season screen tv review 2015 № 4

SSTR 2015

Season Screen TV Review“Whenever you talk about Smurfs, you put a smile on peoples’ faces”

Interview with Nele De Wilde, Business Affairs Manager at IMPS

NEWS, BROADCASTING, SALES NEWS, INTERVIEW, MEDIA REPORTS

sstrnews.com

ISSUE 4, NOVEMBER 2015

ISSUE 4 NOVEMBER 2015 | SEASON SCREEN TV REVIEW | 3

EDITORIAL

MEDIA NEWS

AnalyticalMODERN CARTOONS: TOUGH CHOICE BETWEEN NATIVE AND EXTERNAL CONTENT

Experts TalkingCAN TV CHANNEL BE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE?

InterviewNELE DE WILDE: ‘‘WHENEVER YOU TALK ABOUT SMURFS, YOU PUTA SMILE ON PEOPLES’ FACES’’

EducationalMK MEDIA GROUP’S NEW EDUCATIONAL PROJECT CREATIVE

Media FactsCONTENT CHANGES: NEW WAYS OF MARKET EXPANSION

Analyzing animation industries of Ukraine, Russia and Baltic, CIS and MENA states.

Tatyana Palamarchuk, channel Red, about achievements and challenges of media for hard of hearing kids.

Interview with Nele De Wilde, Business Affairs Manager at IMPS

Sharing our experience: how to create successful TV content

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CONTENTSCONTENTS

4 | SEASON SCREEN TV REVIEW | ISSUE 4 NOVEMBER 2015

EDITOR’S NOTEMK Media Group plans to launch cartoons

production in near future. Being in the pre-production phase, we started a global research of national and international animation markets. Now we want to share a large part of the collected materials – news, interviews, analytics - with our readers.

Do you know which characters are the most demanded in modern cartoons: classical or experimental ones? Why do TV channels mainly buy external content and why do they rarely show locally-made cartoons? How children’s channels can earn profit in order to acquire high-quality products? Why “Peppa Pig” has become so popular – thanks to the plot or to the quick shot changes that grab kids attention? How does Barbie’s perfect shape and big eyes affect on girls’ perception of beauty? Should cartoons educate or just entertain the kids? Are there any channels for children with special demands and what difficulties may they face? And, eventually, what are the key trends affecting global animation industry?

This issue will give you all the answers. Turn the page and enjoy!

Katerina DmitrievaCEO, MK Media Group

EDITORIAL


In production, 30x5,5 min, 2015, HD


NEWS

Euronews launches its African twin. Euronews will launch first pan-African multilingual project Afrcicanews. This was mentioned by CEO of Euronews, Michael Peters, on annual African conference DISCOP Africa. Peters said that channel will be on air till January 4th.Africanews will broadcast 24/7 in English, French and Swahili simultaneously. Today, a team of 85 professionals of 15 nationalities, based in Congo-Brazzaville, is creating an international news channel to cover African and the world news from a pan-African perspective. Main aims of channel’s management are to create common sub-Sahara media field and represent African continent in the world. Michael Peters underlines the importance of this project in world media space because of unfilled gap and rising demand on actual African voice. It is the gap for channel to cover, without biases and foreign interpretations, the main challenges which African states face. On January 4th, 2016, Africanews will be launched globally on all screens and media platforms and will be available worldwide via africanews.co. A few weeks after, Africanews will be aired on both Ku band satellite SES 4 and 5 providing a global footprint over the whole Sub Saharan Africa.

National Geographic retires almost 10% of its staff. Around 180 staff from 2000 of the total workforce – will be affected by the job cuts. This action of management took part only in a month after Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox took control of the 127-year-old organization. Cuts were made both on National Geographic Channels and Nat Geo Society.Most of resignations were held in the magazine fact-checking teams, some programming executives will likely be let go. On the November 2 members of National Geographic got mails, where management asked to check their emails for news on their employment status.

Disney launch streaming service in UK. Financial Times reported that Walt Disney launch a digital subscription service in the UK that bundles its animated and live action movies, books, which called Disney Life. This service will contain Disney Channel episodes and other products of corporation. Among them are hundreds of books, albums and movies, ranging from the complete Pixar catalogue, which includes the Toy Story series, to classics such as Snow White, Lady and the Tramp and The Jungle Book. Subscriptions fee will be around 10 pounds per month. Subscribers will be able to stream or read content in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Families will be able to create profiles for users based on favorite Disney characters. The content can also be downloaded to be watched offline.

Al Jazeera seems to buy Miramax. Miramax film company will be bought by BeIN Media Group, spin-off of Al Jazeera Media Network, wrote Bloomberg with reference on its own source. There are no actual numbers, but experts valued this deal at $1 billion, $340 million more than current owners spent on it in 2010. Miramax was founded in 1979 by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein and sold to Walt Disney Co. in 1993. Disney sold the business in 2010 to a group that included a unit of the Qatar Investment Authority and Colony Capital. This company filmed a lot of popular pictures, like “Pulp fiction”. For now Miramax have rights on nearly 700 titles.


