TV Kids Brand Licensing MIPCOM 2010

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 t 416.366.6588 x 114 e [email protected] Blank, Sales Executive t 416.366.6588 x 231 e [email protected]

breakthroughentertainment.com

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Brand

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As a testament to the strength of the licensing-and-merchandising (L&M) sector, Brand LicensingEurope (BLE) has expanded this year’s show to threedays. This was due to overwhelming industry demandfrom exhibitors and attendees for more meetingtime, providing ample opportunities to str ike uplucrative licensing partnerships. Seeing this trans-lated 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 eachinstallment of the Advanstar-organized event out-performing the one before, it’s evident thatL&M continues to be a profitable revenuesource for rights owners, many of them fromthe children’s arena.

Licensing is indeed a key piece of the puz-zle for kids’ properties, since children love toconnect with their favorite shows and charac-ters off screen and parents are eager to please theiryoung ones, often with retail purchases. This bodeswell for distributors looking for 360-degree moneti-zation of a property. The extra revenue generatedfrom L&M sales can go a long way in supporting whatmay have been a costly initial investment.

By KristinBrzoznowski

The

PlanWhile well-establishedbrands are still on top

in the L&M segment,digital extensions and new

categories are opening up anumber of opportunities for the

latest properties.

Plush inspired byToonzone Studios’ YooHoo & Friends.

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This has certainly been the case for DQ Enter-tainment International (DQE) with The JungleBook. Tapaas Chakravarti, DQE’s chairman, CEOand executive producer, explains: “A major sourceof revenue can be generated via various licensingdeals in order to recoup the enormous investmentthat 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 andplush, clothing, accessories, bed linens and even foodand beverage categories, Chakravarti says. And DQEhas a valuable advantage for notching up L&M dealson this particular property: built-in brand recognition.“Jungle Book is one of the greatest classics, writtenby the famous writer Rudyard Kipling, and we havegreat faith in the property and its very obvious massappeal,” Chakravarti says. “The fact that Jungle Bookhas sold in more than 160 countries even before theshow aired, and has great traction for a second sea-son 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 per-spective, since it opens up the whole world to strike dealsdue to its mass appeal and following,” adds Chakravarti.

ON THE RADAR 4Kids Entertainment is another company that has ben-efited from the boost a well-known brand delivers. Pene-lope first established itself as a book property, publishedin France by licensor Gallimard Jeunesse, and has soldmore than 2 million copies worldwide. The propertythen headed to the small screen, with 52 episodes andtwo Christmas specials from Nippon Animation. With this as its established base, Penelope has already

launched successfully in France and Japan with licenseesacross toys, plush, publishing, personal accessories, appareland stationery, as well as two KFC promotions. Also in the 4Kids’ catalogue, the global phenome-

non Yu-Gi-Oh! continues to captivate more than 6

million fans, who collect and play the trading-cardgame. In fact, the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading-card game is inthe Guinness World Records book as the best-sellingtrading-card game to date, with more than 22.5 bil-lion cards sold. The latest TV series has been soldto a number of countr ies across Europe and theMiddle East, where it will launch later this year. Pig-gybacking off this momentum, 4Kids will be fea-turing the latest incarnation, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, at thisyear’s BLE.

Wild styles: DQE has anadvantage formerchandisingThe Jungle Book sincethe property isalready well-known. d

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n


Brand recognition also proves that a property has staying power, another important aspect for the L&Marena. A retailer is far less likely to give up shelf space fora product from a show that may be off the air next sea-son. “For licensing, you want to have sustainability andreliability from a property,” says Pierre Sissmann, thechairman and CEO of France’s Cyber Group Studios. “A licensor has to bring a strong property in terms ofwhere it airs, what the ratings are and how long it’sbeen on the air and is going to be on the air. You thenwant the licensee to bring a great business plan, safetyin the products, great marketing and commercialknow-how. Our properties bring reliability and sus-tainability, and that’s the best thing that we can bring!”

