Josef Mandelbaum

June 2008

What parent hasn’t heard of Care Bears or Strawberry Shortcake?

Their lasting popularity is a testament to the ability of AG Intellectual Property Group, a division of American Greetings, to create enduring characters that children love and moms support. As president and CEO, Josef Mandelbaum heads up the team that is taking the company’s properties into today’s world—one in which popular characters can find life and connect to children across a variety of product lines and platforms.

TV KIDS: Children have lots of entertainment choices these days. What does AG Properties want to offer them?

MANDELBAUM: There are a lot of companies focusing on education and a lot [not] focusing on anything other than pure entertainment, but what we focus on is really social skills. Care Bears is all about caring and sharing. Strawberry Shortcake is about friendships. Sometimes friends can have issues and they work through them. Sushi Pack is all about teamwork and where you fit in and empowerment, so that little kids can feel that even though they are small in size, they can really make a difference in the world. Maryoku Yummy, which is one of the new properties we will be launching, is all about empowering kids with the ability to have imagination, and what you do with the wishes, and how you can make a difference in the world with what you do and how you work together with other people in your neighborhood. We’re not going to be the one to focus on math skills and science skills. There are a lot of great companies who do that. We didn’t think that was our forte. We are really not in the business of creating entertainment that’s just about a lot of violence or slapstick. We focus on social skills.

TV KIDS: How many new properties do you want to present to the market each year?

MANDELBAUM: In order to survive in this business today, because there is so much clutter, you have to be able to introduce a few new properties every year. Hopefully, from an averages standpoint, one of them actually does relatively well—if you are lucky, two. And if you are really lucky, one will be a home run.

We try to launch anywhere from two to four properties in a given year, some of which will be supported with entertainment [television series or DVDs], and some are new product launches without entertainment.

TV KIDS: Because the market is so cluttered, what kind of properties do you look for that you think might have a chance to cut through?

MANDELBAUM: Well, if I knew the answer to that I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you! I’d be on a beach somewhere, so having said that I’ll try to answer it! We have a three-step process we use here at AG Properties. First and foremost is, do we believe this is a property that will resonate with the consumers? And our consumers are both the kids and the moms. We want properties that the moms will like as well because they trust us. We do something we call brand DNA. And we look at it from a 360-degree view. What is really the essence of the property and the characters and the story we are trying to tell to our consumers? Secondly, we look at the competitive marketplace and ask, Where are the opportunities that we have heard about from either broadcasters or retailers? What do they wish they had more of?

Do they want girls’ action properties or girls’ humor or boys’ properties with more emotional intelligence rather than just pure action?

In some cases we’re talking two years in advance because that is how long it takes to develop properties and get them to the marketplace. You have to take some risk that what they told you two years ago still holds true [by the time the property is ready]. So we look at the competitive landscape of the market from a broadcaster’s or a retailer’s standpoint.

And then thirdly, do we believe there can actually be a great merchandising program from this property? We’re really not in the business of producing only entertainment for entertainment’s sake. Our real strength is in creating products or a property that resonate with kids because they want to own it, they want to play with it, they want to hug it, they want to relate to it.

TV KIDS: Does having American Greetings as a parent company provide you with any advantages?

MANDELBAUM: Yes, that is one of the reasons we can hopefully get through the clutter. I’ll give you two specific examples. One is Sushi Pack, which we are relaunching this fall. We have 425 of our own stores and we will be launching a six- to eight-foot section of product for Sushi Pack in our stores that will make a big statement to the trade industry.

Another example is for Madballs, which we launched with Basic Fun this past year and now is going to be launching in Toys R Us, Bed Bath & Beyond, Wal-Mart and Kmart and a few other places as well. We created greeting cards and gift wrap and party-goods material to be at retail so that licensees and retailers can see we are supporting our own properties.

Another one we did was called Pretty Freekin Scary. We launched it in Wal-Mart stores for Halloween around an assortment of [products] from a handbag to key chains to little stationery to greeting cards to other products. We have access to retail and to our stores and to our categories, and we use them to promote our brands and hopefully the brands will do well. It’s a big plus for us. It’s not always a guarantee, but it’s definitely an advantage against competitors because they don’t have access to that space.

TV KIDS: How have you refreshed Care Bears to make them more relevant and meaningful to children today?

MANDELBAUM: It’s interesting, I’m not sure what’s harder, launching a new property or keeping one relevant—both are extremely difficult. What we’ve been doing for Care Bears (and the same is true for Strawberry Shortcake), we’ve been looking at a two- or three-year cycle and saying we need to refresh the look. So last year we relaunched a whole new Care Bears. We updated the look and feel of them. We made them a little more distinctive. Before, nearly every Care Bear was the same height and same weight, all they had was a different belly badge and a different color. Most kids couldn’t tell the difference between them, except to say, Oh, I like the rainbow one, or, I like the one with the cloud. We varied them in size and shape so each one looks a little different, so each child could identify not only with Care Bears in general but with a specific Care Bear and make the connection more personal. We gave them more distinctive personalities with a little bit more edge, to make them more interesting and exciting for the kids while still focusing on the underlying issues about caring and sharing, which is what Care Bears is known for, and focus on conflict resolutions around caring and sharing.

This year, we added an outcast Care Bear called Grizzle who is a safe villain—it’s probably the best way to describe him. He is the Care Bear wannabe and he is upset because he’s always wanted to be a Care Bear and is always trying to take the belly badges away from the Care Bears. He’s never successful and the other bears tell him he just needs a big hug. It’s social and emotional intelligence we are trying to teach kids. Even when people aren’t nice to you, you should always be nice to them and look at what a difference it makes.

TV KIDS: What will you be showcasing at the Licensing Show?

MANDELBAUM: Twisted Whiskers will be a big one for us. Sushi Pack is the other big one. And there will be some big announcements around Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears. And we have some good traction on Madballs and we’ll be dialing it up. If you look at what’s on the horizon, we have Maryoku Yummy. We’re very excited about that and about TinPo. We have interstitials and shorts that play on the CBS Saturday morning block. We’ve got some great response from kids and from trade about how distinctive they think it is, so we’ll be looking to do something with TinPo as well.

TV KIDS: What are your priorities for AG Properties for the next 12 to 18 months?

MANDELBAUM: The Joester Loria Group (JLG), who has been a phenomenal partner for us, will no longer be representing us for Care Bears at the end of 2008. We’re taking it in house. We’re focusing on international expansion for Care Bears—we just launched a huge Care Bears exhibit in Japan with our agent MindWorks Entertainment. There is a lot of momentum in Japan and in other international markets for Care Bears. And we are also focusing on signing up a lot of broadcasters for Twisted Whiskers. There is a big opportunity for us over the next 18 months to get that on television in the U.S. and international markets. We’re getting tremendous response from broadcasters.

TV KIDS: What do you enjoy most about what you do?

MANDELBAUM: I have four kids and what I enjoy most is that they think I’m the world’s greatest dad when I come home with all that great merchandising!

It’s making a difference in kids’ lives and in parents’ lives when they go with properties that kids really love, they enjoy them, they identify with them. Hopefully we help them learn some social skills and how to interact and give them some emotional intelligence, which helps them grow up and be productive as opposed to mindless TV, or properties that don’t give great values to our kids. Ours do, and I’m excited to be part of that.