Episode #10: The Modern Marketing of Toys With Steve Starobinsky
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There’s no avoiding the impact that social media has had on the marketing of toys and games. Before You-Tube stars and Instagram influencers, networks like Nickelodeon and Disney influenced toy buying trends. But today, toy buying trends are influenced by social media personalities, major television ad campaigns, and disruptive social ad campaigns.
During today’s episode, The Toy Coach interviews Steve Staronbinsky, the CMO if Diverse Marketing. Steve shines a light on the toy industry’s widely used sales rep model, and modern marketing techniques. Listen in on this conversation to learn average sales commission rates, industry terminology like “Insightainment”, and how to get your product considered pitch worthy by the global sales team at Diverse Insights. Download your product pitch powerpoint template to get started.
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4 KEY TAKEAWAYS ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This episode is jam-packed with useful sales and marketing insights but let’s bullet point the four MOST important things you’ll learn.
#1 Utilizing Insightainment to Disrupt the Scroll
“Insightainment”, is the concept of utilizing unique perspectives and vantage points to inform the viewers of your content about your product in a unique way. Casdon’s ad campaign is a great example of this, cleverly modeling their Dyson toy vacuums advertisements after real Dyson vacuum ads.
#2 Good Sales Reps Facilitate, Great Reps Curate
Remember if your item isn’t selected to be presented to a retailer, there’s a reason for it. Retailers appreciate sales reps that are selective with what types of products they show them and when. You should appreciate it as well, and work with your reps to find out what their retailers want to see and how they want to see it.
#3 How Has Marketing Changed Since The Golden Age Of Social Media?
Well, instead of 3rd party validation coming from major networks, it’s coming from top YouTubers or Instagram influencers. If you can generate a social following to back your product line, you’ll have an easier time pitching it to sales groups, and retailers. We talk about the “hack” to getting influencers to engage with your brand.
#4 What is Diverse Marketing?
Diverse is a sales rep group that specializes in toys and gift products. In a basic sales rep agreement, you the manufacturer, are responsible to store and ship your product to the retailer. Utilizing a sales group like Diverse allows you to leverage their vendor contacts for sales, setup, advise you, and help measure success.
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This episode is brought to you by thetoycoach.com
Connect With Steve: LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/stevestarobinsky/
Latest Trend Report by Diverse Insights: www.linkedin.com/pulse/diverse-insights-compares-trends-from-hong-kong-toy-fair-starobinsky
Links to Steve’s You Tube Channel, Kid@Heart: Episode 3, Los Angeles - https://youtu.be/94fU3EiYMR0
Instagram - @thekidatheartshow
Submit Your Product Ideas To Steve: steves@diversemail.com
Casdon Toys Facebook - www.facebook.com/CasdonToyUS/
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Azhelle (00:00): You are listening to making it in the toy industry. Episode number 10. Intro/Outtro + Jingle (00:06): Welcome to making it in the toy industry podcast for inventors, entrepreneurs like you and now your host Azhelle Wade. Azhelle (00:17): Hey there, toy people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of the podcast making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach.com. Today is a very special day for this podcast because for the first time ever, I am not alone. Today I'm joined by Steve starved Pinsky CMO of diverse marketing who started his career 18 years ago with Funrise toys in van Nuys, California. Since he's been working in front of buyers his whole career, he's used that platform to create a popular blog called diverse insights. Steve's role in sales has evolved, grown and elevated, and today he leads marketing and trend analysis as the CMO of a national sales agency, diverse marketing. Welcome to the show Steve. Steve (01:10): Hey, Hey, thank you. Amazing intro. I don't deserve it. Azhelle (01:13): Oh no, I think you definitely, definitely deserve it. Steve it was really important for me to have you on the show because what your company does and what you do is really important to the toy industry. But a majority of my listeners are so new to the toy world that they've never heard of a sales rep group, especially not one of that specializes in toys. So why don't you start out and tell us how you got started in the toy industry because it's a great story. Steve (01:41): Yeah. it's, it feels like it was so long ago, but I was in high school. I was 16 years old. And to preface that I have a big brother, his name is Ryan Logan actually. We met when I was 11 and Ryan kind of became my mentor through this, through the Catholic big brother program, even though I was a little Jewish immigrant kid from Ukraine. And Ryan was the SVP of sales and marketing and he drove a cool red Mustang. Yeah, I agree. I, he got me a job at fun rise one summer and I worked as like the receptionist and as the it guy and as the doughnut boy or as an I loved and I worked in the warehouse for quite a while. I got shipped a lot of containers in, in in some pretty hot summers. But yeah, I started there and I worked my way up into sales and I became the nationals specialty sales manager. Steve (02:33): And then I met my friends at diverse Greg and Wes Harden and we got a chance to collaborate and I moved to Dallas and became their national sales manager. And I've been with diverse now for 11 years. I've been in the toy industry more years than I haven't been crazy. Yeah. And I'm super proud of that. Like it's, I mean it's, it's an incredible industry. I've gotten to see the world through it. I've gotten to meet incredible. I've gotten now to mentor people. The next generation, like, it's a, it's given me a lot. I owe a lot to it. Azhelle (03:06): Yeah, I see. I, when I watch, we'll get into your YouTube channel later, but when I watch episodes of your YouTube channel, I see one of the first things you love to say is I have the best job in the world. What is it that you love the most about working in the toy industry? Steve (03:21):Discovery. Discovery. I discover I get that, that, that moment that people I think search for where they get to create something new and, and I get to walk around a trade show or, or have an unexpected meeting anywhere in the world for somebody to show me this moment of play that's totally universal, that totally allows me to, to work with people from any country or anywhere in the world. And, and I'm just looking for that, that new moment of play that can either connect the kid to something that is, that their big sister or mom is doing or maybe an interesting property that has appeal or maybe incredible packaging. I'm seeing, you know, discovery sometimes people think you have to discover a new continent. I, I try to discover the tiniest little micro movements in commerce, you know, just tiny little things that I did. And then I, and then I just, I'm aware of all of the, or as many of them as possible. And then hopefully you match them up with a retailer that can that can really magnify the, the moment and show it, show it to the whole country. Yeah, discoveries, what I like the most. Azhelle (04:34): Well now that you say discovery, I want to talk about, you know, your, your blog because that's what you do with diverse insights. You discover and you say what you think is going to be the next big trend saw. How did you start with that and what is it? Tell us what it is first maybe, and then tell us how it started and all that. Steve (04:51): Yeah. Yeah the first one, it was like three years ago in Nuremberg, I was sitting at the airport and my mentor Greg Harden was just tired of me talking about like the trends that I saw at the show. He's like, just, just get it out there, put it somewhere. And I had noticed that LinkedIn was like it, it was a bit of a barrier in social media platform. Like people were kind of making fun of it and I saw that as like maybe my message won't be as crowded. So I gravitated there and I started putting together these very amateur and they still very much are but these hammered shirt collections of, of thoughts and photographs and, and, and, and just the journey, like just, just recapping my by trade show experience after a couple of days or a week once it all kind of sat in once I got to marry it and talk to retailers and talk to licensors and just see what I thought was bubbling up to the, you know, trends surface and and, and I've started writing them.Steve (05:52): So there's every trade show I'd go to or, or the important ones, I would write a new one, I'd write new one and I got a following. And basically now manufacturers follow me and retailers are following me and they're seeing like, they're both kind of aware of things that are happening. Maybe it saved them a few bucks and time to not go to that trade show. Maybe sometimes it sparks a, an interesting conversation and, and ultimately a sale, right? It's, it's a new way to sell. It's a new way to, to explain it's a new way to, to market transparency. And you know, I, I felt very validated with the great feedback I was getting. So I, I, I poured some gas on it and, and, and, and took that into this thing I'm calling Kid@Heart. And my, my, my