The Bloom Report sits down with David Becker, President of Blue Plate Media Services (BPMS), and Dr. Amanda Gummer, Founder and CEO of FUNdamentally Children, home of the Good Play Guide, to discuss their new transatlantic partnership and why combining child-development expertise with media and retail strategy could change how brands connect with children and families.

With more than 50 years of combined industry experience, Becker and Gummer are bringing together two complementary disciplines: understanding what makes products meaningful to children and families, and knowing how to build consumer awareness, trust and demand that translate into retail sales.

We caught up with David and Amanda to learn what brought them together, the challenges facing children's brands, and why they believe the industry needs to rethink how it connects product credibility, consumer engagement and commercial growth.

The Bloom Report: David and Amanda, congratulations on the new partnership! For readers who may not know both companies, tell us a little about what each of you does and what brought you together.

David Becker: Thank you! BPMS has spent 26 years helping toy, game, infant, toddler and family brands reach and engage with consumers and drive sales. We're an independent, full-funnel media agency that combines brand-building media with retail media, digital commerce, creator marketing and performance-driven advertising.

Our focus has always been on connecting the consumer to the product and, ultimately, to the sale.

What excited me about Amanda and FUNdamentally Children was the opportunity to bring something incredibly valuable into that process: independent, research-backed credibility.

Amanda and her team understand children, how they develop, how they play, and what makes products genuinely beneficial. We understand how to reach parents and families, build awareness and turn interest into consideration, and consideration into sales.

The fit was immediate.

Dr. Amanda Gummer: FUNdamentally Children has spent 25 years helping brands understand children and families through research, product evaluation, and expert guidance.

Through the Good Play Guide, we independently assess products for their play value and developmental benefits, helping parents make informed choices and giving brands credible evidence to support their products.

But even the best products need to reach the right families. That's where David and BPMS come in.

The Bloom Report: Why do you believe this partnership is particularly relevant for the toy and children's products industry right now?

David: The industry is under pressure. Retailers expect manufacturers to support sell-through, and brands are increasingly being judged on immediate return on advertising spend.As a result, too much emphasis has shifted toward the bottom of the sales funnel.

But here's the problem: You can't capture demand that hasn't first been created.

Brands need to build awareness, create desire and give consumers a compelling reason to choose their products among a sea of choices.

Amanda's research and independent accreditation give us another powerful way to do that. It's not simply telling parents that a product is great. It's providing credible reasons why that product deserves their attention and consideration.

Amanda: Parents are also becoming more discerning. They're asking questions about what their children are playing with, how products support development and whether the claims being made by brands are meaningful.

There's an enormous amount of marketing noise competing for parents' attention.

Independent research and accreditation can help brands stand apart by offering something more substantial than a marketing claim.

When that credibility is supported by an effective media strategy, it becomes much more powerful.

The Bloom Report: Amanda, you've spent much of your career studying how children learn and develop through play. What do you think toy companies sometimes misunderstand about their consumers?

Amanda: One of the biggest challenges is remembering that the person using the product and the person buying it are often two different people.

Children are attracted to fun, imagination, discovery and excitement. Parents are often thinking about developmental benefits, quality, age appropriateness and whether the product is right for their child.

Both perspectives matter.

A product can have tremendous developmental value, but if it doesn't engage the child, it won't deliver on its promise. Equally, a product may look exciting, but parents need confidence that it's a good choice.

Our research looks at how children actually interact with products in familiar, real-world settings. That helps brands understand what children genuinely enjoy and how to communicate the product's benefits to parents.

David: And that's an important distinction from a media perspective.

We have always believed that creative designed to excite a child isn't necessarily the creative that persuades a parent to buy.

You need to understand both audiences and communicate differently to each. And, each platform often requires a different voice that is authentic to that platform’s audience.

Amanda's insights can help us sharpen those messages, while our media strategy ensures we're reaching the right audiences on the platforms where they're most engaged.