OSN struggles against piracy in Kuwaiti. UAE pay-network OSN in cooperation with Kuwaiti Ministry of Commerce & Industry struggles against TV piracy and distribution of unauthorized TV decoders in the Kuwait.Measures include raids done by Kuwaiti authorities on violators and confiscation of decoders belonging to unlicensed India-based DTH service Dish TV, which is one of the biggest piracy concerns in Kuwait.These raids were held in terms of general fight against violation of intellectual property rights in the state.

NEWS

Turkish network bought two Russian animated series. Turkish children’s network Planet Çocuk has picked up two Russian animated series from UK-based distributor Media IM. Purchasing a license for two Petersburg Animation Studio’s preschool series “Kikoriki” and “Pin-Code” may be considered for now as the biggest Media IM’s international deal on a market.Planet Çocuk obtained TV rights of 161 episodes of the two shows and an option on a further 322. Moreover, agreement includes rights on licensing and merchandising. Düşyeri Animation Studios will be Media IM’s licensing and merchandising partner for both properties in Turkey.Launched in 2003, “Kikoriki” became one of the most successful projects in the history of Russian animation.

Estonia launched its own Russian-language channel ETV+. The main purpose of the channel, according to Estonian officials, is counteracting pro-Kremlin messages broadcasted by state Russian channels.The majority of Estonian broadcasters transmit this channel since its launch on October 28. It is focused on news and analytics, but there are also Russian, Ukrainian and Baltic States’ movies and series on air.Latvian authorities also want to launch Russian-language channel with Latvian subtitles.

Israel’s Studio Glam has created an international development division, which will provide new formats. The main focus of the department is to put on partnerships with broadcasters, producers and distributors creating international formats.Studio Glam founder Ami Glam thought that this step will help studio to find new partners and develop existing network of relations. He also will head the creative elements of Studio Glam ID, and oversee all development. Management of the company emphasizes on simplification of interaction between producers and broadcasters via this way.Previously another Israeli production company, Gil Productions, launched a new formats development and distribution company. This move of Israeli promotes first deal for new factual entertainment format Capturing the Moment with Germany’s ZDFneo.


1st season - 13x13 min, 2015, HD


MODERN CARTOONS: TOUGH CHOICE BETWEEN NATIVE AND EXTERNAL CONTENT

Moreover, during last two decades cartoons have enlarged their audience with a lot of new groups because of increase of adult viewers. Such series like “The Simpsons”, “South park” and “Family Guy” attract new audiences in older age groups then animated series used to have before. Meanwhile, younger age groups are involved in new types of interaction with their favorite cartoons. “Peppa Pig”, one of the most popular pre-school animated series, regularly presents to their fans games and other different kinds of interaction through the Internet. And “My Little Pony: Friendship is magic” became unusual but effective mix of marketing strategy and well-known animated series with a huge army of fans.

However, animated feature films remain more calm and traditional, with some revisions in customers’ needs. Trying new formats like 3D and weird promo campaigns, they still maintain traditional topics and strategies: we see a lot of sequels and reworked fairytales on the screens. Although, for children’s channels it is not a problem at all – well-done programming provides nice mix of new experimental shows and traditional formats.

Yet, kids’ channels still have problems with content selection: choice

Average viewer has become more demanding to programs he sees on his TV screen. Old-fashioned content and wrong programming for now are not just a nuisances, they are potentially fatal blow to channel’s popularity. So, dealing with these troubles, media have to draw more and more attention to the specialized channels and products. Among them children’s channels feel themselves confident because of constant high audience and moderate competition on market.

ANALYTICAL | MODERN CARTOONS: CHOICE BETWEEN NATIVE & EXTERNAL CONTENT

EXPERTS TALKING:

Alexandra GayevayaSenior Acquisitions Manager on Ukrainian kids’ channel “Pixel TV”

Dmitry MineevChief Content Officer and Business Development Director at “Nemo TV”

Vera LioleAcquisition Manager at Voxell Media Distribution

Umed JumayevExpert from Tajik children and youth TV channel “Bahoriston”


between native and external content may be not so easy. Native content has a lot of pros, but not so many states can be proud of own cartoons production. Most of the market is flooded with American, Western European and, partly, East Asian content.

Alexandra Gayevaya, Senior Acquisitions Manager on Ukrainian kids’ channel “Pixel TV”, complains about the lack of native content on the market. “Now, unfortunately, range of Ukrainian animation products is limited. Moreover, the competition in the market is quite high, so it isn’t always possible to buy an animation. Sometimes other channels can outrun you in purchasing new Ukrainian content. We’ve recently put on air only one new cartoon – “Babay”, Gayevaya said. She also adds that product has to satisfy a row of criteria to be accepted. Among them are the plot of the story and the general quality of the content.

