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BRAND LICENSING, MIP JUNIOR & MIPCOM SPECIAL REPORT
LICENSING & MERCHANDISING TRENDS www.tvkids.ws
OCTOBER 2010
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Contacts: Nat Abraham, Vice President, Distribution Kate Blank, Sales Executive
t 416.366.6588 x 114 t 416.366.6588 x 231
e nabraham@breakthroughentertainment.com e kblank@breakthroughentertainment.com
breakthroughentertainment.com
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The
Brand While well-established brands are still on top in the L&M segment, digital extensions and new categories are opening up a number of opportunities for the latest properties.
Plan
By Kristin As a testament to the strength of the licensing-andBrzoznowski merchandising (L&M) sector, Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) has expanded this year’s show to three days. This was due to overwhelming industry demand from exhibitors and attendees for more meeting time, providing ample opportunities to strike up lucrative licensing partnerships. Seeing this translated into dollar signs, nearly 5,000 executives are on board for BLE 2010, hot on the heels of last year’s record-breaking attendance levels. With each installment of the Advanstar-organized event outperforming the one before, it’s evident that L&M continues to be a profitable revenue source for rights owners, many of them from the children’s arena. Licensing is indeed a key piece of the puzzle for kids’ properties, since children love to connect with their favorite shows and characters off screen and parents are eager to please their young ones, often with retail purchases. This bodes well for distributors looking for 360-degree monetization of a property. The extra revenue generated from L&M sales can go a long way in supporting what may have been a costly initial investment.
Plush inspired by Toonzone Studios’ YooHoo & Friends.
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Wild styles: DQE has an advantage for merchandising The Jungle Book since the property is already well-known.
This has certainly been the case for DQ Entertainment International (DQE) with The Jungle Book. Tapaas Chakravarti, DQE’s chairman, CEO and executive producer, explains: “A major source of revenue can be generated via various licensing deals in order to recoup the enormous investment that has been put into developing this property.” For The Jungle Book, DQE is looking to tap into the merchandising market with products such as toys and plush, clothing, accessories, bed linens and even food and beverage categories, Chakravarti says. And DQE has a valuable advantage for notching up L&M deals on this particular property: built-in brand recognition. “Jungle Book is one of the greatest classics, written by the famous writer Rudyard Kipling, and we have great faith in the property and its very obvious mass appeal,” Chakravarti says. “The fact that Jungle Book has sold in more than 160 countries even before the show aired, and has great traction for a second season already, is testimony to the appeal of the brand.” “A brand like Jungle Book already has fans across the world, which makes it a great property from the L&M perspective, since it opens up the whole world to strike deals due to its mass appeal and following,” adds Chakravarti. ON THE RADAR
4Kids Entertainment is another company that has benefited from the boost a well-known brand delivers. Penelope first established itself as a book property, published in France by licensor Gallimard Jeunesse, and has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. The property then headed to the small screen, with 52 episodes and two Christmas specials from Nippon Animation. With this as its established base, Penelope has already launched successfully in France and Japan with licensees across toys, plush, publishing, personal accessories, apparel and stationery, as well as two KFC promotions. Also in the 4Kids’ catalogue, the global phenomenon Yu-Gi-Oh! continues to captivate more than 6
million fans, who collect and play the trading-card game. In fact, the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading-card game is in the Guinness World Records book as the best-selling trading-card game to date, with more than 22.5 billion cards sold. The latest TV series has been sold to a number of countries across Europe and the Middle East, where it will launch later this year. Piggybacking off this momentum, 4Kids will be featuring the latest incarnation, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, at this year’s BLE.
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Dog days: Mondo’s Puppy in My Pocket is based on an established toy brand from MEG in the U.S.
