Hasta La Motion!

The kids genre in India is growing exponentially. Six months down, the sector is already growing in fast pace this year to outdo itself from last year. According to this year’s FICCI EY report, animation segment is estimated to reach Rs 24.4 billion by 2021. The emerging trends reflect that local content in regional languages is paying huge dividends.

Thus, to build and maintain a long-term relationship with the most dynamic and versatile audience- kids through their local toon characters, big names in the business (Sony YAY!, Discovery Kids, Cartoon Network, Pogo, Nickelodeon, Green Gold Animation, Cosmos-Maya, Toonz Animation, DQ Entertainment and others) have adopted various marketing strategies which are very crucial to gain traction to their IPs and establish them as a bigger brand.

For instance, the launch of Golmaal Jr. on Sonic (part of Nickelodeon) was supported by a dynamic 360 degree marketing and communication plan that included an aggressive TV plan, within the Viacom18 network and outside the network. A high decibel outdoor plan along with mall visibility is sure to capture eyeballs across the country.

In a recent round table press conference, Viacom18 Kids Network and Hindi Mass Entertainment head Nina Jaipuria mentioned, “We’re a 360 degree entertainer across all platforms. We have almost 11,000 reach in retail and ‘Back to School’ products. For Golmaal Jr. we’re checking highly visible outdoor plans. From visibility in malls, to retail outlets, to transit media branding, to partnering with fun-zones, fun photo opportunities with the iconic Golmaal bike and audio standees at multiplexes playing the catchy Golmaal title track, pranks on Fever FM and Golmaal promos in theaters, we have a lot that’s sure to break the clutter.”

There are various innovations lined up on the digital front also, starting with the innovative YouTube unskippable ad that is a category first.There would be a large influencer campaign reaching out to the digital audience. Keeping in mind the sensibility of the social media natives, they have also launched a challenge – #GolmaalJrChallenge where kids would be asked to replicate the popular Golmaal dance step!

Similarly Sony YAY! have exciting plans for kids too. Last month, the kids channel has announced a massive 124 city van activation to amplify its on-ground engagement with kids. The van activation promises a fun-filled time for young ones with exciting show themed games and a host of other activities.

With specially designed vans set to give everyone the reel-to-real experience, Sony YAY! is going all out to transform its pit-stops into YAY-zones. The vans will halt and engage with young audiences at prominent locations in cities across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Lately, their popular toon Honey in a Back to School campaign went to many household to promote child rights and right to education for kids.

SPN Kids genre business head Leena Lele Dutta noted, “This year we are not coming out with any new IP but we are doing a lot of activities with our existing ones. We have our van activation across almost over 100 cities and towns through the length and breadth of the country. So, that’s a big big initiative. In one city they will visit two to three locations, collate kids, have contest, get inclusion from parents. So, we’re trying to make sure our characters’ presence is widespread than launching another IP and focusing on that. This entire year it’s about making our IPs popular through our PTL activities and this we plan to take the entire summer season on ground. We have mall activations, bookshops, fun fares and all of that where kids are associated. You’ll find our association with Imagica and more. And we’ll make sure that our existing characters popularising Honey Bunny and KickO will reflect what our on ground strategy also.”

Sony YAY! also lately brought on board popular rap-singer and musician Badshah for the title track of KickO and Super SpeedO.

Turner is also no exception in this league. Turner’s fan-first strategy focuses on a 360 degree approach to engage fans beyond the TV to digital, social media, apps, games and events. Their successful ‘School Contact Programme directly connects with over one million kids pan-India. First launched 14 years ago, this trendsetting property gave young viewers an opportunity to directly engage with their favourite cartoons from various IPs such as Ben 10, Roll No.21 and Chhota Bheem. The school contact programme has cultivated a solid reputation as perfect fan engagement avenue, strengthening the bond between kids and their brands Cartoon Network and Pogo making  their respective popular franchises which have become household names today.

Another recent example was the launch of an all-new show on POGO, Kalari Kids, where they set up an immersive 360-degree AR video photo booth in multiple malls. Here, fans could digitally immerse themselves into the character-verse and truly feel like they were a part of the show. They also conducted a programme ‘Chhota Bheem ki Eco-Pathshala’ at shopping malls across the city to engage and entertain kids.

