May 2008

Egmont’s bumblebee It is well known that the bumblebee’s lack of aerodynamic capacity makes it incapable of flight. However, ignorant of this scientific fact, the bumblebee flies anyway. In bumblebee fashion, the partly owned Egmont company, Dansk Reklame Film, has managed to revolutionize the Danish market for movie commercials.

Niels Almer / Corporate Communications / nal@egmont.com / Photo: Niels Almer

offers significant short- and long-term advantages,” assesses Jimmy Hansen, CFO of Dansk Reklame Film.

After four months, most of the usual teething troubles in a project like this have been resolved, and movie theater audiences are blissfully unaware of the remaining technical challenges.

Consumers and customers alike have given digital movie commercials a warm reception. “The next step is to demonstrate and prove their potential in all theaters in Denmark. There is a great difference between our digital movie theaters and some of the provincial theaters, which still use slides to show local commercials,” Jimmy Hansen says.

The celluloid crystal ball The advantages of digital commercials can be measured not only in easier distribution and higher quality, but also in more precise segmentation. Customers can now target their commercials at specific audiences, genres and geographic areas – in theory right down to a single showing.

In the marketing department, one job of analytical coordinator Rasmus Andersen is forecasting box office sales and target groups for upcoming movies.

“We watch over 150 movies a year and, on analyzing which and how many moviegoers have actually

In the test theater at Dansk Reklame Film, old and new equipment stand side by side as a reminder of the movie commercial development forged by the company.

seen a given movie, we usually prove to have a 90% hit rate. As a rule we can spot a blockbuster from a mile away,” he says.

Trumpet fanfare with extra crisp sound Danish moviegoers know the classic three-note trumpet flourish that has been the signature fanfare of Dansk Reklame Film ever since its inception.

Movie commercial distribution enjoys similarly strong traditions, and bringing the classic fanfare into the modern digital age was a tough task.

“The project would probably never have got off the ground without the cooperation of Nordisk Film’s movie theaters, which were willing to take on the project, and the extensive expertise of Egmont’s own Business Consulting department. Without doubt, the digitalization of movie commercials exemplifies the kind of successful innovation only possible in a major corporate concern like Egmont. Innovation is about taking good ideas to market,” Jimmy Hansen concludes.

Dating from 1934, the bumblebee story is based more on incorrect mathematical assumptions than actual physical circumstances, a fact that should in no way undermine the achievement of 25 heads and 50 hands at Dansk Reklamefilm, Borgergade, in rethinking and successfully innovating the market.

A strip from the late showing on screen 9 at BioCity Aalborg on April 3. From his

Egmont House in Copenhagen has a server – and not just any server, but one that saves untold working hours and expended analog film reels. This server delivers razor-sharp digital commercials to virtually all Denmark’s movie theaters.

It is more than four months since Dansk Reklame Film introduced a digital production environment to replace the analog film reels.

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“In today’s distribution process our advertisers send us a sound and image file, which I then optimize. It’s no use if the various clips in a series of commercials have fluctuating sound levels,” IT coordinator Thomas Sagnsby explains.

“Durability is the main problem with analog reels.

Commercials are aired far more often and for longer than movies, which is why digitalizing movie commercials

office, Jimmy Hansen now has a full overview of all showings of digital commercials.

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Children’s books in Bologna Crowds of people, stacks of books and countless meetings. The annual children’s book fair in Bologna has come to a successful close. But who exactly represented Egmont in Bologna, and what precisely do the various Egmont publishers do in the northern Italian trade fair city?

Anne-Sofie Stampe / Corporate Communications / ast@egmont.com / Photo: Anne-Sofie Stampe

Alinea, Cappelen Damm and Carlsen og Sesam each presented a broad selection of children’s books on their respective stands, while Egmont’s main stand represented Egmont UK and International. Showcasing books and magazines from all Egmont publishers, the main stand acts as a hub for all members of the Egmont family. The various Egmont companies offer everything from picture books for the tiniest tots to humorous tales for

slightly older children and teen stories for the oldest age group. Some Egmont companies have attended the Bologna Bookfair since it first began, while others have come on board later. Norwegian publishers Cappelen and Damm, which merged in 2007, made its debut at this year’s fair, as did Carlsen and Sesam. The fair gave all the various publishers the chance to buy and sell new licenses for a wealth of children’s books. / AST

Easy-reading in all languages Ulla Malmmose, editor-in-chief of the Easy Reader department, and Gitte Thiesen, editor-in-chief of the Danish department, manned Alinea’s show stand, buying and selling easy readers in all languages from Danish and Norwegian to German and Spanish.

It was Alinea’s eighth year at the northern Italian book fair. Ulla Malmmose meets representatives of international publishers to find foreign-language titles for the company’s series of educational and independent-reading books.

