Allison interviews Madi Howeth from Tonies about their Toniebox, an audio player designed to bring audio stories, music, and learning to life for kids of all ages.
The Toniebox is perfect for little hands and is designed to be easy to use. Tonies feature everything from Disney favorites and bedtime stories to mindfulness and interactive learning experiences. A wide range of Tonies characters, each representing a specific song or story, are available to play on the Toniebox.
The Toniebox is covered in a brightly colored fabric with a small plastic platform on the top. To play a song or story, the child simply places the character on the top of the Toniebox, and the song or story automatically begins to play. The character is magnetically held in place and can quickly be swapped out with another character if desired.
Pinching the left or right cat ear on top of the Toniebox allows the child to turn the volume up or down. The child can fast forward or rewind by simply tilting the Toniebox left or right and can skip to the next chapter or song with a tap on the side of the box.
Learn more at https://tonies.com/
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Transcript of Interview
Allison: A couple of years ago, Bodie Grimm was at CES and he called us up on the phone and told us about a product called Tonies and he said this is the coolest thing ever. I think he did a review for the podcast. He said this is the best thing you’ve ever seen for your grandkids. You need to buy it. I ran out and I bought them for our grandkids and this is probably one of the greatest things they’ve ever had. It’s a staple in our home. So with all that, I’m going to let Madi Howeth tell us what is a Tonie.
Madi: Oh, hi. Well, thank you for having me. So a Toniebox is a screen-free audio player for kids. So you just put any Tonie character, so Cookie Monster, Elsa, Lion King on top of the Toniebox.
Allison: Always Elsa.
Madi: Oh, I don’t blame you. On top of the Toniebox, then play stories, songs, a mix of both, depending on what the character is.
Allison: And the box is, it looks like a Kleenex box is the best way to describe it.
Madi: Yeah, it’s squishy. It has our Tonies logo. It has ears so kids can easily control the volume up and down. It’s really easy for kids to change songs and stories by hitting the side or tilting it one way or another to fast-forward and rewind.
Allison: Yeah, so the ears are how you change the volume, which is fun. Oh, another little bit of feedback. My granddaughter is hearing impaired and it does not go loud enough for her. She keeps squeezing the big one to try to make it a little bit louder. So that’s another one for the engineers.
Madi: Yes, yes. That’s great. And also in the MyTonies app, you can control the volume of the box as well. So that’s a great…
Allison: So can you override that max volume then or make it louder?
Madi: I can get back to you on that.
Allison: Okay, I can or we can experiment. So what we’re looking at here on the table is a vast plethora of… We got a space guy. We’ve got, oh, what’s his name? Coco Melon. Oh my gosh, my granddaughter loves that. My granddaughter always dances to Minnie Mouse. She does the dance when Minnie Mouse is playing. We’ve got Sky, right?
Madi: You know your characters.
Allison: I do, I do.
Madi: Good grandma.
Allison: I know, I don’t know all of these, but these are really popular. You can get them…You guys have licensed music. So I mean like the Moana character, I mean, you’re going to hear the music from Moana.
Madi: Yeah, so a lot of them are fully licensed. We have a huge licensing team that works with people from Disney, National Geographic, Sony, Universal, Nickelodeon, you know, a huge wide team. But overall…
Allison: That’s probably the most valuable team in your company. I’m sorry, but…
Madi: No, they are great at their job.
Allison: Tell them we said thanks.
Madi: I will. And essentially, we’re trying always to have the original voices of a cast. That’s a really big want and desire from our consumers. We want to make sure the voices they hear on Tonies are the ones that they hear on the screen as well.
Allison: So if you’re looking for a toy for a child where you’re at the airport or something and you got to get that one little gift to come home, you’ve been on a business trip, you want something small, you get yourself a Tonie, you’re a big hero, right?
Madi: Yes. Have you heard of Creative Tonies? Do you guys do that at your house?
Allison: We actually did. I keep saying, “Oh, we got to record more.” But describe a Creative Tonie.
Madi: Yeah. So, yes, a Creative Tonie. So it’s a Tonie that has no content on it. So it can hold up to 90 minutes of content. And so in the app, you can go in and record your own stories, songs, whatever you’d like. So grandma, grandpa can go read a book for the kids. Or if you want to sing a bedtime story and have it on a Tonie, you can do that as well. It’s really popular with parents on business trips. All the parents right now at CES, they can record on the app. And the kid at home can put their Creative Tonie on top and hear mom and dad’s voice for that day of, “I did this and this and this today. I love you, miss you, good night.”
Allison: We should really do that more. And I keep saying that and I keep forgetting to do it. But I know that when my granddaughter picks it up, she says, “That’s daddy, that’s mommy, that’s Forbes,” you know, whoever it is that was doing the recording. And we haven’t done one in like a year, I think. We got to get back to that. I should do one tonight.
Madi: Yes.
Allison: All right. So if people wanted to learn more about Tonies, where would they go?
Madi: Yes. So, we have tonies.com is our website. You can get all the information there. And then we’re sold at Walmart, Target, Amazon, Kohl’s, a bunch of places.
Allison: All right. Target for the win. I never go by without buying another one.
Madi: All right. Target. We have four foot and eight feet sections. So it’s chunky section. It’s great.
Allison: There you go. And how much is a Toniebox?
Madi: Yes. So it’s $99.99. And it comes with one Tonie figurine. It’s the puppy playtime. So that’ll give you like wheels on the bus, baby shark.
Allison: Yeah.
Madi: All the classic heads that everyone knows.
Allison: I’m impressing her by every time she says there’s like a hundred of… I am impressed. There’s like a hundred of them on the table and I’ve picked up the right one every time.
Madi: Yeah. You need a part-time job?
Allison: It’s good. Amazing. And then the individual Tonyies, what are they about?
Madi: Yes. So they’re $14.99 to $20 depending on like license or Tonie, like length, et cetera. But I would say on average 18 bucks.
Allison: Yeah. They’re perfect. And you’ll find that some kids will like the music. Some will like telling them a story. It depends on the child, but you’ve got something for everybody. I really, really love this product. So thanks for bringing that to the market. We appreciate it.
Madi: Yes.