Toon2Tango’s Ulli Stoef talks new show launches and working on new opportunities including ways to leverage AI.
For our annual overseas round up, LicensingSource.net asks a selection of licensing industry insiders in key territories to tell us about their takeaways from 2023 and the challenges and opportunities they expect to encounter in 2024, and for a single word to sum up each year.
Today, we head to Germany, with Ulli Stoef, ceo and producer, Toon2Tango.
“Business was better than expected in 2023 thanks in particular to the successful first airings of our show Monster Loving Maniacs (on CBBC and Super RTL) and the timely delivery of Agent 203 (Super RTL, ITV, RAI). For both these shows we are in advanced talks with a potential partner in the master toy category, as well as licensees in other categories.
This year we also started production on our new preschool show Hey Fuzzy Yellow and our Christmas movie SANTA.COM (both scheduled for release in 2025), and we have a number of shows in the later stages of development. They include Littlest Robot and our first live action show, Macara’s Curse.
Later in 2024 we will be launching DinoMite, a show based on a successful book series published by Random House. It will be produced by TRICK17 and M.A.R.K. 13 in co-production with Germany’s ZDF and we are handling the worldwide distribution and share rights with ZDF Studios.
Right now, consumer spending is stuck and shelf space is limited. Companies able to continue to invest during this crisis will benefit from any economic upswing in the future; we intend to be one of them. As a producer we are working on all sorts of opportunities, including finding ways to leverage AI. We are also looking for strong IPs in which to invest.
For 2023, my word is building. For 2024? Growing.”
This feature originally appeared in the spring 2024 edition of Licensing Source Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.
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