STAYING ON THE SCHEDULE Cyber Group’s global hit Ozie Boo!, entering its sixthseason, has been dubbed into 26 languages and sold tomore than 150 countries. Within just a few months oflaunching the property for the L&M market, 25 licenseessigned up for the Ozie Boo! licensing program, resultingin more than 150 consumer products throughout vari-ous ranges: baby clothes, luggage, beach toys, outdoorgames, puzzles, etc. Cyber Group is also keen to exploitlicensing opportunities for Manon, which is heading intoits second season and already sold in 40 countries.“We distinguish between media categories and non-media categories,” Sissmann explains. “We always try todevelop the media categories first, with licensing theTV show to broadcasters, then DVDs, then music, then

video games. This creates a solid foundation, whichbrings exposure and is going to help the other cate-gories develop. After this is established, then we lookat non-media categories, like traditional toys.”Sometimes, however, that sequence is reversed, as isthe case with Mondo TV’s Puppy in My Pocket. Theproperty started as a set of pocket-sized collectable petsby MEG. The brand, originally launched in the early’90s, is licensed with toy distribution partners in 50-plus countries. This success within the licensing arena is whatstimulated the production of a full 52x13-minute ani-mated series, says Micheline Azoury, the head of inter-national sales and brand manager at Mondo TV. Puppyin My Pocket, produced in HD by Mondo TV, debutsin late 2010 in Italy and rolls out to the rest of theworld in 2011. Azoury sees back-to-school as one of the mostimportant categories to conquer for L&M, as a num-ber of new opportunities have presented themselveswithin that segment. “Back-to-school shopping is infull swing,” she says, feeling confident about thisyear’s market. “Many big retailers seem to be moreoptimistic heading into the season this year, foresee-ing improvements [in the economy in several territo-ries]. Another positive aspect is that there are manyyoung people—and even not-so-young people—going back to school in this economy, so at least onthe higher-education side, more people may bespending this year.”

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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.


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She also notes that the category has expanded toinclude new types of products. “These days, back-to-school is not only supplies; it’s also things likeclothing and electronics, including laptops, cellphones and iPods. The best back-to-school sales, how-ever, are still the supplies: the backpacks, notebooks,pencils and glue sticks that make up the K-12 schoollists that local teachers pass out each fall. Top-sellingmerchandise includes backpacks, book bags and fleece.”

Another area that is becoming increasingly impor-tant is new media. Mondo TV is already on boardwith this, says Azoury. “We are building ad-hoc web-sites for each of our series, to be very interactive withkids. As we all know, nowadays from an early age, kidsare at their computers and well-connected to theInternet, so they are searching always for web pagesto spend time related to branded properties and seriesthey love and follow on TV. Interactive games also arethe key attraction on such websites.”

Toonzone Studios has also realized the licensingpotential of new-media extensions, says KonnieKwak, the company’s president and CEO. “Withmobile technology becoming more and more afford-able for kids, this is definitely one avenue we’redeveloping. This will include mobile game apps forthe iPhone, iPad and other non-Apple products.”

“We’re developing a mobileYooHoo & Friends quest game,where our adorable five char-acters have to find various dis-carded garbage items (an oldshoe, a broken shopping cart,an old mattress, etc.) andcombine these items to helpthem cross over a waterfall,create a hang glider or res-cue a trapped animal,” Kwakadds about Toonzone’s digi-tal initiatives. “We also haveplans to expand the YooHoo& Friends website to be more

connected to YooHoo prod-ucts. In fact, we’ll be develop-

ing a separate line of onlineYooHoo characters that can only be accessed and col-lected through special codes on the toy line. You’llhave the opportunity to create your own YooHooworld and your own quest, based on your particularonline characters.”

GAME ONAlso boosting the move toward interactive productsis kids’ early adoption of technology. Young ones areonline and on their mobiles consuming and inter-acting with content constantly and, increasingly, atyounger and younger ages.

The age-compression issue of children getting olderat an earlier stage in life has made targeting consumerproducts somewhat tricky for licensors. “Some retailconsultants say that it shouldn’t be a surprise or anoutrage that kids are tired of toys and clothes by 8,considering that they are exposed to outside influ-ences 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 withapparel and accessories once considered only forteens. But just as the 8- to 12-year-old tweens arepitched with a dizzying array of music, movie and cellphone choices, the nearly 10 million tween girls alsoare getting more attention from fashion, skin-care andmakeup businesses. They have social consciousness ata very young age.”

