Crayon maker Crayola said it is coloring its way into the kids and family content market by launching Crayola Studios and that its first project will be helmed by former Nickelodeon Group head Cyma Zarghami.

Crayola Studios will be overseen by Crayola executive VP for marketing Victoria Lozano, with support from Goatfish Agency, which was founded by former Fremantle president Rick Glankler. 

Crayola is owned by Hallmark Cards and Hallmark Media will also support the new studio.

:“As world leaders in creative self-expression, the establishment of Crayola Studios is a logical next step for us, it builds on plans announced last year to develop entertainment content that inspires and nurtures the next generation and helps them develop lifelong creative mindsets,” said Lozano. “Our unique perspective offers an exciting opportunity for the industry as it searches for stand out new and trusted content that has creativity at its heart.”

Crayola Studios said it already has a pipeline of shows in development, working with production companies, animation studios and IP owners to create engaging content that will appear on kids broadcast platforms around the world.

The first project announced by Crayola Studios is an animated adaptation of The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian, which is being co-produced by Zarghami’s MIMO Studios.

The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian is based on a kids podcast from Gen Z Media, written and performed by Jonathan Messinger.

It is a science-fiction adventure story about an eight-year-old boy on a space station.

The podcast was launched in 2016 and has released 12 seasons and 260 episodes. With over 24 million downloads, the series is consistently number one on the iTunes Kids & Family chart. Finn Caspian is also a best-selling book series

“Crayola is synonymous with kids and color and we are so excited to collaborate with them to bring these beloved journeys to life through world-class animation and artistry” said Zarghami,

“We have been cultivating The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian since we first identified it and immediately saw the great potential and opportunity to tell rich stories in video the way Gen-Z Media did in the podcast. The combination of great characters, creativity, adventure, and information is something we can’t wait to bring to audiences worldwide,” Zarghami said.

The series will be written by Brad Birch.

“This series allows kids to explore the power and limitless potential of imagination, self-expression, and creativity,” said Lozano. “Its DNA is at the very core of what we do at Crayola and a perfect example of the type of shows we want to produce going forward. We’re thrilled to join forces with the talented team at MIMO to bring Finn’s action-packed adventures to life.”

Viacom announced that Cyma Zargahmi, the long-time head of top kids network Nickelodeon, was stepping down and would be replaced on an interim basis by Sarah Levy, chief operating officer of Viacom Media Networks.

The move had been reported in February, but wasn’t confirmed officially at the time.

Nick has remained No. 1 but its ratings have been flat to down in an environment where parents are pulling the plug on cable and kids are more likely to entertain themselves online.

Zarghami joined Nickelodeon in 1985 and was named president in 2006.

“Over the course of her career, Cyma has played an integral role in growing Nickelodeon into the dominant force in kids’ entertainment. Her instincts for creating content and experiences that kids love have been vital to the brand’s success around the world,” said Bob Bakish, president and CEO of Viacom.

“Looking to the future, we are excited to build on this strong foundation as we continue to evolve the business and connect with young audiences in new and innovative ways," Bakish added. "I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Cyma for her leadership and wish her every success.”

Viacom said that during the transition, Levy will work closely with Nickelodeon’s leadership team to manage the brand’s operations. Their focus will be to successfully launch more than 800 new episodes of original shows and accelerate the brand’s push into new and next-generation viewing platforms, film, live experiences and consumer products.

Nickelodeon will resurrect its 1990s pre-school series Blues Clues, part of the more than 800 episodes of new and returning series slated in the upcoming year, the networks announced prior to its Tuesday evening upfront presentation.

The additional episodes – up 20% from last year – is part of the network’s overall strategy of giving it target kids audience an opportunity to experience its content on a variety of platforms and through new technologies such as virtual reality and location-based experiences. 

Among the new shows to hit Nickelodeon in 2018 and 2019 is a remake of Blues Clues, featuring the original animated puppy Blue and an as yet revealed new live-action host, according to the network. The series ran on Nick Jr. from 1996 to 2006 

Also making a comeback to Nickelodeon is a spinoff of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The animated Rise Of The Mutant Ninja Turtles series will feature the voice of WWE superstar John Cena as villain Baron Draxum, according to the network.

Other new series include Los Casagrandes, a spinoff from the network’s animated series The Loud House featuring show characters Ronnie Anne and his brother Bobby Santiago; and Pony, an animated buddy comedy that follows the life of an average girl whose talking pony comes to live with her and her family.

