WILDBRAIN LAUNCHES INITIATIVE TO LEVERAGE BLENDED EXPERTISE IN CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND YOUTUBE MANAGEMENT FOR IP OWNERS

Seasoned executive Steve Manners to drive initiative offering combined services of established consumer products licensing agency WildBrain CPLG and leading digital distribution platform, WildBrain Spark

London, UK – 6 January 2020 – WildBrain, a global kids and family content and brands company, has appointed Steve Manners to drive a new business development initiative designed to maximise opportunities for brand licensors and content creators to reach consumer audiences through YouTube. In the newly created role, Manners will work with clients to build brand management programmes that leverage the blended expertise of WildBrain’s established consumer products licensing agency, WildBrain CPLG, and its leading digital network and studio, WildBrain Spark. The initiative reflects WildBrain’s unique position to offer a fully integrated 360° approach to brand management and monetization through its expertise in consumer products licensing, content creation, and digital distribution.

Steve Manners

Maarten Weck, EVP and Managing Director at WildBrain CPLG, said: “We have been working closely with our colleagues at WildBrain Spark as the licensing industry becomes increasingly attuned of the potential of YouTube and other digital platforms for launching, supporting or reinvigorating IP. Steve is the ideal person to spearhead business initiatives that help inform and support our clients as they look to navigate the digital landscape, and his new role will help maximise the synergies across our businesses.”

Jon Gisby, Managing Director at WildBrain Spark, said: “WildBrain Spark’s expertise in digital distribution and content creation can help IP owners and their licensees engage audiences across the world, and maximise the return on their marketing investments. With approximately four billion views per month on our YouTube network, we have an abundance of insights and data that can drive consumer products strategies and campaigns. In addition, we assist licensors in creating ‘always on’ content delivery on YouTube to further engage consumers and support brand activity, so it’s a natural step to harmonise our offering for IP owners. Steve’s experience and relationships in the licensing world will enable us to enhance our services and forge expanded and new partnerships.”

Steve Manners added: “There is a huge opportunity for IP owners in harnessing the expertise, tools and reach of both WildBrain CPLG and WildBrain Spark – it’s a very exciting time to be at the forefront of this bold new world. We are uniquely positioned to offer combined expertise and services that benefit those coming from the AVOD-first space to consumer products, as well as those licensors looking to leverage YouTube as a tool.”

As VP, Business Development WildBrain CPLG and WildBrain Spark, Manners will report to Maarten Weck and Jon Gisby. Steve Manners has nearly 30 years’ experience in Consumer Products. Since 2010, he has been a key member of the management team that has seen WildBrain CPLG become one of the world’s top consumer products licensing agencies. Manners has played an integral role at the agency in overseeing the successful programmes of key licensors and also securing new representation. Prior to CPLG, he held senior positions at 20th Century Fox, Universal and Beanstalk.

For more information, please contact:

Trade media: Aimee Norman at DDA Blueprint PR
aimee@ddablueprint.com
+44 (0) 20 7932 9800

About WildBrain

At WildBrain we make great content for kids and families. With approximately 13,000 half-hours of filmed entertainment in our library – one of the world’s most extensive – we are home to such brands as Peanuts, Teletubbies, Strawberry Shortcake, Caillou, Inspector Gadget and Degrassi. Our shows are seen in more than 150 countries on over 500 telecasters and streaming platforms. Our AVOD business – WildBrain Spark – offers one of the largest networks of kids’ channels on YouTube, with over 145 million subscribers. We also license consumer products and location-based entertainment in every major territory for our own properties as well for our clients and content partners. Our television group owns and operates four family entertainment channels that are among the most-viewed in Canada. WildBrain is headquartered in Canada with offices worldwide and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: WILD). Visit us at www.wildbrain.com.

About WildBrain CPLG

WildBrain CPLG is one of the world’s leading entertainment, sport and brand licensing agencies, with offices in the UK, Benelux, Nordics, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Greece & Turkey, Russia, the Middle East, and the US. With more than 40 years of experience in the licensing industry, WildBrain CPLG provides each of its clients with dedicated licensing and marketing industry professionals and a fully integrated product development, legal and accounting service. WildBrain CPLG believe that collaboration is about clarity, openness and trust, and is widely known for its no-nonsense, straightforward approach – Expert Common Sense. Please contact us or visit the WildBrain CPLG website for more information: www.cplg.com.

About WildBrain Spark

WildBrain Spark builds brands through the management and creation of preschool and children’s entertainment content on platforms such as YouTube, Amazon Video Direct and ROKU. WildBrain Spark’s branded YouTube network is one of the largest of its kind, featuring more than 200,000 videos for over 650 kids’ brands in over 20 languages. Every 90 days, one in every three kids worldwide with access to YouTube watches video content on the WildBrain Spark network, which has over 145 million subscribers, and generated over 183 billion minutes of watch time across 37 billion views from October 2018 to September 2019.

Connecting kids’ content owners and creators with advertisers in the Advertising Video-on-Demand (AVOD) space, the WildBrain Spark network features much of WildBrain’s own library of approximately 13,000 half-hours of kids’ and family content, including Peanuts, Teletubbies, Strawberry  Shortcake, Caillou, Inspector Gadget, Degrassi and Yo Gabba Gabba!, as well as popular third-party brands such as Fireman Sam, Curious George, Shopkins and Ben 10. WildBrain Spark Studios also specialises in the creation of new, original content for its network, such as animated and live-action shorts; toy-play and stop-motion videos; preschool counting and alphabet videos; nursery rhymes and more.