Cinekid for Professionals Conference Report 2014

FOR PROFESSIONALS

PROFESSIONALS CONFERENCE REPORT 2014

Opening

Cees de GraaffDirector of Dutch Culture‘Stay close to your audience’

Chronos, the god of time, is ruthless, DutchCulture director Cees de Graaff kicked off Cinekid for Professionals 2014. His advice: choose your media strategy wisely and engage with your audience. And maybe once in a while look to the other god of time, Chyros. He offers time in-between, time to be creative and time to get inspired.

Through soul searching and asking why Cinekid had invited him to open this CfP 2014 edition, Mr De Graaff presented his view on what media organisations in the age of digital and mobile should use as guidelines. Was it his background in academic educational theory, that taught him how the concept of the child has changed over time? Once upon a time seen as a young child that was usually depicted as a young adult. Nowadays seen as a consumer, independent, with his or her own opinions and ultimately seen as a market commodity.

Or was it because he used to be the director of a youth circus in Ethiopia? Not a circus as we know it but “a circus as a marriage between tradition and innovation. A place where children from cities and rural communities come together.” A phenomenon that has spread all over Africa, said Mr De Graaff, and a movement that has created new business models. In 2002 the performances pulled in an audience of more than 1.5 million people in Ethiopia alone.

Or was it because he is the director of DutchCulture, centre for international cooperation? “In this capacity Cinekid is a crucial partner for me and my organisation with projects taking place in Russia, Brasil, India and closer by, in Europe. Am I to explain how Cinekid through projects and knowledge exchange has increased international cooperation in children’s media for the last 28 years?”

But perhaps the answer to the question was obvious. As director of DutchCulture Mr De Graaff is responsible for the Creative Europe Desk. In that capacity, he said, “it’s more than justified that Cinekid receives support from the MEDIA program of the European Commission. We are immensely proud that Cinekid has been selected for the audience development call and that Cinekid has received the highest grant available within this call.” How did the festival achieve this? By working across sectors and engaging extremely well with their audience. The festival is grounded in the same basic principles as the circus in Ethiopia:

- Try to develop new business models - Build a strong relationship with your audience - Stay close to them - Step out of comfort zone and be prepared to take risk

Mr. De Graaff ended with a little philosophical coda. “Chronos, the god of time, is ruthless. So maybe once in a while look to the other god of time, Chyros. He offers time in-between, time to be creative and time to get inspired. The time where you have no sense of time at all.”http://www.dutchculture.nl/

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Know your audience: how do children relate to the Internet and TV?

Diane JanknegtCEO WizenozeA suitable Internet for children

For decades filmmakers have been able to make beautiful films for children, based on the experience and perspective of the child. When it comes to the Internet tough, the adult perspective rules, says Diane Janknegt. Wizenoze aims to change that.

Imagine a child going to the zoo, said Wizenoze CEO Diane Janknegt, coming home afterwards and desiring more information on the animals she saw. She goes to a search engine and types in ‘lion’. A list of results appears. The problem is: rarely are those results suitable for children. “The information simply isn’t there. We are good in building filters. But the information that gets through is still often only relevant for adults. Wizenoze wants to change that and the clock is ticking: last year the percentage of babies and toddlers frequently using a mobile device before their second birthday tripled since 2012. Now that percentage is probably over 40%. So the need for age appropriate online information is also increasing.”

Two possible strategies:1. Motivate as many content makers as possible to

start writing age appropriate content. Problem: Very costly. Hard to find a suitable business model.

2. We have to give children a child friendly access. Between 2008 and 2012 four European universities worked together to find a child friendly search engine. This is what Wizenoze’s solution is based on.

The technological solution Wizenoze came up with consists of a content editor and a search engine. The content editor helps authors write age appropriate content. Authors get suggestions to change complex words. One no longer needs to have knowledge about children’s reading levels. The author stays in control, he can ignore the suggestions. The editor let’s you switch to different ages and suggestions change accordingly. The search engine is based on Dutch content but an English version will follow before year’s end. First the search engine asks the child’s age. It doesn’t search the entire internet but a preselected subset of websites that can be changed according to age. The results are presented in a grid and there’s more room for images and other visual information.

