Filly Status Report: October 2015

MIPCOM 2015 has passed, BRB have shown their selection of shows to people, and now, when everything has settled down, some actual news have emerged, news that touch upon the future of Filly and Filly Funtasia.

Brandora GmbH have posted a detailed article which encompasses a wide variety of what we can expect in the next year and in the years beyond that. So let's take a look after the break at some quotes from the article, shall we?

1. Feature Film and Musical

• "The IP owner Dracco has also been approached with further projects including a feature film and a musical project."

A rather befuddling piece of news that seems to indicate that Filly will receive its own feature film at some point in time, as well as a musical. Or won't. The wording of this sentence may draw connections with the IP owner, but it does not draw connections with the IP itself, so it may not be news at all.

2. Pop Music

• "Universal Music is distributing Dracco’s own produced Storytelling CDs (audiobooks) including newly Hollywood-produced Filly® kids pop music."

While Filly audiobooks isn't something new (I have yet to come across one, though), this mentioning of "Filly® kids pop music" is. The Magical World has already been announced a long time ago as a single, however what else can be expected? A full album with other songs, such as the song from promo 4?

3. The Magazine

Filly has its own monthly magazine, each with a comic book story (an example can be seen in this article). Naturally, it's still going strong:

• "Dracco takes care of supporting the stories and ideas plus the supply of exclusive Filly® figurine covermounts The magazine has also expanded on an international basis with launches in Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia and many more markets to follow, like Spain, Italy, France, Nordics, Benelux and further."

Seems like it's getting more global! Hopefully Dracco will also expand their actual Filly books, too.

4. Mobile Applications

• "Fans can take Filly on-the-go with the Filly Photo Fun app that blends real-life pictures with Filly artwork. A new Filly Butterfly version of the Filly Photo Fun app was introduced earlier this year. A Filly Stars (2015/16 theme) will be added." 

Initial version of this article left the news about Filly Stars on mobile quite ambiguous, leaving a possibility that Filly Stars is going to get its own unique application. Now it is quite clear that Filly Stars will get a photo application. 

5. General Filly Successes

• "To date Filly has sold close to 100 million figurines, with over 200 individual characters, in over 50 countries around the world."
• "In Germany Filly® was ranked #1 and #2 in 2014 according to NPDgroup toy charts in the category “Playset themed figurines and accessories” (based on turnover)."
• "Additionally 4 more Filly® products were in the top 10 category. The Filly® Butterfly Flower Tower in December 2014 Christmas sales was the most sold item in this category."
• "Overall in 2014 Filly® ranked #4 among the Entertainment License NPD ranking and as such being the #2 girls license."
• "Girls in Germany reinforce this finding as Filly® also ranks among top 3 “Appeal of Licenses” with 94% appeal rate girls 4-6 years old according to research institute Icon Kids & Youth from the September 2014 Kids License Monitor."
• "Girls 4-6 years old, being asked for their favourite license for merchandising products - unprompted, without mentioning the name - mention Filly® as top 3!"
• "75% of all 4-6 years old think that it’s absolutely brilliant to have Filly® as a brand on products (the Hype Status), ranking #1!"
• "Altogether Filly® is a top 3 license in Germany with aided awareness of 99% among girls 4-6 years old, 84% among 7-9 years old and 89% awareness among the 10-12 years old!"

This paragraph does not talk about the future, however it establishes that the past has been pretty good for Filly. The brand is in a very good state now, and it's likely to remain as such, or even grow bigger. 

6. Delay

Yes.

• "Also Discovery Kids Licensing has been appointed as the licensing agent for Italy and Discovery plans to broadcast the high quality Filly® Funtasia 26 half hours Animation TV Series for late 2016/early 2017."
• "Filly Funtasia will be supported by a full range of merchandise and digital media plus many licensed products to be signed, starting now. The series is planned to be launched internationally in 2016."

Probably the most sought-after topic of them all, Filly Funtasia's release date seems to be moved yet again. What once was "Q1 2016" now became a combination of "2016" and "late 2016/early 2017". What's important to note is that the "late 2016" date is appointed only for Discovery Kids - which is merely one of the ways the show is going to be distributed:

• "The TV Series and audiovisual rights will be exploited in a transmedia way from traditional TV to DVD, VOD and YouTube across the globe."

It is still unclear what the non-Discovery date "2016" actually means. The last approximation was "early 2016", which still technically means "2016". Any way, the release date has become more vague, but it did not necessarily get delayed yet again. We will wait and see, for it is what we can do.
Additionally, it may have been addressed much, much earlier, but here's a reminder: yes, Filly Funtasia will be distributed via digital services such as YouTube. Which means that we won't have any reason to illegally upload episodes there and suffer from copyright notices because of that. Good on you, BRB.