Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Why Niche Brands Win

There's a very interesting article over at Chris Anderson's Long Tail blog about large companies that work hard not to be associated with some of their own brands. Needless to say, I think that there's a lesson for animation studios here. I've thought for a long time that there's a market for animated features that aren't aimed at the family audience and are made for relatively low budgets. If Hershey, Nike and Black & Decker can make this work, there's no reason an animation studio can't.

3 comments:

Benjamin De Schrijver said...

Yes! For example I'd love to have WDFA work on something more adult or just different, even if (semi-)low-budget, that would be released as a Touchstone or Miramax picture instead of as the latest "Disney Classic".

Mike Matei said...

i hate the idea of animated features that are directed at family audiences. why can't we have animated films for everyone? the simpsons movie may be a step in the right direction to realizing that potential. i can't tell you how sick it makes me that people think good animation is stuff like toy story, finding nemo and cars.

Anonymous said...

Toy Story, Cars, and Finding Nemo are good animation ... I think the point is there's room for a greater range.

I believe this was the original intention of Lunatic Fringe , the division spun off from Disney Feature Animation that was
behind projects like The Nightmare Before Christmas and initially helped set up the production pipeline for Toy Story. Toy Story was a "small" film produced by a small up-and-coming independent studio that had previously done shorts and subsisted on television commercials.