friend Colin, I Cole Batbrackey who works for Photo Rama USA Cole and I started this idea in Tokyo at Tokyo toy fair that we would be and create something that was very much an homage to Anthony Bordain. Steve (06:58): And, and it would be in, in the same way that he used food as the universal connector of all people we wanted to use play. You know, it's just something just get and, and, and, and show how it's tied to fashion and art and community, you know, and, and people and, and mentorship. You know, mentorship has been a huge, like motif through the entire project. So yeah, I, I, we've done three episodes and I'm super proud. The first one was in Tokyo, the second one was in Detroit with my friend Eric and John Klar who owned this dope toy store called toyology or toy store chain. And then the third one was in LA with my first boss, a Funrise, Arnie Ruben, who's like a super legend. I was watching that third one. Yeah. And my big brother Ryan, you know, who's like super responsible for, you know, maybe, yeah. Steve (07:57): I mean just super responsible for this, this journey that I'm on or the opportunity to be on this journey. He opened that door and and just showed me that this industry can be so rewarding and, and on financial levels and like personal levels and travel levels and culture levels, you know, like it's, the industry almost doesn't get enough like props and honestly a major part of the Kid@Heart initiative. Like I want to end the YPN initiative, which is kind of what brought us together. It's all about supporting the people that want to get into the toy industry, but reaching and inspiring people who have no idea even exists exactly to you know, help with I yeah. Azhelle (08:42): I want to know, so your Kid@Heart, your YouTube channel that is similar to, you know, what I'm trying to do, connect people that don't know about the industry and tell them more about it, but what was your initial or is your goal now with diverse insights? Steve (08:56): Yeah, I mean diverse insights is kind of what I'm using as the research arm of, of kind of diverse brands, right? Diverse marketing is our sales organization and is the, you know, the, this beautiful, incredible like sales organization that has the 120 sales people and we call them specialty toy stores. We have incredible showrooms in Atlanta and Dallas and Las Vegas. We have dedicated offices in Bentonville, Arkansas for Walmart and Minneapolis for target and Amazon in Seattle. Like we are a, a turn key solution for any manufacturer looking to sell retail in America. We even have a Canadian office with, with a team in Toronto. So like it's really our, our base is so interesting and and off of that base in a lot of my free time, I'm working on this insighttainment concept, which Kid@Heart as the first a is the first iteration of that. Steve (09:59): That's the umbrella brand of what I think that new consumer wants to consume. Like in terms of media, they want to learn, they want something real like, like this podcast. They want to know what you're passionate about. So insighttainment is, is this idea that, you know, showing other perspectives and vantage points, right? And, and giving somebody who normally doesn't have access to a particular subject matter, a journey through an expert in that subject matter or somebody who's a counter expert. I'll give you another idea that we had. It's called adult in the room and adult in the room is a show about a really cool like 50 year oldish dude who does millennial things. Azhelle (10:43): Okay. Okay. All right. Go on. Keep going. Okay. You know, Coachella or maybe some house parties like that's what a Y. Why? For awareness and containment. It's like, yeah, it's entertaining, but it's also enlightening. It makes it, especially if you're that 50 year old age demographic, it's going to make you feel like, Oh, this is meant for me. I'm going to watch this. Steve (11:09): There's that. That consumer's a little bit ignored. Right now there's this really cool game called mind the gap that at a toy fair, one of my favorite items period in the toy industry right now, but it's basically a, a trivial pursuit type of or trivia game, but instead of pitting each other against each other, it has boomers, millennials, gen Z, and gen X. Questions for everyone. So you have to collaborate to move throughout the board. Right. It connects people together and just Azhelle (11:45): I know, cause things are so divisive these days. Right. That's, no, that's a great, that's a great concept. I haven't seen that game. Steve (11:51): Tulsa, Oklahoma. So yeah. Azhelle (11:54): Question for brand new companies like that. Are those companies that can work with diverse marketing? Yes. So how would, how would they do that and how could they, like does diverse marketing for you guys work