Brand recognition also proves that a property has staying power, another important aspect for the L&M arena. A retailer is far less likely to give up shelf space for a product from a show that may be off the air next season. “For licensing, you want to have sustainability and reliability from a property,” says Pierre Sissmann, the chairman and CEO of France’s Cyber Group Studios. “A licensor has to bring a strong property in terms of where it airs, what the ratings are and how long it’s been on the air and is going to be on the air.You then want the licensee to bring a great business plan, safety in the products, great marketing and commercial know-how. Our properties bring reliability and sustainability, and that’s the best thing that we can bring!” STAYING ON THE SCHEDULE
Cyber Group’s global hit Ozie Boo!, entering its sixth season, has been dubbed into 26 languages and sold to more than 150 countries. Within just a few months of launching the property for the L&M market, 25 licensees signed up for the Ozie Boo! licensing program, resulting in more than 150 consumer products throughout various ranges: baby clothes, luggage, beach toys, outdoor games, puzzles, etc. Cyber Group is also keen to exploit licensing opportunities for Manon, which is heading into its second season and already sold in 40 countries. “We distinguish between media categories and nonmedia categories,” Sissmann explains. “We always try to develop the media categories first, with licensing the TV show to broadcasters, then DVDs, then music, then
video games. This creates a solid foundation, which brings exposure and is going to help the other categories develop. After this is established, then we look at non-media categories, like traditional toys.” Sometimes, however, that sequence is reversed, as is the case with Mondo TV’s Puppy in My Pocket. The property started as a set of pocket-sized collectable pets by MEG. The brand, originally launched in the early ’90s, is licensed with toy distribution partners in 50plus countries. This success within the licensing arena is what stimulated the production of a full 52x13-minute animated series, says Micheline Azoury, the head of international sales and brand manager at Mondo TV. Puppy in My Pocket, produced in HD by Mondo TV, debuts in late 2010 in Italy and rolls out to the rest of the world in 2011. Azoury sees back-to-school as one of the most important categories to conquer for L&M, as a number of new opportunities have presented themselves within that segment. “Back-to-school shopping is in full swing,” she says, feeling confident about this year’s market. “Many big retailers seem to be more optimistic heading into the season this year, foreseeing improvements [in the economy in several territories]. Another positive aspect is that there are many young people—and even not-so-young people— going back to school in this economy, so at least on the higher-education side, more people may be spending this year.”
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Connecting with friends: Ozie Boo! from Cyber Group already has a number of product extensions in place.
She also notes that the category has expanded to include new types of products. “These days, backto-school is not only supplies; it’s also things like clothing and electronics, including laptops, cell phones and iPods.The best back-to-school sales, however, are still the supplies: the backpacks, notebooks, pencils and glue sticks that make up the K-12 school lists that local teachers pass out each fall. Top-selling merchandise includes backpacks, book bags and fleece.” Another area that is becoming increasingly important is new media. Mondo TV is already on board with this, says Azoury. “We are building ad-hoc websites for each of our series, to be very interactive with kids. As we all know, nowadays from an early age, kids are at their computers and well-connected to the Internet, so they are searching always for web pages to spend time related to branded properties and series they love and follow on TV. Interactive games also are the key attraction on such websites.” Toonzone Studios has also realized the licensing potential of new-media extensions, says Konnie Kwak, the company’s president and CEO. “With mobile technology becoming more and more affordable for kids, this is definitely one avenue we’re developing. This will include mobile game apps for the iPhone, iPad and other non-Apple products.”
“We’re developing a mobile YooHoo & Friends quest game, where our adorable five characters have to find various discarded garbage items (an old shoe, a broken shopping cart, an old mattress, etc.) and combine these items to help them cross over a waterfall, create a hang glider or rescue a trapped animal,” Kwak adds about Toonzone’s digital initiatives. “We also have plans to expand the YooHoo & Friends website to be more connected to YooHoo products. In fact, we’ll be developing a separate line of online YooHoo characters that can only be accessed and collected through special codes on the toy line. You’ll have the opportunity to create your own YooHoo world and your own quest, based on your particular online characters.” GAME ON
Also boosting the move toward interactive products is kids’ early adoption of technology. Young ones are online and on their mobiles consuming and interacting with content constantly and, increasingly, at younger and younger ages. The age-compression issue of children getting older at an earlier stage in life has made targeting consumer products somewhat tricky for licensors. “Some retail consultants say that it shouldn’t be a surprise or an outrage that kids are tired of toys and clothes by 8, considering that they are exposed to outside influences so much earlier,” notes Mondo TV’s Azoury. “They are in preschool at 3 and on computers at 6. That’s why marketers now target 9-year-olds with apparel and accessories once considered only for teens. But just as the 8- to 12-year-old tweens are pitched with a dizzying array of music, movie and cell phone choices, the nearly 10 million tween girls also are getting more attention from fashion, skin-care and makeup businesses. They have social consciousness at a very young age.”
