This low-profile multimedia company, established in 2014, collaborates with some of biggest brands in the world, including Disney, Dreamworks, and Lego. Kids Media excels at promoting and marketing these products.
“During weekends, for instance, we send out alerts via WeChat to bring parents and children to specific retail outlets for reading activities, talks, author visits, or special promotions. We want to make reading and visiting bookstores a parent-child bonding experience while providing them with opportunities to peruse and purchase quality products from trusted brands,” explains general manager Ivan Gong, whose team has been focused on coordinating and leveraging print, multimedia, and social media channels to create product buzz that leads to sales. “We have to get the word out and generate sales through different platforms.”
To date, Kids Media has published nearly 800 titles, 40% of which were launched in 2017 alone. The Little Prince and bilingual titles Zootopia and Frozen are its top three bestsellers, with total sales of the first two exceeding 460,000 copies. “Disney bilingual editions are our main publishing category, driven mostly by the demand from parents who want their children to learn, read, and speak English,” Gong says, adding that the company has published around 128 bilingual titles of varying comprehension levels that also include activities and games. “When it comes to marketing these products, the emphasis is on inviting the readers—and actual buyers, who are the parents—into the brand environment and letting them experience all that the brand can offer.”
But working with such highly popular brands also means extra attention to piracy and copyright protection. “One way we protect our Disney products, for instance, is to offer a dedicated audio service that is accessible only to owners of the genuine bilingual edition,” says Gong, who also collaborates with different industries authorized by the brand franchiser, such as apparel manufacturers and theme parks.
As for originals, two main authors headline Kids Media’s catalogue: Yu Yujun, with the five-volume series Crystal Words and 12-volume series Constellation Words; and Mei Shifan, author of the nine-volume Little Red Bean series. “This year, we are increasing our original publications, especially primer titles and picture books,” Gong says. “About 30 titles are in the works.”
