Evolving opportunities at Generation Media

Generation Media, a leading marketing, media and communications agency specialising in reaching children, families and young people across the globe, certainly hasn’t slowed down over the past year. Recruitment continues apace, new tools and technologies have been added to the existing service offering, and, as MD Lisa Morgan explains, it’s now all hands on deck for the second half of 2021. Rachael Simpson-Jones spoke to Lisa to find out more.

Midway through 2021, and with the UK now opening back up, what kind of position does Generation Media find itself in?

We’re all feeling very positive about the route forward out of lockdown. We are looking forward to getting back together in the office, meeting up with colleagues and friends as well as our clients and supplier partners. I’m exceptionally proud of how our team has navigated the pandemic; everyone has pulled together and embraced some totally new ways of working that are likely to continue even when we are back in the office. We look forward to rewarding the team for its efforts and energy with a schedule of summer events including away days, training events, socials and more.

Our focus remains on meeting the needs of our clients, and they are looking to evolve strategies more than ever, which is exciting. Many toy clients have previously taken quite a traditional approach to marketing, but the pandemic has encouraged people to be more innovative and look for new opportunities in places they may not have considered before to keep pace with the changing landscape.

Has the team been bolstered with new appointments? What do these people bring to the company?

We’ve not slowed down on our recruitment at all. One of our first appointments following the initial lockdown was Felix Lewis, our business director of digital. He’s come in and helped evolve our digital offering. Felix’s was a well-timed appointment. With the acceleration we’re seeing in the digital space, we needed someone with his skills and expertise to help us navigate the changes we had to make as a business. He’s had a big impact already, despite only being with us a short amount of time, and he’s looking forward to meeting clients face to face in the months ahead.

Generation Media has also invested in the Entertainment team, which is headed up by Greta Bisetto-Donelan. Lockdown meant we really had to pivot our Entertainment strategy. It had previously been very focused on cinema distribution, which of course dropped off during the pandemic. In response to this, we’ve added two new members of the team who have capabilities in production and channel management, and it’s great to have them on board. The team has gone from strength to strength, expanding the number of services we can offer our client base to provide what is now a full service offering.

One of the things we’re known best for within our industry is developing young talent. We took on five new graduates during lockdown, either as work placements or full-time members of the team. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to start a new role under these circumstances. It would be challenging enough as an experienced business person, let alone with no work experience whatsoever. Seeing these guys join the team, and how quickly they’ve begun performing at such a high level, has really been something to witness.

We’re still going strong with appointments too. The recruitment landscape is slightly different currently, but we always look to bring on additional graduates for Q4, when buying takes place, and we’re also looking at bringing on another digital manager. While our sister agency Giraffe Insights looks after our proprietary research needs, we’re looking to recruit a research and development manager to Generation Media to help us maximise on our use of the numerous industry tools we have in place.

What impact has the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns had on the kids and family media space?

The school closures were one of the biggest things that happened at the start of lockdown, and everyone’s assumption was that TV ratings would soar as a result. We saw a bit of that, alongside some changes in viewing patterns; Milkshake! has always been a very strong slot, but with families getting up later in the day it lost out to other players. However, lockdown prompted an uptake of new technology that immersed people in new areas of the digital space, changing consumption habits in line with the tech available. The big winners, as we all know, were TikTok and YouTube. TikTok was already a couple of years into its launch, but the pandemic couldn’t have come at a better time. The same goes for Disney+; I don’t think that platform’s numbers would ever have reached the levels they’re at now at if it weren’t for the fortuitous timing of lockdown.

Despite the shift towards the digital space, TV still offers two major advantages: firstly, it remains the cheapest way to reach kids (just), and secondly,

it’s the most effective way to reach a target audience en masse in a short timescale. The numbers don’t lie – we can reach 50% of an audience quickly and cost effectively with a TV campaign. Securing the same reach in a digital environment, while perfectly possible, would be much more costly.

Having said this, we are working with clients to evolve strategies that can navigate the evergrowing consumption of digital platforms, as we have been for the last 12 years. Whilst digital was something we had to pro-actively sell in as part of plans before the pandemic, client (and retailer) demand has grown. This is where our proprietary tools come into play, ensuring the correct mix and measurement of cross media planning based on real world insights.

