Animax Announces Kid Koncepts, Consulting Services for Kids Worlds

Animax announced today the formation of Kid Koncepts, a division focused on bringing kids brands into virtual worlds. The division is already working with several clients to launch virtual worlds in Q2 and Q3 of 2009. No names were announced, but the new division focuses on "entertainment, toy, confection, publishing and other kid-focused brands." That's a broad range, and CEO Michael Bellavia emphasizes the importance of looking outside the traditional toy and media focus of the current boom of kids worlds.

"I wouldn’t focus on toys either, because [our development] has been in categories you wouldn’t normally think of," Bellavia explained. "Entertainment and toys is the go-to gimmee because those are the categories that first embraced virtual worlds, but if you look back at Coca Cola, there are other categories looking at these things."

Animax has helped develop kids worlds in the past, but Kid Koncepts is focused at least as much on the early design, strategy, and planning of both online and offline products as it is in the actual production of virtual worlds and their assets.

"We were much more focused on the creative services end, now we’re focused on the upfront strategic business case," said CEO Michael Bellavia. "We’re not just looking at the world on its own, but taking a holistic approach to the reshaping and defining of the physical product to realign it with the virtual product strategy to make sure it doesn’t fall into me-tooism. There are so many of these youth virtual worlds coming into the market place that it becomes key to figure out what the link is between that offline and online mode."

That means the process begins much sooner. Kid Koncept is working on a model that begins with product design, continues to market research, and ends with business analysis gauging revenue predictions for the short and long term.

"These companies are coming to us a lot more earlier--even before they’ve developed or shipped a product to make sure the design works together," noted Adoree Durayappah, Director of Business Development.

Part of the demand for services like these seems to come from a more mature approach to building virtual worlds. Bellavia says that fewer and fewer clients are approaching them simply with a fuzzy goal of extending their brand, but instead are increasingly focused on ROI, whether that's from a lift in sales, direct revenue, or exit strategies for investors.

"One thing we notice when talking to our clients is that they really need to understand the ROI before they can get approval from upper management and then go ahead with it," explained Durayappah. "We’re really talking to these brands early on to help them with internal decisions."

That's true she says from large toy and entertainment companies down to "smaller toy manufacturers coming to us and asking how we become the next generation of Webkinz."

That's not to say the company isn't still focused on entertainment value. With a company background in television and entertainment as well interactive content, Animax is still drawing on a stable of writers to combine fun with business.

"This is what we’re doing, looking at the lay of the land in the industry, market opportunity, competitors, and strategy before anyone comes to us to build," concluded Lead Strategist Tucker Aaron. "We put all that together into a plan for them. It’s generally a pretty substantial process."

[Disclosure: I previously worked as a freelancer with Tucker Aaron at Tocquigny Advertising.]