Amanda: There’s also a tendency toward what I call playwashing: brands doing just enough to appear child-centric without the substance to back it up. Parents are getting better at spotting this. The brands that build lasting trust are the ones whose claims actually hold up when someone looks closely.

The Bloom Report: David, how does BPMS actually reach today's parents, children and families? The media landscape has become incredibly fragmented.

David: It certainly has become more complex.

Today's parents and families are consuming content across connected TV, CTV, YouTube, social media, streaming platforms, gaming environments and retail websites.

Our job is to understand where our audience is spending their time and connect those touchpoints.

We might use video, or contextual gaming environments, to introduce a product to children, connected TV and Meta to communicate with parents, creators to demonstrate the product in an authentic and relatable setting, and retail media to reach shoppers who are actively considering a purchase.  Even OOH, Place-based, or in-store can have a place in the mix. It’s important to build a tactical campaign that aligns with the brand, audience, distribution, seasonality, budget, buyer expectations, and campaign goals.

We also leverage first-party retailer shopper data through proprietary platforms to reach relevant audiences who are more likely to buy your product and connect advertising activity to retail outcomes. The important thing is that these channels work together, not independently.

And Amanda's expertise can help make the message more relevant, meaningful and credible at every stage.

The Bloom Report: Amanda, how important is independent accreditation in influencing a parent's purchase decision?

Amanda: It can be incredibly valuable, particularly when parents are comparing products or discovering an unfamiliar brand.

The Good Play Guide provides independent assessments based on children's actual engagement with products and their developmental benefits.

That can help take some of the uncertainty out of the purchasing decision.

The commercial case is clear. Our evaluation data has shown a 20% lift in purchase intention for Good Play Guide accredited products. In one paid social campaign, creative featuring accreditation generated 40% more landing-page views than a standard lifestyle image, at a 29% lower cost per view.

Those results illustrate that credibility isn't simply a nice addition to a marketing campaign, it can contribute directly to stronger consumer engagement and more efficient advertising and our community of over 20,000 families internationally enables us to stay up to date with global trends.

David: That's what makes this partnership so interesting to me.

We're always looking for ways to improve media effectiveness and give consumers stronger reasons to respond.

When you combine the right audience, the right creative and the right media placement with an independent endorsement that parents recognize and value, you have the potential to make every advertising dollar work harder.

The Bloom Report: Can you walk us through how the two companies might work together for a toy brand launching a new product?

Amanda: Ideally, we'd become involved early in the process.

We could begin by evaluating the product with children, understanding how they engage with it and identifying its strongest developmental and play benefits.

That research can inform product positioning, messaging, creative development and, where appropriate, Good Play Guide accreditation.

We can also provide insight into what matters most to parents and how a brand can communicate those benefits in an authentic way.

David: From there, BPMS can build the consumer and retail media strategy.

We identify audiences, determine the most effective channels, develop the media investment strategy and activate campaigns designed to generate awareness, consideration and purchase.  This support applies to brick and mortar, and includes ecommerce environments, such as Walmart Marketplace, Amazon, Target Plus and TikTok Shop.

And importantly, no matter the retail environment, we measure performance and optimize throughout the campaign.

Regarding our partnership --- Think of it as connecting the entire journey: product insight, independent credibility, consumer awareness, engagement, retail demand and sales.

It's a much more connected approach than treating product research, creative development and media buying as separate activities.

The Bloom Report: David, you've often spoken about the importance of retailer sell-through. How does this partnership help manufacturers strengthen their relationships with retail buyers?

David: Getting on shelf is the starting line. The real challenge is keeping the product moving once it's there.

Retailers want manufacturers who understand their consumers, support their products and can demonstrate a plan to generate demand.

This partnership gives brands additional tools to do exactly that.

Imagine walking into a retail buyer meeting with independent product research, a clear understanding of the consumer, evidence of developmental benefits, and a detailed media plan designed to drive shoppers to that retailer.

That's a much stronger conversation than simply presenting a product and hoping it sells.

