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TVKIDS
WWW.TVKIDS.WS
OCTOBER 2017
BRAND LICENSING EUROPE SPECIAL REPORT
L&M Trends / 41 Entertainment’s Allen Bohbot Mia and me’s Gerhard Hahn
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CONTENTS
Playing Favorites
FEATURE 4 HOT BRANDS Ahead of BLE, leading brand owners weigh in on their successful strategies for landing, and keeping, valuable shelf space in an ultra-competitive marketplace.
I don’t have a child of my own yet, but I do have an endearing 7-year-old cousin named Pia and an adorable nephew, Aidan, who’s nearly 7 months old. As the holiday season approaches, I’m starting to ponder what gifts to get for the lovable little ones in my life. Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Assistant Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager
Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Kids © 2017 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvkids.ws
For Pia, an intelligent young girl who knows what she likes and dislikes (although that can, of course, change on a whim), my first idea for a present is always some type of product based on her favorite brands. But since Aidan is still contemplating whether he prefers carrots to sweet potatoes and how he feels about his grandpa’s mustache, he hasn’t had enough time to pinpoint his number one property just yet. So what’s an aunt to do? For now, until he has formed his own little opinions, I (selfishly) plan to buy him all sorts of merchandise featuring the characters I loved as a kid, including Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang. I’m also thinking about what my sister used to like when we were growing up. She enjoyed DuckTales, which recently returned as a reboot, so perhaps I’ll pick up a cute baby onesie donning Scrooge McDuck or some Huey, Dewey and Louie plush dolls. For many, many years, adult consumers around the world have been purchasing products for children based on their beloved brands. In fact, several big hits from back when we grown-ups were younger are still going strong today. Pokémon, Barbie and Batman—which have been around for decades—were among the top ten global toy properties from January to June 2017, according to research released by The NPD Group over the summer. The report also found that worldwide toy sales were up 3 percent in that time period, and estimated that the industry will increase by around 4 percent for the full year. That’s encouraging news for the 7,500-plus retailers, licensees and sales executives hoping to conduct business at Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) in London from October 10 to 12. In this issue, we hear from rights owners who share their strategies for securing and holding on to precious shelf space at retail. We also have interviews with Allen Bohbot, the founder and managing director of 41 Entertainment, and Hahn Film’s Gerhard Hahn, creator of Mia and me. —Joanna Padovano Tong
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INTERVIEWS 12 41 Entertainment’s Allen Bohbot
14 Mia and me’s Gerhard Hahn
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Plush for Mercis’s Miffy.
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Ahead of BLE, rights owners share their strategies for securing, and keeping, precious shelf space at retail. By Sara Alessi he sale of licensed goods and services continues to be very big business, with revenues reaching $262.9 billion globally in 2016. That number, from the Annual Global Licensing Industry Survey conducted by the licensing industry trade body LIMA, reflects a 4.4-percent rise on the previous year. Entertainment and character licensing dominate the global business, bringing in almost half of worldwide revenues. That $118.3-billion slice of the licensing market is what brand owners are eyeing as they look to deliver apparel, toys, books and more based on the characters that kids have fallen in love with through the TV screen.
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POWER PLAYERS So what does it take to make that connection with the viewer that will then translate into retail opportunities? In the case of the mega-hit Power Rangers franchise, which marks its 25th anniversary next year, kids are eager to masquerade as their favorite ranger. “You can look like what you see on TV,” says Frederic Soulié, the executive VP of global distribution and consumer products for Saban Brands, on the importance of the role-play and costumes categories. “Even the toys, including the morphers, look exactly like what you see on the screen, so that gives Power Rangers an edge.” Moreover, the brand has something for everyone, he explains, because there are five rangers, reflecting a range of ethnic backgrounds, and each sporting a different color costume. “That is the secret sauce that makes Power Rangers accessible,” Soulié observes. The same could be said for the younger-skewing Sesame Street. “Everyone has their favorite character
who they can relate to in their own special, personal way,” says Risa Greenbaum, the assistant VP of international media business, Europe, at Sesame Workshop. “Because we have such a large roster of characters, and they all come in different sizes, shapes, colors and personalities, they continue to lend themselves very well to a wide range of categories.” Indeed, the Sesame Street brand is flourishing. “Even though we have many of the typical preschool categories locked in, we continue to get interest from additional apparel partners,” she says. “We’re looking at growing our homewares and accessories programs. We have our plush partners in place, and now we want to look at extending the toy range in other areas.” Ancillary toys, in particular, will be a big push at BLE, “whether it’s figurines and playsets, games, puzzles or bath toys,” Greenbaum says. She adds that Sesame Workshop, which has traditionally had global toy deals, has recently made headway with regional partners across Europe. Even tried-and-tested brands must find new avenues to reach shoppers and continue to make noise in the consumer-products space.