Wizenoze and Cinekid announced their official cooperation to start writing an age appropriate overview of all the films and other media available for children. The goal is to present it next year at the Cinekid festival.http://www.wizenoze.com/



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Lesli RotenbergGeneral manager children’s programming PBS‘Putting excitement in the driver’s seat’

How does US public broadcaster PBS develop media for young children and how is research used in that? “We really do put children in the centre and we do our best to understand them and develop age appropriate content”, said Lesli Rotenberg.

PBSkids’ target audience are children ranging from 2 to 8 years old. “As we all know that is a pretty big age gap”, said Lesli Rotenberg. “So it’s important we understand the social and cognitive differences within that age group. We know that what unifies all children is the pure untethered curiosity. They often have a passion for something. It might be dinosaurs or soccer or whales. But whatever it is, it makes them interested in learning. The point is that children get naturally excited about things and if you put that excitement in the driver’s seat there’s no limit to where they can go. We try to ignite that enthusiasm and curiosity. Media should spark children’s curiosity through stories, characters and experiences.”

Research shows that first 5 years are critical. It lays the ground work for all the learning experiences that follow, in school and beyond. But in the US today only 30% of 4 years olds attend a quality preschool. Many start school at 5 and then they’re already dramatically behind. The good news for PBS, said Rotenberg, is that it reaches 82% of all kids between 2 and 8. It teaches them everything from literacy tot science and social strategies. The online reach is 13 million unique visitors per month and the PBS apps have been downloaded more than 11 million times. All content aims to cross real learning gaps. “Media can be a great equalizer, giving everyone access on any of those platforms”, said Rotenberg.

How do we do this? How develop this content that speaks to children and meets educational need at the same time? Three ways:

1. We identify needs;2. We test the content rigorously;3. We connect the dots between the platforms, creating exploratory learning experiences.

Ad. 1 We define areas that need most attention. We talk to parents, teachers and other specialists. What are kids struggling with?

ExampleIn 2012 PBS premiered Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood, a show designed to meet the social and emotional needs of 2-4 year olds. The need for the show was brought to our attention by our advisory group, a group of experts. Then we also learned through research that social emotional skills were the most important predictor for success in school. So we started



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putting together everyday experiences for 2-4 year olds that bring typical emotions. Those were integrated into every story so children can learn strategies to deal with those situations and apply them. The show teaches things like: how to wait patiently for turn/what to do when you’re mad/how to listen. http://pbskids.org/daniel/

Ad 2. PBS tests everything: TV shows, games, apps, through formative and summative research. Important, said Rotenberg, because “no matter how straightforward something might seem to us, we’re still adults and children have their own way of seeing things.”

Ad 3. Connecting the dots. “New technologies haven’t changed the audience as much as they changed the ways we look at teaching through media. We used to develop content in linear way: first TV, then if a show was picked up, we created additional content. Now we develop content simultaneously through transmedia storytelling. Through which we teach children more powerfully and engage them more deeply. We use shows, books, games, apps and hands-on activities that don’t use screens at all.”

ExamplePeg + Cat explores math concepts through amazing adventures, learning about measurement, shapes, and patterns and using math to solve really big problems! It offers online games, mobile apps, an interactive whiteboard, hands-on activities and video’s.http://pbskids.org/lab/show/peg-cat/

Find your audience: new ways of marketing & branding

Lily YanBrand director at children’s entertainment production company Nelvana‘Choose your partners wisely’

Using Beyblade as case study Lili Yan illustrated how Nelvana develops a brand. ‘It all starts with content.’

As part of Canadian Corus Entertainment, Nelvana specialises in children’s demographic age 4-11. It operates broadcast channels on TV and online, and two studios, producing animated cartoons and live action.

“It all starts with content”, said Yan. “But what is strong content?” Nelvana’s strategy is based on three principles 1. A strong unique brand and visual identity, something that sets it apart from all the other products targeting the same demographic. 2. Non-broadcast potential, for example: home entertainment, digital apps, merchandises licensing. “We need that synergy amongst our channels to launch a big brand.”