Really, range of local products isn’t so wide. Till the last years there was almost nothing to sell. Several exceptions were in the field of pre-school educational animation, which taught children to count or read. That short animations appeared on different kids’ channels as locally-made product, and only some of them, like “Lessons of Auntie Owl”, were successful enough to be broadcasted abroad. On the other hand, during last 3-4 years Ukrainian market has evolved and several animated movies and series

were created. Talking about series, the most successful project is “Eskimo Girl”, made by animation studio “Animagrad”. It was the first bid of popular 3D-animated series. Among movies “Babay”, mentioned above, is not the only one bid. Producers of “Kyrylo Kozhumyaka” announced that movie is set to be released in 2016. The best thing in these projects is that their plots are not exported from other cultures, they are taken from Ukrainian folklore.

Native content, because of its natural comprehensibility for children,

can be the best solution for local channels – no translation or adaptation required. But most of states are deeply linked with external products, while local productions cannot afford mass creation of cartoons or animated series.

Dmitry Mineev, Chief Content Officer and Business Development Director at “Nemo TV”, also pointed out the usage of local content. “We cooperate with large local online-cinemas and VOD distributors who provide us with cartoons and animated series from local studios. But also we are partnering both with local and foreign kids TV channels, which allow us to offer a variety of catch up titles right after airing on TV”, he mentioned.

Baltic TV market is smaller than other ones due to the lower purchasing power of the audience. This forces channels to use mostly foreign content. “The point is there are a few local TV broadcasters in Baltic countries,

“Children’s channels feel themselves confident because of constant high audience and moderate competition on market”.

“However, animated feature films remain more calm and traditional, trying new formats like 3D and weird promo campaigns, they still maintain traditional topics and strategies”.

MODERN CARTOONS: CHOICE BETWEEN NATIVE & EXTERNAL CONTENT | ANALYTICAL

“Eskimos Show”

“Babai”


which corresponds with the small audience and low rate of ARPU (average revenue per user – edt.). So the market size makes the whole idea of own content production and airing quite disputable. But still we are in contacts with a few small animation studios which show a real good quality of production as Baltic countries have good talents so far”, Mineev added.

Still, there is a problem of the quality of production. Dmitry Mineev thinks the problem is that only a small percent of local content producers are capable to cover all necessary components in one product. “The first producer is good with ideas and plots, another is better in filming and visualizing, the third is perfect in monetizing and content marketing. But all these guys today happen to be completely separate; they work in non-related studios, with a significant lack of partnership model experience. If they were working as a whole business entity, collaborating and sharing, I’m sure they would have succeeded faster. However, I should admit there’s definitely been a positive shift in this field recently, people started collaborating. This immature market fragmentation is the exact reason why some notable educational animated series on local TV are good in plots and ideas, but poor in performance and rendering. If we recall a few popular entertainment cartoons we could notice that the contrary thing happens here – the picture and effects are bright and attractive, but the idea is weak and the script is precarious. What about delivering good animation products to the viewer - the situation here is even more languishing: too few producers and distributors are capable to find a proper approach to broadcasters, overloaded with commercial grownup content. So, the main trouble for local animators is to be good at everything at once: concept, scenario, characters, high-quality visualizing and execution, marketing and promoting, delicate targeting, etc. That’s what we need”, Mineev said.

Despite of that, Baltic and CIS regions provide a lot of new content comparably to the previous decades. Local productions improve the quality of their own content and it impacts local channels – they have higher demands to the foreign content as well. Thereby, general level of content on the channels improved. Moreover, some of the local products try to cover new markets.

But local creation of content requires a lot of resources along with high risks. While big foreign animation productions have brand and diversified sources of income, local productions strongly depend on only one market. This leads to loses of native products in compatibility with external. On the other hand, local producers can reach an agreement with channels about some special conditions in order to reach a win-win situation and a better position for both sides. Vera Liole, Acquisition Manager at Voxell Media Distribution, underlines the importance of such interaction between local production studios and channels. “I think it is in our both interest to cooperate – while production studios provide us with content, we as a 24 hour kids’ channel can provide them with more frequent display on screen then regular TV channel. For producers this means higher brand recognizability and higher potential to make money. This year many Russian producers sponsored TV competitions on our TV channel because they understand the effectiveness of high-quality content. So we try to place content of local producers between the content from

“Yet, kids’ channels still have problems with content selection: choice between native and external content may be not so easy”.


“Native content, because of its natural comprehensibility for children, can be the best solution for local channels – no translation or adaptation required”.

“Kumi-Kumi”

“Kikoriki”


foreign studios”, Liole said. So the idea than good content attracts more advertisers is not so new.

Competition exists almost in every niche. The question is – do the kids’ channels have advantages comparatively to the other media? Here is the interesting trend, noticed by international monitoring company GfK: despite all forecasts, niche channels increase and decrease their audience in the strict proportion with general media. But quantity here plays less part than quality. While advertisement in niche media in average covers more than 80% of the audience, commercials on general media affect less than 1/5 of whole audience. On the other hand, kids’ channels have a lot of restrictions, which affect mostly the main advertisement revenues contributors in CIS and Baltic regions (tobacco, alcohol and medicines).

