He, She or It?

April
2007

On
the hunt for the next breakout hit, kids’ producers and distributors are having
to ask themselves if gender matters.

By
Kate Clarke

Is
it better to produce a show that appeals to girls, or one that attracts boys?
Or better yet, a show that both girls and boys can enjoy? That all depends on
the broadcaster and the time slot that has to be filled. The very fact that
such distinctions as “girl skewed,” “boy skewed” or “gender neutral” even exist
is an illustration of how fragmented and competitive the children’s television
business has become.

Nowadays,
broadcasters position shows in their schedules with the same calculated
strategy as adversaries move knights, bishops and pawns on a chessboard. As
part of their counterprogramming tactics, sometimes broadcasters need to reach
girls, other times boys, but most often, they just need to attract the largest
number of eyeballs possible. Programmers must score high audiences in order to
create awareness for shows, their characters, and the multitude of toys and
consumer products that can be spun off from them.

While
broadcasters tend to prefer gender-neutral shows, this preference doesn’t
always translate into licensing and merchandising. In the retail world, the
gender divide is still alive and kicking. Retailers are a pragmatic bunch who
constantly review sales data to ensure that products are displayed to maximum
advantage. This means a clear division—outside of the preschool age
group—between girls’ and boys’ toys, products and apparel, regardless of
the intentions of the original show.

Successful
children’s tele­vision properties that do well in consumer products
are almost never neutral by the time they hit the stores. Just look at some of
the top earning properties in the U.K. for 2006, according to the NPD Group;
they included Thomas & Friends
(boys, preschool), Doctor Who
(boys) and Power Rangers
(boys).

AN
EQUAL MIX

Michael
Carrington, the creative director at CBeebies, the BBC’s digital channel for
preschoolers, is clear that he wants an audience consisting equally of boys and
girls. Current viewing figures show a small bias toward girls, who make up 51
percent to 52 percent of the audience.

“We’ve
always been gender-neutral simply because of the fact that we’re a
public-service broadcaster,” Carrington says. “The CBeebies channel launched
five years ago, and we did find recently that the content was starting to drift
too far towards girls—5- and 6-year-old boys didn’t want to watch
CBeebies as it felt too girly. We’ve addressed this in the last six months or
so, with a conscious effort to introduce shows like Bob the Builder which have a dramatic edge that attracts boys.”

Susanne
Schosser, the managing director of EM.Entertainment, believes the focus is
still on broadcast and distribution and that the trend for gender-neutral shows
is set to ­continue. “If you look nationally or
internationally, there is no special demand for gender-specific shows,” she
says. “There are a few companies, such as Jetix or Cartoon Network, that have
boys’ action slots, but I think these are niche. Most of our broadcasters are
looking for gender-neutral shows, because they want to reach the biggest
possible audience. I don’t think gender-neutral shows have less
impact—look at SpongeBob SquarePants—for me, a classic gender-neutral show.”

LAUGH
OUT LOUD

A
strong comedy element does seem to be one thing that both older boys and girls
can enjoy, as demonstrated by SpongeBob SquarePants. The Nickelodeon mega hit has successfully managed
the seemingly impossible and made it both at broadcast and retail, despite
being firmly gender neutral.

John
Easum, the president of VIZ Media Europe, which specializes in shows based on
Japanese manga, says that comedy is the way to go if animation producers want
something to appeal to both sexes. “Shows with more of a comedic theme seem to
be more appropriate as gender neutral. That said, there probably aren’t that
many animated children’s series that [are] completely gender neutral. Live
action or live comedy, which seem to be growing in the U.S. on the Disney and
Nickelodeon networks, seem to be effectively accomplishing the objective of
being gender neutral.”

What
kind of content and themes make a show appeal to both sexes? “Factual and
entertainment programs are the perfect format for gender-neutral programming,”
says CBeebies’ Carrington. “We see that animation works as well for both boys
and girls, it just depends on the particular show. Anything that has a very
strong narrative has more girl appeal than boy appeal, and anything that has
lots of action, fantasy, adventure, has slightly more boy appeal.”

