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Connecting the UK with China
TOTAL LICENSING CHINA Connecting the UK with China
CMC China Connect offers UK writers, content developers, producers, distributors and brand managers a direct link to the Chinese market – even in times of lock-down
Quick and decisive reaction to the Coronavirus lockdown by the Children’s Media Conference, coupled with rapid response funding from the UK Department for International Trade, resulted in a newly branded service for the UK kids’ content sector and dozens of new links between the UK and China, despite the difficulties of meeting under lockdown conditions.
On learning that the iABC animation conference and market – connected to the massive Hangzhou-based CICAF festival of licensed product – was being postponed, the CMC realised that without the annual UK delegation to Hangzhou, relations between the two countries were in danger of freezing rather than developing. The result was a new approach to China - UK relations: the CMC China Connect programme. expressed strong interest in working with the UK, identified by previous CMC market activity and Dept. for International Trade intelligence on the ground. Over 150 meeting took place in just a few hours. 3. When CMC discovered that iABC Hangzhou was also setting up virtual meetings to replace their real-world event at the end of April, the third leg of the plan formulated. UK companies were signed up for the online meeting system and helped to create meetings with Chinese companies. Perhaps not surprisingly CMC discovered more companies and freelancers keen to take part – compared to the group that attends iABC in the UK delegation annually.
CMC China Connect was a threeway plan that could work even though lockdown was still very much in force in the UK. 1. A webinar on 21 April 2020 - packed with the latest Intel from eight key Chinese companies on how the animation industry views the future, with top tips on building new relationship. You can see the whole thing here, as CMC is making this content freely available. 2. This was preparation for a morning of market activity on 22 April which brought together over 25 broadcasters, platforms and producers from China with a range of companies and freelancers from the UK, many of whom were making their first steps in the Chinese market. The Chinese buyers were a mix of regular attendees at CMC events and companies in China who Greg Childs, Editorial Director of CMC, said that the feedback from participants was strongly positive. “The appetite to connect is clearly there – on both sides. It took some organising to bring this off at speed, but by using goodwill we’ve already built up in China, with immediate support at the Department for International Trade, we were able to show China that the UK animation sector is open for business and keen to collaborate. It’s early days for most of these relationships but the news that’s come back is that licensing is core to developing international projects that connect with children and parents. There was also a strong emphasis on education and heritage in many of the conversations.” Childs. “While nothing can replace face-to-face encounters for building strong relationships in what is after all a ‘people business’, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, potentially new environmental awareness, and the robustness of the systems that have been used during lockdown could well leads some people to think about the way in which they conduct business in future. “
Marie-Laure Roche, Head of Global Sales at Jetpack Distribution listened in to the webinar and joined the CMC China Connect meetings. She expressed herself “…very impressed by the quality of the online seminar - the participants, the technology, and the way the CMC ran it. It was also very valuable for us to participate in the online market, as I had back to back meetings every 20 minutes, with at least 6 serious leads.”
So might virtual be the future of markets post-lockdown? “I think we’ll certainly see further development of online meetings as complimentary activity at the world‘s media markets“ said Greg