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3. It needs to be suitable for the international market. “If it isn’t suitable, the company needs to be able to adjust the product in order to make it suitable.”

BeybladeBeyblade – ‘the spinning top and Japanese pop culture phenomenon’ – had already proven itself in Japan, ratings wise and through the consumer products line around the toy. From there, Nelvana build awareness around the brand. They identified the best platforms for the content: select key broadcasters and understand what their programming slate is. Then: involve stakeholders early on in the process. This allowed Nelvana to shape the brand more. In addition more partners of scale were signed on to create additional brand awareness, locally and globally. Each of them had to be able to leverage their own reach and awareness in the market. Then the broadcast schedule was optimized and the deal structure with partners improved. Outside the core group of partners Nelvane also secured two hundred additional partners to encourage cross promotion. For example: Rising Star Games build the Beyblade: Evolution game for Nintendo 3DS but also produced a unique custom top.

From the beginning brand awareness was build on a digital strategy with the creation of a website that functioned as a sort of dedicated hub. As for the social media strategy: Nelvana developed a target appropriate social media strategy, said Yan. That was important because of the different types of brands. Again, other sources used their leverage to reach the core demographic.

- Beyblade.com: global brand website - Beybladebattles.com: global toys website - Social media: be where your audience is. - YouTube channel with commercials and additional features - Despite the fact that the soundtrack and other songs were available on the website for

free, paid versions were placed on iTunes paid, “just to be there.” - Use key YouTube fans with huge following

Results: - Basically broadcast in over 90 countries - 165 million toys sold - 941.000 likes on Facebook - Over 1.500.000 views on YouTube - Over 1 billion dollars in retail sales.

Her key takeaway, said Yan, was to focus on the right content, choose your partners wisely and work together to build awareness and engagement with your target audience.



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Lizzie LeadbeaterSenior content producer for cBeebies apps‘Quality is key’

cBeebies focuses on the preschool audience, said Lizzie Leadbeater, but we make sure to include the parents. They are a key part.

In the last year alone cBeebies has seen a big shift in how children access their content. First, content is more on demand. Children pick and choose what they want and when they want it. But the parents are key part, they’re very much in control. Children can only access the content through the parents’ app store account. “So include them”, said Leadbeater.

Secondly, tablet use is on the rise. “Four in ten children age 2-4 use a tablet in the home. One in ten now has their own tablet. Up from 3% in 2013. The apps are really important for us. They allow us to deliver high quality reliable content on those devices and allows to be with the child wherever they go. They can take us with them. For all those reasons we thought its vital to be in that space.”

cBeebies’ strategy was to create a family of apps that would capture the audience and allow them to engage with cBeebies characters and brands wherever they are. Based on the company’s philosophy: learning through play. cBeebies in the last two year has launched two public service apps in the UK. 1. cBeebies Playtime, which is primarily game focused and uses implicit learning. 2. cBeebies Storytime, aimed at inciting genuine interest in reading and allowing families and children to read together. In their 14 months of existence, the apps were downloaded millions of times.

Lessons learned: create apps for and with them1. Marketing: let the audience know the app is there. Surface your content. 2. Quality is key3. Keep them engaged with new content and features, to keek them coming back4. App store reviews are brilliant. Parents want to know what other parents think

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IJsfontein, interactive media production companyLotte Vergouwen, Senior project manager Naomi van Stelten, Director New Business‘Adapt your strategy’

IJsfontein was asked by the Dutch Museums Association to develop a product through which to reach a younger audience.



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Reach children and introduce them to cultural heritage, that was the assignment. Quite a difficult task, said Lotte Vergouwen and Naomi van Stelten, because specifically the aim was to reach the children that weren’t going to museums. Moreover, there was no brand to build from.