EM.Entertainment
produces primarily shows that appeal to both boys and girls. “For us, it’s
always better to go in the gender-neutral direction because you reach more
clients,” explains Schosser. “There are always trends for gender-­specific
shows, but [a show can remain in production] two to three years before it
reaches the audience, and by then the trend might be over. The only exception
is if you have something so unusual or beautiful, or which you think would have
such a big impact, despite being gender specific. Our new shows, for example, Master
Raindrop, Staines Down Drains, Gasp!
and Enyo, are all shows aimed
at both sexes.”

WHERE
THE BOYS ARE

However,
broadcasters now have to compete with many ­other things, from media
fragmentation and the proliferation of other kids’ channels to the Internet,
computer games, mobile phones and more. Therefore, they have to establish a
strong brand presence and awareness, so the target audience knows what to
expect. The wrong choice of show could cause loyal viewers to switch off. As
VIZ Media’s Easum explains, “We are definitely riding a wave where many
networks are insisting on gender-neutral shows. I am discovering, however, that
so many networks have tried to become gender neutral, and have lost some of the
qualities that differentiated them in the first place—perhaps alienating
some of the loyal core fans that preferred a more gender-specific direction.
Ironically, we are finding certain networks going back to their roots of boys’
action [because they have] reached the conclusion that you can’t be everything
to everyone. With so many gender-neutral shows out there, maybe a strong boys’
action series is just what a network needs!”

Although
Japanese manga is generally perceived as being strongly boy oriented, in Japan
it is a different story. Easum notes, “I think many of our shows were produced
to be gender neutral in Japan, but they seem to go one direction or the other
once they are introduced internationally. InuYasha is probably our best example of a series that
succeeded in capturing both audiences. This was likely a result of it being a
series rich in story, action, but also having a strong female lead role
(Kagome) with romantic and comedic themes.”

Donna
Friedman Meir, the president of National Geographic Kids Entertainment, feels
that the ultimate judge of whether a show is gender neutral or not is the
audience, and her role is to focus on the network. “We are an independent producer
and distributor, we really [must] meet the networks’ needs. Today, most
networks are looking for more gender-neutral programming—the days of
really girl- or ­boy-skewing networks are gone. Therefore, as a
seller, I need to [satisfy the networks]. We don’t have a preference in either
direction, it’s more meeting the needs of what the creative community is
looking for.”

Friedman
Meir continues, “Our productions to date have all been gender neutral. Iggy
Arbuckle, for example, stars two
boy characters, although they are really just a pig and a beaver, but it’s just
great comedy adventure. There are strong female characters in it as well, so my
hope is that it will be gender neutral, although you never quite know until the
show gets on the air.”

Roberta
Di Vito, an international sales executive at the Australian Children’s
Television Foundation (ACTF), is less convinced that broadcasters are actively
specifying a need for gender-neutral shows. “I have had requests from various
broadcasters requiring either girl or boy, younger or older, live action or
animation, series or movies, sitcom or dramas; but these trends and
requirements change frequently. With our newest series, Lockie Leonard, one of our selling points was that there were not
many boy-skewed live-action drama series, which made it stand out. However, the
series appeals to both boys and girls as they see the truly mixed-up, yet very
normal life of Lockie, his family and friends. I believe that if a series
offers great entertainment with interesting characters and strong stories, then
all kids can relate to it.”

GIRLS’
CLUB

While
there’s a long list of girl-skewing live-action series on the market, there are
few animated shows specifically for this demographic. One girls’ show currently
doing well is Icon Animation’s Lola & Virginia, which has been picked up by Disney Channel and
Nickelodeon in various territories. Christophe Goldberger, the head of
distribution and marketing at Icon Animation, believes that appealing to girls
does not necessarily exclude boys from the viewing audiences. “It all depends
on the show. If the show works, then it reaches 60:40 girls to boys.”