Connecting withfriends: Ozie Boo!from Cyber Groupalready has a number of productextensions in place.

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Toonzone’s Kwak says the answer to this is coming upwith a broad property that maintains its appeal across agegroups. “If you have an evergreen property with strong cre-ative development, you’ll not only retain your currentdemographic longer, but you’ll have a younger audiencethat looks forward to entering this demo.” She adds,“YooHoo & Friends is a prime example of this. It’s beingdeveloped for our core 6-to-11 boys and girls, but thecrazy comedy and really cute characters of the showalready have built-in appeal for our younger demo.” In addition to YooHoo & Friends, Toonzone is

heading to BLE looking to exploit the animatedmixed martial arts show Tiny Warriors and the spycomedy Action Dad. The company will be explor-ing categories such as apparel, recycled pencil andpaper sets, bedding, books, action figures and, ofcourse, video games.

GROWING PAINS While Kwak has high hopes for Toonzone at BLE,she does admit that the licensing-and-merchandisingsegment is still feeling the effects from last year’seconomic woes. “Retailers are still cautious, since consumers are

more strategic in their buying. A property has toconnect with them on an emotional level and havesome added value. When it really achieves this, con-sumers buy.” Kwak adds, “I’m an animation producerbut I’m also a mom with three kids who happen to bethe demographic of the various series I’m developing.When we buy as a family it has to be much more than

just a patch or a label on a product, it has to be anextension of our favorite shows.”Creating these touch points for children allows them

to get closer to the characters they are already con-necting with on screen. It also translates into a solidnew revenue stream for rights owners, who are alllooking to take advantage of the new categories open-ing up in the consumer-products arena. Plush pals: 4Kids

recently took onthe propertyPenelope, whichoriginally started asa line of books.

Backing up brands: Back-to-school is a popular categoryfor children’s licensing, with 4Kids extending the popularYu-Gi-Oh! franchise into backpacks and other items.


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The name Jim Henson is synonymous with some of the best-known brands in family entertainment, from the Muppetsto Fraggle Rock. The legendary puppeteer’s legacy of pro-viding high-quality entertainment for kids and families isbeing continued today at the company he founded more thanfive decades ago. As president and COO, Peter Schube man-ages the day-today activities at The Jim Henson Company.

TV KIDS: How has the company evolved since theHenson family reclaimed control from EM.TV in 2003? SCHUBE: [At the time] we had a very clear strategy, whichwas to focus all of our efforts on developing new proper-ties. To achieve that we made the company smaller andmore focused. We achieved this by aligning with thestrongest distribution partners for each part of our library.Our kids and family properties were placed with HITEntertainment, Warner Bros. took international televisionrights for our fantasy properties and we extended what wasthen and still is a very successful video partnership withSony for certain other titles. By doing this we were freedup to focus all of our resources in two areas: the devel-opment of new properties, and the development of ourproprietary animation system, HDPS, the Emmy Award-winning Henson Digital Puppetry Studio. So starting in2004, we put our distribution rights out for five-year termsto these very strong partners, and we focused our effortsin those two areas. Rolling the clock forward, when thosethird-party deals expired, we had developed and were inproduction on Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train forPBS, using the by-then perfected animation system. Whenour library and distribution rights were returned to us fromthose third-party deals, we had these two wonderful newprograms to offer to the marketplace as well, which thengave us both the impetus and the ability to relaunch ourown distribution and merchandising efforts internally.

TV KIDS: Is there a certain number of shows you liketo have in development or production at any one time?SCHUBE: We don’t operate on the basis of a fixed or firmratio of projects placed into development in order toachieve a certain level of output or production at any onetime. We like to make sure that we have a robust develop-ment slate of projects that we are passionate about and thatfit creatively into our brief. We like to play to our strengths.We tend almost exclusively to develop franchise-typeproperties, create fanciful worlds filled with compellingcharacters, and we try and execute on them as well as wecan. We always strive to achieve the highest level of quality.We develop ideas internally and we collaborate with estab-lished talent in the film and television world. Dinosaur Trainis a project that we produced in collaboration with CraigBartlett, who created Hey Arnold. Sid the Science Kid, on theother hand, is a project that literally was born in our offices.