They came up with Tikkit, a crazy and clumsy monster that would appeal to these small children 6-12. Its main function was to create something children could recognize, a host that could connect all the stories related to the museums. Around that, IJsfontein created transmedial platform http://www.museumkids.nl/. They can play games, access information about museums and exhibitions and enlist to become a museum inspector by downloading an app. For IJsfontein that was a way to empower children and let them become part of the dialogue surrounding history. Whenever they visit a museum, with the app they can report back by uploading comments and photos.

But Museumkids is the end results of four years of development. And not everything went smoothly, said Vergouwen and Van Stelten. First, IJsfontein focused on games. Why? Because they’re popular. “We tried to involve children as much as we could in the process. We didn’t want to make overly educational games. We chose proven gameplay concepts, like a rip-off from Angry Birds. And we chose clear themes that would appeal to the children and to the museum.”

The next question was: how to reach the audience? Instead of creating a new platform, IJsfontein decided to create a small home base for Tikkit. And then launch the games on proven gaming platforms for children. “We had a marketing budget equal to the production budget to get Tikkit omnipresent. We created a Tikkit network with a central hub. A Tikkit gadget was created to put in museums and a tv commercial to make Tikkit known to a wide audience.” A Dutch version of Facebook, Hyves, was used for additional audience involvement and publicity. A year after the games, the company came up with Museum Inspectors. But two problems arose:

1. We were not prepared for apps2. Hyves shut down


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The Museumkids.nl website in fact was a response to that: it basically combines all the ticket games and the museum inspectors. Co-creation sessions were organised to get the museum staff involved and make them co-owner of the project.

Lessons learned:1. Be true to your origins. We wanted to be true to the museums and their collections but

we also wanted to make fun game2. Don’t underestimate the marketing and required budget: you have to buy your way into

the children’s market3. Be flexible and adapt your strategy

Sander van der VegteMultidisciplinary game developer MediaMonksHow to create a hype?

“We are the biggest digital creative production house on the planet. No we’re not. But especially in the US it works really well to say this”, said Sander van der Vegte, creating his own small hype.

Many clients say to MediaMonks: here is a bag of money, go create a hype. “It doesn’t work like that”, said Sander van der Vegte. “You have to use the media for a hype but you can’t pay them to do so. So MediaMonks is there to give them a reason. The company does not focus on children, but it has wide experience creating successful campaign. Two examples.

1. The Big pen, a pen everyone has used at least once. But who still writes with a pen? So Big came to MediaMonks to get the pen back in the public eye. The company came up with a simple elegant idea. If handwriting is one of the most valuable ways to express ourselves and with Big you have the best selling pen ever, let’s say the nearest thing to a universal pen, why not come up with a universal handwriting? Enter the Universal Typeface Experiment. http://theuniversaltypeface.com/home

“What we created isn’t necessarily expensive, but brilliant – if I may say so – because everyone can influence what comes out of it. It’s not limited to one campaign, it will go on for years. And that’s free advertisement.”

2. Axe Apollo Space Academy. After a year long contest 25 people will travel to space with AX. A campaign that had 2.5 billion views. “This was huge. The media hype was created by the people itself.”

Lessons learned:1. Reach out: do something so the audience knows you’re there2. Reach the core audience3. Influence. If they can influence the outcome, they will want to share. People place a

disproportional amount of value on something they’ve created themselves. So the product in your mind becomes yours

4. Make it current. Aim it actuality9

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KEYNOTE Keep your audience: from game to cartoon

Eric GuaglioneSupervising Director and a Director for Rovio Entertainment, the producers of Angry Birds‘A lot of people think that Rovio was just lucky’

“We were at the right place at the right time,” says Eric Guaglione, “but we also had a well thought out strategy in place.” Through the success of Angry Birds, Finnish game developer Rovio established itself as an international entertainment company.

Finnish government to package and export that education to other children around the world.”

The Journey of Angry Birds (and Rovio)‘We went from the game to games to animation. And animation is just a different beast altogether. We’ve always aimed to complement the two and use the animation to build the brand.”

In 2010 the first cinematic trailer came out to promote the game. That offered the company an opportunity to provide a little bit of backstory that people cant get in the game. The trailer was hugely popular. Why? “Because Rovio was making an emotional connection through the quirky characters and that’s something you can really show in a trailer. For us that success was also a wake-up call. Fans wanted stories. And we listened to them. We decided to develop a strategy.”