off of commission-based? How can they afford something like that? Steve (12:09): Totally. Absolutely. I'll give you the base business model. So anybody in any and anybody and everybody can approach diverse marketing and submit their product line for our review. We review every Monday with our, with our executive team and we see where we think we can add value. Right now the basic structure of a sales rep agreement is you the manufacturer, manufacturer, warehouse and ship the product to the retailer. But we leverage our existing relationship there to be able to get you the proper presentation, get you set up with, with the vendor themselves, facilitate the transaction, advise you on what you know to expect and, and measure success, and then get a commission for that. And that commission. And that commission ranges, you know, at anywhere between five and 15% depending on a, on how big or small the retailer is. Right? And it just, but you know, it's, it's, that number is ultimately the cost of, of getting yourself a very seasoned sales professional who has all of the relationships in place. Steve (13:20): Right? We, but we only make money when you make money. So there's a, there's a, there's a very advantageous, and there's a reason why most of the oil industry uses the sales rep model. You can imagine the buyer if, if all 500 toy fair companies had a person calling on. Yeah. And then there's a good to great scale, right? Because it's one thing to facilitate, it's another thing to cure rate, right? And the really good salespeople can make the buyer's job super easy by curating the assortment, by vetting each opportunity because we're not, you're not trying to ever make the decision for the buyer, but you know some, some, you know, some, Azhelle (14:04): You know exactly what they need to see and you know what they don't need to see, you know, how to not waste their time. You, you know, you know the right way to present it. But speaking of presentation, what, what is the best way for people to send product into you? What is the best way you like to see product presented so that it has the highest likelihood of being picked up by someone in diverse marketing? Steve (14:23): Yeah, no, they can email it directly to me. My email is Steves@diversemail.com. You got, you can any it just a PowerPoint deck and or a PDF and, and all the materials. I want to know how many followers you have an Instagram. I want to know what retailers you've sold. I want to understand what the future of your vision for that product line is. I'm, I'm going to set the bar our, I try to set the bar as high as possible, not to sound like a jerk or, or in any non-business way, but I want, I want to represent the very best product lines and manufacturers, right? So we got to make sure that I'm vetting each opportunity as well. But you know, it's, it's, it's what I love to do and my feedback might,might hurt a little bit, but it's, but it's honest and you know, and, and, and just my own right. Steve (15:21): Compare it to a hundred other people, but it's my goal to make you better. It's not my goal to necessarily represent every toy company or trend company in, in the industry. Right. I want to talk about maybe one of the smallest and one of the largest companies or projects you've worked on. Yeah, I would say my favorite project it's still, it's still this, this brand called from eight years ago called locker looks and it was to a mompreneurs walked into our showroom and they had a locker decorating system and it was all magnetic. So there was no adhesive into the lockers and their, their, their hero item was a magnetic chandelier that was, that was a motion activated. So when you open her locker, turn on and reveal this beautiful cheetah print and, and flowers and mirrors and this, it was just amazing. Steve (16:22): It was the most magical transformation I've ever seen. Wow. And when we launched it, they were, they, they created a category and we launched it during the biggest snow storm in the history of the city of Atlanta, the trade show of the year. It was our first, we just had opened up our showroom in Atlanta and we walked in and, and we said all be like a bank of lockers up. Like think like 10 diff lockers up and down, half of them decorated and half of them not decorated. And, which was, you know, imagine the first day of middle school, it's your very first space and you open up that locker for all the kids to see and you hit it with this and you're, you're sparkling with teals and purples and, and all sorts of extra bonus and your arrival little Becky, she opens up her locker and it's just this metal chrome boring. And you win middle school, right? Azhelle (17:17): 14 year old me is sold. Steve (17:19): It's incredible. And I'm, so that was my favorite. But yeah, I mean, look, we, we, we