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Plush pals: 4Kids recently took on the property Penelope, which originally started as a line of books.
Toonzone’s Kwak says the answer to this is coming up with a broad property that maintains its appeal across age groups.“If you have an evergreen property with strong creative development, you’ll not only retain your current demographic longer, but you’ll have a younger audience that looks forward to entering this demo.” She adds, “YooHoo & Friends is a prime example of this. It’s being developed for our core 6-to-11 boys and girls, but the crazy comedy and really cute characters of the show already have built-in appeal for our younger demo.” In addition to YooHoo & Friends, Toonzone is heading to BLE looking to exploit the animated mixed martial arts show Tiny Warriors and the spy comedy Action Dad. The company will be exploring categories such as apparel, recycled pencil and paper sets, bedding, books, action figures and, of course, video games.
just a patch or a label on a product, it has to be an extension of our favorite shows.” Creating these touch points for children allows them to get closer to the characters they are already connecting with on screen. It also translates into a solid new revenue stream for rights owners, who are all looking to take advantage of the new categories opening up in the consumer-products arena.
GROWING PAINS
While Kwak has high hopes for Toonzone at BLE, she does admit that the licensing-and-merchandising segment is still feeling the effects from last year’s economic woes. “Retailers are still cautious, since consumers are more strategic in their buying. A property has to connect with them on an emotional level and have some added value. When it really achieves this, consumers buy.” Kwak adds, “I’m an animation producer but I’m also a mom with three kids who happen to be the demographic of the various series I’m developing. When we buy as a family it has to be much more than
Backing up brands: Back-to-school is a popular category for children’s licensing, with 4Kids extending the popular Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise into backpacks and other items.
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The name Jim Henson is synonymous with some of the bestknown brands in family entertainment, from the Muppets to Fraggle Rock. The legendary puppeteer’s legacy of providing high-quality entertainment for kids and families is being continued today at the company he founded more than five decades ago. As president and COO, Peter Schube manages the day-today activities at The Jim Henson Company.
By Mansha Daswani TV KIDS: How has the company evolved since the
Henson family reclaimed control from EM.TV in 2003? SCHUBE: [At the time] we had a very clear strategy, which
was to focus all of our efforts on developing new properties. To achieve that we made the company smaller and more focused. We achieved this by aligning with the strongest distribution partners for each part of our library. Our kids and family properties were placed with HIT Entertainment,Warner Bros. took international television rights for our fantasy properties and we extended what was then and still is a very successful video partnership with Sony for certain other titles. By doing this we were freed up to focus all of our resources in two areas: the development of new properties, and the development of our proprietary animation system, HDPS, the Emmy Awardwinning Henson Digital Puppetry Studio. So starting in 2004, we put our distribution rights out for five-year terms to these very strong partners, and we focused our efforts in those two areas. Rolling the clock forward, when those third-party deals expired, we had developed and were in production on Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train for PBS, using the by-then perfected animation system.When our library and distribution rights were returned to us from those third-party deals, we had these two wonderful new programs to offer to the marketplace as well, which then gave us both the impetus and the ability to relaunch our own distribution and merchandising efforts internally. TV KIDS: Is there a certain number of shows you like
to have in development or production at any one time? SCHUBE: We don’t operate on the basis of a fixed or firm
ratio of projects placed into development in order to achieve a certain level of output or production at any one time.We like to make sure that we have a robust development slate of projects that we are passionate about and that fit creatively into our brief.We like to play to our strengths. We tend almost exclusively to develop franchise-type properties, create fanciful worlds filled with compelling characters, and we try and execute on them as well as we can.We always strive to achieve the highest level of quality. We develop ideas internally and we collaborate with established talent in the film and television world. Dinosaur Train is a project that we produced in collaboration with Craig Bartlett, who created Hey Arnold. Sid the Science Kid, on the other hand, is a project that literally was born in our offices.
