Genius Brands’ Stone Newman

Stone Newman, Genius Brands International’s president of global consumer products, worldwide content sales and marketing, tells TV Kids about expanding properties like SpacePOP, Llama Llama and the brand-new Rainbow Rangers across the globe.

In a crowded and competitive children’s programming business, Genius Brands is banking on success by developing true 360-degree strategies for its brands. Last year, the company expanded the role of its consumer products chief, Stone Newman, to include marketing and content sales. Newman, a veteran of the toy business, is working with the Genius Brands team, led by chairman and CEO Andy Heyward, on innovative approaches to building great TV shows that will also resonate at retail.

TV KIDS: What has been your overall strategy for Genius Brands’ international business?
NEWMAN: There’s that funny line in the movie Up in the Air where Anna Kendrick talks about being “glocal,” which is a bit like the way we look at the business here. While we’re based in the States, when you’re making kids’ content you want to think about it from a global standpoint. With a lot of the digital platforms—we do quite a bit of business with those companies—you go right out of the gate with global programs. We launched SpacePOP on YouTube globally, and we have a show that we sold to Netflix called Llama Llama that will simultaneously launch around the world in 19 languages.

TV KIDS: How did Llama Llama come about?
NEWMAN: Llama Llama is a wonderful New York Times best-selling children’s book series. The author, Anna Dewdney, sadly passed away in the fall. Her memory and her legacy live on, and we’re so honored to be the steward and champion of this brand. The very first meeting I had for the company was at Logan Airport with Andy [Heyward], Anna and her [partner], Reed Duncan. We talked about the merits of going with a small studio like Genius—we would give the brand the attention it deserves. We loved the brand awareness, the positive messages in the show, and we felt that it would translate beautifully into animation and consumer products. We’re very fortunate that Anna and Reed, and Penguin, the publisher of the Llama Llama series, chose us. I’m sure they were sought by many others, so we feel honored that we were selected. It’s really special when you have an opportunity to launch something that is not only a well-known and proven brand but also one that’s award-winning and revered. One of the big highlights is that Jennifer Garner sought us out when she heard about the project going to Netflix. She stars as the voice of Mama Llama.

TV KIDS: What else are you working on?
NEWMAN: SpacePOP debuted last year on YouTube. We’re now at 14 million channel views and we have 45,000 subscribers and counting. We announced late last year that we’re going to be expanding the brand into Southern Europe through our partnership with Luk Internacional. They are handling content distribution and licensing and merchandising for us and are planning to replicate in Spain, Portugal and Italy the strategy we had in the U.S., working closely with YouTube country managers in those markets. We’re now wrapping up season one and starting development on season two. The other show we’ll be talking a lot about in the coming months is Rainbow Rangers. The creative team includes Rob Minkoff, the director of The Lion King; Shane Morris, one of the writers on Frozen; and Elise Allen, whose credits include The Lion Guard and Dinosaur Train. We know how cluttered the preschool girls’ space is, but we believed there is nothing [in the market] that reinforces the idea of girl power and female empowerment for preschool (or as I like to say, pre-cool) girls. Rainbow Rangers is a mission-based action adventure show for these little girls. There are seven lead characters. It demonstrates to girls that everybody gets to shine and shows the importance of working on a team.

TV KIDS: What’s the content distribution strategy on Llama Llama and SpacePOP, which are premiering on digital platforms, as compared to Rainbow Rangers?
NEWMAN: We know that the top destination for music and the top destination for girls 8 to 12 to consume content is YouTube and the YouTube Kids app. So when we looked at SpacePOP, which was targeting tween girls, we consciously decided to launch it on YouTube. We wanted to prove to broadcasters that we could build an audience for a new brand in that space. As we look at season two, while YouTube will continue to be an important part of it, we are looking at other distribution outlets for SpacePOP now that the brand is established. Content from the show is also currently available on our own channel Kid Genius, as well as Apple TV, Roku, PopJam, batteryPOP and Toon Goggles, and even CECN (Chuck E. Cheese Network). We really put it out there. Last year between marketing and distribution, we had 50 million impressions on the brand, and we’re looking to exceed 100 million this year.

