 campaigns with ZURU, in Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany with 15 different products including Mega Gross Minis, Tropical Party, and Toy Mini Brands Series 3.
Towards the end of this year, we also tested a US campaign for Gumi Yum on TikTok and Instagram, setting the pace for 2024…
Ultimately, Digital Voices aimed to deliver a competitive YouTube CPV and TikTok CPI by ensuring we stay ahead of trends and help pivot current content to ensure ZURU Toys creates best-in-class assets across the platforms.
Thanks to the seamless synergy between the creators and the ZURU products they promoted on their channels, target CPVs were tailored based on the individual creator, and overall, we drove some pretty impressive results!
Impressions: 52,353,663
Engagement: 3,244,888
Engagement Rate: 6.20%
*Figures show results across all campaigns in 2023.
As well as the excellent results achieved, the creative content produced was truly unmatched! We worked with 161 creators in total, and it’s been incredible to see the creative concepts and seamless integrations that have been produced.
Check out some of our highlights…
The creators’ audiences loved the content too! We achieved a high positive sentiment across content comments. Here’s just some of the positive feedback…
2023 was the year that we successfully dominated the toy retailer space in Europe with ZURU – but it doesn’t stop there!
Thanks to our epic Creative Strategists, Account Director Lewis, Account Manager Amelia, Account Executive Araish, and the team of multilingual Campaign Producers have been an instrumental part of our success with ZURU.
2024 is set to be bigger and better. We’re set to continue our ventures with creators in Europe, but we’ll also be entering new markets, putting ZURU Toys on the map across the US and Mexico. Watch this space!
Thank you to ZURU and to all of the creators we’ve partnered with this year for allowing us to produce such incredible campaigns throughout 2023. Bring on 2024…
