NEW YORK, March 5, 2024 – Realm, the world’s fastest growing independent podcast network with over 10M monthly downloads, today announced a partnership with Story Pirates, a renowned media company that brings together top comedians, musicians, designers, and best-selling authors to amplify the stories of kids on the world stage.
With this deal, Realm is now the exclusive advertising sales representative for Story Pirates, one of the top kids and family podcasts in the world. The partnership kicked off with a collaboration between Story Pirates and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment to promote the February 27th home entertainment release of Illumination’s animated comedy Migration. As part of this collaboration, Story Pirates produced custom content featuring an adaptation of a Migration-themed story written by a young fan, released February 26. This initiative, designed to celebrate the spirit of creativity and storytelling, builds on the track record of the Story Pirates team in presenting valued brands to their dedicated audience.
Winner of multiple iHeartRadio, Webby and Signal awards for Best Kids and Family Podcast, Story Pirates has built up a loyal and enthusiastic fanbase with over 85 million lifetime downloads. In each episode, Story Pirates takes stories written by kids and adapts them into hilarious sketch comedy and original songs from all genres. Every episode ends with an interview with the creative geniuses behind the stories… kids. Frequent special guests include top talent like Kristen Bell, Julie Andrews, Bowen Yang, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dax Shepard, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, David Schwimmer, and Cecily Strong.
Realm entered the kids and family audio space in 2023 with their acquisition of Pinna, the award-winning streaming platform for kid’s audio, and partnerships with renowned children’s media companies Rebel Girls and GoKidGo.
Realm CEO and Co-Founder, Molly Barton expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, “We are thrilled to join forces with Story Pirates, an organization that shares our commitment to activating and igniting the imagination of young audiences through audio experiences. At Realm, we’re focused on delivering immersive audio that nurtures creativity, all without the need for screens. Our seasoned team is excited to bring that spark of creativity to our collaborations with brands, where the opportunities for impactful and effective campaigns are endless.”
“Story Pirates is thrilled to be working with Realm to create a bold new sponsorship model in kids and family podcasting that respects and entertains kids while offering co-listening adults new ways to engage with brands they’ll love,” said Story Pirates CEO Benjamin Salka.
Added Creative Director Lee Overtree, “The best part of activations like this is that they’re an organic extension of what we already do: showcase the ideas, creativity and passion of our kid listeners by adapting their original stories for our award-winning podcast.”
About Story Pirates
The Story Pirates are an award-winning family media company that brings together top comedians, musicians, designers, best-selling authors and incredible teachers to amplify the words, ideas, and stories of kids on the world stage. They are best known for their multi-award-winning, top downloaded family podcast, the Story Pirates Podcast. With over 70 million downloads, the podcast takes stories submitted by kids and turns them into sketch comedy and songs.
The Story Pirates have released critically acclaimed middle grade books with Random House Children’s Books and several award-winning albums, all based on ideas from kids around the world. These songs and sketches are often performed on the podcast or their albums by artists and celebrities like Kristen Bell, John Oliver, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles, Seth Myers and many more. The Story Pirates have also produced the first Looney Tunes podcast for Warner Brothers Animation, Bugs and Daffy’s Thanksgiving Road Trip, which was featured on NPR. Their latest endeavor is Game On, a sports-themed podcast for families created in conjunction with Audible and Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media.
In partnership with their non-profit arm, Story Pirates Changemakers, Story Pirates Studios produce Story Pirates Presents: SPTV which is currently in its second season airing on public television in various cities. Story Pirates Changemakers, brings life-changing arts and literacy tools to under-resourced schools and communities. This multiple award-winning arts education organization brings excitement to literacy learning. For more on the Story Pirates please visit storypirates.com. For more on The Story Pirates Podcast, Story Pirates Live! and upcoming events, please visit storypirates.com. For more information on Story Pirates Changemakers please visit storypirateschangemakers.org.
About Realm
Led by former book publishing executive Molly Barton and team members from CAA, Disney, Warner Brothers, Spotify, NBC Universal, Realm is an industry-leading studio and global podcast network. Realm partners with top-tier talent and entertainment companies including Blumhouse, Paramount, Warner Bros, DC, AMC Networks, Marvel, Spotify and iHeart to develop, produce, distribute, and monetize immersive audio series that deeply engage audiences.
The Realm Network encompasses over 10M monthly downloads across entertainment & fiction, kids & family, and lifestyle & culture with ad sales partners including IGN, Adelicious, Rebel Girls, and Black Barrel Media.
Notable Realm Studio titles include the #1 Spotify podcast HARLEY QUINN & THE JOKER: SOUND MIND starring Christina Ricci and Billy Magnussen, THE FLASH: ESCAPE THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS starring Max Greenfield, and fan favorites OUTLIERS voiced by Rory Culkin, IF I GO MISSING THE WITCHES DID IT starring Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe; ORPHAN BLACK: THE NEXT CHAPTER and POWER TRIP starring Emmy-winner Tatiana Maslany; MARIGOLD BREACH starring Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto; and ECHO PARK starring Harry Shum Jr.
