Hatching a plan for the Easter holidays… and driving toy sales by 5000%

This year, we knew we had some stellar ‘Easter alternatives’ in our portfolio – toys which genuinely had an Easter link and would make the perfect gifts for kids, lasting much longer than chocolate. 

At Playtime, we don’t seek coverage for the sake of coverage, nor do we measure our success by the thickness of a cuttings book. Instead, by applying our Playtime FOCUS method to everything we do, we guarantee our clients the very best shot at coverage that genuinely impacts their business. And that’s why media outlets such as ITV1’s This Morning are firmly in our sights: because we know coverage on this mainstream daily magazine show drives sales. We also know how to select the most appropriate products from our vast client portfolios, to ensure we don’t waste the production team’s time on the irrelevant or tenuous! 

In the run up to this Easter, our careful pitching ensured This Morning’s team had everything they needed in terms of samples and assets in the right way at the right time. This led to Playtime securing 75% of the toy spots on the show’s Easter Gift Guide feature, airing a few shopping days ahead of the holiday weekend. 

What did this mean for clients? Sales. 

• One retailer reported a whopping 5180% week-on-week sales uplift on one of the toys featured on the show

• The same chain also saw sales of another toy from the same range increase by a massive 1700% compared with the previous week

• One of the brands reported their own direct-to-consumer website traffic doubling on the day the show aired, with an increase in sales across their wide range of products and not just the one featured on the show

• One popular online retailer completely sold out of one of the toys featured within hours of the broadcast

To find out more about how we prioritise the key sources of influence – spanning broadcast teams, journalists and social influencers – through our 10:90 approach, or to discuss your own need to drive sales of toys and games within your business, drop us a line.