NEW ARSENAL In the case of Power Rangers, the show features a new theme every two years along with a new cast and setting. “With that comes a brand-new set of toys on the licensing side,” Soulié says. “Everything is different, from the weapons they use to the tools, vehicles and Zords.” The Japanese brand BEYBLADE uses a similar strategy. “BEYBLADE has a newness each time it launches,” says Natasha Khavin Gross, the director of TV sales, marketing and licensing at New York-based SUNRIGHTS, which manages the property in Western markets. “With each reboot [of the series], there is a new storyline with fresh characters and adventures,”
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Gross says, and that carries over to the toys as well. For example, Hasbro’s line of spinning tops features “a new way to win wherein a player can defeat their opponent by essentially ‘bursting’ their opponent’s spinning top,” which is a big draw for young fans, Gross says. Key categories for the brand include apparel, party goods, games, puzzles, sleepwear, bedding and publishing.
KEEP IT FRESH Jennifer Coleman, 4K Media’s VP of marketing and licensing, says that “finding new partners to work with in different ways” is critical to rejuvenating the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand. “We Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty is one of the new brands that Saban is showcasing. look for different ways to bring the looking at innovative ways of working with retailers, merchandise to our fans and create a broader fan base.” including doing exclusive products or windows.” It’s also about guiding those partners. “Knowing the Saban’s Soulié concurs, noting, “What you often see brand as well as we do, we can steer [retailers] in the these days is a revolving door of entertainment right direction in terms of what we think the fans want,” brands based on movies coming and going at retail.” Coleman explains. She says some partners are even going The closure of brick-and-mortar stores is also partly as far as hiring fans of properties like Yu-Gi-Oh! who can responsible for the challenge of getting items on shelves. speak to the types of products that might capture con“The whole retail environment is difficult,” says Marja sumers’ attention, and purchasing power. Kerkhof, the managing director at Mercis, which hanBut no matter how innovative the property or product dles the Miffy brand. “Online sales are great and growing is, retail is not an easy game, even for evergreen brands. rapidly, but they are not yet making up for what we are “Competition is always a challenge,” says Sesame’s losing in stores. That’s a threat at the moment for every Greenbaum. “We’re all going after the same limited property and business. There’s a lot of fragmentation, and amount of shelf space. These days you have to be a little the big retailers don’t seem to have yet found the answer bit more creative when you’re looking at retail and try to the trend toward internet sales.” to figure out a match that works for both partners. We’re
Genius Brands has been signing up licensees for its new preschool property Rainbow Rangers in categories such as apparel.
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The challenging environment means licensors must, at times, make difficult decisions when dealing with retailers. “Sometimes you have to give someone an exclusive or make special designs,” Kerkhof notes. “We can’t be greedy. It’s very much a matter of cultivating a good relationship with a retailer, appreciating them and being loyal to them,” rather than trying to get products into every store.
RETAIL THERAPY
Monopoly prepared a special edition of its beloved board game based on 4K’s Yu-Gi-Oh!
“The biggest thing retailers want is differentiation,” says Lloyd Mintz, the senior VP of global consumer products at Genius Brands International. “Our biggest challenge day in and day out is finding room in between the industry giants. It is our job to identify white space in the market and fill that vacuum with great Genius Brands content.” Saban’s Soulié reflects a similar view when he says, “What we do with any of our brands is try to customize the experience for retailers as much as we can.” For example, when the feature film Saban’s Power Rangers was released by Lionsgate on Blu-ray and DVD, there were different versions of the product, including some with bonus features, depending on whether it was purchased at Target or Walmart. “There’s an incentive for the retailer to work with you if you’re offering them something a bit different,” he says. Sesame’s Greenbaum believes that a successful retail strategy involves “looking at your brand and trying to figure out what you can do to pull something special from each of the characters and create some dynamic product that will resonate.” It’s not an easy task, she continues, because “the product needs to not only look great but be innovative as well. Everybody can do a plush, but do you have a
Sesame Workshop’s Sesame Street continues to draw new licensing partners. plush that does something different and that a child can relate to in a different way? Retailers need to know their consumers will connect with a product.”
