For Ears With A Mind Of Their Own

This campaign is Yoto’s biggest marketing investment to date and marks the continuation of its brand-building campaign work with Insiders.

In the ad, we follow a young girl as she wakes and gets ready for the day, choosing Beatrix Potter’s much-loved *The Tale of Peter Rabbit* (Frederick Warne & Co., an imprint of Penguin Random House Children’s) on Yoto as her soundtrack. Her self-confidence grows through little acts of independence, represented visually by two rabbit ears, shot in-camera, which sprout from her head and grow throughout the spot.

The work was shot by acclaimed director Freddie Powell at DROOL Productions, who has worked on famous campaigns for Nike, Lego, NatWest, among others.

The campaign will run from 1st October on linear and connected TV, throughout the festive period and into 2025, alongside social, digital, and out-of-home (OOH) media. UK media was planned and bought by Squadron Venture Media.

The campaign is based on a crucial insight: although kids crave independence, they have less of it than ever before. Parents want to help kids develop this independence, but struggle to know how to do it safely. Hands-on parenting time has doubled since the 1950s, while unsupervised playtime has all but vanished in just four generations. Families everywhere are struggling to find the right balance regarding screen time.

Yoto offers a safe, fun, and empowering alternative—inclusively-designed smart speakers that are controlled by physical cards, with no microphones, cameras, or ads. Alongside thousands of hours of content from Disney, Roald Dahl, Universal Music, and others, Yoto’s products do more than inspire child-led learning and play. They can also support family routines, like getting kids out of bed in the morning, helping them brush their teeth, or getting ready to leave the house.

In the ad, we see Beatrix Potter’s classic children’s story—voiced by Olivia Coleman—perfectly matched with the action. As Peter Rabbit "squeezes into Mr McGregor’s garden," the commercial’s hero squeezes into a jumper. As her head pops out, we see she is sporting a newly-grown pair of rabbit ears. As Peter climbs up on a wheelbarrow in the story, she climbs on a stool to reach the toothpaste. As she contends with the laces on her boots—using the famous "bunny ears" method—she bats away a parental hand trying to help.

With each act of independence, her ears, and her confidence, grow. She takes one final glance in the mirror after tying her laces, where she sees a beautiful pair of full-grown bunny ears. We realise that while the ears were all in her imagination, her independence and newfound confidence are not.

The girl proudly leaves the house, as the story concludes: "Peter never stopped running, or looked behind him."

The ad has been produced under licence from Penguin Ventures on behalf of Frederick Warne & Co. (owner of *THE WORLD OF PETER RABBIT™* and today an imprint of Penguin Random House Children’s).