“A lot of people think that Rovio was just lucky, that the app somehow just took off. And that anything would have been successful from that point on. That’s not entirely true.” Certainly there was an element of being at the right place at the right time, said Guaglione. And a key aspect of that was the introduction of the iPhone and the app store. Those provided a vehicle that was not there before. “But we were very aware that the touch screen offered


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an unprecedented level of interaction and the app store made it possible to connect to the individual user. We created a simple physics engine, you know, the slingshot thing in the game. We take that for granted now. But this was one of the first products that let people use their touch screen in a completely new way. So there was a strategy behind that. The question from the beginning was: how do you build a brand around Angry Birds that is much bigger than the original game? One of our mission statements is that we want to surprise and delight the fans.”

Rovio decided it wanted to reach fans directly and release all the animated shorts on its own platform. They had a unique opportunity to do that, thorugh the app space in their immensely popular Angry Birds app. “So we created an app with two options: go to the left for the game or go to the right for the cartoons. That proved to be an extremely successful strategy.” Rovio streams 26.000.000 minutes per day now. The completion rate of episodes watched is over 90%. The company also started to approach broadcasters with 2,5 minute animated content. That content is also available through the app, but a day later.

To evolve the characters from game to animated shorts and beyond, two years ago a feature film strategy was developed. That will allow Rovio to do something fresh, a feature experience that is more about family and friends than the game and the shorts were. The release date is set around July 2016.

For the animation a world was build around the characters: Pig Island, with little pig jokes in the visuals. “But then we had to come up with character flaws and traits. How did they relate to one another for storytelling and conflict? We also had to figure out the backstory and what were the rules and limitations of that world. Such as no dialogue, to play internationally. Or that the characters didn’t have limbs. We had to decide how long an episode should last so what was the right length? The right length is relative to the content. And we didn’t want grotesque violence. We wanted the Loony Tunes feel. Also, of course, voice casting was critical. We needed very expressive voices because of the limited expressive possibilities of the bodies.”

The company has decided to broaden its demographic. “We want to age up. Play to more sophisticated humour at times. And create a stronger integration between games and animation.” Rovio also created another brand: Stella (http://stella.angrybirds.com) “We wanted to have something that is actually based on friendship and not only have birds that are angry.”

New Platforms: new opportunities, new audiences?

Christoph PoropatitsVP Operations Mediakraft‘These are the directors of the future’

Multichannel YouTube network Mediakraft brings together creators and helps them with cross-promotion, marketing and providing production facilities. Over the past three years the company has learned a lot about its audiences.


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Peter en Kelvin have over 80.000 followers op YouTube. They’re Dutch. They started producing content when they were 14, 15 and found an audience right away. And then decided that they wanted to go international. So they started creating content in English. “These are the directors of the future”, says Christoph Poropatits. “And we get in touch with them to develop their craft and talent, to exchange knowledge with more experienced people and to built a reputation within a safe environment. We also help syndicate their content. These young creators are our partners. Each of them already have many subscribers, but when they join Mediakraft, we try to bring together good storylines with excellent production quality.”

“Content is king. What we’re seeing over the next couple of years, I think, is how all of our companies will become more and more alike. PBS is looking at developing apps, we are looking at that as well. TV will not disappear. The fixed schedule will disappear. We’re all in a sweet spot now. It’ll be interesting to see who understands the dynamics and the consumption in the market.”

Mediakraft currently has roughly 2000 channels within its network. With more than 400 million monthly views, 260 million of those in Germany. On daily basis 1.2 million people tune in.http://www.mediakraft.de

Julia AdamsLegal and Busniness manager Jonathan M. Shiff Productions‘Netflix gave us complete freedom’

After the success of the Jonathan M. Shiff Productions’ 2006 H20 series, Netflix outbid all the other networks for the rights of the new Mako Mermaids series.

