KIDSCREEN 2021: ACAMAR FILMS WANTS TO INTRODUCE "BING" INTO NEW MARKETS

International producer and distributor Acamar Films is attending the virtual edition of Kidscreen with the view to broaden Bing’s geographical reach. "Bing" is a hit animated series that already has a huge success in the UK, Italy and Poland. Acamar Films is also investing in a Neutral Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese version in preparation for a Latin American launch. Eroulla Constantine, Director of Sales & Distribution, talked with Señal News about the global potential of the brand. 

What is the international potential of “BING”?

“International Emmy Award-winning 'Bing' celebrates the joyful, messy reality of pre-school life. At Acamar Films we invest considerable time and resources into carefully crafting each and every episode of 'Bing' – always with our audience at the front of our minds. Our stories are meaningful, authentic and globally relatable – and we see evidence on a daily basis that pre-school children around the world are responding to Bing with deep levels of emotion and engagement." 

"We want to introduce ‘Bing’ into new homes, into untapped parts of the world, and to grow our international audience. We are leaning in more than ever, talking to a vast range of digital platforms and linear broadcasters in order find like-minded partners to collaborate with. We are very proud to be able to offer a multitude of 'Bing' experiences digitally via our Bing: Watch, Play, Learn App currently available in the UK, Italy and Poland, our social media channels (engagements doubling YoY) and our ever-expanding network of international YouTube channels (3.5+ million subscribers and 3 billion lifetime views to date). We’re seeing huge growth in our digital audience and look forward to building on this further. While Bing’s success to date has been phenomenal, there are a handful of major territories that are yet to be introduced to ‘Bing’ – including the USA, Japan, China and Latin America. Launching in these territories will be vital to us building a truly global project, and we can’t wait to delight new audiences with our characters and stories.”

What is Acamar Films’ interest in Latin America? 

“Expanding into this incredibly exciting part of the world has always been an important goal for Acamar Films. We are currently in the process of producing brand new Neutral Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese versions of 'Bing' – enabling us to maximise audience reach across the territory, and beyond. Our new 104 LATAM episodes will be produced on location with creative supervision from our London-based team, ensuring that the appropriate levels of care and attention are brought to the authentic localisation of our characters.” 

“We believe our emotionally-led narrative will appeal to, and resonate with, Latin American children in the same way it does across Europe. In the UK, 'Bing' was the only show to have two episodes feature in the BBC iPlayer’s top 10 episodes of the year (all genres). In Italy, 'Bing' is the #1 pre-school property and was the most requested kids show on RaiPlay (Rai’s VoD platform) in 2020. As is true across the world, the way in which Latin American children and families consume content is changing every day. An influx of new OTT platforms continues to serve those evolving needs – delivering content to where children are and providing them with the ability to view when and how they want to. To ensure that 'Bing' is available to children across a variety of platforms is central to our global distribution strategy.”

What are the goals of being present at Kidscreen? 

“We are committed to deepening our relationship with the global pre-school audience by expanding Bing’s geographic reach. At this year’s Kidscreen we hope to meet with new partners to explore strategic partnerships and to catch up with existing partners to continue a wealth of exciting ongoing discussions. We are also excited to share some of the first new series of a brand new US version of 'Bing', voiced by local children and produced to an exceptional high standard. While 'Bing' has been brightening the lives of our audience since 2014, Acamar Films remains a young company with so much more for us to do and achieve… And we’re raring to go.”

By Romina Rodríguez