Kedoo is an international entertainment company, specialised in producing, distributing and managing premium kids and general entertainment content. Currently, the company is concentrating its efforts on three content segments to enter the Latin American and the US Hispanic markets: kids animation, TV drama series and factual entertainment. Oli Bernard, Chief Operation Officer at Kedoo explains this strategy.
What specific strategies is Kedoo implementing to strengthen its presence in the Latin American markets and the US Hispanic market?
"As a production and distribution company we are currently concentrating on 3 content segments to enter the Latin American and the US Hispanic markets: kids animation, TV drama series and factual entertainment. For each, we make sure that we are relevant to Hispanic culture and cover a wide range of subjects that work for the audience targets. In factual entertainment for example, we cover stories in Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, and the United States, and in Animation, we stay true to the food culture of the continent while still bringing great storytelling series to Hispanic kids."
What preferences of the Latin American and Hispanic public have influenced your content and distribution strategies?
"For a start this is a buoyant market and it is growing, the engagement of the Hispanic public is very high on all platforms, and there is a deep interest in quality content. This is in line with what we produce, high-quality content with storytelling at the heart of it. So looking at the market we wanted to propose our take on content that the Hispanic public already watches, for example, we address the much-loved Telenovelas/ TV drama series by proposing our Romantica project for love drama series on YouTube, typically well-produced love stories of modern women in 4 to 5 episodes. This shorter format suits the new generation and is quite successful."
Your preschool series “Booba” has accumulated 3.8 billion views on YouTube. What have been the key factors for the success of "Booba" in the Americas?
"'Booba' is a digital Superstar, his success is not only located in the Americas but is worldwide and on all platforms: Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube. I guess Booba just talks to 3 to 6-year-olds! We also make sure that every story is entertaining and always ends with a feel-good factor, teaching empathy and resilience to our little ones."
In addition to YouTube, “Booba” is available on platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video throughout America. How has this availability impacted the popularity of the series?
"We understand that kids watch programs on multiple platforms, but they also sometimes stick to what they have on offer. For this reason, we need to address all possible platforms in each market. It might be that Netflix is very popular in Argentina while YouTube is prominent in Mexico. In that respect, we want to make sure 'Booba' is available to as many kids as possible throughout the Americas. We currently concentrate more on the digital platforms but we are also proposing 'Booba' to broadcasters for both their linear and digital distribution channels, there are some ongoing discussions but we are happy to propose our new season 5 to more national channels going forward."
Since its launch on YouTube in May 2022, the documentary series ¡Vamos! has reached more than 260,000 subscribers and 86 million views. To what do you attribute this significant growth?
"¡Vamos! is our Factual entertainment production coming from our Kedoo original department. For us it was important to stick to two ideas, the quality of the journalism and the production on one side and the new media format on the other. So we partnered with travel journalist, Stas to deliver journalism in an 'influencer' way. The stories we cover are real, Stas goes to locations where you would not necessarily choose to go and unveil the life and stories of real people in these locations. But he does it in a way which is entertaining, fast and corresponds to how content is consumed today on digital platforms."
What are the main themes that ¡Vamos! explores and how do they connect with their audience on YouTube?
"On this channel, we wanted to explore the real situation of people living in difficult places in the world. Stas goes beyond the well-known headlines and discovers what is really happening. He goes to the favelas of Rio and experiences what it means to be there daily, he went to Japan to meet the Yakuza mafiosi, and he travelled to Cuba, Ecuador and Mexico to report on the political situation and what it entails for local people. At the same time, through his travels he reports the warmth and the humanity of the people he meets, he has a particular interest in food and shares his experiences of trying all kinds of street food. This particular way of travelling shows important issues via investigating journalism but at the same time connects people to the local culture. This is what makes the show so successful on YouTube, talking about issues and showing human experiences, all of it in a fast and entertaining way. We will continue in this strategy, with our new travel show 'The Wonder Guys', hosted by Emily Laing and Steve Prior an ex-BBC journalist, both visiting places and reporting on the duality of it. In the first episodes, they go to Las Vegas and meet a ‘whales’ player spending millions of dollars on a weekend and also meet people living 100 metres from the casinos…in the sewers. In recent episodes, they’re also visiting El Paso, documenting one of the most fiercely debated issues in the Americas, i.e. the US-Mexico border crisis, to investigate the issue that has divided a nation, meet the people on the frontlines and uncover real stories of this ongoing saga."
What is the value proposition of the Romántica channel on YouTube, aimed at the Spanish-speaking market and focused on romantic drama series?
"Looking at the Telenovelas market in the Americas, we know that there is an audience for love-drama series in the territories and we wanted to propose something similar but on YouTube as opposed to broadcasters so it can appeal to a larger audience. So to stick to that particular platform, we first selected content that has an end within 4 to 5 episodes, so you can watch it in one afternoon if you want to. Finally, we wanted to propose new content not necessarily already known by our audience, so we selected and proposed series coming from Europe and the rest of the world and fully dubbed them. This proved to be successful and we are pleased with the result."
You are currently developing an application and a FAST channel for Romántica. What objectives do you hope to achieve with this expansion?
"As for other content, discoverability is a key factor in growing your audience on a particular proposition. The launch of 'Romantica' project for love drama series via an Application will allow us to extend the audience, especially on portable devices. And on this, we are also planning to make that content watchable in a vertical format which will suit the mobile user a lot more. To grow on the TV side, FAST channels are proving to be popular against paid platforms, and proposing our Love drama series via a FAST channel will allow us to reach this particular audience. We don’t want our 'Romantica' only for YouTube, we want it available for everyone."