Nazli Güney Uysal is Dusyeri Animation Studio‘s Marketing Manager, responsible for the licensing office, publishing house, event management and marketing divisions. With Dusyeri’s partnership with Turkey’s leading kid’s network, Uysal is now also serving as the acquisitions manager of Planet Cocuk.
Global – Trends – Roles – Entertainment! Being a professional in the kids market is becoming more confusing everyday. We have to build a business that considers all of these factors, but the problem we have is that they are constantly changing. In other words, in a kids market, understanding the trends and dynamics of entertainment is increasingly complicated.
But, essentially, kids think in a very simple way. As a professional in this sector, I sometimes try to think like a child to help me understand the world around me. So, when we consider whether interactivity is playing a larger role in kids lives today, we can answer both Yes and No. A child lives in a world that is fully interactive and it always has been. If you poke a beehive, you’ll get stung. If you take your sister’s baby doll, she cries; or share your ice cream and someone smiles.
Kids have been interactive for thousands of years and yet we have been encouraging them to sit and watch. It worked for a while but that is no longer satisfying them. So we have “invented” interactivity, and now we proudly say that it is working!
We have all areas of the business lined up (technology, education, investment, production, marketing) but despite this, succeeding in the kids’ world is not an easy task. Because adults and kids think differently, to get them to understand us we keep shouting louder and louder. Well, maybe things are easier than we thought.
Today’s child is learning faster, consuming faster, and always looking for the next big thing. They have high expectations; they need to be entertained and they need to be entertained everywhere. So we must produce content that delivers what they want. Trends are constantly changing, with new innovations coming through every day and the sector is working hard to keep up. But keeping up is challenging. Let’s look at it from a simple perspective. Let’s forget about marketing and simply think like a child. What does a child really need?
Trends may change but a child is actually very uncomplicated. At Dusyeri our success is built on looking at everything from their perspective. Whether they are on their Ipads, at the mall, or playing outside, the simple and real needs of the child should dictate content trends.
Nazli Güney Uysal is one of our pre-MIPJunior 2015 kids entertainment ambassadors. She will also take part in MIPCOM’s focus on her native Turkey, our 2015 Country of Honour.
These posts are coordinated by Debbie Macdonald, a children’s media consultant. She was formerly VP, programming director at Nickelodeon UK. You can find her on LinkedIn here.
Top photo via Shutterstock – karelnoppe