However, the most revenue data of channels is considered a confident information, so it is hard to tell whether kids’ channels are profitable or not. And, as a result, it is hard to tell if these channels can afford to buy local and foreign content in due proportion. As, balancing between them,

channels have to keep in mind probable expenses and output from different combinations of content.

Another issue is a tendency of market monopolizing by main states-producers of cartoons. For example, Russia has a great share of cartoons production in CIS region. There are many new animated series produced by it – besides comparatively known series “Kikoriki” and “Fixiki” there are some new ones, like “Kotiki vpered”. Still, besides Russia, there are a lot of other productions both


“The main trouble for local animators is to be good at everything at once: concept, scenario, characters, high-quality visualizing and execution, marketing and promoting, delicate targeting, etc”.

“Fixiki”

“Kotiki vpered”



in the Baltic states and CIS. Among popular series are Latvian “Lupatini” or Belorussian “Brownie Plukh”.

Influence of specific countries varies depending on the region. Understandably, some of these influences depend on cultural references and language of the audience. Talking about young viewers, we mostly rely on easiness of perception and clear unquestionable lines in the plot. Dmitry Mineev emphasizes on fact that their audience can percept both internal and foreign content. But he also refers to the point that at kids’ channels we have a lot of rules and restrictions. “Children are very special audience, for them educational content is an

absolute must and priority”, Mineev said. He adds that a great amount of content should have well-balanced entertainment and educational parts so it could be useful for children’s development.

The educational part in the animated series in CIS and Baltic regions is nearly obvious. As it was mentioned before, several years ago pre-school educational series were mostly the only one appearance of cartoons in CIS. The problem was in entertaining component. Now ratings at the regional market speak for themselves. Two most popular Russian animated series “Fixiki” and “Kikoriki: Pin Code” are both a great mix of entertainment and education. And if the first one provides children with some everyday knowledge, the second shows scientific-popular theories (although, understandable for the children) and even gets kids acquainted with Nobel Prize winners. Meanwhile, Tajikistan presents its first 3D-animated movie “Aira Fairytales”, dedicated to local geography and animal species.

Some countries even support kids’ channels, holding an educational mission on them. Umed Jumayev, expert from Tajik children and youth TV channel “Bahoriston”, thinks that main functions of children’s channels are educating and providing the audience with some moral values, so state should support them. “We are considered as a state channel. Kids’ channels can’t earn good money on the advertisement as not all commercials are appropriate for our specific audiences. That’s why the only way to broadcast is to rely on state funding”, Jumayev said.

For other players budgets are one of the main regulators of their efficiency, pushing towards combinations of foreign and internal content. Vera Liole mentions importance of content interrelations and balance of the products. “Foreign partners already understood that there are just 2 options: to accept our budget and close deal today becoming our regular content supplier, or skip the deal because our offer is under expected and miss the chance to increase turnover and maybe evem never sell that content in Russia at all. Today an offer on the children’s content market is huge and business-oriented film distributors are open to cooperation. Many foreign film distributors are interested in working with us because we open

“Another issue is a tendency of market monopolizing by main states-producers of cartoons. For example, Russia has a great share of cartoons production in CIS region”.

“Children are very special audience, for them educational content is an absolute must and priority”.

“Some countries even support kids’ channels, holding an educational mission on them”.

Dmitry Mineev



the door to the CIS countries’ audience by dubbing titles in Russian. There are many premieres on our channel taking place during this year. BRB has provided us with “Invizimals” series - and IMC toys start looking for merchandising partners in Russia at once. Indirectly, but we increased interest to Sony game “Invizimals” and hope in the nearest future everyone will be able find “Invizimals” heroes toys in the stores. I’m happy that Russian licensing companies started to use this commercial scheme as well – we have great animation series “Pororo Little Penguin”and “Vroomiz” on air now”, Liole said. She also notes that for now it is much easier to work because of strong links with content providers. Mostly it happens due to the small number of players operating in the market. So the most of channels and providers get used to each other and have primarily good relations.

However, lack of channels on regional markets does not affect the quality of the products because of the customer, educated by global media market, and of internal request on appropriate content. Experts underline that customers usually get used to traditional content that is why production studios usually develop new stories with old characters. This

“Experts underline that customers usually get used to traditional content that is why production studios usually develop new stories with old characters”.


trend gives second burst of local culture. The brightest example is Russian series called “The Three Bogatyrs” by Melnitsa production. For now it includes six cartoons based on local folklore in a new interpretation. Such manner was chosen to reach not only the local audience, but also the foreigners in order to familiarize them with some culture pieces and take niche of foreign exotics.

Some movies choose the other way. Kazakhstan production “Sak” announced the creation of the cartoon, where the main hero will be the founder of the Kazakh Khanate – Kerey. This cartoon, called “Kazakh Eli” (the ancient name of Kazakhstan), will be dedicated to the 550-aniversary of the state.