TV KIDS: What are your plans for library properties?SCHUBE: Fraggle Rock is in widespread distributionaround the world. We’re always looking to place it withnew partners and broadcasters in territories where it maynot currently be on the air. It will be part of The Hub’slaunch on 10/10/10 here in the States. We have a featurefilm we are working on with The Weinstein Company,and out of our U.K. office we’re developing an animatedspinoff property focused on the Doozers with our part-ner in Canada, DHX [Media]. Fraggle Rock is one of thoseproperties and one of those programs that touched gen-erations of people. We are constantly gratified by thebreadth 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 aproperty for Sprout called Pajanimals, short song interstitialpieces. We’re now developing this property into a long-form series that we’ll be taking to market. The fun for usabout the focus that we have on franchises and fancifulworld properties is that they tend to sprout new branchesand whole new trees themselves over time. Fraggle Rockwas originally produced in the mid ’80s and 25 years lat-er we’re working on a feature film and a television show,while the original is still on the air.

Continuing a Legacy

Jim Henson’s Peter Schube

By Mansha Daswani

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TV SHOW: The series consists of 52 13-minuteepisodes. The first 13 episodes will be ready in fall2010. Puppy in My Pocket is produced in full HD 2Danimation with CGI effects.

DESCRIPTION: The stories are based on the powerof friendship between children and their magicallyacquired new pets. The adventures take place both inthe fantastical world, Pocketville, where the pets livebefore they’re assigned to a child in need of a friend;and in the “real world” where children in need offriends are matched with pets.

In Pocketville there’s a beautiful kitty princess namedAva who matches new friends, children and pets. Oneday, by the doing of her envious twin sister, Eva, she isaccidentally sent to the “real world” while our protag-onist, Kate, is sent to Pocketville in her place. In PrincessAva’s absence, Kate, together with her recently matched

pet friend Magic, will make sure that Ava’s duties ofmatching children and pets continue to be conductedwhile Eva will try everything she can to stop them sothat she can become the new princess!

TV SALES: At MIPCOM 2010, Mondo TV intends tofinalize deals with more than 50 broadcasters world-wide who were pitched the property at MIPTV 2010.

MAJOR LICENSEES: The master toy licensee inEurope (excluding the U.K.) is Giochi Preziosi, whichdistributes 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 licens-ing and merchandising. Key markets are Italy, Greece,Spain and Portugal.

STRATEGY FOR ROLLOUT: Mondo TV reports thata major company is interested in acquiring the home-video rights for several territories, with a deal expectedto be confirmed at MIPCOM. In addition, many dealshave been signed in Italy across categories such as tex-tiles, publishing, apparel, back-to-school, and others.

Micheline Azoury, head of international sales andbrand manager at Mondo TV, will be showcasingPuppy in My Pocket at Brand Licensing Europe andshe’s expecting strong interest. The In My Pockettoy franchise on which it’s based, or iginallylaunched in the early 1990s, “is very well-knownand successful on a worldwide basis,” she says. InMy Pocket has toy distr ibution partners in morethan 50 countr ies, Azoury says, adding, “CuccioliCerca Amici [as it’s known in Italy] has become oneof the most important toy brands in Italy in the lastfew years.”

ORIGIN: Based on the pocket-size collectable pets by MEG.

DISTRIBUTOR: Mondo TV holds worldwide TV and DVD rightsto the series.

CREATOR: Joe Morrison

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: MEG in co-production withGiochi Preziosi and Mondo TV.

MAIN BROADCASTER: The series premieres in Italy onMediaset’s Italia 1 this fall. Mondo has lined up a dealwith a broadcaster to launch the series across Europe in2011.

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Puppy in My Pocket

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TV SHOW: A total of 52 11-minuteepisodes will be delivered by end of Q12011, appealing to both boys and girls,6 to 11 years old.