Alinea’s Easy Reader department sells books in Denmark and 17 other countries. Collaboration on selecting the right titles and selling them to customers abroad is crucial to the Easy Readers business.

Titles such as This Side of Paradise, La vie à reculons and Keine Angst already number among the books from which pupils of many nationalities can choose.

“This year I’ve made agreements with English, German, French, Spanish and Italian publishers to send me reading copies. We typically publish the best

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titles. Our connection with these publishers is important because it assures us that we are being offered the right titles,” Ulla Malmmose explains.

At the same time Gitte Thiesen from Alinea’s Danish department is looking to buy and sell independent-reading books to Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Faeroe Isles and Iceland. She attends the fair to create new contacts, nurture relations with business partners the world over and generally attract attention to Alinea.

“We would like to establish contact with Finland, so I had meetings with several Finnish publishing companies, Otava and Tammi for example.

This year we primarily focused on what international publishers could offer the kindergarten and parenting markets,” says Thiesen. / AST

Gitte Thiesen, editor-in-chief of the Danish department, and Ulla Malmmose, editor-in-chief of the Easy Reader department, attended this year’s children’s book fair to buy and sell easy readers in a host of world languages.

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Discovering Carlsen and Sesam Books with titles like Derfor prutter man, Hej Hr. Løve and Pedes uhyrer adorn the walls of Carlsen and Sesam’s exhibition stand. Carlsen and Sesam have each independently attended the Bologna Bookfair for about 18 years. This was the first time the two publishers – which have since merged – shared the same space at the bookfair.

Carlsen/Sesam had two reasons for attending the bookfair in Bologna: to acquire the rights to publish books in Danish and to sell rights to its own titles to foreign publishers. For the first time, Carlsen/Sesam held meetings with South American publishers from Brazil and Mexico.

Susanne Gribfeldt, Foreign Rights Manager at Lindhardt og Ringhof, explains: “This is a whole new market that has shown great interest in European publications. I have great faith in Da Emma blev Emma, a book about how babies are made that has attracted a lot of interest.”

Both Carlsen/Sesam and its authors need to be associated with a publishing company to present their books at the fair. This allows them to show the world a vast range of titles to the whole world. Several books from Carlsen/Sesam have generally enjoyed great attention.

“We don’t know whether they’ll sell yet, but we’ve seen great interest in our picture books and book series. It’s really important that foreign publishers become aware of Carlsen/Sesam and our titles,” Susanne Gribfeldt concludes. / AST

På messen i Bologna er der tid til både networking og at lave aftaler om køb og salg

af nye børnebøger. I år har særligt Carlsen/Sesams billedbøger og seriebøger tiltrukket

Egmont publishes almost all pre-school books in England. One reason Egmont UK attends the Bologna bookfair is to buy and sell rights for new children’s books.

Egmont UK comprises three divisions: Egmont Magazines, Egmont Press and Egmont Publishing. Forty percent of all licensed characters in England come from Egmont Publish-

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for new children’s books. This year Carlsen/Sesam’s picture books and book series have attracted special interest.

Buying, selling and networking

meget opmærksomhed.

At the Bologna fair, there’s time both for networking and for making sales and purchase agreements

ing. Together, Egmont Press and Egmont Publishing rank as the second-largest children’s publisher in the English market (the third-largest when successful bestsellers like Harry Potter are published).

“Normally we sell between three and four million Mr. Men books. New agreements, several made in Bologna, will lift this figure into the 10-million region in 2008,” says David Riley, who heads up Egmont Publishing.

A lot of time is also spent meeting employees from other parts of Egmont as well as existing business partners from a number of other companies.

“During the fair, we meet representatives from companies such as Nickleodeon, Dreamworks, Disney and Hit Entertainment to discuss the ongoing development of our various children’s character books – Thomas the Tank Engine and Mr. Men for example,” explains David Riley.

According to David Riley networking is the most important activity at the four-day Bologna Bookfair. Meeting co-workers from Egmont and sharing ideas with them means a lot for both business and cooperation, he says. / AST

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Prize winner In 2007 the Egmont-owned publisher Damm merged with the Bonnier-owned company Cappelen in Norway. The new publishing company marked its presence with a large stand at the Bologna Bookfair, the most important of the year for the editorial team of the children’s and youth books section.

Cappelen and Damm merged in 2007 and this year’s children’s bookfair was the first time they shared a stand. One of the publisher’s author/illustrators won the prestigious BolognaRagazzi Award.

The amalgamation of the two publishers has been fruitful. Two editorial offices have been rolled into one, opening up opportunities to draw on each other’s competencies and create new work routines. At the children’s bookfair in Bologna, Kristin Jobraaten, editor-in-chief for children’s and youth publications, explains that the two companies make a good match.

