Company Profile : Pocket watch

Love, Diana heading across the globe

Danny Spronz, managing director, EMEA, Pocket.watch, tells Toy World what the standout new girls’ property Love, Diana offers licensees and retailers, its plans to develop and expand the franchise, and why YouTube is reaching more kids than ever before.

Danny Spronz, managing director, EMEA, Pocket.watch

How is the new Love, Diana brand developing?

From its rapid growth on YouTube to its retail product launch, the Love, Diana brand has enjoyed an incredible six months since its launch in October 2020. Now the No.3 most viewed YouTube channel in the world according to Tubefilter, Diana and her family know how to create success on the platform. Diana’s imaginative pretend play videos created a perfect launchpad for the new series Love, Diana Adventures, a hybrid live-action and animated series whose first episode received over 10m views within five days of its premiere. Within three months the series had garnered over 150m views, exciting her pre-school fans and driving demand for the newly launched product line.

The Love, Diana brand features a diverse product line that helps kids to seamlessly move from watching her on YouTube to creating their own adventures with lifestyle products including toys, apparel, accessories, beauty, and role-play. With a limited launch late in 2020, Love, Diana product sales made a big impact at Walmart and Claire’s stores. The product line is expanding rapidly, and with more retailers across the US and internationally Diana’s growth isn’t slowing down.

Have you approached Love, Diana differently to the way you handled Ryan’s World?

With nearly 5b views a month on her channels, the global audience is consuming content voraciously, and that is the biggest difference - we are looking at Diana as much more of a global player from day one. For example, she has a very strong following in the Middle East, which is why we looked at that region as a key territory in which to launch at nearly the same time as the US. In every key territory, we have been able to secure the best content and product distribution partners - Goliath, Giochi Preziosi, Planeta Jr, Spacetoon, etc. - all because the Love, Diana brand is already a kids’ favourite across the globe.

Second, Diana is very much a girl’s brand. This means we are putting more focus on role-play, dress up and accessories right from the start. Ryan’s egg hatched into a massive product line, but Diana started wide and is getting broader every month.

What do you see as the key strengths of Love, Diana for licensees and retail partners?

Becoming the No.1 new licensed doll line in the US with less than three months of sales was an impressive feat in a highly competitive category. This took an incredibly rare combination of brand awareness, quality product, and retailer support.

Diana’s YouTube audience is unparalleled; no other YouTube personality draws in an audience of such scale. This means that her audience is active, engaged, and all over the globe, and that licensing and retail partners come in with immediate access to a truly worldwide audience.

Do you feel that YouTube is now as effective as a channel for developing and sustaining a licensed brand as more established media such as linear TV and movies?

We believe that YouTube has absolutely become the best way to get content and messaging in front of kids. At best, the linear model was creating 26 half hour episodes a year, and kids had to tune in at a specific time to watch. The Kids Diana Show YouTube channel releases content three times a week, which kids can watch whenever they want. We looked at Nielsen data in the US during Q1 of 2020 and were amazed by the results. Ryan’s World drew more unique viewers in the US than any linear TV channel, and Diana’s channels were almost as big as Disney and Nickelodeon – and the US isn’t even her biggest market. Even without all the support, marketing and PR that we put behind our brands, we get our message in front of more kids more often than any other brand in the market.

What plans do you have to develop the Love, Diana franchise in the UK and across the globe in ’21 and beyond?

Pocket.watch has really focused on its international expansion over the past year, with new offices opened in Europe and Asia-Pacific. We’re launching new brands with a broad spectrum of content and products to ensure we are providing fans the best possible experience for fans. By keeping fans first, and embracing emerging technology and platforms, we are confident that we will continue to bring fans more of what they love, wherever they choose to play.

What are your aspirations for the property?

Diana is already the biggest girls’ YouTube star in the world, and we would love to extend that success to CPG, OTT, and anywhere else girls are.