Toy World finds out why Playtime PR’s remote set-up works so well, how it approaches all types of marketing and why the team is vital to Playtime’s success.
Playtime PR, an award-winning marketing and PR agency for the Toys & Games sector, has announced its first formal hire, as Ceriann Smith takes up the role of director of Strategy & Creative. The move comes following another year of growth for Playtime in terms of its turnover, client base and team members, a performance founder and head of play Lesley Singleton is delighted with.
In this exclusive profile, Lesley and Ceriann explain why the agency’s remote set-up works so well, how it approaches all types of marketing – from the very traditional to the digital minefield – and why the happiness of its talented team is vital to Playtime’s success.
Lesley’s background is firmly rooted in PR; prior to setting up her agency she was freelancing for Bananagrams and Linkee. While doing so, she’d become aware of a growing number of talented PR professionals feeling constrained by their hours, office locations or working styles. Lesley recognised an opportunity to create a new kind of agency that offered two things: a tangible work-life balance for its team and the expertise of some seriously knowledgeable people for its clients.
“The pandemic has helped others to understand and accept this way of working,” Lesley told us “When I founded Playtime, things were always done the way they’d always been done. Our agency was a blank canvas, however, meaning we could try the old methods alongside something completely new.”
Our clients’ end user experience is the same as would be offered by any other agency,” she continued, “but the big difference is that everyone who has a hand in their account is both senior and highly experienced. I think our most ‘junior’ consultant has seven years’ experience under their belt, while Ceriann and I are somewhat more towards the upper end of that scale.”
Lesley and Ceriann describe how the agency has evolved over the years to become the powerhouse it is today, with an impressive roster of clients, all while staying true to Lesley’s vision and developing new ways of working.
Playtime recently unveiled The Play Group, an expanded new global collective of PR agencies that offers a flexible solution for existing clients seeking a similar agency approach in other countries, as well as for new brands looking for a one-agency-style approach with truly localised solutions.
“We often have conversations about growth as we would never want to stretch ourselves too thin, but the team has grown phenomenally and we’ve got some incredibly talented people joining us in the months ahead,” finishes Lesley. “For now, we’re focused on Christmas, but beyond that? Wait and see.”
To find out more about Playtime PR and read the full article, which appeared in the October edition of Toy World, click here.