SPECIAL EDITION It also helps to give consumers themselves something special. “Yu-Gi-Oh! is still not out there in a huge way at retail,” 4K’s Coleman says, so when fans see someone with Yu-Gi-Oh! merchandise, they clamor to find it. “It’s a bit of an insider thing, and fans feel like they are part of an elite, tight-knit circle,” which helps drive sales. In some cases, it can be beneficial to think about licensing and merchandising right from the get-go. “For all of our shows, from day one, we think about how we allow consumers to relive and recreate their favorite aspects of the show at home in their own rooms or with their family and best friends,” Genius Brands’ Mintz says. “With Rainbow Rangers, we thought, What is a vehicle that a 4-year-old girl can ride? She can ride a scooter, so we put the rangers on scooters because that’s a great way for little girls to reimagine that brand franchise.” SUNRIGHTS’ Gross says that in this competitive environment, retailers are “narrowing their programs” and looking for “hot brands, but also robust programs with merchandise across multiple categories that can be handpicked. It’s quite challenging, but the best way to appeal to the retailer is to let your hot items like toys lead the race and slowly layer in other categories until the brand is a proven success.”
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She adds: “The key is timing and striking when the iron is hot. There is such a delicate balance in getting product out at the right time to hit peak demand. Nowadays, a retailer has to ask for a brand before a licensee approaches a brand for a license.”
SMART SHOPPERS
Toys, party goods, apparel and more are featured in the product mix based on SUNRIGHTS’ BEYBLADE BURST.
A silver lining related to the fact that retailers are not necessarily “buying big” is that some are taking a long-term approach and “buying smart,” 4K’s Coleman says. “They’re testing products and making sure that the designs are working. If they’re not working, they’re not simply walking away from a property. Retailers are asking why not and what else should be featured in the product instead. They know that if they find the right mix, it’s going to resonate with fans and reach consumers.” But the physical shelves are shrinking, which makes the new wave of opportunities in the online world all the more enticing. “Prior to five years ago, there was virtually no app business, so the digital industry was essentially video games,” says Genius Brands’ Mintz. The development of apps now means companies can “monetize a digital fingerprint beyond video games.” Gaming is a category that Saban Brands is “getting a lot more serious about,” notes Soulié. The company recently launched a new mobile game tied to the release of the latest Power Rangers feature film. 4K’s Coleman is finding that mobile gaming is a great way to bring in a new generation of Yu-Gi-Oh! fans, as
well as to draw old fans back into the trading card game. “You can’t necessarily take trading cards in your pocket and play wherever you want, so these mobile apps are vital to engagement with the brand. We’re seeing a number of lapsed players come back into the game because they can easily play digitally on their phones as they commute, for example.” Coleman also sees mobile games as a means of attracting new fans who can get hooked on the digital game before they invest in the trading cards and participate in in-person tournaments. The BEYBLADE BURST “app mimics physical play [of the spinning tops], and it is exciting for kids to share the experience of battle with their friends,” says SUNRIGHTS’ Gross. The company is also pursuing digital game apps for casual fans of the brand.
APP-TASTIC Classic brands like Miffy are getting into the digital space as well, with an app that allows kids to read stories and play games. Meanwhile, Sesame Workshop is riding the Snapchat craze, having already launched a Big Bird Snapchat filter in the U.S., with plans to do more with the company later this year. “In Asia, in particular, we’ve got some great new filters from Snow,” Greenbaum says, referring to Snapchat’s Asian rival. “We’ve already seen success with that, with more than 6 million downloads for Elmo and Cookie Monster filters combined in Asia.” In seeking success in retail, it also helps to widen your target base. “We know our audience and consumers pretty well,” says Saban’s Soulié. “We can tailor the experience by targeting different segments, from the little kids between 4 and 8 watching the show on Nickelodeon in the U.S. or other channels worldwide to an older audience that is looking for collectible items.” In the case of Saban’s new property Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty, “I can see T-shirts featuring the kitty as a cool fashion statement for older kids, stemming from a cultural obsession with unicorns and memes being exchanged on the internet,” Soulié says. “We’re trying to capture that trend.” Mercis’s Kerkhof has noticed a similar pattern with Miffy. She says that in addition to preschoolers who love the books and TV series, Miffy has “a following of people who like design and graphic design.” Reaching consumers is the name of the game, and rights owners are poised to find—and entice—them wherever they may be.