Liole also points out that there are no common and special rules besides main animation principles. Animation can be made in any technique, but it is very important to provide children with wildly different expressions. “Idea and attention to details are the main success factors nowadays. Every child likes surprises and, of course, they expect to find in each series something unpredictable and unexpected. Discovery series by guesswork or intuition are a huge trigger for kids. “Funny phrases” is a must, but time when “rude humor” was the key factor to success is over. At present there appeared many animated series based on social values humor and parents choose rather to grow up their kids on this kind of animation. Violence became old fashion. It’s worth keeping in mind that children are curious about everything around them, so they always like to found


“Idea and attention to details are the main success factors nowadays. Every child likes surprises and, of course, they expect to find in each series something unpredictable and unexpected”.

“If animation provides kid’s involvement, then chance to success is higher”.

“The Three Bogatyrs”

“Kazakh Eli”

“Most of animated series or cartoons try to draw attention not only to the main characters, but to the side ones as well”.



out something new. That is why educational orientation is more preferable for all age audiences. If animation provides kid’s involvement, then chance to success is higher”, she said.

This type of interaction is fully embedded in western media via cross-platform tools. Some series create its cross-platform projects for side characters. For example, “Phineas and Ferb” series’ side character Perry has not only some own episodes, but also a lot of games and references on website of project. Other thing, used in this series is allusions to other modern cartoons and crossovers with Marvel Universe and Star wars. And it is not an exception – most of animated series or cartoons try to draw attention not only to the main characters. On the other hand, trend of cartoons extinction is not so obvious in series. The reason is ¬in difference of audience and other sources of income. Cartoon production is one of the most costly processes in terms of cost-efficiency and TV license can hardly cover expenses of creation process. While feature-length cartoons get their income from cinemas and DVD distribution, series try to sell merchandise production. So, cartoons are still alive and question of their extinction is similar to the same issue about books.

Despite of great concentration of main cartoon producers (like Disney’s purchase of Pixar), competition in this field is still high. USA, France, UK and Japan

now have less dominance on the market. Animated series fight both in the country and on external markets for audience. Finally, animation found its own place in festivals in the one row with feature and documentary films. And all this stress-factors force producers to create new and new instruments and find new ways of interaction with the audience. Finally, we can say that animation not just survives, but rises its audience, no matter what challenges it collides.

“Despite of great concentration of main cartoon producers (like Disney’s purchase of Pixar), competition in this field is still high”.


EXPERTS TALKING | CAN TV CHANNEL BE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE?

“Today in Russia there are more than one million children who are hard of hearing. And there is no television content that would be aimed at them. Therefore, for us it was a great opportunity to create a unique channel, which has an important social function.”.

Today in Russia there are more than one million children who are hard of hearing. And there is no television content that would be aimed at them. Therefore, for us it was a great opportunity to create a unique channel, which has an important social function. It should be noted that this is not the first social project of TV company “1HDTV”, so we’ve launched it with a full understanding of the responsibility that is laid upon us. Channel concept has been carefully developed and agreed with the All-Russian Society of the Deaf and other specialized non-governmental organizations.

Still, we’d like to point out that Red channel should not be considered only as a specialized media. We are convinced that it can be interesting not only for children with hearing problems, but also for children at all. So, the core target audience of the channel is children aged 4-12 regardless of the presence or absence of hearing loss.

Despite of the good niche chosen we still have some difficulties connected with channels specific. Since this is a children’s channel the translators have to be interesting and understandable for them. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find the interpreters, who would have both a good and clear lexicon and act in emotional manner or have a good articulation. I mean, we need actors and translators in one person and to find ones is a real challenge. For now, number of such professionals is limited. Other hard issue is that we have to mind the language: very difficult vocabulary is not suitable for preschoolers, so we have to simplify some constructions. Actually, we face a lot of challenges, but the important thing is that we deal with all of them.

Talking about the content, we should mention that we use both Russian and foreign content on our channel. The main reason for it is the demand of the audience – such format is interesting for children. And it actually works. We can see in the TNS ratings that for the first 3 months of broadcasting the channel has increased its reach to 44.5%. For now, the audience of Red is more than 2.1 million people - pretty good illustration of the effectiveness of the content strategy.

One of the main points of our development strategy is that we treat our audience with respect. We pay attention to it, value feedback and are always open to dialogue. It’s easy to find our contacts on channel’s website or to write us in social networks. For example, one of the latest discussed moments was a size of the interpreter window in the air. We are currently testing several size options, maximizing the size of the previous one, and we‘d like to know what does the audience think about it.

Next important thing is the direct feedback from the children. The most relevant and honest way to receive it is to involve in this process the children of channel’s stuff. When you start the kids channel it is the fastest option to get feedback from the target audience. The main benefit of this method is that feedback is available even before the launch. Moreover, this process is continuous, so children of employees continue to watch the channel now.

CAN TV CHANNEL BE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE?

