Company Profiles
KEY BRANDS AT A GLANCE
NODDY
The property is having another great year, with deals with Vue Cinemas and P&O Cruises inked amongst others. A sell out theatre show, plus the third year of Noddy’s Summer Tour and a feature spot in Milkshake’s Butlins live show. Master toy licensee Golden Bear as a number of new lines for autumn, including My First Noddy Train Set and Storytime Noddy, while LeapFrog has launched its Noddy game onto the Leapster platform, while Ravensburger’s first Christmas with Noddy puzzle and Lexibook’s Noddy electronic lines should also perform well.
Noddy has been nominated twice at the forthcoming Licensing Awards 2007 – for Best Pre-School Licensed Property and for Harper Collins’ Noddy book line.
MR MEN
2008 and beyond will be huge for the Mr Men and Little Miss brand. The new Mr Men Show airs in Five in the UK (and Cartoon Network in the US) and is set to significantly increase the reach of the brand. Fisher-Price is on board as the master toy licensee, with first product due for launch in autumn 2008.
Chorion’s plan for Mr Men is two-fold – to continue to expand the portfolio of classic licensing aimed at teens and adults (using the familiar characters), while creating a new style guide to tie in with the new show and develop a licensing programme aimed at young children. Two new websites will also be launched – www.mrmenshowblog.com and www.mrmenshow.com.
FAMOUS FIVE
Famous Five – On the Case will be revealed at Brand Licensing Europe next month. Featuring the children from the original, this new animated series – co-produced with Marathon and Disney – will launch on the Disney Channel from next spring. The series will be backed up later in the year by the launch of a new user-generated content site which will encourage engagement with the brand, as well as being a stand-out site for pre-teens.
ERIC CARLE
Chorion will be looking to have discussions with licensees interested in using Eric Carle’s iconic art style on their products. 2009 is the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is one of the world’s bestselling books, having sold over 65 million copies since its first publication.
| Offices | London, New York, Sydney, Japan |
| Key Personnel | Lord Waheed Alli - Executive Chairman |
| Properties | Mr Men and Little Miss, Noddy, Famous Five, Olivia the Pig, Eric Carle |
| Website | www.chorion.co.uk |
Chorion
Samantha Loveday
Can you give us a general overview of what you have been up to over the past 12 months?
Senior marketing manager for Europe John Collins: Chorion has been going from strength to strength since going private towards the end of 2006. This move has given the company enormous flexibility, allowing us to develop new properties at a pace that best suits our needs as a business.
And we have been devoting time and effort across a number of brands in our portfolio, in particular the highly anticipated Mr Men Show, the new animated Famous Five and the transition from book to screen of the hugely popular Olivia the Pig.
2007 has also seen the expansion of our international operations in New York, Tokyo and Sydney to maximise our presence in the US, Japanese and South East Asian markets.
How is Chorion looking to expand further? Are you looking for further production acquisitions or will growth come from organic launches?
Chorion continues to grow, in terms of properties in the portfolio, the number of personnel needed to bring these brands to audiences, and in reputation as we expand our presence in the key markets.
Are there any gaps in your portfolio that you are looking to fill?
We are always looking to bring through new properties, but our approach remains strategic, ensuring we complement our existing portfolio with properties across children’s and literary estates – areas where we have proved our strength and vision in maximising the audience reach for well-loved, often heritage properties.
Where does Chorion stand on the use of new media such as mobile and the internet when it comes to bolstering your brands?
With television audiences becoming increasingly fragmented year after year, it is vital to ensure you are able to operate in the digital and mobile space. Even with the best television platforms, audiences more and more expect to be able to engage with their favourite brands outside of this media and Chorion is committed to providing a cross-media brand experience for its audiences.
The Mr Men sites are clearly the focus of a great deal of our attention – and the sketch format of the new TV show in particular lends itself so well to digital and mobile exploitation.
The award winning Noddy.com will this autumn be undergoing a revamp to create a brand new, world class interactive media platform, and the Famous Five website is right on the pulse of pre-teens with its user-generated content approach.
What do you think are the major challenges facing the business and how will Chorion look to overcome them?
I don’t think there has ever been a more competitive time for the children’s licensing industry. The latest wave of property launches is the biggest yet. It is an amazing time for quality children’s television – with Lazytown, Go Diego Go and In the Night Garden amongst the current stand out shows – but so many excellent properties coming at once makes it very difficult for licensors, licensees and retailers.
Shelf space is at a premium and it is at retail that brands will either succeed or fail. Chorion is committed to supporting its brands at retail, both in terms of promotions and through the marketing support we give our brands that drive people in-store.
Our investment in new Noddy content, coupled with the excellent platforms we have achieved for The Mr Men Show and Famous Five, and the respected licensees with whom we work, ensure we continue to lay the best foundations for success for all of our brands.
