Pocket.watch Expands Leadership Team; Names Former Genius Brands President as Chief Revenue Officer
Kid's media brand continues explosive growth, bringing on seasoned toy and licensing executive Stone Newman to fuel sponsorship, licensing and premium content sales
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pocket.watch, a media brand that creates, acquires, distributes and curates content for kids age 2-11 across a variety of platforms, today announced that it has appointed Stone Newman as Chief Revenue Officer. In his new role, Stone will oversee all of pocket.watch's revenue generating activities and he will be charged with launching those efforts initially against licensing and merchandising, sponsorships and brand integrations, and the global sales of premium content.
As the company's global Chief Revenue Officer, Stone will focus on sponsorship and brand integration sales of pocket.watch's growing owned and operated YouTube channels and their marquee YouTube creator partnerships including pocket.watch's first announced partner, HobbyKidsTV. Newman will drive pocket.watch's initiatives into licensing and merchandising and will scale those efforts to include the vibrant YouTube brands of creators partnered with pocket.watch. Pocket.watch will continue to aggressively develop their slate of premium series and Newman will be responsible for bringing those series to the global market of television and streaming distributors.
"Stone is what I would call a mythical CRO, an executive who can do it all from merchandising, to content sales, to cultivating sponsorship opportunities," said Chris M. Williams, Founder & CEO of pocket.watch. "He combines the right mix of big company experience, with a roll up your sleeves startup attitude, to help us achieve our goals during this explosive stage in our business."
Prior to joining pocket.watch, Stone spent nearly his entire career dedicated to building brands that celebrate childhood fun. As President - Global Consumer Products Licensing, Worldwide Content Sales and Marketing for Genius Brands International, Stone not only oversaw the company's global content distribution business for its catalog, spearheading all global licensing, merchandising, retail, and marketing efforts. During his tenure at Genius he helped the company secure its first content sales to Nickelodeon and Netflix, secure a worldwide master toy deal with Mattel's Fisher Price and the launch of an all-digital tween brand with YouTube called SpacePop for which he served as producer and co-creator. Additionally, the company saw its debut on License! Global's Top 150 Global Licensors for the first time in company history under Stone's guidance. An accomplished entrepreneur, Stone founded Sababa Toys, which he built from a start-up into a $30MM toy and game manufacturer with product presence in more than 50,000 retail stores.
"From the moment I was introduced to pocket.watch, I knew it was going to be a revolutionary business," said Stone Newman, Chief Revenue Officer, pocket.watch. "I couldn't be more excited to be a part of pocket.watch's extraordinary team and to build up the brand's incredible revenue opportunities. I never thought I'd say this, but being a father of toddler twin girls and a 7 ½ year old son, I can't wait to bring my new work home to my kids."
The appointment of Newman as pocket.watch's CRO comes directly on the heels of a series of significant business, partner and content news made by the company over the past several months. These announcements include a $6M raise in Series A funding, a partnership with HobbyKids TV, and a partnership with SNL's Kenan Thompson for development and production of a new premium live-action sketch comedy called pocket.watch presents Skoogle.
For more information about pocket.watch and the company's upcoming slate of content, please visit: http://pocket.watch.
About pocket.watch
Pocket.watch is a media brand that creates, acquires, distributes and curates entertainment for kids ages 2-11 and presents it across a variety of platforms. The company was founded in March 2017 by Chris M. Williams and is located in Culver City, CA where it maintains an office and studio. The management team is made up of studio veterans and visionaries from traditional and digital entertainment including Albie Hecht, Jon Moonves and David B. Williams. Investors include Third Wave Digital and United Talent Agency (UTA), as well as notable strategic angels including Les Moonves, Robert Downey Jr. (Team Downey) and Jon Landau.
Media Contact
Sunshine Sachs on behalf of pocket.watch
Rachel Rogers / Ashley Lyublinsky [email protected]
SOURCE pocket.watch
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