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animation and expertise in managing a Netflix original. We understood the specs and were very excited to work with them on this major brand. We’ll be acting as exclusive global sales agent for pay TV, free TV, home entertainment and electronic sellthrough (not SVOD, obviously). We will officially launch the property at MIPCOM 2017 with screenings at MIPJunior. The show is a pure comedy, brilliantly written by Eric Rogers, with a great voice cast— including Justin Long, Ashley Tisdale, Jonathan Banks and Susan Sarandon—and a $1-million-per-episode production budget! The show is already dubbed in 25 languages and we believe the property will be well received by the market. TV KIDS: You worked with Netflix on Tarzan and Jane and Kong: King of the Apes. What has that experience been like? BOHBOT: It’s been great. Netflix is a great partner. We launched Kong in 2016 and then Tarzan and Jane in 2017, both as originals, and both have been picked up by Netflix for second seasons.
By Mansha Daswani
In 2011, Activision Blizzard released its first Skylanders video game. Fusing console gaming with physical toys, the property has been a breakout success, notching up more than $3 billion in revenues. With that kind of brand awareness, it’s no wonder Activision wanted to extend the franchise further, setting up an in-house studio and producing the CGI-animated series Skylanders Academy, which subsequently landed on Netflix. Renewed for a third season, the show is being offered outside of the Netflix window by 41 Entertainment. Allen Bohbot, managing director of 41 Entertainment, tells TV Kids about taking on the show and the other brand-centric properties in his expanding portfolio. TV KIDS: How did the deal for Skylanders Academy come about? BOHBOT: Skylanders is a property created by Activision Blizzard, the large video game company. It was released about six years ago with new technology that quickly became a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. In 2016, Activision Blizzard Studios launched Skylanders Academy as a Netflix original; season one achieved instant success and two additional seasons were commissioned. Activision Blizzard Studios was looking for a distribution partner with experience in global
Our relationship also led to Super Monsters, another Netflix original, which takes place at Pitchfork Pines Preschool, where the children of the world’s famous (and not-so-famous) monsters come to learn how to be the best people, and the best monsters, they can be. Drac, Cleo, Lobo, Katya, Zoe and Frankie are preschoolers with dual identities—they’re humans in the day and monsters after dark. That’s why this preschool starts each day at the end of the day. It’s adorable! So, we have three Netflix originals to date. TV KIDS: What other new shows do you currently have in the works? BOHBOT: We have two totally new and cool properties. Shooting Star is the story of a 13-year-old girl, Piper, struck by a sentient star while playing soccer with her friends. Her life is changed forever as she is unwittingly transformed into the superhero Shooting Star. Set in New York City, this battle of good versus evil is juxtaposed against the roller-coaster ride of adolescence as Piper has to balance her life as a junior high school student with being the hero destined to save the world—and from the “mean girls” in her school. It’s an action comedy created by the former
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chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios, Avi Arad, and masterfully written by Skylanders’ Eric Rogers and Josh Haber. The Mini Musketeers follows the adventures of 6-year-olds D’artanya, Athos, Aramis and Portia years before they become the most famous heroes in all of France as the elite fighting force from which the French King Louis XIII will create the legendary Mousquetaires de la Garde. But Louis isn’t the king quite yet—when we first meet him, the young prince is a timid little 6-year-old. It’s hard to imagine how he will ever become brave enough, wise enough and confident enough to rule one of the largest empires in the world. Louis is isolated because of his position, doted on by his parents, coddled by the courtiers, spoiled by the palace staff and secretly tormented by a jealous 7-year-old named Millie, who pretends to be so sweet and nice. The pampered prince is about to get the one thing he truly needs: a group of friends to call his own. TV KIDS: How essential is that kind of diversity for thriving in today’s competitive kids’ landscape? BOHBOT: We believe that it is important to have variety and breadth as a major independent in the kids’ and family space. Some of our competitors focus on preschool, others on comedy, etc. We wanted to have a full bouquet of quality animation for all age
targets. We feel that story creation and script writing are best done in the U.S.—it is really the strength of the American market. On the other hand, quality animation is now available worldwide, so we choose production partners worldwide. Our product is all CG and at the higher end of the market. It’s a mini-studio concept. That’s where we think we’re going to be more successful. For 2017, we are thrilled with this strong multi-genre, multi-season lineup of properties that we are bringing to MIPCOM. We feel that each title is high-quality CG animation and each is in different stages of completion: one is completely produced, four are in production, and two are ready to begin production early next year. With many instantly recognizable brands and genres covering multiple needs— comedy, boys’ action, girls’ action, as well as preschool—our titles are attractive to a global linear and nonlinear marketplace. And, of course, we have the classic PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures.
