Paw Patrol unleashed Behind ViacomCBSs plan to take on Disney
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When âPaw Patrol: The Movieâ hits theaters and the Paramount+ streaming service on Friday, it will kick off one of ViacomCBSâ most ambitious efforts to take on Disney in the streaming wars.
The release of the feature film based on the animated childrenâs series about a group of rescue dogs who protect their community, will be backed by an âeight figureâ marketing blitz, with 1,800 TV ads across channels like Nickelodeon. It involves partnerships with almost 200 companies - from Kelloggâs cereal to Best Western hotels - on tie-ins for toys and other products, many of which will come with a free trial of Paramount+.
The strategy is the highest-profile example of a game plan ViacomCBS has developed to build out its kidsâ franchises - including âSpongeBob,â âiCarly,â and âTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesâ - and use their success to help become a credible competitor in the war for paying streaming subscribers at a time when consolidation in the industry is leaving the company at a disadvantage.
âDisney is the gold standard in terms of really creating and monetizing franchises,â said CFRA analyst Tuna Amobi.
âViacomCBS is looking to do the same thing, but they havenât been as aggressive in terms of actually getting an early start and pivoting into streaming and taking some of the potentially game-changing actions that weâve seen from other companies, especially with the way COVID affected the industry. So the âPaw Patrolâ film could be a litmus test in terms of going day-and-date streaming and theatrical.â
Friday will mark the first time ViacomCBS has debuted a film in theaters and on Paramount+ simultaneously, a decision the company announced in June. According to executives, it assessed the likelihood of parents bringing their unvaccinated children to theaters amid rising cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant.
In the near-term, ViacomCBSâ family films will likely debut theatrically and on Paramount+ on the same date, via a very short theatrical window followed by a Paramount+ release, or skip a theatrical release altogether, said Brian Robbins, the president of Nickelodeon, the ViacomCBS kidsâ channel where âPaw Patrolâ debuted as TV series in 2013.
The âPaw Patrolâ film, the first theatrical spinoff of the TV show, has among the most tie-in products and global retailers of any film the company has distributed, said Pam Kaufman, President of ViacomCBS Consumer Products.
It is also the first time ViacomCBS is using the full force of its properties and partnerships to drive people to Paramount+, the streaming service it crafted from the merger of CBS and Viacom. Many of the consumer product tie-ins include a free one-month subscription to the service, which costs US$5 per month with ads and US$10 per month ad-free.
The marketing push around the film âis not just in service of Paramount+,â said Robbins. âThis is in service of the franchise of 'Paw Patrol' which, in turn, as that franchise grows, so should our streaming service.â
New franchise content is crucial to Paramount+ subscriber growth, executives say, because it helps drive new subscribers, who then stay on the service so their children can watch older franchise content, like the six seasons of âPaw Patrolâ currently available on the streaming service.
ViacomCBS is also betting on its âStar Trekâ franchise, among others, premiering its first-ever animated âStar Trekâ series for families - âStar Trek: Prodigyâ - later this year on Paramount+, followed by a second viewing window on Nickelodeon.
Yet for âPaw Patrol: The Movie,â success across consumer products sales, box office tickets and new streaming subscribers is far from guaranteed. Families may prefer to stay home rather than go to movie theaters or shop at brick and mortar stores that are promoting the film in their aisles. A preschool film has a limited audience compared to multi-generational offerings from Marvel and others.
And on streaming, ViacomCBS is among the smallest of its peers, with 42 million total streaming subscribers compared to Disneyâs 174 million. Even as ViacomCBS is seeking organic growth, non-Executive Chair Shari Redstone has sought partners as Discovery and Amazon bulk up through their acquisitions of AT&Tâs WarnerMedia assets and MGM, respectively.
On Wednesday, ViacomCBS and Comcast announced a joint streaming service, SkyShowtime, that will launch in smaller European markets next year.
âYou want to create a virtuous cycle of content creation and monetization, and I wouldnât say that ViacomCBS is the gold standard of doing that yet, and thatâs probably one of the strategic rationales of the CBS-Viacom merger: to create more scale and create more franchises,â said Amobi.
(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Kenneth Li and Nick Zieminski)
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