Licensing and merchandising (L&M) has always been a crucial part of the growth and flourishing of IPs and brands across the globe. Though it started in India nearly three decades ago with Disney stepping in with a master franchisee, the sector has only grown over the years and the domestic IPs are presently hugely popular in the business.
Anand Singh – Senior Director Cartoon Network Enterprises South Asia Turner International
Cartoon Network Enterprises (CNE), the merchandising and licensing arm within WarnerMedia, has been expanding in India with a healthy double-digit growth rate over the last few years. In India, CNE has strategic partnerships with various leading brands across categories like fashion, FMCG, stationary, toys and more.
CNE expands by growing categories and potential brand partnerships for a 360-degree fan engagement. It has engaged in strategic partnerships with popular characters like Batman, Scooby Doo, Ben10, Harry Potter, The Souled Store, POPxo Shop, Balenzia and many others. This has given a new dimension to the Indian audience with a sneak peek into the lives of their favourite toons.
In a recent chat with AnimationXpress, CNE South Asia for WarnerMedia senior director Anand Singh elaborates on Turner’s exclusive L&M policies, milestones, different markets and how classics always work wonders. He handles the L&M across the South Asia region which includes Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal besides India. Read on:
1. Can you elaborate on your licensing and merchandising policies for Turner in place?
We’ve L&M policies starting from kids animation up to movies. There are niche properties like Harry Potter which has a huge fan following in India and then we have DC which has even more fan following. Then there are characters which are on the channel, movies which we keep getting now and then, for an instance, Scooby Doo which is coming soon. We’re reviving old properties so it’s a very varied portfolio with multiple IPs which cut across age groups and demographics.
2. How has it been for the animated IPs?
Besides kids animation, which is the main segment, there’s something that’s changing the entire landscape. We’ve have launched the classic ’90s animated shows that were running on CN. For young adults, the space was lacking products who are now in their 20s; so we’ve launched products for them which were originally kids IPs during that period but not anymore. They’ve evolved over the time and is quite popular in India. The nostalgia, the retro feeling is what we have to focus for the animated IPs. Besides that, classic portfolios like Looney Toons, Tom & Jerry also give a lot of scope to do things in that space. We’re also reviving WB (Warner Bros.) portfolios into films. There are three movies – one on Looney Toons, one with WB which is in works and the one I mentioned on Scooby Doo next year.
3. How’s the business in India different than that from SAARC regions?
South Asia is interesting because few markets are still evolving unlike India which has become a little matured. So if you look at markets like Singapore, Hong Kong they’re much more evolved than the others, but still to reach the position of USA or Europe. USA and Europe are at the top, in terms of evolution of the business, ticket size, product portfolio and spread. South East Asia comes in the middle and India is following South East Asia. It’s a surprise that the business of some IPs are same in India and Singapore. Imagine the size of Singapore compared to our country! The business is evolving constantly here and in Pakistan, we have a team a separate channel for Cartoon Network. We’ve done great in Bangladesh with partners like Bata, Bengal Polymers, and similarly with Sri Lanka. We’re recently opening the Nepal market. So, those markets are small, evolving, but I see a lot of scope. There are a lot of white spaces which can be worked upon.
4. Anything in works with the Indian IPs, now that it has been quite some time since Roll No. 21? How has the business been for Roll No. 21?
Roll No. 21 has been here for five to six years now. There are more IPs in works for which we’ll be coming up with something interesting. We’ve had a few successes with Roll No. 21 but we couldn’t make it like the Ben 10. However, we’ve done very well with it in terms of clip licensing, promotions with Colgate and multiple deals on the promotional side.
5. How does the consumption pattern differs in India in case of merchandising?
Honestly, in India there’s lot of piracy. The licensees tend to get aggressive in market in terms of price policy. So launching premium products become difficult. Also the India market is very cluttered. In India, the modern trade could not reach a state of maturity unlike USA. It jumped to e-commerce which is the easiest and the fastest mode now. But, it’s difficult to address the niches through e-commerce. All e-commerce are also not reaching more than 30 per cent of zip codes, which means there’s still 70 per cent to the market that’s not catered to. There’s so much that can be done there. The market is evolving and moving towards full fledged e-commerce which has helped us a lot in licensing.
6. How has the collaboration with noted names like The Souled Store benefitted you?
The Souled Store is a very digital savvy and it’s great to work with digital start-ups. They don’t go for old marketing techniques and have a hunger for growth. So they wanted to do things that are marketing friendly and digital focused. The Souled Store is one of those partners. Beside deals, we have a lot of collaborations with them like ‘The Powerpuff Girls Campaign’ which did very well for us. The traction we received for that was amazing. We’re planning for some different IPs as well. The Souled Store is focused on new and innovative ideas, willing to put 100 per cent behind it.
7. Have you achieved any milestone for the L&M policies?
‘The Powerpuff Girls’ was a great campaign for us. We’re so happy with it that we’re thinking of doing a Powerpuff Girl campaign every year, like an annual event. Even We Bare Bears has an universal appeal as they are are cool, contemporary and fun and all over social media. We’ve a deal with Miniso which has been doing extremely well for us. We’ve a couple of other deals also going and are consciously taking strategies to market We Bare Bears for young adults which has done amazingly in South east Asia and China.
8. How has the licensing policies helped the IPs to flourish further as a brand as people associate and relate with the merchandise?
It’s about touch points. Earlier it was TV and now it’s digital. For any client or consumer, all the touch points they are interacting with any IP becomes crucial for the company. Be it on digital or an attractive merchandise in a mall, everything comes into place. This has a positive impact on the channel, the IP and the brand. More you see, more is the familiarity with the character, even if not the series.
9. What are your current or future plans to take this ahead in India?
If you look at the properties we have, we’re going to obviously sustain our core business in India, which is kids. What we are planning to do now is, pivoting the business towards young adults. It’s an under utilised space and has a lot of scope to do things. The propensity to pay for young adults is much higher than kids. If you like a We Bare Bears merchandise, you can go and buy the plush. Harry Potter, Batman, Superman also have huge appeal to them. These IPs will never come and go but stay for as long as we can imagine. We are actually celebrating 80 years of Batman. So, it’s up to us how we mould the IPs as per the style guides.
10. Do you think movies have helped to garner a lot more eyeballs to merchandising of these characters – from comics to films to merchandise?
Absolutely. What movies have done. is that they’ve propped up the IPs and they keep it current. So, obviously, from the licensing perspective the window is smaller when you have a classic IP. There’s a peak before and after a movie releases, but they’re never out of fashion and never hits a low.
The post Exclusive: CNE’s Anand Singh on Turner’s L&M policies, milestones and more appeared first on AnimationXpress.
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