Tonies picks Diffusion to tell its story

The award-winning audio player for children aged from 3-8 year olds,  tonies® has appointed Diffusion as its retained PR agency to spearhead its consumer, corporate and trade PR programme in the UK and Ireland. The appointment comes following a competitive pitch process.

tonies®, which was recently named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2021, is changing the way children listen to their favourite audio content.  By creating a playful way to experience stories, music, and educational content, tonies® is loved by parents and children alike. Its screen-free Toniebox can play hundreds of immersive stories from modern-day favourites to well-known classics, whilst also enabling children to connect to friends, family and loved ones through shareable audio content as well as content that can be recorded on your own.

Diffusion’s campaign will focus on building the tonies® brand in the UK and Ireland with a focus on reaching parents and grandparents through a series of integrated creative campaigns, underpinned by an ongoing press office campaign comprising media and influencer reviews, gift guide placement and consumer features programme.

This has been a tough year for children and now, more than ever before, there is a desire for escapism. Children are in need of a positive distraction from the difficult situation our world is facing, to help take their minds off any worries or anxiety they may be experiencing.  Through a series of meaningful initiatives and collaborations, Diffusion’s campaign will reinforce the much-needed comfort and support that stories and audio can provide, enabling children to completely immerse themselves in a world of storytelling at a time when they need it most without a screen in sight.

Lucia Kreuzer, GM for UK & IR at tonies® commented: “The pandemic has undoubtedly had a huge impact on the family dynamic. With many parents having to balance working from home with childcare there has been a real challenge in trying to keep kids occupied for hours on end. As a business we want to support parents and help them to find meaningful ways to entertain their children, helping to inspire them, spark their imagination and independent play.  We recognised that we needed an agency that could creatively communicate our brand purpose in a way that is relevant to the way we live today.

Pinky Laing, PR & Partnerships at tonies® added: ”We wanted an agency that not only had a proven track record in delivering fantastic media relations, but also grabbing the attention of our parent audience through a creative campaign-led approach. Diffusion impressed us with their understanding of the tonies® brand, the attitudes of and challenges facing parents today, and the creativity of their ideas.”

Natasha Cobain, Director and Head of Consumer at Diffusion, added: “This is an exciting time for tonies® as they look to transform the way in which children engage with their favourite audio content.  Brands play an important role when it comes to supporting parents. There is a real opportunity for us to communicate the many benefits of tonies, from child development to wellbeing and building social connections in a way that resonates with parents today.  As a brand tonies® is going from strength to strength with an amazing line-up of content launches and partnerships coming up this year and we’re excited to be part of that journey.  We have extensive experience in developing and executing high-impact campaigns that emotionally connect with the parenting audience and our integrated campaign has been developed to creatively reach parents.”