Children’s channels were always considered as a niche media, but still as they are aimed at large audiences, they do have some competitors. But Russian channel “Red” decided to take more specialized position on a market – it poses itself as a channel for people who are hard of hearing. An audience of more than two million viewers drawn for the last year and the diversity of the content show that “Red” moves in a right way. Tatyana Palamarchuk, programming director, explained main difficulties and priorities of channel.

INFOTOY26X7 MIN, 2015, HD


How did you get into animation business?N. De W.: I originally started working for IMPS as a legal assistant.

Nele De Wilde, Business Affairs Manager at IMPS (The Smurfs), has been working on various positions there for almost ten years. For now the company is working with Sony on their new animated movie “Get Smurfy”, which is going to be presented in 2017. While Smurfs team works on their new product, Nele De Wilde shared with us the experience of her work at IMPS. Here she talks about the biggest challenges, content promotion tools and unusual cases during her work with the famous franchise.

INTERVIEW | ‘‘WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT SMURFS, YOU PUT A SMILE ON PEOPLES’ FACES”

NELE DE WILDE: “WHENEVER YOU TALK ABOUT SMURFS, YOU PUT A

SMILE ON PEOPLES’ FACES”

Nele De Wilde Business Affairs Manager at IMPS


Before I worked at a law firm as I’ve studied law. Gradually I entered more in the sales part of the business.

What part of your job do you like the most? Why?

N. De W.: First of all, it’s a fantastic property to work for. Whenever you talk about Smurfs, you put a smile on peoples’ faces. The brand has been a part of many of my clients’ childhoods and it always brings out good memories. Also, I love to work in an international environment. Making contacts and doing business with people all over the world is what makes this job so interesting and rich. The entertainment sector is also a great environment to work in. We’re working to bring people happiness and with that in mind even the toughest negotiations seem to be a pleasure.

What are your favorite projects you’re proud to be a part of ?N. De W.: I’m particularly proud of the fact that the Smurfs TV Series,

created in the 80s, is still such a huge success today. We currently broadcast them in over 100 territories in more than 40 languages. It’s all partly about the appeal of the character and the excellent stories, partly - the way of distributing the content throughout the years. Without a good strategy behind it, we would not have been able to keep this series as successful for over 30 years.

What was the biggest challenge during your work with The Smurfs?

N. De W.: When you are working with one brand, the focus is always on that brand. You cannot say “this property is less of a success right now, we’ll focus on another one in our portfolio”. You have to constantly

‘‘WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT SMURFS, YOU PUT A SMILE ON PEOPLES’ FACES” | INTERVIEW

Pierre Culliford, known as Peyo, the creator of The Smurfs comic strip.

“The brand has been a part of many of my clients’ childhoods and it always brings out good memories”.

“We’re working to bring people happiness and with that in mind even the toughest negotiations seem to be a pleasure”.

“I’m particularly proud of the fact that the Smurfs TV Series, created in the ‘80s, is still such a huge success today. We currently broadcast them in over 100 territories in more than 40 languages”.

“If animation provides kid’s involvement, then chance to success is higher”.


reinvent the business and make it appealing for the buyers. We have a great team in place for that. Through working together in the different business units at IMPS we achieve that goal. Our company is not just a distributor but a rights owner. We control everything that happens with the brand, from movies to merchandising, over events and books. Everything is decided within the same company, owned by the daughter of Peyo, the creator of the Smurfs. So every decision that is made is also with the consequences for the other departments in mind.

Tell us a bit about your co-workers, with whom you run the production and distribution of such a worldwide known animation series.

N. De W.: IMPS, the company owned by Véronique Culliford, Peyo’s daughter, works through different business units. There is the merchandising department, which handles all the Smurf products. There is the bookpublishing department, which deals with our different bookpublishers and there is the audiovisual department, which handles the distribution of the TV Series and the music rights. And all of this we do on a worldwide level. The commercial team is supported by our marketing team, our studio (with drawers, graphical designers, 3D specialists) and various administrative units. What makes us work very well together is that we’re all working towards the same goal: making sure that people are able to enjoy the Smurfs. And this makes us a very joyful company.

The Smurfs is the animated feature film and the series aimed at kids of different age. Is it difficult to make and promote such a multi-audienced content?

N. De W.: The feature films produced by Sony Pictures and the TV Series produced by Hanna-Barbera both have the same core audience: children from 4 to 8 years old. But both are also watched by older children,

whose parents grew up with the Smurfs, and young adults that love the brand. In both there are different layers of humor and the

Smurfs have built such an impressive fan base over the years that we can target a very large audience.

