Pocket.watch has built its reputation by amplifying creator-driven franchises like Ryan’s World, Love, Diana, and LankyBox into global powerhouses, and now it’s taking the business of kids’ entertainment to the next level with Clock.Work. This new initiative puts data, technology, and strategy in the spotlight, giving partners fresh insights to fuel growth in an evolving marketplace. The Toy Book caught up with Julia Moonves, Senior Vice President of Commercial Revenue at pocket.watch, to discuss what makes Clock.Work tick.
The Toy Book: Pocket.watch has built a reputation for pioneering family-first digital media. How does Clock.Work fit into your broader vision for the company and the future of kids and family content? Let’s hear some backstory.
Julia Moonves: Clock.Work was born out of necessity. When we looked at the kids’ digital landscape, we saw an industry that was thriving in viewership but constrained in advertising. As linear television continued its sharp decline, billions of hours were being watched on Kids’ content on YouTube. However, brands had very few safe, effective ways to reach those audiences because of COPPA restrictions. We created Clock.Work as a solution — an internal agency designed to bridge that gap by combining FTC-approved custom content and COPPA-compliant paid media to kids and family brands. The agency has since grown to one of the most trusted solutions for YouTube and OTT U13 advertising, allowing us to launch our Clock.Wise capability in 2025, a revolutionary solution for better understanding the subject matter of the more than 100,000 videos in our network. Clock.Wise pairs AI innovation with strict compliance. It’s an extension of pocket.watch’s core mission: to build the future of kids and family entertainment responsibly, while giving brands and creators tools that actually work in a highly regulated environment.
TB: Let’s get right into it. What mistakes do you see brands making with U13 audiences and budgets on YouTube?
JM: I wouldn’t call it a mistake, but I do think many brands stop short of realizing the full potential of creator marketing. Too often, they treat creators only as influencers, when in reality, that branded content can be extended far beyond a single post or video. With Clock.Work, we can take the creators’ custom, branded YouTube video with your product, and cut it into engaging 15- and 30-second commercial spots that we then deliver across our entire media ecosystem — YouTube and YouTube Kids, gaming, and television. It transforms one branded video into a full campaign, amplifying reach and consistency in a fast and efficient way for advertisers.
Additionally, the market seems to still not understand the difference between kids’ content on YouTube and YouTube Kids. This is also not their fault; many agencies aim to create confusion here as they are not able to sell into the YouTube Kids platform. So allow me to aim to clear this up: Kids’ content is wildly popular on YouTube, the platform we all know as the No. 1 CTV streaming service and where we used to watch funny cat videos. YouTube Kids is a standalone mobile app that features curated kids’ content from YouTube channels. The platform is fully COPPA-compliant and highly regulated when it comes to ads. Pocket.watch is the only 3rd party company that sells paid ads directly across creator content on YouTube Kids, so brands that are buying with other agencies who run media across kids content on YouTube are not tapping into the very unique and distinct U13 audiences who watch YouTube content on YouTube Kids.
TB: Clock.Work launched as an agency in 2019, ahead of the AI boom. Now, it’s positioned to use AI to deliver contextual targeting while staying 100% COPPA-compliant. AI + kids content + COPPA compliance sounds like a tightrope. Can you explain how it works and what sets it apart from other targeting solutions on YouTube?
JM: It is a tightrope, and that’s why we built Clock.Work differently. Most targeting in digital advertising relies on data collection on the individual viewer, which simply isn’t an option with kids. Our AI product, Clock.Wise by Clock.Work, scans video content frame by frame and analyzes it for themes, subject matter, and objects, not user behavior. That allows us to match ads to videos based on what’s actually happening on screen — whether that’s a family playing a game, a baking challenge, or a sports moment — without ever touching personal data. So, rather than collecting personal data that a viewer recently searched Google for “Where to buy a Nintendo Switch 2” and targeting that user with an ad, we are able to find all the videos in our network where creators are playing with the Switch 2 or unboxing the new system, and target that specific content with a Switch 2 ad. What sets us apart is that this isn’t a manual process anymore. We automated it, scaled it, and partnered with Google to ensure compliance. The result is a solution that is not only COPPA-safe but also far more precise and effective than traditional contextual targeting.
TB: For kids and family brands looking to reach young audiences, what are the most significant benefits of using your proprietary AI, Clock.Wise, compared to traditional ad targeting methods?