Iginio
Straffi, the CEO and founder of Italy’s Rainbow, agrees that gender-specific
shows have a more powerful presence and, if they work, do not compromise the
viewing figures because they become appointment TV. Straffi is responsible for
the girl-focused animation Winx Club, now in its third season in Italy and ranking number one in its slot
on RAI. “With Winx Club in
Italy we have a 60:40 [ratio] of girls to boys,” explains Straffi. “Why?
Because when something is really strong, and well done, even if it is only
targeting boys or girls, it gets the attention of everyone, and you can still
get the high ratings the TV station wants. Many shows are produced every year,
and most of them are gender neutral, but in the end, most of them don’t pull in
the ratings. More and more at Rainbow, we are deciding whether it’s a boys’ or
a girls’ show. We don’t care what the broadcaster requests, because it doesn’t
make any sense to try and please everybody and risk not pleasing anybody! Also,
being gender-specific means you can be more confident that the licensing will
happen.”

BEING
TOYED WITH

Successful
licensing and merchandising can provide a valuable revenue stream to the
producers, but convincing a licensee to take on a character, and then a
retailer to market the resulting products, is a formidable task. Even with
strong broadcast partners and great creative, it falls to the property’s appeal
to the retailer’s target market.

One
producer that has experienced licensing and merchandising success is Rainbow. Winx
Club was the number-one property
across all its categories in Italy in 2006—even outperforming boys’
properties. Rainbow has also produced gender-neutral shows such as Monster
Allergy and Tommy & Oscar, and Straffi is in a good position to explain why
he believes gender-neutral shows are a tough proposition when it comes to
consumer products. “Gender-neutral shows don’t work for licensing. Girls or
boys want it clear-cut, they want to feel the show is theirs, they want to be
part of its world. Winx Club
would not be where it is now in terms of licensing if we had given the same
kind of space in the show to the boys. If the show were more gender neutral, it
would not have reached where it is in girls’ hearts.”

Retail TheRAPY

Schosser
at EM.Entertainment has had plenty of experience licensing classic kids’
programming that has built up high levels of awareness and loyalty over the
years, including the gender-neutral preschool show Maya the Bee. She has a realistic attitude toward licensing and
merchandising. “You can’t create a show and expect merchandising and licensing
from the beginning, unless it’s a big movie like Pirates of the Caribbean, or one of the big animation movies. We have had
huge success in L&M for years with Maya the Bee in Germany, where I believe it has been the number
one merchandising success for many years, and it is still working
fantastically. The show was made in the 1970s, so it’s now over 35 years old,
but it’s still the market leader in its network slot.”

Friedman
Meir of National Geographic Kids Entertainment points out that many properties
are gender neutral on TV but are then targeted at either boys or girls at retail.
The licensing and merchandising aspect is an important one for them when
developing shows. “Creative always has to come first, the show always has to
come first, but I’m a big believer that if you connect with your audience, kids
want to snuggle and cuddle and wear the characters that they love,” she
says. “Obviously, licensing and
merchandising is an important part of the business model, in terms of a series’
success, and earning back your money. But I also genuinely believe, as a
parent, and as a producer who cares about kids, that kids nowadays want to have
a 360-degree experience with the properties they love. So yes, consumer
products are a part of that, but it should be second to making a great show
that is going to entertain and touch kids’ lives.”

Easum
at VIZ feels that gender-neutral shows can be ­easier to merchandise if they
are aimed at older kids. “It is easier for the older-[skewing] series such as InuYasha or Bleach, where we have developed successful gender-neutral initiatives with great
retail partners like Hot Topic. With the younger targets, however, retail
pretty much dictates whether you are in boys’ aisle or girls’ aisle and the
distinction is pretty clear, unless the target is preschool, which is much more
neutral.”

Gender-neutral
shows look set to keep their appeal to networks, and going down a “girls only”
or “boys only” route looks like a higher-risk option, unless it is a great
show. Consumer products promise an additional revenue stream and increased
brand awareness at a time when reaching an audience in as many different ways
as possible is increasingly important. But it would be foolish to build
expectations of a consumer-products hit when developing a show. The basics
still remain the same—the priority has to be the creative: without a
successful show that grabs its audience and establishes its place in viewer’s
hearts, there simply will not be any licensing or merchandising. A great show
works whether it is gender neutral, for boys, or for girls, and retailers are
canny enough to know that there is always a way to market the show experience
to their customers. Smart producers will have to stay focused on the creative,
but also keep an eye on how it might translate into consumer products.