Back in 2006 Jonathan M. Shiff Productions produced 78 hours of the H20 series. It became an extremely popular show, says Julia Adams. “It’s still being sold all over the world.”

In the days when Netflix was transitioning to streaming series, they came along and bought H20 from the company’s back. They also bought much more. Just to see what would work


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in the US. “And H20 worked very well for them. About two years ago we were producing a spinoff series: Mako Mermaids. Netflix came along and said they were starting to do kids originals. They outbid all other networks to buy the show. We were already finished by then, so we financed it separately. After that they also bought series 2 and we’re about to start on series 3.”

“What’s interesting about launching the first series, Netflix wasn’t sure about the binge viewing in younger audiences. But they found 10 year old girls would have parties and watch all 13 episodes in a row.”

“Netflix gave us complete freedom. We don’t get any notes. They’re careful about who they choose to work with, but after that they let you do your thing. And now they really have embraced kids and family entertainment.” http://www.jmsp.com.au/jmsp/public/public

Lesli RotenbergGeneral manager children’s programming PBSMultiplatform strategies for broadcasters

45 years ago only a handful of people saw the educational possibilities of television. Many regarded it as a vast wasteland. But television evolved. And now it needs to evolve again.

The average time children spend on mobile devices has tripled since 2011, says Lesli Rotenberg. There are more platforms and more devices than ever. And those create new ways of distribution. “We now believe that online and mobile can engage children in education in ways that have never been accomplished before. There are opportunities on these new platforms that we didn’t have before. Children can learn more. It’s changing children’s development and ability to learn. And it’s changing the way we think about branding and rights management. We don’t think of ourselves as a traditional broadcaster anymore.”Two things are important to take into account, says Rotenberg:

1. Reach2. Depth

Ad 1: We can now be everywhere where the kids are. 82% of American children between 2-8 watch PBS. The vast majority of children has access to one or more platforms. They can choose themselves. Some children are intrigued by linear stories. Others are sparked by interactive games. For others it’s music. Or hands-on activity.

Ad 2: “We’re discovering that the more we’re able to connect the dots between those platforms the deeper the learning experience is for children. It’s all about AND for PBS. We have TV content and games available on every platform. We have 44 apps in portfolio. And we provide resources to parents and teachers to advance children’s learning.

For every one of our properties we create a world and then we try to thread everything together. An example is Peg+Cat, which introduces foundational math skills and stimulates


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creative thinking. We chose a female lead character because we aim to change stereotypical thinking. For example that girls are not good at math.

“Using contingent characters and story devices across different platforms lets children connect the dots. We know that this approach works: when kids can engage in more than one way, on more than one platform, they come away with a deeper and better understanding. Support from teachers and parents will even reinforce that learning more. That’s the icing on the cake.”http://pbskids.org

Laurence RobinetChief Broadcast Officer Your Family Entertainment‘The films that children love remain in the domain of the heart until old age’

Your Family Entertainment broadcasts children’s content on PAY TV and on its online TV channel. In December they will launch a new children’s channel.

YFE’s Laurence Robinet presented the trailer for their upcoming Fix and Foxi Kids Channel, premiering December 1st. The launch of the channel follows YFE’s acquisition of rights to the popular comic books of the same name by Rolf Kauka five months ago. The service will be distributed to over 130 cable networks, according to the broadcaster. In addition to Fix & Foxi, the channel will air shows including Miss Spider, Maggie und das Biest and Sieben Kleine Monster, based on the books by Maurice Sendak.

YFE, said Robinet, focuses on nonviolent educational book based content. But adults can watch with them, she added, because “the films that children love remain in the domain of the heart until old age. TV is like a campfire where family all sits together. During the day the mobile is the only secret garden left for the child. But in the evening it’s important to be together. Even when the kid has the mobile in his hand.”http://www.yfe-tv.com/6

Russell MillerCEO Wonderreel‘We have to think about molecular media, not mass media’

Wonderreel aims to provide individualised, curated TV content for every child. ‘It’s the first online platform expressly designed to support the creation and preservation of quality children’s film and video.’

