WildBrain has developed an integrated business approach to building enduring kids’ franchises. The kids’ and family media company manages well-known brands like Peanuts, Teletubbies, and Strawberry Shortcake by treating its business pillars of Content Creation, Audience Engagement, and Global Licensing as interconnected components rather than separate functions.

Kate Smith, the company’s Executive Vice President overseeing its Audience Engagement pillar, calls this their 360° strategy: “We fundamentally believe that great franchises and the growth of those franchises and IP starts with three core capabilities. You need content with authentic and brilliant storytelling. You then need to connect that content with your audience wherever they’re watching. And third, you need consumer products and experiences so your audiences can celebrate their fandom off-screen.”

Reporting to WildBrain’s President and CEO, Josh Scherba, Kate sits on the company’s executive team, alongside Stephanie Betts, the EVP heading up Content Creation and WildBrain’s premium animation studio, Tim Erickson, EVP in charge of the Peanuts, Teletubbies and Strawberry Shortcake franchises, and Maarten Weck, WildBrain’s EVP of Global Partnerships and Licensing, who also oversees the company’s licensing agency. 

This team drives an integrated strategy, implemented by Scherba in 2023, which contrasts with traditional entertainment companies that often separate these functions into distinct departments with limited coordination. “Lots of companies might have marketing or sales or all the different areas in different pockets, but it’s our ability to bring them together that I think is really powerful,” Kate explains. “If you have great IP at the core and you’ve got in-house expertise in those three areas, we think that’s the sort of flywheel that leads to success.”

With nearly a decade at WildBrain and over 20 years in entertainment distribution—spanning theatrical film, home entertainment, television, and digital platforms—Kate has witnessed the business change firsthand.

“In this new landscape, there are lots of ways to build kids’ IP globally. You just have to be adaptable and open to change and think differently,” she observes. This adaptability extends beyond managing their own properties to offering expertise to strategic partners seeking similar results.

Audience Engagement

Overseen by Kate, WildBrain’s Audience Engagement pillar comprises expert global teams that reach fans everywhere they watch, spanning content sales, FAST and AVOD, YouTube, Media Solutions, and digital marketing.

The company was an early adopter of YouTube, beginning to publish content from its library about a decade ago. What started as an experiment quickly showed promise, prompting further expansion.

“We saw some early momentum about a decade ago, so we kept expanding on YouTube with our own kids’ library, which is one of the largest in the world,” Kate explains. “Through that, we became experts in the kids’ space on YouTube, which then attracted other companies who had libraries but didn’t necessarily know how to monetize YouTube. They would come and work with us, and we would do it for them.”

The key to this success, according to Kate, comes down to disciplined execution: “Quality content and consistency are key. It’s a programming channel, so you need to publish regularly to feed an audience and to help the algorithm recommend your shows.” To date, WildBrain’s YouTube network has garnered over 1.5 trillion minutes watched, averaging 17 billion minutes watched per month. 

Building on their YouTube expertise, WildBrain expanded into the emerging FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television) channel space in 2019. They recognized that connected TVs offered a new opportunity to create dedicated channels for specific franchises. “Like with YouTube, we got into FAST quite early. We saw an opportunity back in 2019 where these services on connected TVs—the Samsungs, LGs, etc.—had the opportunity to offer their customers TV channels within the experience,” Kate explains.

Today, WildBrain has over 150 channels launched for brands like Strawberry Shortcake and Teletubbies, as well as Pokémon, which partnered with the company last year. The FAST channel strategy complements their other distribution methods. Kate describes the value proposition: “If you want to attract a fan base to your platform of kids and parents who love Pokémon as a good example, you can have a dedicated Pokémon channel with a 24/7 stream of curated content.”

WildBrain’s early entry and operational expertise in this space have made them a valuable partner for other IP owners. Kate notes: “Pokémon is a really good example of a partner we announced last year that came to us to launch and manage their single-IP FAST channel.” She adds, “There’s a complexity with publishing and operating a FAST channel, but we have an expert team in-house and a system in place, as well as relationships with all the big platforms, that make us really appealing to partners.”