How has Generation Media reacted to this? Have you introduced any new services, technology or tools?

As I touched upon earlier, our biggest reaction has been to pivot the Entertainment team away from cinema. We took a step back and asked ourselves how best to utilise the Entertainment team for our clients, and we now have a vast array of services to offer. Cinema and events couldn’t take place for a long time during the pandemic, so now the team is focused more on content management and strategy development, as well as production across YouTube, TikTok and more.

We also launched the Generation Media Academy. The company wanted to assist the industry and its clients during furlough and market closures, and this weekly training programme, hosted by our talented team, did just that. It was a lovely opportunity to connect with people and give something back. The Academy is something we will continue to run even when things are back to normal; we’re hoping Felix will be able to host a face-to-face on the cookie-less world once cookies disappear from online, which he wrote about in your June issue. We all need to be aware of this upheaval so we’re ready for the future. As a business focused on childrens advertising, we are well positioned for these developments as much of what we do already is contextual to ensure compliancy.

Generation Media has always benefitted from a media mix modeller, The Media Aggregator. We extended this proprietary tool with a crosscoverage calculator called Jigsaw that lets us show clients what their TV, YouTube and VOD investment is delivering for them from an audience perspective.

We’ve always worked in eCommerce, but we saw rapid acceleration in the requirements for this from our clients. In response, we’ve implemented a new acquisition tool which has really helped to drive down ACOS rates for clients active on Amazon, as well as giving insight into the organic search side of the platform too.

Most recently, as our clients will be aware, we’ve altered the way we do our digital billings. Our new systems help us streamline the billing process and provide even more accurate campaign management as spends continue to grow.

Do you think we’ll see the lasting impact of the pandemic in this space for years to come?

The changes we’ve seen were always going to happen; all Covid has done is accelerate what we were already planning for, meaning our 3-year roadmap has become a 1-year roadmap. Consumers have discovered new technologies and ways of doing things, and many will want to stick with them. At the same time, some will welcome back a few of the more traditional elements into the mix.

In March, Gen Media announced the opening of a dedicated German hub. How’s that going?

Really well. The challenges presented by Covid and Brexit haven’t held us back, although you could argue it was a surprising year to be taking our first big step into the European market. We’d already been trading directly in Germany for seven years; Anja Schuh, our country manager, is an ex-client of ours – she was the GM of Vivid in Germany – so it’s fabulous for us and our clients to benefit from her experience. We’ve secured two high profile clients in the German market since March, bolstering the entertainment, toy and fashion brands we’re already running directly through central management from the UK office.

Are there plans in the pipeline to increase your international presence further?

in. Moving horizontally into new markets therefore makes sense for us. We’ve spent 10 years establishing strong, committed relationships with our agency partners and it’s important we utilise the expertise that we’ve built up together, which will allow us to accelerate more quickly into those markets. It’s something of a ‘watch this space’, but I can say for sure that our sights are firmly set on global expansion.

What does the second half of this year hold for Gen Media – what’s your strategy?

Our strategy has always been to offer the best services to our clients, and the best training and development for our people. Whilst the first half of our year is focused on planning, the second half is focused on the delivery and implementation of our commitments, meaning it’ll be all hands on deck once we’re back in the office for the buying season.

What would be your biggest three takehomes from what you’ve learned over the past 12 months?

Agility and flexibility have always been an important part of our business, but the past year has highlighted just how crucial these attributes are. When Covid hit, the fact we could pivot and adapt so quickly was of enormous value to our clients and we were proud to be able to do so.

Secondly, I always knew we had an amazing team but now I think they’re even more amazing. Look what they’ve managed to achieve in the past year. Generation Media is a very people-focused business but during the pandemic we’ve taken that one step further. We’re committed to recognising and rewarding that effort from our team in the months ahead.

Finally, I am sure I am not alone in saying I have been through a process of self-discovery during the pandemic which has allowed both myself and the business come out even stronger as the leading experts in childrens’ marketing.

In closing, I’d really like to thank all our partners, friends and colleagues for their continued support. Without everyone involved in our business being there when we needed them to be, we wouldn’t be able to tell our good news story. I feel very privileged to be part of an industry filled with inspiring, amazing people that I get to work with every day, the Toy World team included.