The original idea with Wonderreel, Russell Miller explains, was to launch a new platform for European content in the US. But that idea changed. Now the company aims to launch a platform for worldwide content and offer that to a worldwide audience, dubbed in English or Spanish. The company is also in talks with countries across the Arab Middle East and further to Bangladesh.

“We call it the first online platform designed for kids 6-11 and their families. We’re definitely 14

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niche. We don’t offer content for pre-schoolers or tweens. It’s the first online platform expressly designed to support the creation and preservation of quality children’s film and video. Which is to say it’s designed for kids but also for you.”

Wonderreel works with a subscription service. Parents subscribe and based on the price they get one or more accounts for their children. Wonderreel also shares data with some universities, said Miller. Those data are also used to program each individual child’s channel. When you hit play, whatever show someone was watching last time, it will start at exactly the point where she left it. “It’s designed to run like a linear TV channel that becomes unstuck in time, as Kurt Vonnegut said. Basically you can watch programs in the order you want. We are providing an individualised, curated TV program for every child. Two things are important. 1. It’s a discovery issue: children can discover shows they didn’t know before. 2. Through the way Wonderreel is constructed, it eliminates the moment a child has to decide what you want to see next, by making suggestions. Also, it discourages binge viewing. We don’t believe philosophically that binge is good.

“They are very curious and get really engaged with stuff. Every kid is different. And we can provide different streams of entertainment. We have to think about molecular media, not mass media. Here you can use content discovery algorithms and big data, match shows with kids.”http://www.wonderreel.com

New ways of financing: connecting with your audience

Jiannis SotiropoulosProducer at Honig Studios‘At the very least you get proof of concenpt’

Crowdfunding isn’t always easy and it requires much work in preproduction, says Jiannis Sotiropoulos.

Berlin based Honig Studios is a small independent studio that tried to crowdfund its latest project Milli, a series of interactive stories and games for children from 3-6 years old for Android tablets & the iPad. Milli is a very small and curious snail living in a magical place called Apple Tree Hill. One side of the hill is covered in sunshine the other side is a constant shadow. Thanks to her endless curiosity and ingenuity - Milli finds a way to help all of the creatures she meets to be happy together, and be the best at being who they are.

To produce the first instalment Honig Studios combined three sources of financing, one of the being crowdfunding. “I don’t have a success story”, says Jiannis Sotiropoulos, “because crowdfunding only brought in 20% of the budget. In our experience, it’s a very time and nerve consuming process. You have to put in a lot of work in preproduction that’s usually not taken into account. And then you’ll discover that there are hundreds of projects launched on


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Kickstarter everyday. In total Kickstarter has about 3.000 children’s projects. Out of those, 90 have raised more than 50.000 euro.”

“So we learned a valuable lesson. And it was proof of concept because of all the feedback we received. Milli went back to the drawing board and we are going to launch another version this Christmas.” http://www.honigstudios.com/works/millis-world/

Fabienne van DillenMarketing director In the Air, distribution of family entertainment filmThe crowdfunding story of Wiplala

For the marketing campaign of Annie M.G. Schmidt adaptation Wiplala, In the Air wanted to raise 500.000 euro. They succeeded.

The goal was to create a blockbuster marketing campaign and that would cost 500.000 euro. The reason for wanting such a costly campaign, says Fabienne van Dillen, was that they considered the Annie M.G. Schmidt adaptation a sort of national treasure. “The writer passed away some ten years ago, but grandparents, parents and children still read her books. We wanted to get the message out to everyone.”

Why use crowdfunding? For three reasons:1. To be able to kick off the marketing campaign at a very early stage. 1,5 year before the

launch of the film in the theatres we kicked off the campaign. We wanted the whole of the Netherlands to participate.

2. To find ambassadors and invest in the film. They would spread the word and gather more support and build up momentum.

3. We knew we had the right ingredients. We had Annie M.G. Schmidt. We had Bosbros, the production company, which had a successful track record. We could use the best Dutch director for this special effects film. And potentially we had a very broad audience.