How do you promote The Smurfs?N. De W.: Of course, there’s the advertising in

magazines following the different trade fairs (audiovisual, publishing, merchandising). We will launch a brand new

website next year, which will enable the fans to live their very own Smurf experience. We work with companies which handle our Smurf costumes to participate in local events around the world. We have done several loyalty programs in super markets, petrol stations over the past 4 years and we have recently concluded a deal with Brand Loyalty for

future loyalty programs. There’s a Smurf Live show which is touring at this moment and we will be involved in at least 5

theme parks in different parts of the globe. Smurfs also participate in several events: we have a partnership

INTERVIEW | ‘‘WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT SMURFS, YOU PUT A SMILE ON PEOPLES’ FACES”

“What makes us work very well together is that we’re all working towards the same goal: making sure that people are able to enjoy the Smurfs. And this makes us a very joyful company”.


with UNICEF, we are the mascot of the Memorial Van Damme (athletic competition, part of the Diamond League). We work with Surfrider in protecting the ocean and several more local initiatives. This is, of course, about more than creating visibility. These are causes and events we support and believe in and which go hand-in-hand with the characteristics of the brand.

Also our licensees play a big part in promoting the Smurfs. It is they who promote the products, the books and the series. Working with established brands such as Ferrero, H&M, McDonalds, Haribo, Ubisoft, Beeline (to name a few) certainly has an impact on the Smurfs’ exposure. IMPS supports the licensees through an extensive database of promotional material and is working closely with them on how to use this in the best way possible.

Describe the funniest situation related to your occupation you ever had.

N. De W.: In honor of their 50th anniversary in 2008, the Smurfs began a year-long “Happy Smurfday Euro Tour” in connection with UNICEF. The Smurfs visited 15 European countries in the form of publicly distributed white figurines. The recipients could decorate and submit them to a competition. We hid the Smurfs everywhere - on the steps of famous buildings, on boats, on lampposts, or just simply in the

streets. We also visited several schools. We had real fun with the team, trying to find the best hiding places in the different cities by night.

Smurfs have lots of collector fans, people who have a huge collection of Smurf figurines and other Smurf products. They would go to great lengths to obtain the items missing in their collection. The Smurf figurines were unique in each country. Although it was the same figurine, it had a different leaflet around its neck in each country. Lots of fans tried to obtain the location of the Smurfs’ next visit (which we kept in secret, to have the real ‘surprise’ effect) and followed us around Europe to collect all 15 different figurines. We don’t know how they obtained the locations, but they did!

‘‘WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT SMURFS, YOU PUT A SMILE ON PEOPLES’ FACES” | INTERVIEW

“There’s a Smurf Live show, which is touring at this moment and we will be involved in at least 5 theme parks in different parts of the globe”.

“Working with established brands such as Ferrero, H&M, McDonalds, Haribo, Ubisoft certainly has an impact on the Smurfs’ exposure”.

Evolution of Smurfette - 2D and 3D version

“Smurfs have built such an impressive fan base over the years that we can target a very large audience”.


Workshop was aimed both for newbies and professionals improving their level of understanding of these processes for their content to be suitable for different regions and thereby successful worldwide. Among the main discussed issues were team work, market analyzing and niche finding, peculiarities of choosing the genre of the program, national peculiarities of regions, technical tools, Bible creation and other solid questions appeared within the creation of TV content. Also the attention was paid to promotion and distribution processes, particularly via media fair and markets, and to evaluation of own content revising its strong and weak sides.

Speaker of the first CreaTiVe workshop was Katerina Dmitrieva, CEO of MK Media Group, who took the participants through the process of television production. She emphasized on importance of combination of all factors, which have impact on the activity of TV production. “You have to be aware of a lot of things. For instance, on the pre-production stage market research is dramatically important. In order to capture and hold viewer attention you need to determine specific segment of a potential audience you’re “aiming at”. Regardless of the type of production, you

EDUCATIONAL | MK MEDIA GROUP’S NEW EDUCTIONAL PROJECT CREATIVE

MK Media Group launched series of workshops on the processes of content creation and promotion called CreaTiVe. First workshop named “TV production: from creativity to success” took place in Kyiv on October 13th and was dedicated to the key nuances of successful TV production for commercial television.

“Speaker of the first CreaTiVe workshop was Katerina Dmitrieva, CEO of MK Media Group, who took the participants through the process of television production”.


MK MEDIA GROUP’S NEW EDUCTIONAL PROJECT CREATIVE | EDUCATIONAL

must start with a clear understanding of the needs and interests of your specific target audience. And here you need also to keep in mind the peculiarities of world regions”, – Katerina said. “For instance, the majority of Latin American countries air only content dubbed in Standart Spanish or Portuguese. Making TV shows for Arab audience requires understanding that you need to avoid any mentions of alcohol, pork and bacon in culinary shows; there must be no tattoos, piercings, tell-all cloths in any program. In case you have a TV presenter and you plan on selling your content worldwide, he or she should have an international appearance and know English as fluently as a native speaker. And it’s just a bit of important nuances any producer should keep in mind”.

The presentation was accompanied by real cases of production to present what beginners should or should not do.

The second event in terms of CreaTiVe differed a bit from a previous one. It was a public talk, a discussion, dedicated to the reality and prospects of TV production from the author perspective. 4 experienced professionals gathered to discuss between themselves and with the audience the current state of TV and film industries.

