Sima Zergami knows what it takes to be successful in children’s television. It’s not measured by Nielsen ratings, unique users, or page views, but something elusive: Playground Credits.
“It’s something kids like to wear on their backpacks,” says Zergami. diverseWeekly podcast “Strictly Business”. Television shows are no longer standalone properties, but are part of larger narratives that include social media, video games, and dedicated fan communities.
“To truly become a franchise in the children’s world, you almost have to be everywhere at once, right away,” she says.
The old Nickelodeon leader has put up her own production banner, MiMo Studios, which launched its first project in June, “HippoPark,” a series of animated shorts that debuted on YouTube.
Zergami spent 33 years at Nickelodeon, the last 12 of them as chairperson, before stepping down in 2018. She knows just as much as anyone else how hard it can be to get young viewers to get into traditional TV content while getting their attention. Many directions through many platforms. But when she looked around at her options after coming out of what was then Viacom, Zergami didn’t have many doubts about her next move.
“I still have children in my veins,” she says. “I’m staying in children’s business because I want to see what the next version of the kids’ ecosystem will look like.”
Zergami details the steps MiMo took as a standalone to get up and running and how she envisioned “Hippo Park” as one building block for a metaverse set of characteristics and characters woven together. She points out that in the emerging world of Web3 entertainment, creators will have to get used to dealing with direct feedback from fans at a subtle level regarding what they want to see next for their heroes and villains.
“Everyone should enter this next generation of content with an open mind,” says Zergami. “It’s going to require people to work in very different ways than comfortable work.”
MiMo plays just as the biggest broadcasters are starting to put the brakes on a bit on kids programming. And the big three of the Linear Era — Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network — are clearly in a period of reinvention as their audiences move away from television to TikTok and other social media platforms.
For Zergami, it’s a huge transitional moment for an industry she knows so well, making it an exciting time to cultivate her flag as a producer.
“Throwing a lot of things out for the audience to see what sticks is an early days strategy,” says Zergami. “What is going to happen now is that people are going to spend a little bit more time making sure they are making the right choices. And that’s part of the broadcasting business maturing as well.”
“Business Strictly” he is diverseWeekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders on the media and entertainment business. New episodes start every Wednesday and can be downloaded to iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
[ad_2]
