Genius Brands International's international sales director, Lindsay Brown, talks about surfacing content, improving discoverability, YouTube, IP and rights, Asia's acquisition habits, monetising kids content and what the biggest influences in 2020 are...

Discoverability is as much an issue among kid’s programmers as among any other genre in the streaming universe. Do you have a preferred strategy for surfacing content?
“The children’s space has become a fragmented marketplace, with kids utilizing OTT, VOD platforms more than ever. We, as producers, accomplish discoverability by having strong talent and creatives involved with our projects. For example, we have Stan Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who both bring a huge fan following, attached to our new series, "Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten", that we are co-producing with Alibaba’s Youku. We have Jennifer Garner starring as the voice of Mother Llama in our Netflix Original preschool series, "Llama Llama". We also have the director of "The Lion King" on our creative team for "Rainbow Rangers". Having marquee talent has been instrumental in discoverability with kids, parents, and their caregivers.”

Is there anything you wish platforms would do to improve discoverability?
“Genius Brands is a boutique global children’s media company, and it is essential for us to have strong relationships with our media partners…and look for ways to support them. One way we have done this is by creating dedicated YouTube channels for our brands, which compliment Nick Jr. for "Rainbow Rangers", and Netflix for "Llama Llama". Utilising various avenues, such as YouTube, helps promote the brand off the network, as well as drive viewership for our partners.”

If kids, as is commonly thought, live mostly on YouTube, what’s your approach to streaming video? Do you have a YouTube-first policy?
“We understand that kids are on YouTube but for our overall business, it is necessary to have a combination of linear, VOD, as well as strong YouTube strategy.The IP we create always has a consumer products programme to support the content, and traditional television and VOD are still imperative for retailers. That said, we ensure that our properties have a presence on YouTube, which is why we create exclusive content for our dedicated brand channels to help drive awareness for both retailers and our broadcast partners, a win win.”

Are you seeing any significant changes in the way kids buyers are acquiring content in/for Asia?
“We have lately seen an increase in demand for CGI content, especially with VOD platforms. Streaming platforms are finding children are choosing CGI over 2D thumbnails more often.”

Did monetising kids content in Asia become more difficult in 2019? Why?
“It has provided more exciting opportunities for Genius Brands to be more strategic because there are more VOD players in the Asian marketplace now.”

Do you think it will become easier to monetise kids content in 2020?
“With so many new streaming platforms launching (Disney +, HBO Max) there is an increased demand for high-end kid’s content, and we see this as an opportunity to diversify our partnerships.”

What do you think will have the biggest influence on kids programming (production and distribution) in Asia in 2020?
“With companies such as Alibaba’s Youku Kids getting increasingly into content co-production, we believe this will help open up new financing opportunities for production, and new consumer products’ partnerships in territories that have historically been challenging to tap into.”

What industry sector in Asia acquires the most from you (free-TV, pay-TV, streaming, other)?
“We have seen a large uptake in acquisitions by streaming platforms across the region.”

How have rights negotiations for kids content changed in the past year or so?
“Much like the rest of the world, the windowing is changing as well as which platforms launch first. The most important aspect is to be flexible and ideally own your content because there are so many new opportunities.”

How critical is licensing and merchandising to your business in Asia? Will this change in 2020?
“It is essential to our business. We focus on marquee brands with that offer major licensing and merchandising opportunities globally, and we expect to increase our revenues in the APAC region with the success of "Rainbow Rangers", "Llama Llama" and "Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten".

Excerpts of this interview were published in ContentAsia's print magazine for the ATF 2019