Skylanders Academy is being rolled out by 41 Entertainment this MIPCOM.
TV KIDS: Are you already exploring L&M opportunities on your new shows? BOHBOT: It depends on the property. PAC-MAN has 170 licensees and 2,000 SKUs worldwide. Kong, Tarzan and Jane and Super Monsters are just launching. Shooting Star and The Mini Musketeers are totally new. It’s case by case.
41 Entertainment’s new original Shooting Star focuses on a teenage superhero.
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Nesch’et came up with his own ideas. However, this process was a rather tenacious struggle and quite emotional, especially when our ideas differed. While looking for a distinct style, the idea came up to integrate certain patterns used by Gustav Klimt in his paintings into the design of the robes of the King and Queen, the unicorns and the antagonists. Klimt’s transitional artistic style strikingly unites the heterogeneous content elements of Mia and me in a particularly subtle manner. But developing a look is always a balancing act: it’s about achieving a maximum of originality, individuality and distinctiveness, and about compromising with co-producers and complying with the need to produce for an international market. Following the advice of our co-producers Iginio Straffi [CEO of Rainbow] and Ulli Stoef, I changed the art direction at the last minute and poured a bucket of pinkand rose-colored paint over the artwork. Nesch’et and I were not happy about this development, but looking at the success of the series, I must admit, these marketing professionals know what they are doing!
GERHARD HAHN
MIA AND ME By Mansha Daswani
For almost four decades Gerhard Hahn has been making European animated series that have resonated with kids and families at home and abroad. Based in Berlin, Hahn Film is behind a wealth of shows, among them Mia and me, developed with and sold by m4e (which is majority owned by Studio 100). Hahn tells TV Kids about the genesis of the series and his process for developing content that meets the entertainment needs of young ones today.
TV KIDS: What inspired Mia and me? HAHN: In early 2009, I was introduced to Hans Ulrich Stoef [the CEO of] m4e, who had the idea that we join forces and create brands for kid audiences. He was looking for an attractive TV series for girls and suggested producing one about horses. Having already worked on a German horse-themed series for too long, I needed to put it behind me. An idea I was developing featuring a girl and a unicorn seemed the best direction to go in, and this was the key to Mia and me. On the one hand, we would create a world populated by elves and unicorns instead of horses; and on the other, we turned Mia, the heroine from the real world, into an elf when she visits Centopia. Also, Mia would be the only one in Centopia with the ability to understand the language of the unicorns. TV KIDS: How did you design the show’s look? HAHN: Mia and me was designed by my favorite character designer, Nesch’et Al-Zubaidi. On the basis of my vision for the general look and the character design,
TV KIDS: Why do you think Mia and me has been such a massive global hit? HAHN: In addition to its distinctive and original look, the fact that Mia is a girl from the real world who also becomes an elf in Centopia in each episode led to an unusually high identification potential for younger viewers. We were fortunate that Nicole Keeb from ZDF realized this very quickly. That wasn’t something that could be taken for granted, as Mia and me is a combination of a live-action framework story in our world and 3D computer animation in Centopia. Such a hybrid was rare in European TV animated series at the time it was first broadcast. It was the favorable combination of the concept, the extraordinary design, as well as the marketing and distribution expertise of Ulli Stoef and his team at m4e, that led to this success. TV KIDS: How have you kept the show fresh and engaging every season? HAHN: Two components were essential for this: retaining the fundamental strength of the first season by having popular figures reappear, thus ensuring recognition, and always reintroducing new surprising characters, especially on the side of the bad guys, who present our heroes with new challenges every season. TV KIDS: What are the plans for the feature film? HAHN: Up until now, the series has left questions open concerning Mia’s backstory. The answers are being withheld to be able to tell them in an extremely emotional and tension-filled feature film: namely how and why the then 12-year-old heroine Mia came into possession of a magic stone and an oracle book, which enabled her transformation into a Centopian elf. In this respect, the film acts as a prequel to the series—but otherwise, it is a completely separate story.
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