Iginio Straffi on Rainbow’s Three Decade Journey

As Rainbow Group arrives in Cannes with a Winx Club reboot and a growing live-action YA slate, founder and CEO Iginio Straffi talks to World Screen Newsflash about his strategy for maintaining the company’s success.

This has been a milestone year for Rainbow Group. The Italian-headquartered company, founded by Straffi, is marking its 30th anniversary of serving the kids’, family and YA segments worldwide; its best-selling Winx Club franchise is back with a new animated reboot as well as a Roblox game; and its live-action activities, boosted by the 2017 acquisition of Colorado Film, are seeing lucrative results at the box office and on streaming platforms. In this wide-ranging interview, Straffi talks to World Screen about navigating the challenges of the kids’ sector, the enduring legacy of Winx Club and his goals for Rainbow in the year ahead.

WS: Tell us about Rainbow’s positioning today as you mark your 30th anniversary.
STRAFFI: For kids’ and family animation, we have created a few IPs with worldwide success, and we are well-known as an independent studio. Even with the current challenging market conditions, we are managing to survive. Many of our friends and competitors are no longer in business, a consequence of a loss of attention toward kids and families from streamers, lower budgets for public broadcasters, and commercial broadcasters losing audiences and, therefore, advertising revenues. Times are not easy, but we are recognized as a producer with a good track record of international content, especially for kids. The group has undergone significant evolution. For about ten years, we have also been producing live-action content, both directly as Rainbow and through our other companies, such as Colorado Film, which we acquired eight years ago. Animation and licensing remain as core businesses for our company. The success of KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix is further evidence that animation is well-received by kids, families and young adults. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of investment from major platforms and broadcasters.

WS: What did the acquisition of Colorado Film mean for your live-action ambitions, and how are you approaching this space?
STRAFFI: We do look at every genre, with a specific eye on YA. This aligns with our expertise; productions like Fate: The Winx Saga on Netflix or, more recently, the movie The Tearsmith. We have a particular focus in our editorial strategy on young women and girls. There is still much to discover in the female world that can be told in an original way. We’ve acquired a few strong titles in the YA genre. We are working on adapting A Game of Gods. We also have other series based on bestsellers. We have a title for an older target, still within the romantic comedy genre. We have developed one directed by Francesco Carrozzini starring Michele Morrone together with a famous American actress who I cannot disclose yet. We will continue to develop further in the coming years. At the same time, we have successfully explored action movies like My Name Is Vendetta. We believe a lot in IPs. We are working on adapting Corto Maltese, a well-known graphic novel character in Italy, France, Spain and Latin America. Many, many strong IPs to become hopefully successful TV series and movies.

WS: Speaking of strong IPs, we have to talk about Winx Club. Tell us about the new season and how you’ve kept that franchise so successful year after year.
STRAFFI:  We have been very active with Winx since the phenomenon exploded about 21 years ago. Winx has been the primary focus of the company for the last 20 years: new stories, seasons, toys, style guides and marketing efforts. We created musicals and other forms of entertainment to keep the audience engaged. We have a very strong fan base, now in their 20s and early 30s. This audience is a nostalgia target that we are catering to with our events, activities and Fate: The Winx Saga, the YA live-action adaptation on Netflix. We are now trying to find a new audience with the reboot. It’s been six years since the last season.

We thought it was time to produce another show that could engage new generations. It took a long time to conceive and develop, moving in a more contemporary direction while trying to keep the DNA intact. To write the story took almost two years. We are using CGI, not 2D. The Alfea College for Fairies has been renovated to be more grand and in line with today’s world. The story itself has the kind of pace, storytelling and twists that could be more appealing to a new generation. At the same time, we don’t want to disappoint our young adult fan base. I try to explain to them that I didn’t conceive a new season only for them. The whole series needs to be appreciated and understood by the audience from 6 to 12. When you have to create a new season, you can’t think only about your 20-plus audience! “Winx Club forever!” is the favorite slogan of the fan base. It debuted in September on CBBC and in October on Netflix, Rai, TF1 and other free TV channels. This is an exciting moment. The young adults are our primary target now for licensees, but hopefully, toys, back-to-school and other categories will be revitalized by the reboot and the new audience we are targeting.

WS: How are you approaching YouTube and social media to build brands?
STRAFFI: We are very proud of our channels, which have reached millions of subscribers and billions of views. We recognize that we need to work more closely with social media, and YouTube in particular, for our kids’ audience. We are producing a lot of content. We have a team that only produces content for YouTube and other social media. With the reboot of Winx, as well as for other IPs, we are continuing to maintain very strong engagement through special content on social media linked to the TV show, while also exploring other aspects and providing additional information. There will be a lot happening in the social media space over the next few weeks and months. We know we need to be there to find our audience.

WS: And you’ve also expanded into the metaverse with a Roblox game for Winx Club.
STRAFFI: We invested in creating a Roblox game to launch with the series. Our goal is to introduce Winx to a new audience.

WS: What are your goals for Rainbow in the next 12 to 18 months?
STRAFFI: For animation, of course, we have Winx and are looking at other big IPs, like we are doing in live action, acquiring books to turn into series or movies. We believe in the power of IPs and the emotional connection that an already established IP can bring to the audience. We continue to be a company that focuses on IP, with only two or three per year in the animation space. There is no space to bring ten shows to the market. There are fewer competitors, but other companies also need to sell their shows. You can’t believe that you can flood the market with so many new IPs. We must focus on creating quality to continue with Winx, Mermaid Magic and new IPs we have the rights to develop.

For Colorado, we acquired the rights to major IPs in Europe. We want to turn them into successful movies and TV series. We have at least four or five projects in the pipeline, with some already scheduled for production at the end of this year and the beginning of next year. Some others are in the developing stages to go into production in the second half of next year and deliver within the next 24 months. We have live action and animation, and we still believe in licensing, which has been our successful strategy from the beginning. If we can continue to be successful in our licensing, this will give us the chance to buy other rights, other companies, and keep being on the market far beyond the 30 years we are celebrating.