“We like being together. The children’s books from Cappelen and Damm supplement each other well, so we cover a broad market. This year, our name is on 230 titles in bookstores,” says Kristin Jobraaten.

At this year’s fair, Kristin Jobraaten had a special focus on non-fiction, a new area for the editorial team since the two companies merged. She spends

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the days at the fair selecting titles of current interest for publication in 2009, getting acquainted with publishers from other countries and flushing out interesting areas of inspiration for Cappelen Damm.

“When we meet other publishers, they present between 10 and 30 titles, two or three of which we select for closer scrutiny. When we get home, we decide which titles we want to buy the rights for,” Kristin Jobraaten explains.

This year one of the publisher’s authors, Øivind Torseter, won the BolognaRagazzi Award for his book Avstikkere. The prize is one of the most prestigious international awards for both author and publisher. / AST

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It’s a matter of human worth What has a film project about homeless people to do with the Norwegian King Harald?

And what do petty criminals and alcohol abusers have in common with happy, skilled employees? According to Hans Bitsch, managing director of Nordisk Film Post Production, the connection is logical: You can go a long way by giving people a little attention.

Nanna Lindhardt / Nordisk Film / nanna.lindhardt@nordiskfilm.com / Photo: Halvard Bræin and Nanna Lindhardt.

He says it’s all due to genes. “It’s the way we’ve always done things in my family.” Nonetheless, for Hans Bitsch, involvement has become a philosophy that pervades both his private life and his day-to-day work as company head. Because having extra energy lets “you see whether anyone around you is somehow needy,” as he puts it.

“I don’t think people have to make much of a sacrifice if only they can be bothered.”

Hans can be bothered. For example, over the past couple of years he has spent some of his free time as executive producer on a screen version of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt.

The cast of Gatas Gynt is a group of destitute substance abusers that the film crew contacted through the Salvation Army. Why does a managing director choose to spend time working with a bunch of losers who returned to their bottles as soon as the cameras were turned off? Hans explains: “Every day is hell for them, but we (the film crew, ed.) were impressed at how much these people contained – they were so proud to be noticed.”

And noticed they were. When Norway’s King Harald heard about the project, he insisted on attending the first night and meeting these vagabonds. Although fairly informal, his appearance had an unmistakable impact: “For a long time afterwards, several of the participants went days without needing a fix. If you can give people like this a sense of human worth that culminates in a meeting with the king, that’s a huge thing,” says Hans, stressing that it was also a big moment for him.

Remember the person behind the exterior Hans Bitsch has learnt from experience that it quite simply pays to invest in human beings, and that also includes employees when the company is laboring to generate a profit as Nordisk Film is at the moment. Hans is well aware that human values generally take a back seat when a company is trying to get into the black.

Sometimes, however, salary is not the only work reward.

“I really like not always having to put profit first.

I actually believe you have to give something in order to create something. I don’t mean dishing out money, but giving friendliness and a little attention. These qualities often get pushed into the background because we are so eager to see results.”

According to Hans, as a manager you have to remember to put your employees first. You have to delegate to give yourself time to listen to them:

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“In reality lack of time is lack of ability to let others do things. Use your time to listen to what your employees want to tell you. Because they won’t tell you a damn thing if your door is always closed!”

Hans believes it’s important that his employees come to work not just to do their jobs but also because they like the respect that exists between manager and colleagues. For one thing, this means not giving up on people who have fallen by the wayside: “I want time to help people who seem like losers.

I’m proud there are no losers in my company. Some of my employees are alcohol abusers who are doing really well today. We’ve picked up employees’ children from children’s homes, where the police had taken them, and have helped get the whole family back on track.”

Involvement counteracts loser tendencies Hans believes that the return on investing in fellow human beings is a good social working environment and minimum employee absence due to illness. It also means more energy to devote attention to even more people who need it.

Nordisk Film Post Production, Norway, has a scheme by which the prison authorities send maladjusted young petty criminals to work. Finding jobs for these young people and making sure they hold them down is a challenge, but Hans has had good experiences with the scheme: “We don’t let them shirk their duties here. I expect a lot and praise them a lot. This builds character and counteracts loser tendencies. These young people have never abused the situation, and many end up in good jobs, at NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, for example.”

Ultimately the recipe is the same whether the ingredients are destitute people or employees. You can go far by giving something, even if only for a brief period. The Gatas Gynt project was not a decisive turning point in the vagabonds’ lives, Hans points out: “I might as well say it: The effect doesn’t last long – these people are too far gone. But we helped them enjoy a few moments of human dignity. In the hell that is their home it doesn’t take much to make a big moment.”

So what is the main message that Hans Bitsch wants this story to get across?

“Spend a little time on other people – it doesn’t cost much!”

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