The Big Interview

MOON LANDINGS

Just four years since it was established, Moonbug Entertainment’s brands are now household names for anyone with preschoolers or young children. The brand roll call features Blippi, CoComelon, Little Baby Bum and newcomer Little Angel, to name but a few, and that list is continually growing and evolving. PPS catches up with Duncan Tate, global head of hardlines, consumer products, and Helen Genia, global hardlines director, to find out what’s next for the company.

Moonbug’s mission is simple - to create shows that kids and parents love. And in the company’s relatively short existence, it has done just that. Starting life as digital brands, the properties’ YouTube figures speak for themselves. CoComelon has 139 million subscribers to its channel, and has enjoyed a staggering 133.9 billion views since it launched. Within just days of posting new videos, views often hit the millions.

The other brands have similarly impressive stats. But how does Moonbug do it? Duncan Tate, global head of hardlines, consumer products, explains: “We create made for platform content with an audience first approach shaped by consumer behaviour and audience lifestyle.

“Our aim is to be a natural part of every child’s upbringing regardless of geography, culture or background. By inspiring and engaging children with fun and responsible storytelling, we encourage kindness, compassion and resilience in the next generation, those are the universal underlying values that shape all our content and resonate with our global audience.”

The way in which Moonbug’s content is distributed enables children to access the shows they want, in the places they are. As

Above: CoComelon recently won Best Brand in the Character Entertainment or Toy Brand Animated category at the 2022 Licensing Excellence Awards. Far left: Duncan Tate, global head of hardlines, consumer products. Left: Helen Genia, global hardlines director.

The licensing programme is already impressive. Duncan tells us: “We have a portfolio of best-in-class licensees and continue to build upon these relationships with new categories and brands. Some of our key global partners include Jazwares, Just Play, Hasbro, Spinmaster and many more licensees across hardlines, publishing, FMCG and live entertainment.

The experiential presence is also growing with the CoComelon and Blippi live shows, and the recent partnership with Falcon’s Beyond’s Curiosity Playground.

Right: The Blippi live show is part of a growing live and experiential presence for the Moonbug Entertainment brands.

Above: Little Baby Bum has 39.3 million subscribers and 36.8 billion views.

well as the robust YouTube presence, Moonbug’s dedicated channel is available on Apple TV, Samsung, Roku. The content is also streamed on a number of on demand services including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, through Spotify with the CoComelon It’s Story Time podcast, and even via broadcasters such as Sky and the BBC.

Duncan continues: “Content consumption amongst kids is shifting from traditional TV to multiple digital platforms. As a result, it is important to create popular content that is widely available.

“We specialise in creating and acquiring IP and turning it into global entertainment franchises by rapidly scaling the brand using data to enhance and grow the content, distributing broadly across Moonbug’s vast global distribution network and creating new avenues for interaction through licensing and merchandising, original productions and brand partnerships.”

This changing access to content is also shaping the licensing world. “In terms of the impact on licensing, where five years ago, a digital IP with a successful licensing programme was unheard of, now that is a very different story.”

Such wide reaching and popular shows, available on this enormous scale, has meant Moonbug’s brands are rich pickings for licensees. Until recently, the consumer products programme was managed by The Point.1888, but has now been bought in-house.

“Our licensing programme has experienced rapid growth, reaching a scale where it made sense to bring the team in-house to continue our expansion,” Duncan says.

“In the global hardlines team alone, we recently appointed Janice Lam and Helen Genia as global hardlines directors, both managing a portfolio of toy licensees. These two newly created roles come as a result of Moonbug’s licensing and merchandising team’s expansion.”

The team’s focus is clear for the coming year. Helen furthers: “We are excited about our continued growth throughout the year and working closely with our licensing partners.

“At Brand Licensing Europe, our main focus will be CoComelon, Blippi, Little Angel and Little Baby Bum. Little Angel is Moonbug’s first acquisition since becoming part of Candle Media and it is one of the fastest growing kids’ channels on YouTube.” There is a clear plan behind the consumer products programme going forwards. Helen explains: “From a consumer products point of view, we are building a comprehensive strategy beyond the screen by partnering with some of the best licensing and merchandising companies. This, coupled with the quality of our storytelling, allows us to create products for families to connect with their favourite characters anytime, anywhere.”

With such clear focus, it’s no surprise that there are further plans for growth over the next five years. Duncan concludes: “We believe in focus and being the best at what we do. We have experienced rapid growth over the past couple of years in the preschool space and look forward to continuing our expansion across all categories including gaming, an area that is becoming an increasingly significant part of entertainment.”

So far all that Moonbug Entertainment has touched, has turned to licensing gold, so watch this space for the next brands and expansion.

NEW BRANDS

The team at Moonbug is constantly acquiring and creating new content. And there’s more on the horizon, as Helen tells us: “As well as Little Angel, we recently acquired leading Singapore production studio One Animation, the media company and production studio behind three-time Emmy nominee Oddbods.”

Left: Little Angel is Moonbug’s first acquisition since becoming part of Candle Media and is one of the fastest growing kids channels on YouTube with 27.5m subscribers.