would, the group that helped pop sockets, you know, which is now the, the a $300 million company, you know, they're on the back of every cell phone, but our first trade show with them, w w we begged buyers to give us a chance, a shot, like literally, Hey, please try this, put this on your, this is cool. Like, please give it a shot. And, and, you know, and, and it was cool and it worked and it's sold and, and it was a beautiful thing. And we, you know, we, we've done it a lot of business, so they're one of the biggest, the discoveries of my career. Another company called egg amazing egg. Azhelle (18:07): Oh, I, know EggMazing. Why do I know EggMazing? Steve (18:10): They were on shark tank. They are incredible. Azhelle (18:14): Oh! So you guys are really, really diverse things that you market and largest. I want to hear about your largest, I'm sure you've worked with the big guys. Steve (18:24): We've worked with SpinMaster. So my mentor Greg Harden was SpinMasters first rep ever. Wow. Yeah. So he met them in and he opened up Walmart for them and did you know, an eight figure deal. And w I launched AirHogs there and did an incredible business and you know, and so we've worked with spin master. I mean, come on. They're, they're one of the best by far. The most innovative toy company in the, you know, in the last half decade. Decade came up so quick. Yeah. They came up, you know Bakugan of course took them there. Paw Patrol, of course, took them to be, to, you know, a top five toy company in the, in the world level. But you know, there's, there's just so many successes. I mean Zoomer-- my thing to shout out, Spin Master is their love for working with outside inventors. Like they have crushed, crushed that part of it. And I've, I've been getting like my friend Alex, you're like, he's been introduced to me to a lot of inventors and and I've, I've really found myself having some interesting conversations cause inventors and sales reps are on the opposite side. Azhelle (19:38):Oh, 100%. Yeah. They start it, you finish it. Steve (19:42): Yeah. Yeah. I imagine if it was a closed loop, they need the retailer feedback. Yeah. It's, it's that, right, that the buyers don't, don't ever talk to the inventor. Azhelle (19:53): 100%. You know, that's the whole point. When I first started this podcast, I went to a Chitag. I know you were there--You're, you're everywhere. I met an inventor and I'm like, you need information that I have just because I'm talking to buyers on the regular, you know, so I 100% agree that that loop. So let's talk, let's talk a little bit more about how involved you are in the toy industry. Because I feel like everywhere I go, there you are and you're not usually there, like just chilling. You're like, Oh, I have an event tonight, you know? Oh, I'm doing a talk later. Like, like how are you, like tell us about the things that you're involved in, how you're involved in the toy association and how you put on the young professional event this year and last year. Steve (20:39): Yeah. Thank you for that platform. I'm super passionate about what I'm a part of with YPN and, and a few initiatives, but YPN stands for young professional network. I was involved or, or a friend of mine, Craig Sims from SpinMaster asks, how, how do we connect younger, young people in the toy industry more from a, maybe even like a talent acquisition kind of a standpoint. Right. And and so I said, well, there was this cool thing that we started back in the day called YPN or TING toy industry next generation. And we had this vision for these events. And he's like, okay, cool. Well let's throw this event. And maybe, anyway, we threw a party in Dallas during the October fall to a previous show we did at this really cool little sushi restaurant I brought in my favorite band called Cure For Paranoia. Steve (21:34): You guys have to check them out. They're amazing Cure For Paranoia played the event and in the sushi bar. And it was incredible. Like we had this amazing group of people, we were able to really connect and, and, and like create a bit of a community. So I knew I had like a calling with with, with maybe organizing or, or maybe in just raising money to, to for projects like this. And then we threw the next party at, jump into the light in New York toy fair last year. And it was at this VR studio and a friend of-- Azhelle (22:02): Awesome. It was so awesome. Steve (22:07): It was just we, we kind of, we use the background of,uof, of a technology that could be either, that could take away from play a little bit for a toy party, right? But really it's about challenging, challenging what play can be and, and, and, and using as much new technology as possible, or at least, or at least observing it, understanding it, and then saying it's not the right fit for the brand that I'm currently