In the Air didn’t use Kickstarter but Dutch platform Cinecrowd. The team wanted people to invest and based on the success of the film also have the opportunity to get their money back, depending on the success of the film. More visitors means more profit. The deal was made with Cinecrowd that the money would become available for the marketing campaign in trenches of 100.000 euro. Waiting until the full amount was available would have been too big a risk, says Van Dillen. “Then we created the marketing material: a website and a social media platform campaign. And we developed an interesting offer: people could buy certificates worth 100 euro. With 250.000 theatre visits you would get your money back and with 750.000 visitors your return on investment would be 15%. A lot more than just putting your money in the bank and collecting interest. And seeing the success of the previous films based on Annie M.G. Schmidt’s books, there is a very good chance investors will get their 15%. On top of that, for every certificate bought, we would hand out two theatre tickets. When you invest more you get more presents: books, film edition books or even a minor role in the film. Twenty investors have such a small part by the way. After donating more than 2500 euro’s we would make a tailor made plan with the investor.”


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“We launched with a press gathering and luckily it took off really well. We had great press coverage. After the first month we reached 50.000. But then in October we raised only 2.000 euro. Luckily the production started in November after which additional press coverage created more enthusiasm among investors. And then in December 2013 a very good thing happened. We closed a partnership deal with media company Telegraaf Media Groep. They invested 50.000 euro and promised us a lot of press coverage. This was the turning point for the crowdfunding campaign. In January 2014 we invited the investors of the first trench. We explained our plans and they were really excited. That lifted up the crowdfunding even more. People invested more and they started talking about it to their friends and those friends invested as well. On the 10th of march the budget was completed.

“What did we learn? It’s an expensive form of financing. But we had great word of mouth. Most importantly, I would say: don’t give up. Keep find new ways to engage potential investors and continue to create press coverage.”http://www.wiplaladefilm.nl

Golan Levin Artist/creator at The Free Art and Technology Laboratory‘People want to get something out of it’

Much of his work tends to be a provocation, says Golan Levin. “NeoLucida is a provocation in the form of a product.”

At The Free Art and Technology Laboratory artists like to make free software. The collective releases open source tools that, says Golan Levin, allows people to take back the media for themselves. One example is The Free Universal Construction Kit. “Companies like Lego don’t want you to connect their toys to toys from other manufacturers. With our kit you can connect ten popular toys. We released these online and people can download and 3D print it. For me this is kind of a useful thing to release into the world.”

Another project Levin realised was the open source tool Neolucida. “I have a partner who was trained as an architect and he was interested in how old masters drew. You have this very popular book by David Hockney called Secret Knowledge. Hockney explains how some of the great works of Western art were created with the help of mirrors and lenses, optical aids.”

“The NeoLucida is a drawing aid that allows you to trace what you see. It’s a modern reinterpretation of the camera lucida, an indispensable drawing tool popular in the days before photography. We think camera lucidas can help people draw and understand art history in provocative new ways. The problem was these things are antiques and nobody manufactures them. They are about 300 dollars a piece. So what if we could produce them ourselves? We had to have a minimum order of 500 pieces. Last year we launched a Kickstarter project to help make this remarkable device widely available to anyone who loves to draw. We set the goal of raising 15.000 dollars and we did well. We reached that amount in the first 2 hours. We actually got 300.000 dollars in the first 8 hours and we had to shut it off. We didn’t want to deal with that. We just wanted to do it as a provocation to sort of mess with our students. Now more than 15,000 Neolucida’s have already found their way to artists and designers all


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over the world.”

According to Levin there’s no magical formula for this kind of success. “Kickstarter certainly is a kind of trial by fire way of seeing whether your idea is interesting. But you also have to present compelling rewards. People want to get something back from it.”

How did we build enthusiasm? - Once we had captured the backers, we actually sort of cannibalised the Kickstarter

framework to teach people. We taught them about the history of art and technology and optics. About media archaeology. And these lessons were a sort of massive open online course.

- This was a provocation, a kind of a performance project for us. And I think people sensed this.

http://neolucida.com


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http://neolucida.com/

Documents

Cinekid for Professionals Conference Report 2014