DESCRIPTION: This animated 2D,eco-action comedy follows the story offive greedy corporate executives on amission to rob Earth of all its riches.Finally, Mother Nature can take nomore and enlists her loving husbandFather Time (played by rap legend Fla-vor Flav) to teach these executives alesson. Father Time comes up with abrilliant plan and with his magical clubhe transforms these ugly, greedy execu-tives into fuzzy, cute-as-can-be littlecreatures. He then traps their humanforms within an emerald, crushes thegreen gem and scatters the piecesaround the world. Now these furry fivemust find the gems, fix the world andhave tons of fun all along the way. Thusbegins the quest of YooHoo & Friends.

FUNDING: The series is funded by theL.A.-based venture capital group Ani-mation Development Company(ADC). Ira Warren is ADC’s founder.

MAJOR TOY LICENSEES: FromAurora, one of the top five worldwideplush providers, YooHoo & Friends hassold $148 million worldwide, equatingto a total of 9.8 million pieces—sell-ing 272,832 pieces per month and9,094 pieces per day. In the U.S., theproperty is sold in over 2,900 specialtystores. Globally, it is present in Croatia, Denmark, Bel-gium, the U.K., Qatar, Israel, Argentina, France andHong Kong.

OTHER PRODUCTS: Toonzone Studios (TZ) is cur-rently in negotiations with several international licens-ing companies to bring the brand from specialty outletsto the mass market. In addition, TZ is working with amajor video game developer to create a game that willembrace both the eco-adventure and explorationthemes of the series.

STRATEGY FOR ROLLOUT: Toonzone is looking tosecure a broadcaster in the next few weeks. KonnieKwak, 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

David Feiss, TZ hopes to create mass appeal for thisproperty that will translate into unique licensingopportunities, top-tier QSR programs and huge web-based tie-ins.” She adds, “For this reason, TZ is beingvery selective when choosing their licensing andbroadcast partners. They want them to truly embracethe property and think bigger and more creative whenit comes to the final product.”

ORIGIN: The original series was produced by Aurora andaired on KBS with the intent to promote plush sales.

CREATOR: David Feiss, the award-winning creator of suchseries as Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Konnie Kwak of ToonzoneStudios.

YooHoo & Friends

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TV SHOW: The 2D animated series consists of52x11-minute or 26x30-minute episodes. Producedby Breakthrough Films & Television in associationwith 2D Lab and Treehouse. My Big Big Friend isaimed at children ages 3 to 5.

DESCRIPTION: Theimaginations of childrenare truly incredible. Intheir imaginations, kidscan go anywhere, beanyone and do anything.And sometimes theirimaginations can evencreate new playmates;which is exactly whathappened to threeyoung friends: Yuri, Liliand Matt. The show follows 4-

year-olds Yuri, Lili andMatt, along with theirbig big friends—Golias(a blue elephant), Nessa(a pink giraffe) and Bongo(a green kangaroo)—asthey discover that with abit of help from eachother and a whole lot ofimagination, big prob-lems can shrink downto size.

LICENSING & MER-CHANDISING PLANS:A full line is to be for-mally presented at theBrazilian Toy Fair in June2011, including plushtoys as well as variousother items for kids and

babies. Other products planned are apparel, books,DVDs, stationery and art supplies as well as children’scosmetics (sunscreen, baby oil, etc.).

STRATEGY FOR ROLLOUT: Nat Abraham, the head ofdistribution at Breakthrough Entertainment, which is rep-resenting the show, says that Latin America is the initial tar-get. “The series began airing in Latin America on July 17and in Brazil on August 9, we are therefore targeting thisregion for our first licensing push.” My Big Big Friend isbeing licensed by Kasmanas Licensing (Brazil) and alreadyhas 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 Octo-ber 2011 to coincide with Children’s Day in Latin Amer-ica and Brazil. “Specifically for toys we are in talks withboth international and regional master licensors,” addsAbraham. “The toy line will be formally presented at theBrazilian Toy Fair in June 2011.”

ORIGIN: Based on an original idea.

DISTRIBUTOR: Breakthrough Entertainment

CREATORS: Andrés Lieban and Claudia Breitman

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Andre Breitman, Ira Levy andPeter Williamson

COMMISSIONING BROADCASTERS: Treehouse, TV Brasil,Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic

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My Big Big Friend

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TV Kids Brand Licensing MIPCOM 2010