{"id":12528,"date":"2017-06-23T09:49:55","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T13:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/mattel-creations-andrea-carpenter\/"},"modified":"2017-06-26T09:44:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T13:44:59","slug":"mattel-creations-andrea-carpenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/mattel-creations-andrea-carpenter\/","title":{"rendered":"Mattel Creations\u2019 Andrea Carpenter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrea Carpenter, senior director of content distribution and programming, talks to\u00a0<\/em>TV Kids about the launch of Mattel Creations, distributing to free-TV channels, and the importance of licensing and merchandising for a series.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mattel Creations is the centralized theatrical, television and digital content division of Mattel that offers broadcasters and parents age-appropriate content, as well as tools for learning and development.<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"TV KIDS:<\/strong> Tell us about the launch of Mattel Creations last year.
\nCARPENTER:<\/strong> I think 2016 was a great year for Mattel and specifically with the advent of Mattel Creations. That\u2019s a new [division] within the Mattel umbrella that is focused on content creation, content distribution and digital platforms. For the first time, we embarked on creating more content than we ever have before. For some of our big brands, like Barbie, we\u2019ve gone into the development of series content\u2014not [just] one series, but two series for Barbie. So I think it was an exciting time for us in \u201916, particularly in the back half, because that\u2019s when we started to go out and sell and work with our distribution partners on planning for \u201917 and \u201918 and beyond for the new slate of content.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What are the challenges of distributing kids\u2019 content to free-TV channels?
\nCARPENTER:<\/strong> We have the advantage of having phenomenal preschool brands, like Thomas & Friends<\/em> and Bob the Builder<\/em>, so that certainly helps. It\u2019s probably more challenging if you are launching a new property, but those are established brands with long histories, so we\u2019ve been lucky in that space. Though it is still a challenge; it\u2019s a market that requires constant marketing\u2026in order to ensure that you are retaining that very precious space within those free-TV markets.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> How important is licensing and merchandising for a series?
\nCARPENTER:<\/strong> It is difficult now to be able to say that it\u2019s going to cost $10 million to make this particular series, and then through revenue from distribution of that content you\u2019re going to make back that $10 million. That\u2019s a tall order these days, so I think then it becomes about, Well, what are the other revenue streams that come from creating that brand affinity? If you love Thomas, you want a Thomas toy and you want a Thomas backpack and you want a Thomas T-shirt. And all of those puzzle pieces together make that investment into creating that content make sense.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> Tell us about some of the new titles launching this year.
\nCARPENTER:<\/strong> We have two Barbie series. We have Dreamtopia<\/em>, which is more of a fantastical series; it\u2019s based on Barbie\u2019s sister Chelsea and her magical adventures that she goes on. Definitely created for more of the preschool\/younger market. And then we have Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures<\/em>, which looks very much like what most people would be accustomed to seeing from our traditional 75-minute movies that we\u2019ve been doing. That\u2019ll be another series that we\u2019re launching, which we kind of refer to as a family sitcom\u2014fun, a little zany. Ken will be in part of that [with] Barbie and her four sisters, and they live in the house in Malibu. So very traditional Barbie, but I think it\u2019ll be some fun. We have another series of Thomas & Friends<\/em>. We have a new brand that we\u2019re launching called Enchantimals<\/em>; we\u2019ll have a 60-minute special of that coming out in the fall. We have a Monster High <\/em>special for the fall. And of course Max Steel<\/em>\u2014we have another movie coming out in \u201917. So we have a full, really robust slate.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> Barbie is an established brand, obviously, but she\u2019s the prototypical American girl. How do you maintain the essence of the brand while also making it appealing to cultures around the world?
\nCARPENTER:<\/strong> That\u2019s something that we\u2019ve started to work on, the idea of \u201cyou can be anything.\u201d Barbie\u2019s meant to be an avatar of anything a young girl wants to be. She\u2019s meant to be aspirational. When you look at her and her blond hair and blue eyes, it\u2019s ultimately not about what she looks like, it\u2019s about what she can do. And so when a girl plays with her Barbie dolls, she\u2019s acting out what happened in school or what happened on the playground. And ultimately, it\u2019s that interaction they have with the doll, that they see themselves through the doll. As we continue to develop content, it\u2019s more [about the aspirational] idea that Barbie is a veterinarian, she\u2019s an astronaut, she\u2019s a schoolteacher, which is what every young girl could be or not be. So I think it\u2019s more about how we\u2019re developing the character as opposed to the essence of how she looks.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What are some of Mattel Creations\u2019 plans for the remainder of the year?
\nCARPENTER:<\/strong> We\u2019re super excited about the amount of content that we have. We\u2019re actually in the enviable position of figuring out, Well, what do we do with all of that content? We also are in competition with ourselves, to some degree, because there are only a certain amount of time slots. So I think for us, we\u2019re going to have to be a little bit creative about how we\u2019re working with the various platforms and what is the difference between something coming on on a Saturday morning versus during the week. That\u2019s a lot of the stuff that we\u2019ll be navigating [for the rest of] \u201917, which is a great problem to have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The senior director of content distribution and programming talks about the launch of Mattel Creations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":776,"featured_media":12529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[2769,1008],"class_list":["post-12528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-andrea-carpenter","tag-mattel-creations","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nMattel Creations\u2019 Andrea Carpenter - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/mattel-creations-andrea-carpenter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mattel Creations\u2019 Andrea Carpenter - 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