004. I Got Animated
Courtesy Julian Bashford
By Beakus producer, Steve Smith.
This week I had the pleasure of attending Get Animated in Birmingham, and presenting my studio's latest IP, Big Lizard, on a very big screen. It's a conference (c/o The Get Animated Post) that digs into almost every aspect of the business of animation, from UK university courses to animated shows, their funding and distribution, and on to licensing and the wider ecosystem of broadcasters and platforms.
I became most animated (yes, sorry) during a compelling keynote helmed by Karen Hewitt of Character.com, who eloquently laid out the challenges of bringing new IP to market. I italicise the word new because original creativity is currently under threat thanks to the flood of reboots and brand extensions we can all find on our favourite non-local streamers (and in our semi-local multiplex cinemas).
Take one look at the homepage of Character.com and you can see the scale of the proposition: if you dream up a new IP today it would have to demote Star Wars, Paw Patrol, Bluey, Peppa, Harry Potter or Minecraft*
Good luck with that!
Screengrab from Character.com
Karen Hewitt's masterclass in brand building highlighted why creating new IP is such a complex process. Your series has to embody a long list of needs in order to sell, else the risk is too high and you're likely carrying a dud. For example your IP must:
Be relatable
Be original
Be immediately recognisable (even to the extent that your character's silhouette is memorable)
Connect on an emotional level
Be data-driven and peer-reviewed to ensure hit points, not pinch points
Work across plush, games, publishing, audio...
Connect with parents
Work in short-form and digital platforms, with different ratios for phones, tablets, socials
Catch a wave and show clear organic growth on TV, YouTube and Insta (amongst others)
Attract influencers, partners, and grow a fandom
Have a graphic language that translates to pattern and magazines
Have stories that take you on a journey, yet deposit you back where you started
Build and understand the digital metrics to focus in on what works
Collect a database of interested parents to harass when your product lands
Provide extra content: behind-the-scenes, educational materials, giveaways, comps
Achieve 104 episodes or more, always more...
... and do all this straight away, lest the world moves on and forgets you.
During Karen's keynote it dawned on me just why the kids media space is repeatedly moving towards existing IP. A wannabe brand isn't a brand if it doesn't achieve most of the above list. If you can plug-and-play ready-made content that kids know and love(d), then you de-risk your whole venture. It's safe as houses...
Unless the audience leaves home...
And we are definitely seeing signs of that. I'm no statistician, and as a creator-producer running my own business I'm always on the periphery of this industry, but I know there's franchise fatigue, and for heaven's sakes it's about time (just how many Marvel spin-offs can there be?). Personally I think reboots have directly lead to the growth of YouTube and gaming platforms, where almost everything is new every day, even every second. They've contributed to the exodus of kids audiences from TV to streamer to UGC platform. Reboots are boring. Especially in a world with so much original creativity.
When I began my own journey into kids TV animation I, as many had before and still will, just wanted to make a fantastic show that kids would enjoy, that would teach them something (soft skills like empathy, patience, self-empowerment), that looked and moved in beautiful ways, that held together like a compilation box of perfect end-to-end stories, that brightened their day and held their imagination. Basically, a little bit of escapism, a little bit of light learning, and a lot of fun. What I have come to realise is that this creator-lead vision is only a small part of the process - and getting ever-smaller. It's the first building block. It's just the basic idea.
As content creators we now need to be media businesses empires (albeit with a surprisingly small staff roster), and our own publicists, moving effortlessly between development sparks and brand building, execution, and merchandise planning. We need to sit ourselves down and take a long hard look at our beloved show, line it up against Peppa, Bluey or Harry, and give it to ourselves straight: "Are you really better than them?"
If the answer is "no" then you might need a rethink. Or, maybe, plough on regardless, as we all have been doing till now. Maybe it's OK not to usurp the kings and queens of the homepage. It's OK to delight few and not the masses (by which I mean hundreds-of-thousands of kids, not millions). It's alright to fail, because it's only failure in someone else's eyes.
I am certainly not knocking the industries that build off from the IP-generating creative community. It's a marketplace out there, everything has a price, and as humans we love to consume - if you build it, they will come (just not in mahoosive numbers). I've just become way more aware of the challenge this business throws down at our feet, to those who dare to create something new. Will it stop me trying? Of course not. Bluey won't be around forever... will it? But in these uncertain times it's important to have eyes wide-open, more than ever, so they can take in the gargantuan task ahead of us and our lovely new IP.
Deep breath, and we go again...
*In the spirit of fairness, Character.com does showcase over 200 brands, so although the dream is to supplant the big six, it'd still be a win to be amongst those 200. I just wanted to drive home a point!