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The Children’s Media Conference 2012

// Business



This week on Wednesday 4th July the Children’s Media Conference http://www.thechildrensmediaconference.com will take place in Sheffield.  The event covers all aspects of the children’s media industry from animation and IPhone apps, to children’s literature and magazines.  What makes this conference very special is that it covers the full spectrum of the industry from the business side to the creative – and looking at the line-up of guest speakers from all walks of the industry the CMC will have something for everyone.

Earlier this year on 15th March I had the pleasure of attending The Children’s Media Conference’s ‘British Animation Afternoon’ http://cmcanimationafternoon.eventbrite.com at London’s Westminster Conference Centre. http://www.1victoriastreet.co.uk  Not only was it a good way of having a nice get together before the British Animation Awards https://www.skwigly.co.uk/baa-2012 (later that day) but also a fantastic opportunity to discuss the future of digital animation within the bounds of the children’s media industry.  The conference included four discussion panels consisting of speakers from a variety of backgrounds within the children’s media industry including; Orion Ross (VP Original Series, Disney Channels EMEA) http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/orion-ross/1a/56b/438 Eric Huang (Publishing Director, UK Penguin Group) http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/eric-huang/7/663/28 and Karl Woolley (MD Impossible Kids). http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/karl-woolley/14/459/711 What made this event special in particular was the emphasis on transmedia.  For those not familiar with the term, transmedia describes a brand that exists in a multiplatform environment.

Discussion Panel 1

The Disney Transmedia Taskforce

Orion Ross (Vice-President Original Series, Disney Channels EMEA) http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/orion-ross/1a/56b/438

Jeff Jones (Vice-President and General Manager Digital Games, The Walt Disney Company EMEA) http://www.yatedo.com/p/Jeff+Jones/normal/8f793fee2b9e9ddd0f7addc1ca73924c

In the opening discussion panel Ross and Jones reinforce the importance of transmedia at Disney.  Phineas and Ferb http://www.disney.co.uk/phineas-and-ferb/index.jsp for example is a character driven brand and exists in a multiplatform environment; games, books, TV, websites, interactive media, etc.  Transmedia thus increases brand awareness by reaching its audience in as many ways as possible.  Ross and Jones go on to tell us how Disney has assembled a ‘transmedia taskforce’ which assesses what ideas are suitable for multiplatform and which strategies are best to implement.  Jones says that their taskforce connects different platforms by creating, ‘a continuous connected story’  and that to achieve a good story you first need strong characters.

Discussion Panel 2

Digital adds a new Dimension

The second discussion panel explores what transmedia and cross-platform scenarios can bring to the children’s media industry.  Brophy (MD Wonky) makes the point that,

‘Ideas survive only if kids can interact with characters’

and that a story must evolve into an interactive platform.  Publisher ‘Persian Cat Press’ www.persiancatpress.com have already started to publish digital interactive children’s books for the IPad.  Carlyle (Creative Director, Persian Cat Press) www.persiancatpress.com tells us that by adding the interactive element to story-telling it provides its audience with a much fuller and deeper experience.

Online animation showcased on video hosting sites such as YouTube are also explored and discussed from a business perspective.  Hyatt asks the question, ‘can animation companies make money from online alone?’ To which Curry replies,

‘Yes, the time is coming’, and the panel agrees that we are now increasing more likely of making a success through YouTube uploads (such as ‘Simon’s Cat’ http://www.youtube.com/user/simonscat?feature=results_main and ‘The Annoying Orange’ http://www.youtube.com/show?p=NkgmbM0vBxl as well as a host of Machinima).   The panel also draws a comparison between small and large businesses.  It is agreed that small and simple digital projects can provide quick cash and are suitable for small companies.  On the other hand, larger projects will sustain a business over a much longer period and are fantastic for big companies but may be out of reach for those much smaller.  Curry also makes the point that big companies can afford lots of flops before having a success.  Small companies however, cannot do this.  He uses the example of IPhone App ‘Angry Birds’ a top hit, but the company’s (Rovio) www.rovio.com previous 51 titles flopped!

Discussion Panel 3

Protect your IP

After an interval of refreshments and mingling the conference continues to delve further into the business side of the industry.  The third discussion panel focuses predominantly on the importance of protecting your IP (or Intellectual Property Rights).  This discussion strikes a note on the harsh reality of what to expect if say one was to pitch their animated TV series to a broadcaster.  It appears that in order to win such a deal your may be giving away a lot of your IP and possibly losing control of it as now it seems everyone wants as much as they can get for as little as possible.  This makes it particularly difficult for smaller companies who are trying to get in to the TV arena.  The big problem however is that if you want to protect your rights it is going to cost you and the more rights you protect the greater the cost.  As we know the animation industry in the UK could do with a much needed tax break, which in turn would lighten the blow of this issue and of course keep companies producing animation in the UK (but that’s for another article).

Discussion Panel 4

The Digital Switch-over

The final discussion panel of the day looks at the digital platforms which TV animation has crossed over to.  Plug-in media http://www.pluginmedia.net for example provided interactive media in the form of games and websites for Bob the Builder http://www.bobthebuilder.com/uk/index.html and ZingZillas http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/zingzillas as well as many other children’s TV shows.  Coming back to Ross’and Jone’s talk, reaching out to an audience on a variety of platforms creates better awareness and a greater likelihood that an audience will explore the websites and games of their favourite TV characters.  The panel agrees that a multiplatform environment is good business; Interactive media will help the TV market and vice versa.  However, the transition from TV to digital platforms must not be contrived, instead television animation or the ‘brand’ must work and be designed to work when conceptualised to survive on other platforms.   The question of course is, now that brands that have originally only existed on TV are now widely available in the form of websites, games and IPhone apps, are they still just ‘add-ons’ to the TV shows or do they now have an independent identity?

July’s CMC has an exciting line-up on offer from workshops and discussion panels to fun events and networking opportunities, but unlike CMC’s ‘British Animation Afternoon’ back in March this conference will take place over three days from Wednesday 4th July until Friday 6th July!

All this however would not be possible without Greg Childs http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/greg-childs/0/434/b6b (Editorial Director, CMC and Director, Childseye Consulting); the driving force behind the CMC who has worked in children’s media industry for over 25 years.  With a wealth of experience and understanding across the children’s media industry, Childs provides cross-media solutions to his clients with his company Childseye. http://www.childseye.tv/Childseye.html

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