Lisa Judson, Senior Vice President, Creative Director & Chief of Staff, Nickelodeon International.

To become a global animation powerhouse, a company needs to be part of a global entity. Nickelodeon International certainly fits that definition, falling under the umbrella of parent media giant, Viacom, Inc. And, although it may be argued that Nickelodeon is not yet a global animation powerhouse, it most certainly is a children's entertainment powerhouse generally, with animation serving as the foundation of the company's growing international presence

"Nickelodeon animation is central to our global effort," explains Lisa Judson, Senior Vice President and Creative Director for Nickelodeon International. "Kids everywhere love animation, if you give them the right kind of programming. What makes our animation special and important to building our brand is we take a different approach, and have since we went into the animation business in August of `91. We saw what other people were creating for kids and most of it was action-based, violent, toy-based stuff. Instead, we decided to go for evergreen stories and characters that really connect with kids. Shows like Rugrats and Doug are very Nickelodeon, because they come with a kid's point of view."

The Name of the Game
"Building our brand." Indeed, that's the name of the game for most entertainment companies creating original intellectual properties these days, no matter what form or genre. In the case of animation, "brand building"--creating identifiable franchises, shows and characters with long legs and exploitable potential across most forms of media--is of crucial importance for those holding, or building, significant libraries. And the international marketplace is, in turn, central to the success of any such policy. Disney, Warner Bros. and Turner have always led the way in pursuing this strategy, and now Viacom, via its growing Nickelodeon empire, is doing likewise.

© Nickelodeon

The challenge for the Nickelodeon people is how to build their brand while staying within the confines of their self-professed programming policy: to create product with a "kids point of view" and "connect kids with kids." Judson emphasized that policy repeatedly during a recent interview, making it quite clear she and other company executives feel creating kid-friendly, nonviolent cartoons and selling them around the world in no way conflicts with the mission of luring profits.

"From a business perspective, we have found that every time we do something that is good for kids, it is also good for business," says Judson. "In the US, we have found the results of that attitude have been very positive, and we figured out we can extend it into the global marketplace. That kind of thinking on a global basis is a fairly new idea."