Toy World spoke to Laura Edwards, co- founder of Viral Talent and Alex Chavez-Munoz, talent and brand director.

Laura and Alex at Viral Talent spoke to Toy World about the importance of identifying the right social strategy for each individual brand, and maximising the opportunities that different influencers and platforms can provide.

When asked how toy companies and their media partners can best navigate the online arena, Laura explains: “It’s a time-consuming job and brands need to speak to genuine influencer specialists. Viral talent has experience of managing the biggest family creators in the world and has delivered over 1500 influencer campaigns. We really understand the dos and donts of influencer marketing. There are a number of different social platforms out there, and each serves a different purpose, so our approach is driven by the brief from the client.

“We not only recommend YouTube but also Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.” Alex adds. “Influencer marketing can’t be based solely on opinion; brands need social data to provide further insight. With our bespoke social platform, we authenticate every influencer. Unfortunately, we have seen some brands work with influencers that have a fake following; it was reported last year that 15% of influencer budget was wasted on fake followers, so every brand should make sure each influencer they work with has been authenticated. We also have a real time reporting suite and can offer brands daily insight into how well the influencer campaign is performing, and the engagement level, rather than just traditional metrics.”

“Robust data has become imperative now in the planning process. With so many new companies moving into the influencer agency side due to the low barrier to entry, companies need as much data as possible on each influencer to make the right choice.” comments Alex.

Laura agrees, “Brands should set the level of understanding high and put pressure on the agency to deliver real insights in the influencer’s audience and brand affinity. Subscribers and average views are not enough. Brands need to know the story of the influencer, their growth, their brand affiliation, which city they are most popular in and ultimately if they are brand safe. Our social data activates all of this; we can even compare an influencer’s audience to the audience of the brand’s social channels to identify their match.”

Contact Alex@viraltalent.co.uk or laura@viraltalent.co.uk for more information.

Read the full interview in the April issue of Toy World here.