JM: The biggest advantage is relevance without risk. Youth brands want their ads to show up in front of the right audiences, in the right context, at the right moment. With Clock.Wise, they can do that at scale on the most important platform for kids — YouTube — while knowing that every impression is delivered in a fully COPPA-compliant environment. Beyond that, AI-driven precision means better performance. We’ve seen clickthrough rates improve by over 20% compared to previous benchmarks, which means brands aren’t just reaching kids, they’re engaging them. Old methods rely on targeting entire creator channels and hoping you’re reaching relevant audiences. Clock.Wise ensures that you’re reaching an audience choosing to watch content relevant to your brand/product.
TB: Safety first: how do you make sure Clock.Work targets without ever crossing privacy lines?
JM: Safety is the foundation of everything we do. At Clock.Work we never touch user data. Period. Our targeting is contextual only, meaning it’s about the video, not the viewer. We built the system in close collaboration with Google’s policies for YouTube Kids, and we continue to work with compliance bodies like CARU to ensure everything we do meets the highest standards. That’s why we’ve become one of the only partners authorized by Google to deliver this kind of contextual advertising on YouTube Kids. To ensure our partners can sleep at night, we have in-house legal counsel composed of Kids privacy and ad safety experts who review all of our ad tech and ad ops processes to ensure there are no inadvertent violations of COPPA. This team also reviews all custom content creative concepts, rough cuts and final cuts before they ever go to clients and well before they are ever posted to YouTube.
TB: With YouTube and other platforms evolving rapidly, how do you see Clock.Work shaping the way kids and family content is monetized and distributed in the next 2–3 years?
JM: We have already seen our practices around YouTube become industry standard. As branded content with kid-creators became popular in 2019-2020, the pocket.watch policies for how, where, and when to disclose paid partnerships became industry standard, and our guidelines were copied into the brand’s ad policy documents. Now, the industry is shifting toward contextual solutions across the board, not just for kids. Clock.Wise by Clock.Work gives us a huge head start in that direction. I believe we’ll see contextual AI become the dominant way to monetize kids’ content safely, and our platform is already setting the standard for how that’s done. At the same time, we’re expanding into connected TV and streaming, where safe ad solutions are still scarce. In 2–3 years, I see Clock.Work powering a multi-platform ad ecosystem that makes kids’ content sustainable, safe, and profitable across YouTube, CTV, and beyond.
TB: Creators are the lifeblood of your network. How does Clock.Work help them grow, engage, and earn more?
JM: Creators want to focus on making content, not navigating the complexities of ad regulations. Clock.Work allows them to monetize more effectively by ensuring their videos are brand-safe and attractive to advertisers. But it goes further than that. We have seen a big shift in creator partner priorities since 2020, when YouTube created the “Made For Kids” (MFK) content destination. This designation (amongst other things) ensures that no ads that rely on a user’s personal data are served on kids’ content. While beneficial for audience safety, this ad policy shift materially damaged monetization for popular kids’ channels. Because Google relies so heavily on personal data collection and individual user targeting for its ad business, removing this method of monetizing videos meant creators making “MFK content” would make much, much less money. Clock.Work’s ability to run relevant, compliant ads across their viewership on YouTube and YouTube Kids was a huge value-add to these partners who previously relied solely on YouTube to monetize their videos. For these reasons, companies and studios like Mattel, ChuChuTV, and Skyship Entertainment have also entrusted Clock.Work with their YouTube Kids inventory — driving monetization for them, and driving value for advertisers who couldn’t otherwise activate on those channels.
TB: You’ve started with YouTube and YouTube Kids — where’s Clock.Work going next? Streaming? Apps? Everywhere?
JM: Everywhere. Pocket.watch’s mission has always been to be wherever kids are, and Clock.Work is built with that same philosophy. Today, we’re already serving advertising not just across YouTube and YouTube Kids, but across our own FAST channels and AVOD apps. We are consistently selling out of our OTT inventory on platforms like SamsungTV+, Vizio, and The Roku Channel. That means we can deliver COPPA-compliant advertising across multiple touchpoints in a child’s digital life, creating consistency and scale for brands. This will become even more important as COPPA 2.0 and other legislation globally expand to kids under 17. Looking ahead, our goal is to make Clock.Work the universal standard for safe, effective kids’ advertising across all platforms — whether that’s streaming, apps, gaming, or the next space kids flock to.
To learn more, connect with the team at pocket.watch/clockwork.
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This digital feature is a companion piece to the 2025 LA Fall Toy Preview Issue of The Toy Book. Read the full issue here!
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