Continuing a Legacy
Jim Henson’s Peter Schube TV KIDS: What are your plans for library properties? SCHUBE: Fraggle Rock is in widespread distribution
around the world. We’re always looking to place it with new partners and broadcasters in territories where it may not currently be on the air. It will be part of The Hub’s launch on 10/10/10 here in the States.We have a feature film we are working on with The Weinstein Company, and out of our U.K. office we’re developing an animated spinoff property focused on the Doozers with our partner in Canada, DHX [Media]. Fraggle Rock is one of those properties and one of those programs that touched generations of people. We are constantly gratified by the breadth and depth of the fan support. We’re also working on a feature film and an animated television spinoff of The Dark Crystal. We developed a property for Sprout called Pajanimals, short song interstitial pieces. We’re now developing this property into a longform series that we’ll be taking to market.The fun for us about the focus that we have on franchises and fanciful world properties is that they tend to sprout new branches and whole new trees themselves over time. Fraggle Rock was originally produced in the mid ’80s and 25 years later we’re working on a feature film and a television show, while the original is still on the air.
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Puppy in My Pocket ORIGIN: Based on the pocket-size collectable pets by MEG. DISTRIBUTOR: Mondo TV holds worldwide TV and DVD rights to the series. CREATOR: Joe Morrison EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: MEG in co-production with Giochi Preziosi and Mondo TV. MAIN BROADCASTER: The series premieres in Italy on Mediaset’s Italia 1 this fall. Mondo has lined up a deal with a broadcaster to launch the series across Europe in 2011. TV SHOW: The series consists of 52 13-minute episodes. The first 13 episodes will be ready in fall 2010. Puppy in My Pocket is produced in full HD 2D animation with CGI effects. DESCRIPTION: The stories are based on the power of friendship between children and their magically acquired new pets. The adventures take place both in the fantastical world, Pocketville, where the pets live before they’re assigned to a child in need of a friend; and in the “real world” where children in need of friends are matched with pets. In Pocketville there’s a beautiful kitty princess named Ava who matches new friends, children and pets. One day, by the doing of her envious twin sister, Eva, she is accidentally sent to the “real world” while our protagonist, Kate, is sent to Pocketville in her place. In Princess Ava’s absence, Kate, together with her recently matched
pet friend Magic, will make sure that Ava’s duties of matching children and pets continue to be conducted while Eva will try everything she can to stop them so that she can become the new princess! TV SALES: At MIPCOM 2010, Mondo TV intends to finalize deals with more than 50 broadcasters worldwide who were pitched the property at MIPTV 2010. MAJOR LICENSEES: The master toy licensee in
Europe (excluding the U.K.) is Giochi Preziosi, which distributes the In My Pocket toy brand in the region. (The U.K. toy distributor is Corinthian Marketing.) Giochi Preziosi is also the European agent for licensing and merchandising. Key markets are Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal. STRATEGY FOR ROLLOUT: Mondo TV reports that
a major company is interested in acquiring the homevideo rights for several territories, with a deal expected to be confirmed at MIPCOM. In addition, many deals have been signed in Italy across categories such as textiles, publishing, apparel, back-to-school, and others. Micheline Azoury, head of international sales and brand manager at Mondo TV, will be showcasing Puppy in My Pocket at Brand Licensing Europe and she’s expecting strong interest. The In My Pocket toy franchise on which it’s based, originally launched in the early 1990s, “is very well-known and successful on a worldwide basis,” she says. In My Pocket has toy distribution partners in more than 50 countries, Azoury says, adding, “Cuccioli Cerca Amici [as it’s known in Italy] has become one of the most important toy brands in Italy in the last few years.”
