Marta Braun: “There is a trust level with both our partners and parents”

With the goal of teaching compassion, empathy and resilience to kids around the world, Moonbug is a global entertainment company that creates and distributes inspiring and engaging stories to expand kids’ worlds and minds. Renowned for titles such as “Oddbods,” “CoComelon,” “Morphle,” and “Blippi,” among many others, the company is now aiming to expand its international footprint. Marta Braun, Head of Latin America at Moonbug, explained the company’s current strategy and talked about what are regional buyers demanding.

▸  What is the company curreny strategy?

“The strategy is to continue what we have done globally, which is basically expanding our distribution footprint. We are one of the top preschool kids companies right now. All of our content is on YouTube, and most of our IPs were acquired from independent creators, and we have invested 100% in those properties to build franchises. Apart from content partnerships, we also have plans for merchandising, toys, live events, music, and more. One of the interesting things, in addition to all of that, is how do we make content more relatable to kids in Latin America. We expanded, for example, our ‘Blippi’ universe in Brazil, and there are plans to do a similar thing in other countries. We want to have more engagement and be more relevant locally in each market.”

▸  How crucial is to have that local engagement?

“I do not know if it is crucial, because we were already very successful before trying to achieve this local engagement, and we have been growing a lot. We have seen that a successful show on YouTube goes to Netflix and gets into the top 10, then goes to HBO Max and it also gets into the top 10 there. We reach new viewers while expanding the footprint, because some parents might want their kids to watch YouTube, while other parents might prefer Netflix, for example. That does not cannibalize the viewership; it only grows it. Therefore, I do not think that local engagement is fully necessary, but it is definitely one of the ways you have to reach a larger audience.”

▸  How do you manage to find the right window for each property?

“From a distribution perspective, we do not manage them so differently. Some FAST clients have a Moonlight linear channel, while other streaming partners acquired a package of our content. We achieve that because there is a trust level with both our partners and parents. They know ours is content that performs well. Nevertheless, there is obviously some little differences when you talk about a music show, an animation or live-action, for example.”

▸  Do you observe any particular demand from buyers in Latin America?

“One of my roles is to listen to the buyer and to try to understand what is he looking for in his content strategy. Lately, what I hear from a few players is that they would like some kind of educative angle, such as science, math, engineering, etc. Diversity and representation are also in high demand. It depends a lot on the client, and that is why it is so important to listen, even when clients do not really know exactly what they are looking for.”

By Diego Alfagemez and Federico Marzullo