Yet, some analysts don’t think its success pattern can be easily replicated. The movie was successful largely because of its marketing strategy.
SMG (Shanghai Media Group), one of the three presenters of the movie and China’s second-largest media distributor, had the 500-episode TV series broadcast on its own cartoon channels and launched a sweeping promotional campaign before the screening. They sent New Year’s cards to children in kindergartens and advertised on TV, radio and other media throughout the country. They also cooperated with fast food chains, such as McDonald's, to send millions of stuffed and plush toys made in the images of leading characters of the movie, a big change for Chinese animated products that were weak in promotion.
“Few Chinese animation companies are financially strong enough to implement similar money-consuming marketing strategies, and few of them have the opportunity to cooperate with SMG,” said an industry insider.
“Development of the animation industry cannot be accomplished in one action; the whole industrial chain should be improved so that private companies in the industry are able to make profits and accumulate strength,” said Fu.
By Dong Jirong
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