The whole range of CreaTiVe events is aimed to observe the topics of shooting, editing and post-production works around the content, including sound design, color correction, animation and visual effects insertions, etc.

The purpose of the workshops is to share with the audience the secrets of TV programs creation and facilitate the development of global TV industry.

“The whole range of CreaTiVe events is aimed to observe the topics of shooting, editing and post-production works around the content, including sound design, color correction, animation and visual effects insertions, etc”.


First, idea of cultural adaptation was realized by comics publishers in 70-s, when American comics giants tried to conquer new markets. Much later, in 2015, cultural references found their use in animated cartoons. The latest example is Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out.

Pete Docter, director of cartoon, mentioned there are 28 graphics changed for foreign audiences.

All these substituted shots are background and have no affection to the plot. Though they still have a great meaning in earning trust of new markets.

While Pixar try to gain credence via such new models, other Disney products use proven approaches. One of such techniques is attraction of foreign audiences with local celebrities. For European children, who unlikely to play baseball more than twice in their lives, names of famous American baseball players tell nothing. Therefore, directors of popular animated series use instead of them worldwide known people or even celebrities from other parts of the world. Popular animated series “Phineas and Ferb” used cameo voices of British stars like David Beckham and Jamie Oliver. Such approach helps to attract new audiences without extra

CONTENT CHANGES: NEW WAYS OF MARKET EXPANSION

Noodles or burgers? Such a little and unimportant item can change general perception of movie, where it appears. Similarly, witty joke can lose its meaning for audience from different part of world. Moreover, it may be offensive. All depends on cultural references, which every nation has. These cultural references are even more important for children, who have less experience in dealing with other cultures. So, issue of adaptation is extremely valuable for cartoons, which are aimed primarily at children.

MEDIA FACTS | CONTENT CHANGES: NEW WAYS OF MARKET EXPANSION

AN EXAMPLE OF “INSIDE OUT” ADAPTATION

When for American audience were used frames with hockey, for foreign viewers cartoon creators chose those with football (soccer) because of its popularity in

those countries.


CONTENT CHANGES: NEW WAYS OF MARKET EXPANSION | MEDIA FACTS

efforts. Still, it leaves many regions overboard.Sometimes directors try to re-create cartoons almost completely.

Despite of large amount of extra expenses, it still may be a justified decision for the most popular series. The greatest example of such full

adaptation is American animated series “The Simpsons”, which held first places in different ratings for decades. While expanding the coverage, “The Simpsons” had no chances to get license and become popular in the most of Islamic countries. But directors accepted the challenge. Instead of simply renaming the characters (for example, Homer Simpson became Omar Al-Shamshoon), they decided to re-create environment. When Simpsons attend church, Al-Shamshoons prefer mosque. All references to alcohol, including one of the popular locations – Moe Tavern, are cut. Changes occurred in cuisine – there are no pork and hot-dogs in the Arabic version of cartoon. Finally, town, in which main characters live, in majority consists of Arab population.

Other versions of these series have also some changes, primarily in the names of characters and main phrases used by them. Some of localizations have interesting solutions. For instance, in Italian version several characters are dubbed with strong local accents, with some hints of their origin.

Still, all mentioned types of new audience attraction aren’t so widespread in cartoon production. Done in accordance with the strategy of expansion into new markets, it may turn out to be unnecessary as the most of them are not ready for new media goods at all. Middle East and Chinese ones, for instance, still have kind of governmental and/or moral censorship, so none of top 5 IMDb animated series could obtain license there at all. Another one is that there is a range of countries, where number of movie visitors per year is more than twice lower than world average. Directors have no reason to change graphics for such states, it’s simply not profitable. Therefore, while developing states are not interested in these adaptations at all, big ones could demand censorship. That is how it can be easily explained why such adaptations, unfortunately, are a rare thing.

International version African version

Arab version

“First, idea of cultural adaptation was realized by comics publishers in 70-s. Much later, in 2015, cultural references found their use in animated cartoons”.

“Pete Docter, director of cartoon, mentioned there are 28 graphics changed for foreign audiences.”.

“Sometimes directors try to re-create cartoons almost completely. The greatest example of such full adaptation is American animated series “The Simpsons”.

SEASON SCREEN TV REVIEWNovember 2015

Published by MK Media Group

DENYS MIKHEIEVGeneral Director & Publishing Director

KATERYNA DMYTRIIEVACEO & Editor In Chief

ANTONINA OSTAPCHUKManaging Editor

OLEKSANDR KOSTRYBAEditor

ANDRIY BEZHYNOV

Designer

sstrnews.comwww.mkmediagroup.tv

[email protected]/tv.mkmediagroup

www.linkedin.com/company/mk-distribution

+38 (044) 288-08-92, +38 (044) 234-03-88Ukraine, 01030, Kyiv, 8 Lysenko st., Office 39

season screen tv review 2015 № 4

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