{"id":10817,"date":"2016-09-23T09:30:58","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T13:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2016-09-26T09:14:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T13:14:21","slug":"genius-brands-andy-heyward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/genius-brands-andy-heyward\/","title":{"rendered":"Genius Brands\u2019 Andy Heyward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Heyward, chairman and CEO of Genius Brands International,\u00a0talks to\u00a0<\/em>TV Kids about shaking up distribution models with new shows like\u00a0<\/em>SpacePOP\u00a0and offers his take on building 360-degree brands that will conquer the attention of kids on screen and at retail.<\/em><\/p>\n

Andy Heyward has had a front-row seat to the tectonic shifts in the kids\u2019 business over his long entertainment career. Today the chairman and CEO of Genius Brands International, Heyward got his start at the legendary animation studio Hanna-Barbera and later, over the course of some 25 years, built DIC Entertainment into an independent kids\u2019 and family powerhouse. After selling DIC, Heyward soon set up a new venture, A Squared Entertainment, and a few years later, eyeing a foothold in the toddler and preschool arena, merged it with Genius Brands. Having watched as broadcast television ceded its position in kids\u2019 lives to cable, and now observing as on-demand and online platforms take up more of children\u2019s entertainment time, Heyward has identified digital media as a key growth opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"AndyTV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0Tell us about how you are exploring new distribution models with your latest property,\u00a0SpacePOP<\/em>.
\nHEYWARD:<\/strong>\u00a0SpacePOP<\/em>\u00a0came from what we saw as white space in the marketplace, from the vacuum after\u00a0Monster High<\/em>. There was nothing there for tween girls. So we developed\u00a0SpacePOP<\/em>. We know that princesses are a powerful theme for girls. We know that music is very powerful, as is space. So we came up with this concept of five princesses in space. They form a rock band and go underground to lead the rebel resistance to recapture their place in the galaxy and throw off an evil, oppressive force. That\u2019s the premise. It\u2019s Spice Girls meets Star Wars. It\u2019s very, very cool. It\u2019s an unusual concept and a unique distribution plan. Instead of going to a Disney Channel or a Nickelodeon, for example, we decided to launch the brand on YouTube. Girls at that age, they\u2019re living on YouTube. They spend a lot of their screen time there. They absorb content in short doses. We have produced 108 3-minute episodes. In the middle of each one, there\u2019s a music video. We started with six episodes when we launched on June 20, and we\u2019re releasing two new episodes a week. Within a month or so of launching, we reached approximately 4 million views, so we feel the content is resonating with our audience. We are now gearing up for the fall retail launch. We have nearly 20 licensing partners and counting that are creating merchandise for everything you can imagine: publishing, toys, apparel, accessories, confections, pretty much every major category. And we have prime retail distribution and extraordinary promotional partners on board.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0Will your distribution team be selling the show to broadcast platforms worldwide?
\nHEYWARD:<\/strong>\u00a0After\u00a0SpacePOP<\/em>\u00a0has had its run on YouTube, we\u2019re developing a full-length feature with Sony [Pictures Home Entertainment], which will be released in Q4 this year. There\u2019s a lot going on with the brand from all sides: licensing, home entertainment, digital and national promotions with Six Flags, Camplified and Dippin\u2019 Dots, as well as promotions on platforms that appeal to young girls, like musical.ly. We\u2019ve also hired a team of tween and teen influencers who have millions of followers. They\u2019re promoting the music and the\u00a0SpacePOP<\/em>\u00a0business overall. So there are a lot of dimensions to this. We\u2019re also putting international agents in place in all the major territories to start taking the brand to the international marketplace.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0And you\u2019re producing a new animated show for Netflix?