Turner also focuses on merchandise marketing, leveraging the legacy of its top franchises and iconic characters such as The Powerpuff Girls, Tuzki and We Bare Bears. The brand is known for like-minded partnerships with Indian designers such as Nandita Mahtani and Manish Arora, and with merchandising partners such as The Souled Store, POPxo Shop and Myntra. Each partnership further fortifies fan engagement, brand awareness and boosts the franchise.

Commented Turner India managing director Siddharth Jain, “Our marketing efforts are designed to build both the Cartoon Network and Pogo brands as well as their respective franchises and IPs on a ‘fan-first strategy’. It’s a strategy that focuses on the dynamic on- and off-screen demands of fans. With an audience that has evolved with us since the time we pioneered the kids’ entertainment space and who today thrives on immersion, new experiences and engagement, we have moved towards greater experiential brand-building enabling our fans to embrace our brands, franchises and characters in very part of their everyday life beyond the TV screen.”

Besides broadcasters, studios too consider marketing strategies to be lucrative in making their IPs a bigger brand that helps them get more acknowledged and associated with it. Green Gold Animation is probably the best in this case. Chhota Bheem as an IP is identified all over the globe.

Source : Google

Green Gold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka said, “To establish our brands, the biggest marketing strategy we took up with our original productions was to work on the best content to bring the bands closest to its audience. Exciting stories ensured that the viewership of the shows increased. This again was followed up with attractive merchandising and exhaustive events activation, that kept the brands close to its fans and help establish them.”

For Cosmos-Maya, the focus has always been on carefully calculated digital and print campaign. To quote a recent example, for Inspector Chingum’s launch campaign on Disney’s Hungama TV, the story had coverage in more than 150 print publications all over the country covering all major regions and languages. This was combined with a concerted marketing effort on WowKidz, the studio’s YouTube platform with more than 21 million subscribers.

Cosmos-Maya CEO Anish Mehta added, “Our endeavour has always been on building brands and not just business. With more and more of our IPs being commissioned, we run planned integrated marketing campaigns for our viewers. We also help the broadcaster push the show with trade and clients. We also leverage our social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. For Inspector Chingum, there was an Instagram handle created especially for the IP which was subscribed to by close to 70k people in less than a week’s time. All this was in addition to Disney’s promotional activities which included promos of the show running even during the IPL.”

Based on their expertise in developing IPs into powerful global brands, DQ Entertainment has grown a unique know-how in creating franchises with strong international 360 degree display. DQ Entertainment’s flagship property –The Jungle Book has been sold in over 160 countries with over 500 categories of merchandising products being sold globally. DQE has been building its strategy by growing a diversified portfolio of both recognisable brands and original content.

Their international brands like The Jungle Book, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Psammy show and others have worldwide presence as apart of merchandising marketing. That  includes – television, home entertainment, music publishing , games ,toys, books, apparels, bags, stationary, inflatables, walkie-talkies, lollipops, playing cards, beach toys, Stickers, Puzzles and lot more.

DQ Entertainment group COO Manoj Mishra informed,  “The marketing strategy followed by us is largely dependent on the kind of show and target group it caters to. Apart from having the presence of the brand felt in major international markets such as MIPCOM,MIPTV,KIDSCREEN and more to attract global broadcast and VOD players we have also effectively used the print media from time to time to do branding exercises so as to reach a wider audience. We have also extensively used social media platforms for marketing our brands and merchandising products to increase their brand equity and all such activities have given immense dividends to us in terms of sales and taking the IPs forward.”

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year through its animation wing, Toonz Animation brings famous comic character Chacha Chaudhary to life into the animation world with a comprehensive 360-degree strategy stradling all the media vehicles. Toonz Animation has tied up with Disney to air the multi-episode animated television series from June and the series is expected to receive a fantastic reception.

