INNOVATIVE CARTOON CREATOR

John Rice

Providing a platform for children to interact and become content inventors is all in a days work for John Rice. Creating crazy cartoon characters and adapting innovative animation techniques comes naturally to this imaginative entrepreneur but he tells Niamh MacSweeney there is more to it than spinning a funky fable.

Former college friends John Rice, Alan Shannon and Mark Cumberton did what many Irish graduates did in the early 90s, they followed the American dream. Working on feature animation films in the States, they eventually decided to return to Ireland and catch the tail end of the celtic tiger. Aware that multimedia was experiencing dramatic changes, the trio setup Jam Media in 2002. Originally the plan was to deliver broadcast animation over new media platforms, such as the web. Creating their own content, they would then licence that content to content aggregators and as a result become millionaires. Well that was the plan, but it became obvious that their business model wasn’t working for them. They were faced with the difficult decision of whether to go back and work in various companies, or ride the storm. Fortunately they chose the latter, but it was those initial years that the company founders went through their greatest learning curve. “At our heart we are an animation studio but I suppose we learnt over the first couple of years new methods of delivery and developed a real sense of the economic way in which to deliver world class animation, which we did with limited resources,” John Rice, CEO, Jam Media explains.

AN IDEA IS BORN

Rice says that the idea for the well-known Picme cartoon came about during his daughters second birthday when he did up an animation of her inviting people to her party. In photoshop he took her head and super imposed it over the animation. The reaction from people was so overwhelming that Rice thought he might be on to something. The Picme cartoon series was developed, which allowed children to star in their own cartoon. “This was a completely new idea that had never been done before in television. We pitched it to RTE, they loved it and have since re-commissioned it four times. We have gone on to sell it to 65 territories and its now available in 12 languages,” Rice proudly reveals. Rice maintains it was easy to see why the concept was so appealing to both viewers and broadcasters alike. “Broadcasters are always looking for new ways to interact with their audience. For the audience to be part of the animation is a very powerful marketing statement, because from a broadcasting perspective to position your viewers right next to your brand is very powerful,” he says.

EMPOWERING CHILDREN

Once the team at Jam Media established the Picme cartoon for the pre-school age group, they were quick to up the demographics and make something for older children. Seeing first hand the success and the market for these types of projects, they are now producing a new series called Funky Fables for the BBC, which they hope to deliver next year. The Funky Fable animation will empower older children aged 8-12 to create cartoon content for themselves. “They go to the website and upload a series of photographs. Automatically they are given the opportunity to get entered into the broadcast version. Straight away they get a web page that is created for them and from that they can create their own user generated content that they can distribute either through blogs, myspace, or on mobile devices,” Rice explains.

Jam are very focused on how children consume television content and Rice admits that today TV isn’t the allconsuming device that it was when he was a child. “Kids are multi tasking, surfing the web, sending text messages; doing all these things while still keeping half an eye on the TV. By giving children the empowering tools, not only to be participants on shows, but also content creators, producers and distributors of the content; is completely personal to each individual child,” Rice says.

EARLY ADOPTERS

He agrees that we no longer live in an age where one size fits all. “Television is becoming more fragmented so you have to offer a unique user experience because people are migrating and the lessons we are learning now with children are definately being taken forward, because kids are the early adopters of entertainment,” he says. Rice also realises the importance of keeping up with children’s demands, “we want to grow with them and certainly follow those trends, but hopefully create some new trends as well.”

Competing for business

Vying for presence in the animation industry, especially in Ireland where the market is small, is a challenge, but one that Rice has no problem confronting. “You need to be in the US, UK, Germany and France and we are in all of those places with Picme and its likely we will be in similar countries, if not more, with the latest production of Funky Fables, judging by the way the pre-sales are going at the moment,” Rice comments. He also admits that within the television industry children’s TV is the most crowded, however he says “the potential rewards are the greatest in terms of merchandising and licensing.” Rice exudes an insatiable degree of enthusiasm when discussing his business and obviously finds it hard to disguise his pride and passion for the work that Jam is producing on a worldwide stage. “Its hugely competitive but really exciting. What it comes down to is great stories that children can immerse themselves in and fantastic characters that are fun and entertaining,” Rice says.

He admits that his work is very rewarding especially when he sees productions travel to other countries. MOVIN G UP THE DE MOGRA PHI CS Not content with entertaining the younger audience members, Rice and the team at Jam are undertaking a new concept aimed at adults. The new initiative will focus on mobile technology but will use the broadcast platform as a significant marketing tool. “With your mobile phone you will be able to take a photo and send it to a server. The software automatically crops out the head and analyses the face and puts different facial expressions on it and pretty much immediately you will get returns to your phone, with for example, you starring as Britney Spears,” Rice explains. According to Rice short form content that is personalised and delivered to a personal device is the future and he is confident that Jam Media will be at the forefront of any new developments in this area.

Published in the July/August 2007 Issue of Irish Entrepreneur