The long-awaited presentation of Yarko animation studio was held online. The new asset of Gazprom-Media Holding has managed to grow many times in less than a year, build a system of interaction between divisions and please viewers with the animated series ‘Sport Tosha’.
The key employees of Yarko and the management of the holding told about how the company lives now and how it plans to develop further.
According to Alexander Zharov, CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding, the asset was acquired to strengthen the holding’s position in creating an animation product for children and family audiences with its own creative forces.
— Yarko team creates informational and entertainment content of all genres and formats, available in all media environments. These are great commercial prospects for the holding, the animation market has been on the rise in recent years, and when many businesses are having a hard time during the pandemic, toons are more popular than ever – after all, everyone wants magic in such times, – said Alexander Zharov.
According to him, through creative animation, the holding company recruits a new audience of its platforms and channels, simply and clearly talks about what cannot be told by the methods of ordinary movies and TV shows, and looks to the future – to metaverses where everything around will be drawn. The unique specialists of Yarko studio are able not only to draw any idea, but also something that no one has even thought about yet, this gives great prospects in synergy with other assets of the holding, both traditional and digital.
Yarko animation studio is part of the GPM KIT group of companies as part of the Gazprom-Media holding.
Andrey Tereshok, CEO of the GPM KIT Group of companies, stressed: ‘It is important for us to expand the audience of our content, Yarko studio for us is a bridge to the kids. It is important for us to help them understand this world, to look at it through our eyes. I believe that you will love our animated characters, as we love them. We are looking for new ways, for example, we will definitely go into hybrid projects where cinema is connected with animation. The task of the studio is to master the children’s and family audience sector, keeping in mind the main thing – content should bring benefits, and not only commercial benefits for the company. The animation studio has joined the Alliance for the Protection of Children in the Digital Environment, and this testifies to the high degree of responsibility of the studio, GPM KIT and the holding as a whole for the tools that we use in the fight for the audience.’
In a short time in the growing animation market, where there is literally a hunt for specialists, the CEO and general producer of Yarko studio Albina Mukhametzyanova was able to unite a creative team of professionals in animation production, marketing and distribution, as well as experts in licensing.
— Today we can safely say that the Yarko studio team is the full cycle of the animation brand’s life: from the birth of an idea to its implementation, including through its own production. Moreover, already at the stage of the idea, we understand how our heroes will get to the nursery – to our viewers, – Albina Mukhametzyanova said. — We actively interact with the assets of the holding in search of new solutions and collaborations. With the Match TV channel this year began with the premiere of the ‘Sport Tosha’ animated series, only in the first month of life gained more than one and a half million views. There are also two interesting projects in partnership with RUTUBE and RTV. We actively cooperate with Detskoye Radio and Premiere online cinema.
Yarko team is a unique collection of creative teams working in different techniques, for different audiences, in different semantic universes — it is due to such diversity and a high level of professionals that the team understands the needs of a diverse children’s audience of all ages and interests.
The team positions the development strategy of Yarko studio as follows: ‘This is a factory for professionals in their field in search of a systematic approach to creating hits. We want to create bright moments for the audience and open up new business opportunities for our partners. The product approach to content and ways of working with it are designed to develop the market and a creative professional environment. We are flexible and open, this will allow us to enter the leading positions of the market and subsequently become hitmakers. The dynamic slogan of the company ‘Together with us / it will be bright!’ beats naming and offers open communication for the industry, teams and viewers.’
Yarko studio adheres to the strategy of content diversification by subject and age with a clear positioning for its audience. To do this, the team conducts both standard and deeper studies with a focus on children’s culture in order to speak the same language with its audience.
According to Albina Mukhametzyanova, 12 projects are currently in work-in-progress, it is planned to expand the package of brands focused on the interests of different audiences, implemented by different teams and in different techniques.