Spokesperson from Toonz Animation quoted, “ We’ve initiated the marketing strategy of promoting Chacha Chaudhary from March with the launch of the social media channels and platforms. Chacha Chaudhary official facebook page which was an instant hit among the pre millennials with many of them dropping in messages, ideas and good wishes for the upcoming series. The Instagram as well as Twitter handles also have been equally buzzing with enthusiasm. These vehicles have now become the drivers of traffic onto the Chacha Chaudhary Youtube channel launched by Toonz in April. The channel has seen a steady increase in traffic which will provide a good audience base when the Chacha web series when it launches.”

With such calculated and researched integrated strategies in place, we can definitely hope to witness a splurge in this sector that brilliantly aids and supports the animation industry in India. Fingers crossed for that!

The post How marketing strategies are helping to create bigger brands out of Indian animated IPs appeared first on AnimationXpress.

The BIG Festival (Brazil’s Independent Games Festival) is the biggest and most important independent games festival in Latin America. The festival will exhibit the most innovative indie games in the world whilst the event is also a meeting point for anyone serious in the video gaming business with lectures and workshops available over the five days.

The BIG Festival will take place in Sau Paulo, Brazil from 26 June to 30 2019. You can check out the schedule here. 54 games have been nominated for the various awards that will be announced at the festival. The nominations can be found here but we have highlighted some of the more exciting categories below:

Best Game Category
There are seven nominations in total for the Best Independent Game of 2019. Included in this list is Spaceline Crew– a comedy sci-fi game made by Coffeenauts game studio that shares multiple similarities to the fantastically fun party videogame, Overcooked. Players (the game can be played by up to four people) take the role of flight attendants and space airlines and must co-operate with each other in order to take alien passengers back to their home planets. Players can purchase ships as well as upgrades and they can choose their destinations to fly to through space. The games alien passengers have dynamic AI that enables them to constantly react to events in the ship. They get tired, sick, bored and angry, as well as a variety of other emotions. The game is a mix of overcooked, Theme Hospital and Roller Coaster Tycoon and is extremely fun to play with friends.

Another one of our favourites from this category is Pixel Ripped 1989. Pixel Ripped is a single-player retro inspired side scroller. In this game you step into the shoes of Nicola– an 80s child playing their favourite game Pixel Ripped. The game is a game within a game within a game where one moment you are playing a side scroller on your handheld games console, the next moment you are putting it down to do some third platforming or augmented reality boss fights. It is difficult to express the flow of this game with accuracy and it has to be played or indeed watched to be truly understood, although even if you do decide to purchase this game and play it, there are no guarantees that you will be any the wiser. You will certainly have fun though.

Best Art Category
As the years continue to pass by, video games continue to become more and more aesthetically pleasing. So-much-so that there are lots of video gamers that pick which video games to play based on how they look. The video game Creaks by Amanita Design studio in the Czech Republic has been nominated in the Best Art category at BIG 2019 and for good reason. The appearance of the game as well as the sound is simply beautiful and is like something from a Roald Dahl novel. The game itself looks like a side scrolling adventure game and is certainly deserving of its nomination in this category. The Blind Prophet has the appearance of a cartoon/manga inspired point-and-click game. It’s bold use of colours and images really ensure that the game stands out as one of the most original of this year. Your job in the game is to investigate a dark mystery, solve puzzles and look for clues as you delve deeper and deeper into the games dark and thrilling world. The Blind Prophet is described as a ‘deep and mature’ adventure game. The game reached its needed level of funding via KickStarter and is set for release at the end of this year.

Best Multiplayer Category
Five games have been nominated to win the award for best multiplayer game with one of them being the fun looking Hookbots, a game created in Costa Rica by Tree Interactive. Hookbots certainly looks extremely fun to play with friends and is described as a bot destruction game based on grappling hooks – look out for this game.

Perhaps the favourite to win this category – along with the previously mentioned Spaceline Crew which has also been nominated for the award in the best multiplayer category– is Quantum League Training. Based on the sheer quality of the graphics as well as the smoothness of this first-person-shooter, Quantum League Training could be mistaken for a game developed by a fully-fledged games studio.

