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Author:
Jenny Lam
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Jenny Lam has extensive experience in global markets. While working as Senior Director of Greater China for Sesame Workshop, she oversaw the launch and managed five groundbreaking co-productions in Greater China and Taiwan.
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Jenny Lam has extensive experience in children's television, content and development, brand and project management, educational programming, and marketing. Most recently, she was Director of Disney Educational Productions (DEP), reporting into Disney Worldwide Publishing and Consumer Products. As head of DEP, Jenny was responsible for overseeing new business strategies, product development, as well as digital expansion in the United States and global markets.
She has also been a creative consultant for several major media companies, such as Nickelodeon, RC2/HIT Entertainment, Scholastic and others. Several of these projects involved work in Greater China and Asian markets. Previously, while working as Senior Director of Greater China for Sesame Workshop, she oversaw the launch and managed five groundbreaking co-productions in Greater China and Taiwan.
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WORKING IN CHINA I had a fantastic experience while at Sesame Workshop, launching five co-productions in Greater China: "Zhima Jie," which is the Chinese version of Sesame Street; "I Love Science," the local version of the popular science series funded by the National Science Foundation called "3-2-1 Contact"; "1-2-3-4-5," a math game show; and a new global English language learning series called "Sesame English," which is a spin-off of Sesame Street.
Generally speaking I experienced what other executives have experienced in countries new to the media expectations of U.S. companies and producers: a lot of bureaucracy; a lot of complexities; cultural differences and sensitivities; finding good talent; complications of money transfers, such as getting receipts from our partners; and simple things like trying to get accurate translations of all kinds of documents, contracts, scripts, etc. None of it is easy.
Also, over the course of the ten years I've worked in that region or followed what's happening there, I've observed how the Chinese government keeps foreign entities at a distance. Some U.S. companies think it's going to be fairly straightforward to break into the territory. It's quite complex.
That said, my specific experience with Sesame Workshop in China was really phenomenal. Sesame Workshop is the best at what they do in international territories and are very committed to putting serious educational content behind their programs. Because of that, they were the first company to successfully launch educational media in China. Their business model is that of collaboration in every sense of the word. We did co-productions with the local and leading broadcasters and producers in China, including Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and CCTV, the national broadcaster, as well as China Educational Television (CETV). Co-productions sidestep quotas and restrictions that are imposed by the government and our co-producers locally represented the shows, basically in all aspects, from the content side as well as in publicity and marketing, helping to be our face on the ground.
In terms of content, we looked at the local needs of the children and developed an indigenous curriculum specific to those needs. It wasn't just taking Sesame Street and repackaging and dubbing it for that territory. The Workshop went in and made 130 completely new episodes based on a new and specific curriculum. And our other partners -- sponsors, major U.S. corporations who basically had sponsorship messages and were looking for opportunities to promote their support -- found our attention to programming and education, and subsequent success very advantageous.
It's kid's television, it's a lot of fun, but it's also a business. It's to develop the brand, launch the brand successfully and establish a presence, build relationships and collaborations. The expectation is that some retail and licensing opportunities will come out of it in the long haul.
That's the model. Attention to local sensitivities and local goals are key. Chinese parents are very concerned about their children's future and providing any advantages in the new global economy, so anything that can support their child's development and education -- programming, toys, books -- is definitely welcomed. There is a lot of interest in China now in English language learning. Many of the major media companies and publishers are looking into this area to broaden opportunities. The business model of Sesame Workshop, having collaboration and education, at its core is quite an advantage.
On the flip side, from within China, it's brilliant how China has reorganized its media industry through conglomeration of media businesses, stations, channels, etc. They now have dedicated lifestyle channels, children's channels, news, etc. There's a determination to catch up with the Western world in skills and techniques and build up their internal infrastructure for production and animation, and more. About five or seven years ago they started to really ramp up. The infrastructure is now in place, and raring to go. Part of the reason our Chinese partners wanted to work with us was to learn these capabilities, in terms of technique, creativity, developing story lines and characters, learning puppetry, and more.
The one area that I think still confounds them is how to develop creative. I think they're getting better at it but still need outside help creating programming to meet internal goals and be competitive with the Western world.
There's opportunity for good, creative programming in China as in many global markets: in health, science, environmental awareness, and other projects. I think these may be good areas to go into, especially for Chinese children with the parent's emphasis on learning.
Regarding animation, you can definitely benefit from substantial savings nowadays working with production companies in China or in India. A lot of co-productions are moving in that direction now. On live-action, it's also less expensive, but quality is an issue in terms of standards. Whether or not you'd go there to produce live action just for budgetary reasons depends on the project, its scope, and the creative standard. The creative side of production in China is something to be aware of. You'd want to monitor that and have oversight over it.
We produced our shows with local crews, but it's imperative to have your own producer planted on the ground - monitoring the scripts and work in progress as much as possible. And also to watch over translations - not just of the language but staying aware of cultural differences and sensitivities, particularly in the way things may get translated. That area can be overlooked very easily, but it's very important to have someone there, someone sensitive the subtleties.
A word about the penetration of computers and educational games in China. It's an open field, and in its infancy. Commercial online gaming has reached China. There are very popular sites and games out there. On the educational side, in terms of products that are available on the shelf, there are still lots of opportunity. It's all brand new. A study I did for a major U.S. media companies found that in China, any product that's has an educational slant or is positioned as "educational" can command a retail price four or five times the value in the States. Because of parents' desire for advancement of their children's education, there is money to be spent on the child. A popular term, "the Six Pocket Child" - stems from China's single-child policy, one child has two parents plus two sets of grandparents. That one child is doted on and has so much influence on disposable income and spending. It presents itself as a real opportunity.
That said however, an obstacle to success there for games and like products is the lack of large-scale distribution mechanisms. But now, you do have companies like Wal-Mart that is building a mass network of distribution. Still though, they are mostly in the more urban and coastal areas or larger cities. The larger portion of the population is still very rural, and that's a difficult nut to crack. There is an emerging middle class in China, it's experiencing a boom now, so there is opportunity, but how do you create the distribution to those rural areas? The infrastructure isn't fully in place yet.
In terms of television programming, localization can play a key role, and that's easier to accomplish via television. As I mentioned, we (Sesame Workshop) actually created three new Chinese Muppets, called Hu Hu Zhu (Little Pig), Xiao Meizi (Little Plum) and Da Niao, Big Bird's cousin, who happened to look just like Big Bird. "Zhima Jie" (Sesame Street) was definitely local programming in the true sense of the word. It really spoke to the audience and their needs. The program was loved so much - to a large part for that reason - that the audience and folks in China really thought they were the first to have Sesame Street, and claimed it as its own.
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