\nHEYWARD:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s a property called\u00a0Llama Llama<\/em>, based on a series of preschool books [by\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0best-selling author and illustrator Anna Dewdney]. They\u2019ve sold over 9 million copies. The authors came to us. They met with everybody in Hollywood. Because of the controls we were able to provide to them and the creative input, they chose us. We\u2019ve got an amazing team on this: Rob Minkoff, director of\u00a0The Lion King<\/em>; Joe Purdy, an accomplished Emmy-winning writer who did everything from\u00a0Hey Arnold!<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Dinosaur Train<\/em>; Ruben Aquino, who designed every major feature-film character from Disney going back to\u00a0The Little Mermaid<\/em>\u00a0right through to\u00a0Frozen<\/em>. So there\u2019s a real team of champions on this from start to finish. Plus, Jennifer Garner just signed to voice Mama Llama. In terms of distribution, we wanted to go with what we thought would be the strongest platform for this particular property and partnered with Netflix. We\u2019re producing 30 11-minute segments, 15 half-hour episodes. The original series is slated to premiere in 2017, along with a fully developed licensing and retail program.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0What gains are you seeing with your video-on-demand channels?
\nHEYWARD:<\/strong>\u00a0Kid Genius is currently in 21 million homes via Comcast\u2019s XFINITY On Demand platform, and we have just secured our first major advertisers through our media buyer, batteryPOP. We expect to have the channel\u2019s reach grow very dramatically by the fourth quarter of this year. We consider it a very important platform and will continue to create and curate interesting content to fuel that pipeline.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0How are you maintaining the momentum on your returning brands?
\nHEYWARD:<\/strong>\u00a0On Baby Genius we have an exclusive deal with Amazon until the end of 2016, and then the program will go wide. We\u2019re developing and producing new content, and we\u2019re looking to engage a celebrity \u2018spokesmom\u2019 who is in the music world. With\u00a0Thomas Edison\u2019s Secret Lab<\/em>, we have distribution on Netflix, our Kid Genius channel and nearly 200 public television stations across the country. Plus, we have a master toy licensee, Wicked Cool Toys, and other partners on board to target rolling out merchandise in 2017.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0What\u2019s your sense of what licensees and retailers are looking for in this crowded marketplace?
\nHEYWARD:<\/strong>\u00a0We have a slightly different approach. We initially approach the retailers and then we go back to the licensees. We have relationships with Toys \u201cR\u201d Us, Target, all of the major retailers. We work with them to find where the white space is, where the holes are. Then we begin developing a plan, and with their support we then go to the licensees and get them on board. Stone Newman is running our worldwide consumer products and marketing business. He had his own very successful toy business, and we wooed him to come work with us. He\u2019s done an amazing job building our licensing, merchandising, retail and promotional programs. He\u2019s revitalized our licensing business dramatically.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong>\u00a0Tell us about your perspective on new technology, and how it\u2019s enhancing the value of animated content.
\nHEYWARD:<\/strong>\u00a0I like to refer to\u00a0Tom and Jerry<\/em>, as it\u2019s such a great example.\u00a0Tom and Jerry<\/em>\u00a0was made in 1939. Kids are still watching\u00a0Tom and Jerry\u00a0<\/em>today\u20143-, 4-, 5-year-olds are discovering it for the first time and loving it.\u00a0Tom and Jerry\u00a0<\/em>was made for motion-picture theaters; that\u2019s where it ran. Then it went to television. It went from broadcast to cable, VHS to DVDs and Blu-ray and the internet, and now to all of the new and emerging technologies and platforms. It doesn\u2019t matter what the platform is\u2014the content remains engaging. This is one of the few businesses that are enriched by technology and distribution systems, not hindered by innovation. Good content will travel and live a long, long time, particularly so for children\u2019s animation, which tends to be evergreen and international. Good stories and characters are timeless. I wrote on\u00a0The Flintstones<\/em>,\u00a0Scooby-Doo<\/em>,\u00a0The Smurfs<\/em>\u2014those were made in the \u201970s, and they are still successful today. If you know how to create conflict and crisis and jeopardy and hijinks, all of the tools of good storytelling and rich characters, you\u2019re going to have a successful product, whatever the distribution platform is and whatever new technology comes around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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