Best Mobile Game Category
Mobile phone gaming has quickly become one of the most popular ways to play video games. The
mobile gaming industry consists of almost 50 per cent of the entire global games market whilst 2.4 billion people are expected to be playing mobile games this year. “Mobile gaming, as well as mobile internet usage, is expected to continue to grow exponentially within the next several years,” states Dennis Thor, the General Manager from the online gaming and slots website LabSlots. “India and China, especially, are seeing rapidly increasing mobile phone usage– 2017 saw that 89 per cent of all game revenues in India were generated by mobile games.”

It should go without saying then, that independent game studios will look to take advantage of the popularity of mobile gaming… and they have. Not too dissimilar to Mario Kart, Starlit On Wheels by Rockhead Studios in Brazil is a racing game that allows you to drift and speed boost your way to success against your opponents. The game consists of racing around a racetrack. Admittedly, these games do tend to get a tad tedious after a while, however, there is a key feature to Starlit On Wheels that is unlike many of its predecessors it has a track builder function. The track builder allows users to create their own racetracks from scratch. Users have complete control over hat kind of track that they want to build, as well as the surroundings of their racetrack. Of course, once you have created your racecourse you can then race on it against others. The game also has a story mode which looks to be quite addictive to play.

Our favourite from this category, however, is My Child Lebensborn which is created by Sarepta
Studios AS in Norway. In this game you get to adopt your own child in post-World War Two Norway before helping and watching them grow up. You must go through life with them offering them advice and helping them thrive. The game is challenging, especially when your child come back home from school covered in dirt after being bullied. But the game is also full of beautiful moments where you will create fond memories with your adopted child. The story, however, is great and it is a beautiful original game that is perfect to play as you settle into bed in the evening.

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DreamWorks Animation have presaged a blockbuster summer next April by releasing 21 different character posters of it’s upcoming Trolls World Tour.

A sequel to 2016’s hit animated musical, DreamWorks have also announced an expansive voice cast for the film joining Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, who reprise their roles of Poppy and Branch.

Trolls World Tour follows the adventures of the best friends when they realise they’re just one of the six different Troll cliques scattered across six different lands which engage in a unique rendition of it’s own: Techno, Rock, Funk, Pop, Country and Classical.

Directed by Walt Dohrn, the Trolls unite when Queen Barb and her father King Thrash threaten to destroy all other kinds of music and let rock reign supreme as Cooper (Ron Funches), Chinelle (Caroline Hjelt), Biggie (James Gordon) and Guy Diamond (Kunal Nayyar) embark on a journey to all the other lands in the noble quest to thwart Barb and her father.

The film is also set to feature Timberlake’s Oscar-nominated song Can’t stop the feeling.

Trolls World Tour will commence on 17 April 2020 by Universal Pictures.

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VFX Legion recently wrapped work on MA, Blumhouse Productions’ new psychological horror film, which opened in theatres on 31 May. The award-winning studio tapped its the company’s experience digitally mutilating and eviscerating characters and augmenting practical footage to craft a range of photorealist visual effects that heightened the visceral impact of some of the movie’s most gruesome and suspenseful scenes.

Horror films are Legion’s wheelhouse. The LA/ B.C.-based company has created visual effects for a long roster of movies in this genre, including several Blumhouse films, such as Sinister 2, Insidious: Chapter 3, Ouija, Amityville: The Awakening and two films from the Purge franchise.

The production company’s most recent film, MA,  follows the story of Sue Ann (Oscar winner Octavia Spencer,) a middle-aged woman living a solitary life. Abused, mocked, and shunned in high school, these past traumas fuel her obsession with ‘fitting in.’  When a group of under-age teens asks her to buy them some liquor, Sue Ann sees an opportunity to finally make some friends.

Taking on a maternal persona, she gains the teenagers’ trust, extending the hospitality of her home as a safe haven for their drinking parties. Ma soon begins to insert herself into their lives, and the partying and fun turn into a ghoulish nightmare as she takes revenge for the suffering that she endured decades earlier.