Refreshing Legacy IP

WildBrain’s integrated approach is best showcased when examining how they’ve reenergized legacy brands to keep them relevant. Rather than simply producing new iterations of classic properties, they use their 360° strategy to identify what resonates with audiences and develop thorough franchise plans.

Strawberry Shortcake exemplifies this approach. By actively publishing content across YouTube and FAST, they gathered audience insights that shaped their strategy. “Using these platforms, as well as social media, we watched and listened to what audiences responded to and enjoyed about Strawberry Shortcake. Not just with kids, but also the adult fans and parents of this next generation who grew up with the brand,” Kate says. This revealed strong nostalgia for classic versions of the character.

These insights directly informed content and licensing decisions: “It’s a different approach than producing a big new series and putting all your eggs in that basket. There’s more to it, especially with brands that have a strong nostalgic element. Today, where you can publish and listen and react and learn and test, there’s a real opportunity to find what fans themselves love and what they’re telling you they love and then develop a creative strategy from there.”

Similarly, their approach to Teletubbies demonstrates how the three pillars work together. Kate explains, “Teletubbies is a really good example of listening, responding, and playing with that audience and their love for a brand.” Their digital marketing team has built a community around the brand on TikTok, where people enjoy watching classic moments with a nostalgic spin.

“The approach we take on TikTok isn’t kid-focused, but rather one that resonates with Gen Z,” Kate notes. “The comedy goes back to that innocence and the joy, harking back to their childhood when fans first watched the series.”

This success connects to the broader franchise strategy: “That social and digital engagement is a key part of our franchise strategy now. It has shown us that the brand still has relevance and standing in the cultural lexicon, and we want to embrace that as we think about engaging the next generation of parents and their small children, and how we can get them into this joyful, fun world of ‘big hugs.’”

Media Solutions for Partners

Another part of the Audience Engagement pillar that Kate oversees is WildBrain’s Media Solutions business, which leverages the company’s understanding of audience segments to connect brands to families through tailored advertising solutions across YouTube, FAST, AVOD, and branded content integrations on gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. 

“Brands and advertisers come to us because we deeply understand our audience and because we have a large network of premium, broadcast-quality shows and ad inventory across different platforms,” Kate explains. “We connect these brands to highly engaged audiences while they’re in the right mindset.

“For example, if we had a brand that really wanted to reach a Mommy & Me audience, and they wanted to do something around baking, we could pair their ads with Strawberry Shortcake content and then advertise across the network at appropriate times around similar content that appeals to that audience.”

A recent study commissioned by WildBrain and conducted by Savanta revealed key insights into family viewing habits. “We learned that shared screen time, meaning this time where families sit down together to watch shows, is seen as the third-most important family bonding activity, behind only mealtime and travelling together,” Kate shares. 

Shared screen time also presents a key advertising opportunity for brands. “It’s not a passive activity—parents are actively engaged in the content they watch with their kids. Even more interesting, we learned that engagement on-screen extends to engagement off-screen, with most families making purchases based on the brands they see while watching content together.”

WildBrain’s partnership with LEGO further illustrates the value they bring to major brands. Kate describes what works for such partnerships: “We look for great partners with a clear franchise story and lots of content, who have a vision that we can support.”

Future Directions

As WildBrain looks to the future, technology continues to transform how it executes its 360° strategy. When asked about upcoming shifts, Kate predicts: “New technology is going to be a game changer in how we connect with audiences. But where we see the most success is where you marry the creativity and expertise of real people with the insights new technology can provide. It’s a balance, but that human touch is really important.”

For creator economy professionals, WildBrain’s case shows how to build sustainable businesses around IP. Kate’s advice for those looking to build lasting brands begins with the basics: “A great design is key to enduring success. If you look at the beloved, recognizable IP in the kids’ space that hit those big anniversaries, they fundamentally start with a brilliant, ownable, evergreen design.”

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