Stephanie Azzarone is founder and president of Child’s Play Communications, the first public relations, social media and word of mouth agency to specialize exclusively in products and services targeted to moms. Launched in 1988, Child’s Play has more than 20 years of expertise reaching the influential mom market.
Prior to launching Child’s Play, Stephanie was vice president and manager of editorial services at the Rowland Company, a top-10 firm, and vice president and assistant director of the marketing communications department at Hill + Knowlton, at the time the country’s largest public relations agency.
Stephanie is a winner of the Silver Anvil, the most prestigious award in the public relations business, as well as additional awards including the PRSA-NY Big Apple, Bulldog Reporter and SABRE, and of the 2009 Wonder Women of Toys Consultant award for her influence and accomplishments in the toy, licensing and entertainment industries. She has been a speaker at numerous seminars on marketing to moms, including Kid Power, the IIR Youth Marketing Mega Event, Toy Fair, Braincamp, Marketing To Moms and BlogHer Business. She is also the editor and publisher of the Marketing Communications: Moms newsletter, the author of the Mom Market Trends blog, and has written for numerous industry publications. Stephanie has been quoted on the subject of reaching families in publications ranging from Education Update to USA Today.
At Child’s Play, Stephanie has represented companies that are leaders in their fields, such as Warner Bros. Consumer Products, National Geographic Kids Entertainment, Hasbro, Gund, CVS/pharmacy, Parents magazine, Sylvan Learning Center, Samsonite and Kidz Bop.
Stephanie has launched a variety of special and proprietary Child’s Play services, including Team Mom™, the Web Mom Directory, the Co-op Bloggers Brunch, the Insider Mom Network™, and Mom Fests, all designed to reach mothers through social media and word of mouth. These programs supplement the company’s two decades of expertise generating traditional media publicity.
Previously, Stephanie was a freelance reporter for publications such as The New York Times and New York magazine.
When not at her computer, Stephanie may most often be found biking to work in Manhattan, taking glassblowing classes in Brooklyn, kayaking on the Hudson, and making her way through the tapas restaurants in all 5 boroughs of New York City.
