TV Kids BLE Report MIPCOM/October 2023

L&M Trends / Inanimatti’s Chris Bangle

The only video portal for the kids’ media industry.

Mansha Daswani Editor-in-Chief

Anna Carugati Editor-at-Large

Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor

Jamie Stalcup

Alexa Alfano Associate Editors

David Diehl Production & Design Director

Simon Weaver Online Director

Dana Mattison Sales & Marketing Director

Genovick Acevedo Sales & Marketing Manager

Daphne Menard Bookkeeper

Brand Plans

Mattel and Hasbro made waves in the L&M business earlier this year, when the rival toy giants announced a multiyear agreement to create co-branded toys and games from some of their most popular brands. So much so that the news led to both companies seeing a spike in their share prices.

While parents will always find a way to spend money on the things their children want, inflationary pressures have families across the globe being smarter about their financial decisions. You need all the tools in your arsenal at the ready to make an impact if you’re going to prompt consumers to open up their wallets. And partnerships certainly help on that front, as several executives indicated to us in our special report on L&M trends.

CONTENTS

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Leading brand owners discuss their strategies for building awareness through robust L&M campaigns and extensive digital availability.

Ricardo Seguin Guise President

Anna Carugati Executive VP

Mansha Daswani

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IP owners are also prioritizing ubiquitous distribution, noting that you can’t just be on a Netflix or a Super RTL; if you want a brand to resonate, you do need to be everywhere. And if you’re launching something new, well, trying your brand out on gaming or social media platforms may be the wisest way to go. That was the message from media cartographer Evan Shapiro at the TV Kids Summer Festival this year: “Launch the content there, establish the IP and the relationship and the cult around the intellectual property on these other platforms before you start to try to extract the value from the gatekeeper economy.” Mansha Daswani

GET DAILY NEWS ON KIDS’ PROGRAMMING

INANIMATTI’S CHRIS BANGLE

The car designer is bringing his unique style to the animation space with the brand-new kids’ series

Arky Arch Adventures .

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In a world where parents are becoming increasingly concerned about their children’s screen time, a well-planned consumer-products campaign can allow kids to step away from their TVs, tablets and phones while still engaging with the characters and brands they love through play.

Retail loyalty programs “enhance consumer awareness as well as amass demand for licensing and merchandising and create huge interest and awareness with broadcasters across the globe,” says Joachim Knödler, head of licensing at Studio 100 Media.

As always, the toys and games category remains one of the most important for the kids’ demographic, says Grégory Pierron, category manager at DeAPlaneta Kids & Family, pointing to successful toy lines created for Milo and Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir with Bandai.

T he toys category “lays the foundation for all the other licensing categories,” Knödler notes. “Next, we see softlines (apparel) as the strongest category,” he says. “With the right approach, particularly with softlines for a more mature target group, it’s a key driver for significant turnover achievements.”

Leading brand owners discuss their strategies for building awareness through robust licensing and merchandising campaigns and extensive digital availability.

By Jamie Stalcup

Studio 100 Media has developed apparel programs for some of its most iconic IP, including Heidi and Maya the Bee . These softlines can reach beyond the kids’ demographic, as seen with Bergmensch’s adult Heidi T-shirt.

Collaborations with other brands and artists for special collections help to attract a wider audience.

“These partnerships result in unique and exclusive items that generate buzz and excitement among our customers,” says Catherine A. Rijsdijk Sous, senior category manager and head of international, fashion and LBE at DeAPlaneta Kids & Family.

As kids grow up, collectibles, figurines and apparel remain popular categories. Both are the strongest performing retail sections for Konami Cross Media NY’s Yu-Gi-Oh!, which is currently “enjoying a renaissance with the surging popularity of anime,” comments Jennifer Coleman, VP of licensing and marketing.

In this increasingly digital age, one might think that brick-andmortar retailers are a thing of the past. To the contrary, they are more important than ever in a myriad of ways, DeAPlaneta’s Pierron says. “Kids’ products such as toys, clothing and books often benefit from a hands-on, tactile experience,” he notes.

“Physical stores allow children and their parents to touch, feel, try on and interact with products before making a purchase.”