As the plot unfolds, the evil protagonist goes from friend to captor, keeping the teens captive in her basement as she calmly goes about torturing them. During one nightmarish scene, Ma sews a girl’s lips together. A prosthetic applied to her face enabled practical footage to capture the stitchery, with Legion’s visual effects adding chilling realism to the piercing of her flesh. The branding of a boy’s chest with a red-hot iron called for artists to create computer-generated steam and smoke that emanates from his skin as the iron makes contact, as well as the charred raw flesh and fresh scar it left behind. Legion digitally cleaned up the scene and delivered a sequence of shots that seamlessly melds the synthetic imagery with the texture and feel of the live-action footage.

Visual effects were relied on throughout the entire final scene of the movie, which shows the house catching fire and the blaze growing, ultimately consuming the structure. Legion’s team of artists created CG flames with the scale and ferocity to envelopes the house, layering in smoke, particles, and burning embers into add texture and depth.

“The final scene presented the biggest creative and technical challenges. It closes the movie with a sweeping aerial shot from a drone that begins at a distance and passes over the house revealing a 360 view of it engulfed in flames. A late addition to the production, the shot was included to ensure that the climactic ending left the audience with no doubt as to the fate of anyone still inside,” said VFX Legion creative director, James David Hattin. “

The original camera move wasn’t stable, so Legion was tasked with digitally recreate director Tate Taylor’s vision of the movie’s final moments. Crafting a CG sequence with this panoramic aerial view required a model of the house to be built from scratch, and then enveloped in a computer-generated inferno.

“Our team wasn’t on-set during the shoot, so we didn’t have a scan of the house or detailed specs to work from. This presented the kind of challenge that makes Legion’s remote pipeline invaluable. Tapping our ability to work as a single unit with the company’s global collective of talent, we reached out to our master model builder and CG Artist, London-based Mark Hennessy-Barrett,” adds Hattin.

Working on a tight schedule with only a plate photo taken by the drone, and eye-level footage from the movie as visual references, Mark built a ‘destructible,’ detailed replica of the house from the ground up. Once Hennessy-Barrett completed the model, Legion was able to begin work on the dynamics. Artists simulated raging flames coming out of every window on each floor, scorching and incinerating the exterior of the structure, and CG smoke, along with smouldering embers, and falling debris. The final shot recreated the sweeping camera move, climatically ending the film with a single overhead view of Ma’s house of horrors consumed in flames.

“Of the dozens of CG elements that we created, some of the flames simulated in Houdini to cover sections of the roof didn’t quite hold up for the whole camera move. We opted to use stock footage from ActionVFX’s library. Layering the high-resolution elements into the shot provided an efficient solution, maintained the integrity of the shot and kept us on schedule,” said  Legion’s head of production, Nate Smalley.

“Legion’s team is always excited when we’re called on to create visual effects for a Blumhouse film, and MA was no exception. We’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with them again and proud of our artists for meeting every challenge that MA presented” said Hattin.

The mix of equipment and software used to create the VFX for MA included Redshift for rendering CG shots, Maya for animation, and Houdini for simulations, along with Legion’s own proprietary technology.

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The final trailer for The Angry Birds Movie sequel was released by Sony Pictures and Rovio on 20 June. Fans can expect more adventures between the pigs and the angry birds as these frenemies unite to take down a new threat: the isolated Zeta (Leslie Jones), who fired an ice ball at their island and is intent on destroying them.

In the followup sequel to the 2016 movie, the angry birds and the green piggies take their beef to the next level. The trailer introduces a new character, Chuck’s sister, Silver, who is an annoyance to Red. Red and Silver banter upon first meeting and list off each other’s flaws.

The returning voice cast includes Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Bill Hader, Danny McBride and Peter Dinklage. They’re joined by a stacked ensemble of newcomers. This includes Rachel Bloom, Awkwafina, Sterling K. Brown, Eugenio Derbez, Pete Davidson, Zach Woods, Dove Cameron, Lil Rel Howery, Nicki Minaj, Beck Bennett, Brooklynn Prince, JoJo Siwa, Colleen Ballinger and David Dobrik. Leslie Jones (Saturday Night Live)  is set to voice the main villain.

Angry Birds 2 flies into theaters on August 14th!

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