working on. Steve (22:35): And then we had this cool panel where my friend from books, a million, for example, was on it. So we had the buyers and sellers and Eric from sociology was on it. So we did that. And then we threw another event in Dallas and then this one in New York was again, we did it in this amazing record studio. It was [inaudible] TuPac and Busta. It was amazing. I do have a question though, cause I didn't know about your events in Dallas. So do you have like an email list or something that people can sign up to if they want to know more about young professional events? Yes. So we're going to formalize this group on, on anywhere between April 1st and April 15 we're editing some of the content from the party. We're doing a recap video, but we'll, we're actually gonna do, and tell me if this is a crazy idea, but we want to have a WhatsApp group so it's a little bit more live. It's a little bit more like just, Hey, anybody, you know, you need an invite to join, but everybody's welcome on all sides of the business and just let's see if, if this organic community can support itself and then have like the most incredible events, you know that aligned with the trade shows that ultimately will resume. Azhelle (23:43): I, you know, I would recommend WhatsApp. I feel like people mute it when it gets too much and then when, when you have a lot of people, which you are going to want to have like hundreds and if your phone has that many people sending a message of, Hey, to your phone, it'll shut it down. Steve (23:57): No, you're right-- Azhelle (24:00): Yeah, no, I'm, I'm a member of like several Facebook groups and I I wonder if you think the same thing that Facebook is kind of changing what it is. I mean, there are still people that use it to share like their family and their friends pictures. But for me, because of the groups I follow, it's become almost an extension of self-development. It's become almost an educational platform. And every time I log in, my feed is filled with notifications from the groups that I engage with. And they're all like the women in venture groups, networking groups marketing online groups. And that's the information I pull from Facebook and like they put events and then I go to those events and those live channels, like what do you think about that? Steve (24:40): Fascinating observation, because I feel almost like an extension to that one. I too have been feeling that and I'm a member of literally only one group. Yeah. This one group, I've been very engaged with the content they've been posting. Yeah. Yeah. And then of course the kazoo commercial that they just released has spiked an actual retail interest in kazoos. Oh, I've had buyers asked me about kazoos and yeah, like just, yeah. Anyway, it really interesting. And I think, I think I need to get into a few more Facebook groups. Azhelle (25:20): But now that we're talking about social media, one of my big questions for you was how do you see the marketing path has kinda changed in launching a toy product now with the golden age of social media? Steve (25:33): Oh, well it's changed so much that we had to open another company. That's a pretty big chance. Yeah, yeah. No, it's crazy. So 14 months ago I was in Hong Kong and mycollaborator, my colleague, Hayley Schick and Mark Schick, they, we've just been taking some cool pictures for our own Instagram at diverse when she took it over. And I just saw this opportunity to, to make this, you know, a service that we can sell. So I'm in Hong Kong and I walk into one of our incredible clients. Their name is Casdon. They have the Dyson license for play vacuums. They're amazing, amazing product. Azhelle (26:14): Oh, I saw that and I thought it was real. Steve (26:18): Yeah, it's, thank you. Thank you so much. So you get it. Great. It was so great. Right, right, right. So I said, look, I love your product. But you know, may maybe I have a feeling that your digital signature isn't as elevated as it could be, as I've been seeing. Right. And what do you think? Very crazy idea. But what if we run your Instagram and Facebook and you pay us every month and you, yes. So we started diverse insights and the website is diverseinsights.co Azhelle (26:52): I didn't realize that was a separate company. Wow. I just thought that the insights blog was a supporter that you created for diverse marketing. Steve (26:59): It is. And guess what happens when the client signs up for our content package? Our sales reps can sell it a lot better because now they have marketing support. Right? Right. Imagine one of our posts gets picked up by a blog that has 2 million followers, which is what happened with Casdon. Then our hundred and 20 salespeople now have an enormous tool just to share and talk to every one of their retailers with 100% in real time. Self-Created. So