Animated titles benefit from pre-video success

DSN Retailing Today, June 19, 2000 by Mike B. Aldax

With the success and notoriety that animation has secured in popular culture, top players in the home video industry are finding it easier to market their latest animated titles.

In the late 1990s, animation began to redefine what it takes to be a marquee character. When the beloved Sam Malone bid adieu to "Cheers" and closed its doors in 1993, Homer Simpson introduced us to the world of Springfield, USA, and embraced a steadily growing audience. Similarly, when Al Bundy decided to call it quits after 10 years of crude and boorish humor in "Married with Children," those wild and zany kids from "South Park" took over the realm of shock television with their off-the-wall comments and distorted views of life. This transformation to animation can even be seen in toy stores, where Tickle Me Elmo dolls have been pushed to the back of the rack for the love of animated Pok[acute{e}mon cards.

Now that these animated entities have begun to occupy a comfortable spot on prime time television and in our retail markets, home video companies are putting greater emphasis on animated titles. Fox Home Video, for instance, sees a direct correlation between mainstream America and what they produce on home video. After the longest running sitcom and Emmy Award winning show, "The Simpsons," burst into a modern-cultural phenomenon, Fox produced home videos so people could watch "The Simpsons" at home whenever they please.

Home video compilations of the Simpson videos soon followed. The most recent Simpsons venture deals with the upcoming presidential race, Campaign 2000, and represents a golden opportunity to put together a home video collection of politically-directed Simpson episodes. The latest title is "The Simpsons Political Party," which streeted May 9.

This video features six classic episodes and an exclusive never-before-released montage of Homer's trademark "D'ohs." Although Fox hasn't disclosed precise sell-through figures to DSN Retailing Today, a Fox spokesman said the title is doing extremely well at mass: "Simpson titles do very well in the home video business, just like the Simpson dolls, the Simpson telephone and the Simpson key chain. Whenever you have a title as popular as "The Simpsons,' you're going to be able to market it on home video."

Pioneer Entertainment's home video division is also capitalizing on animation's recent success in the market. Pok[acute{e}]mon has had a stronghold on the children's market recently, boasting merchandising success in the realm of video games, trading cards, comic books and included a feature movie last November. The Pok[acute{e}]mon craze is arguably one of the strongest children's franchise of the last decade. For this reason, Pioneer has formed a long-term strategic partnership with VIZ Communications, a leading publisher of Japanese animation and comics for English-speaking audiences, to begin a second season of the Pok[acute{e}]mon Series video collection.

Pioneer Entertainment reported a remarkable 17.86% share of children's non-theatrical sales last year, making it the second largest supplier in this category--topping such labels as Buena Vista, Universal and Paramount.

Pioneer's business has boomed, with Pok[acute{e}]mon shipping more than 20 million units to date. So its easy to see why a second season of Pok[acute{e}]mon adventures will continue to have Pioneer-produced videos flying off the racks.

Universal Studios Home Video wants to follow this trend and sees light in the animation realm with the release of a new-to-video compilation from the award-winning Maisy video collection.

Like Pioneer's employment of the Pok[acute{e}]mon phenomenon, Universal hopes "Maisy" will do as well in home video as it has done on television. Maisy is the star of her own highly-rated television series on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. channel and is seen by more than 2.3 million pre-school and elementary school children each week.

The titles "Maisy's Friends" and "Maisy's Colors and Shapes" both won the Award of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to the recognition and promotion of quality family and children's entertainment.

Lucy Cousins, Maisy's creator, attained a number of awards for her best-selling interactive book titles, paving the way for Maisy's stories to travel on a global level.

With all of these credentials, Universal Studios Home Video hopes that the success of "Maisy" on television will cause people to buy the new "Play With Maisy" collection in the video section of retail stores.

"Its great having your video project already in the public eye," says Maria LaMagra, VP of publicity at Universal Studios Home Video. "It creates more awareness on the part of the retailer and extends brand awareness of the product."

LaMagra explained that with a product like "Maisy," which is essentially a British product, you need to extend product awareness to as much of the American public as you can. With "Maisy" becoming mainstream in America, retailing the product has become more effective and has given retailers confidence in the home videos they're selling in their stores.