And once the product is on shelf, BPMS can help create demand and measure sales performance, while Amanda's research and accreditation provide credible content that can support the brand's messaging.

We're helping manufacturers become stronger retail partners, not simply better advertisers.

The Bloom Report: Does the partnership also create opportunities for smaller, emerging or international brands?

Amanda: Absolutely. Smaller brands often have wonderful products but don't necessarily have the research resources or marketing infrastructure available to larger manufacturers.

We can help them better understand their products' strengths, validate appropriate claims and establish credibility with parents and retail partners.

That's particularly valuable for brands entering new markets where they may not yet have strong consumer recognition.

David: And from our side, we're able to provide the media expertise and marketplace capabilities those brands need without requiring them to build a large internal team.  In fact, we’ve developed a Parachute program, where we step in to help in areas where they need the expertise and extra bandwidth, but leave them to manage the areas they already do well.

Through BPMS and our marketplace growth accelerator program (“a we grow when you grow model”), we support brands entering or expanding in the US, and scaling their product assortments to drive incremental revenue across e-commerce retailers, such as Amazon, Walmart Marketplace, Target Plus, TikTok Shop.

For international manufacturers entering the U.S., that combination of product credibility, consumer insight, marketplace management and media activation can be especially valuable.

It's about giving brands the tools to compete and grow, regardless of their size.

The Bloom Report: What do you believe will separate successful children's brands from the competition over the next few years?

Amanda:The brands that will win are those that build trust before they need it. That means investing in understanding what children actually need, making claims they can evidence, and communicating those honestly to parents.

Brands that combine innovation, meaningful play experiences, evidence and authenticity will be in a strong position.  Substance will win over noise.

David: I'd add that successful brands will be those that connect brand building with sales performance.

There's been a tendency to separate awareness from conversion, and traditional media from retail media. But consumers don't behave in separate funnels.

Brands need to be present throughout that journey.

And as AI increasingly influences product discovery and shopping behavior, being visible, credible and discoverable will become even more important.  That was the impetus for BPMS developing its AI Agentic Commerce Preparedness Action Plan, an assessment and recommendation program that helps brands understand how to position themselves for discoverability and consideration, setting the stage to fuel agentic commerce. 

The Bloom Report: Finally, what would you like toy and family brands to take away from this partnership?

Amanda: That understanding children and building a successful business shouldn’t be separate objectives.

When brands develop products that genuinely benefit children, communicate those benefits responsibly and reach families in meaningful ways, everyone benefits.

That’s what makes this collaboration so meaningful, and one the industry genuinely needs right now. We’re not trying to package a service. We’re trying to change how brands think about children.

David: I couldn't agree more.

At BPMS, we've always believed that great products deserve smart, tactical media and marketing, but great marketing needs more than targeted impressions, authentic engagement, and clicks. It needs a reason for consumers to care.  The brands that win will be those that understand both the emotional and commercial sides of the purchase decision.

Amanda and her team bring independent expertise, research and credibility. BPMS brings the strategy, media capabilities, and retail media campaign execution to turn that into consumer demand.

Together, we can help brands build trust with parents, excitement with children and momentum with retailers.

And ultimately, that's what this partnership is about: helping great products become successful brands.

About David Becker

David Becker is President of Blue Plate Media Services (BPMS), an independent media agency specializing in toys, games, infant, toddler, family and consumer brands. With 26 years of agency experience, BPMS provides integrated media strategy, planning, buying, retail media, digital commerce and performance marketing designed to build consumer demand and drive measurable retail sales.

About Dr. Amanda Gummer

Dr. Amanda Gummer is Founder and CEO of FUNdamentally Children, home of the Good Play Guide. A child-development expert with a PhD in neuropsychology and 25 years of experience, she works with brands, retailers, policymakers and organizations to ensure children's products and experiences are informed by robust developmental research. She is also a recognized authority on play, child development and family wellbeing.

Learn more: BPMS | FUNdamentally Children