the buyer thinks our sales rep is responsible for the creation of consumer demand. Right? That's never been done in the toy industry that a rep group can create consumer demand. True. It's so true. Yeah. It's a huge thing. You have to, you have to do it the real way. You have to, you have to use professionals or or take some classes, have some backgrounds and and and props and and and models and and, and location shots and you have to edit it with, you know, with sophisticated software and you have to engage and talk to retailers and consumers and potential collaborators and you have to make your page cool enough for a influencer to want to work with because that's the hack, right? Steve (28:26): You get enough if you have a cool enough page that you can get these people that are friends with their followers, like 10 to 50,000 followers if they think your page is cool and we'll do it for free, then all of a sudden you get third party validation that your brand is cool because that's what's missing in the sale. Just in the, in the traditional sales process, right? Third party validation. It used to come from Nickelodeon or Disney where, where the commercial is played, you know, but now it comes from your favorite blogger. Azhelle (29:00): Oh, this is gold. I hope my listeners are taking notes. This is gold. So good. So, so, but like what, what do you recommend for people just starting out? Like do they, you know, what if they, you know, normally with sales that's commission-based, but social media, like you said, you hire somebody month to month to run your campaigns. And then on top of that you have to pay to play. You have to pay to advertise and you have to pay to take the photos, the high quality imagery and edit them. Maybe it's a video because video is doing so much better now. So when someone's just starting out, what can they really do to gain a foothold before investing? Steve (29:39): Well, they have to take a lot of chances. Like they have to put themselves out there. They have to ask for favors. They have to hustle. They have to be vulnerable in front of a lot of people and experiment with different types of content. You know, maybe it, because I'm, I'm not here to tell you I know what works and, and how to, how to make you viral per se. I just know what you can't do in a way. Like I know how to increase your chances of success, but those, those, the success stories that kind of, you know, disrupt everything. Usually those are pretty unique. And somebody who's just trying something new. So if, if you can't afford to get to a specific look, then you have to, then you have to hustle and, and, and be a little bit funny or be a little bit goofy and try and try to get, you know, just try to get notice and that term for it, that term, like disrupt the scroll or something. Steve (30:42): Yeah. Yeah. Something that makes me stop scrolling. Oh, this is gold. This is my favorite conversation of the day. It's so good. I want to, you know, I want to give you a chance to tell everyone a little bit about what you're working on. What you want to share. If you want to talk about Kid@Heart, your YouTube channel. Yeah, I do. I want to, I want to say thank you to my big brother, Ryan Logan. He is he just did a lot for me and not in, in any kind of overbearing way. He let me be myself and, and, and just was there when, when I was down. That's super important to me. My mom who like is is, is just the nicest human. And if you, if you watch the third episode of Kid@Heart it, it, it tells my story and I, and I don't like talking about myself. Steve (31:35): I know you might think the opposite, but it's true. And then just another shout out to my boy Cole Babrackey who who has helped me on a, on Kid@Heart. He's the director, he's the storyteller alongside with me. And we've like learned a lot about culture and music and, or I've learned a lot of from him as I hope he's learned from me. And and these, you know, adventure. We went to Tokyo together, like pretty pretty sick year. One last plug if it's okay. Sure. My favorite new product is called Tony's. It is T, O. N. I. E. S. It is a magical system for little toddlers to listen to their favorite stories. It comes it's a speaker system that has this little magnetic PO space at the top of it. And each figurine is programmed like RIFD in there, like camouflage into this traditional toy is an entire 30 minutes story. And when you put it onto this little speaker system that's soft and almost huggable, you can hear the story that is unique to each, each figure. It's like slike meets Alexa. It's so wholesome yet so technologically not forward, but just enough technology to make traditional or just to make proven play better. And they they've been very successful in Germany and in the UK and, and they're going to have a great year