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TV SHOW: A total of 52 11-minute episodes will be delivered by end of Q1 2011, appealing to both boys and girls, 6 to 11 years old. DESCRIPTION: This animated 2D,
eco-action comedy follows the story of five greedy corporate executives on a mission to rob Earth of all its riches. Finally, Mother Nature can take no more and enlists her loving husband Father Time (played by rap legend Flavor Flav) to teach these executives a lesson. Father Time comes up with a brilliant plan and with his magical club he transforms these ugly, greedy executives into fuzzy, cute-as-can-be little creatures. He then traps their human forms within an emerald, crushes the green gem and scatters the pieces around the world. Now these furry five must find the gems, fix the world and have tons of fun all along the way.Thus begins the quest of YooHoo & Friends. FUNDING: The series is funded by the
L.A.-based venture capital group Animation Development Company (ADC). Ira Warren is ADC’s founder. MAJOR TOY LICENSEES: From
Aurora, one of the top five worldwide plush providers, YooHoo & Friends has sold $148 million worldwide, equating to a total of 9.8 million pieces—selling 272,832 pieces per month and 9,094 pieces per day. In the U.S., the property is sold in over 2,900 specialty stores. Globally, it is present in Croatia, Denmark, Belgium, the U.K., Qatar, Israel, Argentina, France and Hong Kong. OTHER PRODUCTS: Toonzone Studios (TZ) is cur-
rently in negotiations with several international licensing companies to bring the brand from specialty outlets to the mass market. In addition, TZ is working with a major video game developer to create a game that will embrace both the eco-adventure and exploration themes of the series. STRATEGY FOR ROLLOUT: Toonzone is looking to secure a broadcaster in the next few weeks. Konnie Kwak, the president and CEO of Toonzone, says that “through the use of such standout voice-over talent [as] Flavor Flav and the unique vision of creative director
YooHoo & Friends ORIGIN: The original series was produced by Aurora and aired on KBS with the intent to promote plush sales. CREATOR: David Feiss, the award-winning creator of such series as Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Konnie Kwak of Toonzone Studios. David Feiss, TZ hopes to create mass appeal for this property that will translate into unique licensing opportunities, top-tier QSR programs and huge webbased tie-ins.” She adds, “For this reason, TZ is being very selective when choosing their licensing and broadcast partners. They want them to truly embrace the property and think bigger and more creative when it comes to the final product.”
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My Big Big Friend
babies. Other products planned are apparel, books, DVDs, stationery and art supplies as well as children’s cosmetics (sunscreen, baby oil, etc.).
ORIGIN: Based on an original idea. DISTRIBUTOR: Breakthrough Entertainment CREATORS: Andrés Lieban and Claudia Breitman EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Andre Breitman, Ira Levy and Peter Williamson COMMISSIONING BROADCASTERS: Treehouse, TV Brasil, Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic
TV SHOW: The 2D animated series consists of
52x11-minute or 26x30-minute episodes. Produced by Breakthrough Films & Television in association with 2D Lab and Treehouse. My Big Big Friend is aimed at children ages 3 to 5. DESCRIPTION: The imaginations of children are truly incredible. In their imaginations, kids can go anywhere, be anyone and do anything. And sometimes their imaginations can even create new playmates; which is exactly what happened to three young friends: Yuri, Lili and Matt. The show follows 4year-olds Yuri, Lili and Matt, along with their big big friends—Golias (a blue elephant), Nessa (a pink giraffe) and Bongo (a green kangaroo)—as they discover that with a bit of help from each other and a whole lot of imagination, big problems can shrink down to size. LICENSING & MERCHANDISING PLANS:
A full line is to be formally presented at the Brazilian Toy Fair in June 2011, including plush toys as well as various other items for kids and
STRATEGY FOR ROLLOUT: Nat Abraham, the head of distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment, which is representing the show, says that Latin America is the initial target. “The series began airing in Latin America on July 17 and in Brazil on August 9, we are therefore targeting this region for our first licensing push.” My Big Big Friend is being licensed by Kasmanas Licensing (Brazil) and already has a network of sub agents in all Latin American countries. Abraham says that the target is to have the first products in the stores by 2011, with a full rollout in stores by October 2011 to coincide with Children’s Day in Latin America and Brazil. “Specifically for toys we are in talks with both international and regional master licensors,” adds Abraham. “The toy line will be formally presented at the Brazilian Toy Fair in June 2011.”
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