Mattel has formed a centralized content division that will leverage the company’s brands to drive programming across multiple platforms including television, digital and theatrical. Mattel Creations will be headed by Mattel’s chief content officer Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, who joined the company last September. Mattel also promoted longtime creative exec Christopher Keenan to SVP, content development & production. Mattel/HIT brands include Thomas & Friends, Bob the Builder and American Girl. New content in production under the Mattel Creations banner include 2D animated series WellieWishers, from American Girl, and CGI movie Barbie Dreamtopia. Keenan took a break from MIPTV madness to outline the group’s vision…
Why is now the time for a centralized Mattel studio?
Ever since Mattel purchased HIT a few years ago there’s been a number of different creative entities under the Mattel roof. It makes more sense to align our creative efforts and create a global team with character and story driving the efforts that we can apply to not only our core brands but some of the lesser-known brands and characters, and also seek and out new properties and stories.
Will new content be toy-driven, as it has been in the past for Mattel?
Previously, Playground Productions focused primarily on creating content to support the toy and product lines in a number of our core brands, and HIT been a content-led organization. We are going to take that model and apply it across the board, and allow some of our product efforts to be inspired by that. It can work both ways. There may be new technology innovations on the toy front, and that may inspire content. But for the first time we are all gathering to say, the HIT model works really well – to go with content first and not necessarily a product. We are creating franchises and brands, not just toy lines.
How will short-form content iterations roll out?
Definitely short form is a big part of what we’re focused on, and it can be digital or it can live on television. Digital is extremely important. We have experimented with a variety of different models, and short-form content can serve a variety of different needs. For example with Bob the Builder, there was a lot of get-to-know-our team short-form digital content prior to the launch of the new series, and then we added sing-along videos and videos that delve into actually building and STEM elements of the show. Each served a slightly different purpose but what’s interesting is a lot of the short-form content ends up having a multitude of lives. It may have launched online but the broadcasters want it for interstitials, or to build a short series around two to three episodes.