That being said, online availability is still vital. “This is notably the case for new brands,” Studio 100 Media’s Knödler says. “Online presence prepares the ground for brickand-mortar retail, where volume is still high and important.”

Such is the case with HARI, says Corentin Besse, brand manager. “At the moment, we sell our products mainly through our online shop. This distribution channel is working extremely well. We would like to grow the visibility of our products further and meet the high demand by developing a presence in major retailers.”

“Physical experiences and events provide us with unique opportunities to engage with our target audience in a more personal, emotional and tangible way,” notes DeAPlaneta’s Rijsdijk Sous.

Some companies can take this to the next level with elaborate location-based experiences. “Studio 100 has a significant theme park business,” Knödler points out. “This is where consumers can experience our brands directly, and we have a huge fan base, resulting in more than 4 million visitors in our nine theme parks and two water parks. There is a growing business of ‘multi-day experiences,’ thanks to the evolution of destinations like Studio 100’s indoor parks, water parks and even theaters, supported by holiday resorts, campsites and hotels.”

These types of multi-day attractions aren’t the only way to engage children and their families in person, though.

“For retailers, we [offer] a ready-to-use package including immersive shelves, photocalls, one-to-one character silhouettes and more,” says HARI’s Besse.

Pop-up shops achieve the same level of connection. Konami Cross Media NY’s Coleman notes that Yu-Gi-Oh! licensing partner Hypland opened popups during the pandemic in New York City and Los Angeles and experienced lines around the block. “We know this is a way that Yu-Gi-Oh! fans will come together and support the brand, and we are actively looking at more ways to do this in different locations.”

Just as brands must be present in all types of retailers, they must be available across the many digital avenues, particularly social media. Kids love to feel like they are friends with their favorite characters, and social media offers a way to foster this connection.

“For our brand Vegesaurs, TikTok was a new opportunity, and we are delighted with the campaign and overall results,” says Studio 100 Media’s Knödler. “It gained an engagement rate that increased across all platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, by more than 50 percent within five months. We are creating more digital content and want to focus on the parent target group as well.”

HARI has encountered equally massive success via social platforms. “Our Grizzy & the Lemmings YouTube channel is consistently growing, with nearly 7 million subscribers and more than 1 billion viewers per year,” Besse says. “This channel complements the TV environment perfectly. We are also about to launch a YouTube channel for Mystery

Lane . Both properties have Facebook and Instagram pages, enabling direct communication and interaction with our base.”

DeAPlaneta has launched TikTok campaigns for IPs such as Miraculous and Pucca, featuring “snippets, challenges and trends that resonate particularly well with a younger audience, encouraging them to create and share their own content related to our IPs,” note Pere Bacardit Pujol, head of communications, and Anna Campistol Agustí, head of digital.

Where kids’ content will live at and after launch is perhaps the most crucial choice IP owners can make. “It is essential for the success of an L&M program that the content is continually available, either via television broadcast or streaming channels,” Knödler of Studio 100 Media says.

“It is essential for the success of any L&M program that the content is continually available.”

—Joachim Knödler, Studio 100 Media

Inanimatti is the home of an extensive narrative world created by renowned car designer Chris Bangle and his partners. Its first animated kids’ project is Arky Arch Adventures, a comedy adventure targeted to kids 6 to 12. It follows the story of Arky, a hopeful, young Roman Arch who embarks on a high-stakes journey across the planet Tredi to uncover his true purpose—and save the world from devastation.

Bangle, co-founder of Inanimatti and creator of Arky Arch Adventures, talks to TV Kids.

Chris Bangle Inanimatti

TV KIDS: What types of productions do you want Inanimatti to become known for?

BANGLE: Arky Arch Adventures stands as the first property within the expansive Inanimatti universe that we have created. This series serves as the introduction to a realm that is literally brimming with countless tales and escapades that we’ve been painstakingly developing, all waiting to be uncovered in subsequent seasons.

TV KIDS: What makes the show stand out?

BANGLE: It harnesses the power of animation in a distinct manner, ingeniously transforming ordinary objects into relatable characters within an extraordinary dimension. This series offers captivating, on-the-edge-of-your-seat narratives.