Companyinfocus Dream team
Toy World’s John Baulch spoke to DreamWorks Animation’s head of international licensing, Jonathan Baker, to find out the facts about the company’s transformation from a movie studio to a brand.
Will you be looking to develop tailored licensing programmes for each territory, or are you looking at establishing more global plans? Many of our brands and franchises have truly global appeal, whilst others such as Postman Pat and Noddy enjoy deep heritage in key markets. We are always looking at ways to differentiate our licensing programmes at retail to help provide a unique experience or product offering for key partners. An example of this approach are the three creative themes that we have developed for How to Train Your Dragon 2, Racing, Battle and Hero, that are being placed at specific retailers or in certain key territories.
Kung Fu Panda 3 T
he DreamWorks Animation presentation at last year’s Las Vegas Licensing Expo was one of the highlights of the week for me. It signalled genuine intent and a bold new direction for the company. A
series of newly-appointed executives took to the stage to outline their vision for the company: to transform it from a movie studio into a truly global, multi-faceted family entertainment brand, with consumer products set to play a vital role in the plan. Six months on, I caught up with DreamWorks Animation’s Jonathan Baker to find out how things are progressing.
Where’s Wally
The plan What made the company decide to switch its focus? Evolving DreamWorks Animation’s direction from a promotions-led movie-based business to a global family entertainment brand that lives on the shelf year-round has meant a renewed emphasis on franchise building. One of the main strategic pillars in this new franchise- based approach is consumer products.
How do you feel the transition is progressing? The transition consists of many different components, from developing partnerships with both licensees and retailers, to the way that we make our franchises visible to consumers, to the expertise of talented individuals throughout our organisation. I’m delighted with the progress that we are making, but we have a lot of work to do and success to demonstrate. I do feel confident that we are on the right path, and have an incredible brand that resonates strongly with families and children across the world. However, the ultimate answer to this question lies with Toy World’s readership.
What role did the opening of the London office play in aiding the process? Establishing the International Consumer Products headquarters in London has been a really big deal, and has resulted in a dynamic shift in developing and maintaining local relationships. Being physically closer to many of our markets has both cultural as well as time zone advantages, not to mention the extraordinary benefit of working closely with the international TV sales team that is based in the very same office.
How important is the strength of the IP at your disposal to achieving your aims? Having this incredible portfolio of IP and an extremely strong and full pipeline across movie and TV over the next five years is a fantastic starting point for us, and is essential in building our consumer products business. How we go about building a consumer products business from this IP is equally important; working with the right partners in the right way, along with the IP at our disposal, is the only way we can achieve our aims.
How quickly will the new ideas you’re putting in place be reflected at retail? We can all appreciate that licensing is a long lead time business, and that building successful brands takes a lot of determination, patience and evaluation of feedback. We have recently started a retail-led planning process that triggers our franchise launch planning 18-24 months out from product going on- shelf. In the meantime, we have also been placing a lot of emphasis on our near-term opportunities with Postman Pat, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Home. With these franchises we’ll start to see a difference in our consumer products offering at retail in 2014, with more to follow as we bring the rest of our portfolio to life during the next 12-24 months.
How big is the opportunity in the children’s market for the DreamWorks Animation stable of brands? Based on our box office, TV ratings, publishing sales and consumer research, the opportunity is huge. Naturally, there is healthy competition within each sector of the children’s market. Respecting that consumers as well as our licensing and retail partners always have choices to make, I believe that our portfolio offers a point of differentiation, both in terms of consumer appeal and our approach to business growth.
The brands DreamWorks Animation has a diverse portfolio of properties; how difficult is it to balance your focus and priorities across the whole range? We have developed franchise priority grids that arrange our core franchises by age and gender segment. These core franchises help guide our focus across the portfolio and represent true cross-category opportunities. These grids help us and our partners remain focused on those areas of our portfolio that we feel represent the largest return.
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