Brand has the potential to be at the $1 billion mark, says Vivendi cmo Lucien Boyer.
Paddington has the potential to be a $1 billion brand, according to the cmo of Vivendi.
And Lucien Boyer has said that to achieve the ambition, Paddington 2 will need to build on its success on the merchandise front at retail.
“To be clear, this is the future; 2017 is the year of Paddington,” he stated.
“After movie one, box office and retail value is at the $400 million level global – and that is quite significant, of course. We are proud of the film we made and the job we have done so far.
“But, this brand has the potential to be at the $1 billion mark; that’s what we have in mind.”
Speaking in the spring edition of Licensing Source Book, Lucien made it clear that Paddington is at the centre of a global franchise that will reach into pretty much every area of entertainment.
“We have a five-year plan, which we can now talk about, this is our vision for Paddington,” he said. “So, not only is there a second movie, but there will be a third and a fourth. Every other year, a new Paddington movie will be released. In the years between the movies, we will create an animated TV series – that will start after movie two, in 2018.”
Prior to this, a mobile game from Gameloft (a mobile game studio that StudioCanal and its Vivendi parent company acquired around the same time as Copyrights last summer) is due in Q4, coinciding with promotion for the new film.
Lucien continued: “On top of that we also plan to extend merchandise in the master toy category. Paddington is already a leader in plush, but we want to extend that toy reach a lot further with longer term partnerships.”
Broadening the gaze further, Lucien confirmed that he is exploring the idea of a theme park with conversations underway with companies in the UK, Europe, the US and Asia.
Movie tie-in books and even a musical have also been mooted.
“As you can see, we have quite an ambitious and extensive array of elements for Paddington to help create an even stronger brand,” Lucien continued. “We believe it is a brand that has enough history and enough legs to fulfil all our ambitions. He is also a very special character who has a lot of what the world today is in need of.”
Lucien also points out that 2018 marks Paddington’s 60th birthday.
“That will be very important for us and we will mark the occasion throughout many different areas of the franchise.”
This story is based on a feature that originally appeared in the spring 2017 edition of Licensing Source Book. Click here to read the full publication.
