Educational Toymaker Learning Resources Campaign Eases Kids and Parents into the Classroom

Attention agency Third Street has debuted its latest work for educational toymaker Learning Resources, which intends to ease kids (and parents) back into classrooms after a year of unexpected home schooling.

“We wanted to capture that ‘first day of school’ feeling this back-to-school season more than ever!” said Darci Shaw, senior marketing manager at Learning Resources. “We’re proud of the role our educational toys play in developing kids who love to learn, so they can thrive both inside and outside of the classroom.”

Learning Resources is a 30-year-old Chicagoland-based toy company recently ranked the No. 1 Educational Toy Company by The Toy Association. It engaged with Third Street to develop its first-ever brand campaign in October 2019. Called “Building Someone Amazing,” the campaign helped increase Amazon search impressions from 475,000 in January 2020 to seven million in November 2020. To date, Learning Resources has outpaced industry growth by 200% and has risen from #43 to the #37 US toy manufacturer based on sales dollars.

The 30-second spot celebrates the return of in-classroom learning, and shows how Learning Resources toys help make sure kids are ready to return to it. The spot is part of the brand’s ‘Building Someone Amazing’ campaign, which uses alliteration on building blocks. Showcasing three real families and their confident kids on their first day of school, we meet Absolutely Adding Abigail, Terrific Time-Telling Tiffany and Readily Reading Ravi as they finish playing, grab their backpacks, and catch the bus for school. They are ‘Pumped, Positive, and Proudly Prepared.’

The digital video (30, 15, and 06 second) ran on Amazon FireTV, Hulu, Google Target media, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook and more, while digital display banners ran across Google, Facebook and Amazon platforms, desktop and mobile.The work was complemented with a special back-to-school school-supplies section in Target stores nationwide.

“The toys parents give their kids help shape them into who it is they will be in the future,” said Sean Smith, president of Third Street. “But the campaign itself is building something amazing, too. An idea that grows with the brand, adding toys, insights and occasions along the way. We’re already planning Year Three, and in this industry, that itself is something pretty amazing.”