When we looked at Llama Llama, Netflix made it very clear that they viewed the brand at the same level that we did, and would produce the most beautiful, high-quality cartoons, as well as market and promote it. I know there’s some pushback in the marketplace as to whether or not Netflix can drive merchandise but we are a big believer in Netflix. We think the buyer perception—retail, consumer-products buyers—is a little bit behind what’s reality now. Ultimately, because it’s a well-known and extremely revered brand, it will certainly be sought out. On Rainbow Rangers, we’re having productive conversations with all of the major broadcasters around the world. We want the best broadcast partners that will share our vision for marketing the brand and getting it out there so little girls and boys can benefit from the positive messaging with this show.

TV KIDS: What’s your approach to securing valuable shelf space for these brands?
NEWMAN: I’m very proud of what we accomplished on SpacePOP. It was a new brand, without traditional broadcast, and within four months of launch we had over 20 licensees and promotional partners and close to 100 items at major retailers in the U.S., including Toys”R”Us, Kohl’s and Claire’s. We have some excellent sales results, which is leading to more programs in 2017. Just as we look at who we want to reach from a consumer standpoint on broadcast, we look at it very similarly from the retail standpoint. We say to ourselves, this is a new brand, where’s the touchpoint that we want to reach that consumer? On SpacePOP we knew from day one the categories that were going to resonate early with the brand. We knew the right retailers where we could get that slightly older girl shopping for trends. We consistently hear from licensees and retailers on SpacePOP that we did everything we said we were going to do from a marketing and brand-building standpoint, which has resulted in the brand’s early success. We made a major commitment that we were going to market this brand and we fulfilled those promises. It was more than just, put it up on YouTube and hope for the best. We were going to engage, deliver millions and millions of impressions and implement an influencer marketing campaign, national consumer packaged good promotions, a national fast-food promotion with Dippin’ Dots and a national promotion with Six Flags.

We put a matrix up on the wall and say, this is who our target consumer is, this is where they’re shopping, these are the product categories, and then we build it from there. We do that for every brand. Typically we try to sell retail first. It makes it much easier for our licensees. It’s a lot of heavy lifting for us, but if we can get the retailers on board then the licensees often come along.

TV KIDS: Have marketing strategies had to evolve given the changes in the way kids are consuming content?
NEWMAN: It’s so different. In the toy business, it was never easy because of the fierce competition, but at the end of the day it was, make a commercial for Q4, spend a couple of million dollars on TV and watch your sales. All you could do is hope. Procter & Gamble, marketing to moms, they’re hoping too, but there’s a lot more science because of consumer patterns. With kids, it’s so subjective. The reality is all you need is one kid on the playground to say, “You’re playing with that? That’s a baby toy!” It doesn’t matter what happened in focus groups and testing and research. That’s like an atomic bomb. The kid could love that toy, but they’re not going to get it if they think they’re going to play with a baby toy and be called out for doing it. I’m a believer in TV advertising because I still feel that if you have the money, you can’t neglect that audience. That’s still an important piece, but it has to be so much more. That’s where you have to have a strong digital footprint. You have to have activations and engagement where the kids are. We’ve become an official preferred music provider for Varsity [cheerleading competitions] and Showstopper [dance competitions], where our songs are being made available and remixed for use in competitions. And beyond that, we’re going to be sponsoring a lot of these competitions all through the spring and summer. If we can engage with 100,000 girls 5 to 9 around the country over the course of six months, get them listening to our music, get them to see SpacePOP and get them excited about it, that’s going to lead to more views, more merchandise sales. It’s those kinds of engagements and activations. It is harder, and a lot of grassroots effort, but it’s how you go from being a brand to being a phenomenon.

TV KIDS: As an indie, what are Genius Brands’ greatest strengths in the kids’ business today?
NEWMAN: We’re fleet of foot. I can’t think of a lot of companies that could produce 108 episodes the way we did for SpacePOP in such a short amount of time. You cannot discount the experience. We have an unbelievable team. I think our biggest attribute as a company is a willingness to embrace the new. Andy Heyward ensures that Genius Brands evolves as the marketplace evolves. While we work with the traditional broadcasters, we also are embracing Netflix and YouTube and all of the various other platforms and points of distribution. And because I come with this strong consumer products, merchandising and licensing background, we’re not looking at just building great shows, we’re looking at building great brands. The show is an important part of that brand, but so is the theme park ride and the publishing and the toys and the promotions.