launching in the U S this year. That's what I'm most excited about this year. Azhelle (33:20):Awesome. Thanks for sharing. I'm going to check it out. But before you go, I do want to get dates for when your, when your YouTube next episode drops and when diverse insights drops their blog posts. Steve (33:34): Yeah. You know, I, I've, I've just seen so many incredible content producers lately and that, that really worked up there. Toy fair recap so much faster than I could that I've almost kind of thought about dissecting my thoughts on toy fair. Like, you know, the world is going on pause for a little bit and, and that's, you know, it is what it is. So I'm gonna I'm going to write a lot more. I'm gonna, I'm going to focus on, on Kid@Heart a lot. And the next episode I think we're still deciding, but I think I have to tell the Dallas story. The city's been incredible to me for 11 years and and there's some great toy companies here and there's some great restaurants and culture and art and yeah, I'd like, I'd like everybody to see it. Yeah, yeah. Follow up. Follow me on LinkedIn, connect with me there, please. I, I write my thoughts. They're, sometimes they're long and boring and other times they're, they're short and funny. Azhelle (34:39): So good. Don't listen to him. I'm going to drop a link to everything Steve Starobinsky in the show notes, so don't worry about it. We'll get all the links, all the links going, but thank you so much for coming on the show. This was an amazing conversation. Thank you so much for the great. Steve (34:56): Thanks a lot. See you. Azhelle (34:58): So there you have it. How good was that interview? Am I right? Okay, so I know there is a lot to unpack there, but don't worry, I've got you. I want to take a few minutes now to break out the four most important takeaways from today's episode and to help you save time submitting your product to diverse. I created a PowerPoint template for you, so just stick around for the end of the episode to find out where to get it. Okay. Let's quickly recap the four most important takeaways from this episode. Number one, utilizing insightainment to disrupt the scroll. In this episode you learned that insightainment is the concept of utilizing unique perspectives and vantage points to inform the viewers of your content about your product in a unique way. Casdon's ad campaign is a great example of this. Cleverly modeling their Dyson toy vacuum advertisements after real Dyson vacuum adds. Azhelle (36:06): Swapping perspectives in a unique way is a great method to gain social media attention and likes. Number two, good sales reps facilitate great reps curate. Remember, if your item isn't selected to be presented to a retailer, there's a reason for it. Retailers appreciate that sales reps are selective with what types of products they show them and when you should appreciate it as well and work with your reps to find out what their retailers want to see and how they want to see it. Number three, modern marketing. We talked about how the path of marketing has changed with social media. Instead of third party validation coming from major networks, it's coming from top YouTubers and Instagram influencers. If you can generate a social following to back your product line, you'll have an easier time pitching it to sales groups and retailers. And finally and most importantly, number four we learned all about diverse marketing. Azhelle (37:14): Diverse is a sales rep group that specializes in toys and gift products. Steve gave us the basics around a sales rep agreement in which you manufacture warehouse and ship the product yourself to the retailer, but diverse leverages their vendor contacts for sales set up. They advise you help measure success and receive a commission ranging somewhere between five and 15% and we found out an email where you can submit your products for consideration to be represented by Diverse. MITTI listeners were invited to email Steve directly@stevesatdiverseemail.com to submit your product ideas with a simple PowerPoint deck to help increase your chances of being selected. I created a PowerPoint template to make sure you hit all of the points that Steve is looking for when deciding on a product line to represent to get that freebie. Go to thetoycoach.com forward slash podcast forward slash 10 or you can find a link in the show notes. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. I know there are a lot of podcasts out there that you could be listening to, so it means the world to me that you chose one. So until next week, I'll see you later. Toy People. Intro/Outtro + Jingle (38:41): Thanks for listening to making it in the toy industry podcast with Azhelle Wade. Head over to the toy coach.com for more information, tips, and advice.
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