Animated TV boosts licensing sales

DSN Retailing Today, June 13, 2005 by Doug Desjardins

With the summer movie season in full swing, retailers are busy moving toys and merchandise around the arrival and departure of each big-budget, popcorn film. But once the dust settles on another summer, they'll be falling back on what's become the bedrock of licensing sales: animated TV shows.

You only need to look at the $1.5 billion in sales that SpongeBob SquarePants merchandise generated in 2004 to realize that a hit TV property is worth far more than even the biggest blockbuster film. "The studios really aren't as reliant on films to deliver sales of licensed merchandise now that most of them have TV networks," said Debra Joester, president of The Joester Loria Group, a firm that handles properties ranging from Jeep to The Care Bears. "Most of the promotional efforts for new properties are really shifting back to Tv."

That's an approach Universal Studios Consumer Products is taking with Curious George, which the studio is turning into an animated film with Will Ferrell providing the voice for "The Man in the Yellow Hat." The film is scheduled for a February 2006 release but will arrive with a limited amount of licensed product.

"We're looking at a very focused package of products for the movie with Toy Biz as the master toy licensee," said Beth Goss, evp of Universal Studios Consumer Products. "And then we'll have Curious George coming to PBS as an animated show in September 2006."

Goss said the strategy is to develop the real licensing program around the TV show after it's had several months on the air. "We're planning to bring product based on the TV show to retail at the start of 2007," said Goss. "We're looking at this as an evergreen property and a franchise."

Sony Pictures Consumer Products has the same thing in mind for "It's a Big, Big World," an animated show that takes place in the Amazon rain forest. The show will be shot through a process called "shadowmation" that blends puppetry with computer animation. "It's a preschool property but we think the unique look will bring in an older audience as well," says Julie Boylan, senior vp for Sony Pictures Consumer Products.

The show is scheduled to debut on PBS Kids in fall 2006 with a full slate of merchandise to follow. "There will be some product released in the long lead categories in early 2007 but the real statement in retail won't be made until fall 2007," said Boylan. "We want to make sure the demand is there before we start."

While it continues to build on its multibillion-dollar SpongeBob franchise, Nickelodeon is introducing new properties to its stable of shows. That list now includes the recently launched Avatar and Danny Phantom.

"We're content to give the audience a chance to find these shows before we build a merchandise program around them," said Bob Traub, vp of global retail development for Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products. "We'll start introducing product in early 2006 and come out with a full package in the back half of the year."

Nickelodeon is taking the same approach to "Go Diego, Go," a spin-off of "Dora the Explorer." "We'll be launching product in the back half of 2006 for 'Go Diego, Go,'" said Traub. "We'll be going after the boys market in some areas like apparel but most products will be like Dora where they're non gender-specific."

Another property that's mining the pre-school area is "The Koala Brothers," a show set in the Australian Outback with the theme "We're Here to Help." Big Tent Entertainment is preparing to launch a full line of merchandise based on the Disney Playhouse show with partners like Fisher Price and Children's Apparel Network.

"Most of the product will be coming out this fall," said BigTent ceo Richard Collins "It's going to be a big launch with a full range of products including learning toys, action figures, lunch boxes and 13 different games and puzzles."

DIC Entertainment is developing a new animated TV show based on Trollz dolls but has it scheduled for release in Europe and other overseas markets. In the United States, DIC is opting to release the series piece-meal on DVD in a deal with Warner Home Video starting in September and has a small line of merchandise, including Trollz dolls and playsets from Hasbro, due for release in August.

"We're had such great success taking Strawberry Shortcake straight-to-video that we're going to do the same thing with Trollz," said Juanita Palomino, vp of licensing for DIC.

Warner Bros. is developing a product line for its new show "Harry and his Bucket Full of Dinosaurs." The series is due to start in August and Warner is expecting to launch a line of merchandise in fall 2006. 4Kids Entertainment will debut the Japanese animated series "Magical DoReMi" here in September and is developing a licensing program that's also due for a fall 2006 roll out. And Disney Consumer Products is working on merchandise based on "That's so Raven," the No. 1-rated show on the Disney Channel.