On the live-action front, new shows include Keep It Spotless, a competition series from the WWE’s John Cena; Knight Squad, a comedy set at a magical school for knights in training; and Musical Dares, a short-form series that features a new twist on the classic concept of musical chairs. 

Signature Nickelodeon series returning with new episodes include Spongebob Squarepants, The Loud House, Henry Danger, The Thundermans and Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn.

Nickelodeon also announced a new partnership with IMAX to bring its multi-player, virtual reality offering SlimeZone to select IMAX VR Centres globally this month.

Nickelodeon Group President Cyma Zarghami said the network’s rollout of new content and new technological advances represent the network’s efforts to “reinvent” itself for a new generation of audiences accessing content on new generation platforms. While the network is not abandoning its linear TV roots, she said the network has to reach kids where they are with content they want.

“Great IP will take viewers to every platform,” she said. “That’s not to say we’re leaning one way or the other; it is to say that unlike five or 10 years ago when something works, it works everywhere. The reach you get with linear, even with a diminishing universe is still a significant audience.”

Nickelodeon leads off the cable-network upfront season this Thursday (March 2) on a ratings and brand identity roll. Viacom’s recent naming of Nick and Nick Jr. as two of the six core brands that the company will put its resources behind follows the programmer’s strong 2016 performance: It finished as the top kid-targeted cable network on a total day basis in all major kids demos. Nickelodeon Group president Cyma Zarghami spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about Nickelodeon’s brand value within a crowded and competitive kids’ content marketplace. Here’s an edited transcript of their conversation.

MCN:From your perspective, what does Viacom’s choice of Nickelodeon as one of its six core franchise network brands mean for the network’s operational strategy?
Cyma Zarghami: One of the things that’s most exciting about it are the global opportunities for the network, because the two places where Nickelodeon has been able to really differentiate itself are global, and our success theatrically in our partnership with Paramount. So with the [Teenage Mutant Ninja] Turtles movies and the SpongeBob [SquarePants] movies — as well as four or five [movies] that we are pretty certain are coming in the next four years — along with the global opportunities to take all this IP even further around the world is exciting.

Also when [Viacom CEO Bob Bakish] called out the flagship brands, Nick Jr. was one of them. I would just add that the preschool success that we’ve had really is a testament to why Nick Jr. is one of those flagships. The success of Paw Patrol, Blaze and The Monster Machines, Shimmer and Shine, Bubble Guppies, Umizoomi and Mutt & Stuff has been an incredibly fruitful and creative journey for us. That’s one of the places where we see a great future.

MCN:How have you adjusted to new competitors like Amazon and Netflix playing aggressively within the kids TV marketplace?
CZ: Well there’s no doubt about it — in the entire industry, there is much more content than ever was before. We are not strangers to the idea that our partners are our competitors, our advertisers and our distribution partners. It’s a complicated web that we weave, but the great thing that remains true about the ecosystem that we’ve been able to create is that it features great content and has a brand identity.

When you think about some of the newcomers in the competitive space, there is a whole lot of content there that fits under one branded identity. I think what still remains true about Nickelodeon is that it stands for something to the audience, and I think that it’s our mission to make sure that brands still means something as the world becomes more commoditized and on-demand.

MCN:What should we expect to hear from Nickelodeon at the upfront?
CZ: One of the things we’ll be talking about at the upfront is the big change in the world that kids are living in, and their response to the world that they’re living in. It really has been a pretty seismic shift when you put it all together, and I think what we have been able to do is really figure out how to connect and be relevant to a new generation of kids. That shift has been going on for about five years, so it’s taken a little while for it to settle, but what we know about the audience now and how we’ve applied that to the content that we’re making has really made all the difference.

So you’ll hear things like authenticity is important to them, family is incredibly important to them, and having friends who are from different backgrounds and religions is important to them. If you look at the content that we’re making, all of those things are seeping their way into the storytelling and the character development in a very organic way, and that’s really making a difference.

MCN:Will Nick be creating new and original programming for digital platforms to reach kids where they are watching video content?
CZ: One of the great things about linear television is that in addition to still [being] the most-watched place for all content, it’s also the biggest marketing tool for new content. Extensions of things that kids see on television that make it to the other platforms rise to the top every single time.

Original content that starts on the other platforms don’t necessarily rise to the top at the same rate or level — it’s just harder. One of the things that still rings true about linear television is that if you are successful you get mass simultaneous reach, and you can’t get that any other way. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be developing for all those other platforms and we shouldn’t make our apps the best they possibly can be, but first you have to build an audience for it.