Paw Patrol is on a mission — everywhere
How the popular kids TV captivated kids around the world
NEW YORK— Keith Chapman is on the receiving end of a multibillion-dollar empire fuelled by shows on screen and stage, backpacks and bathing suits, cereal boxes and plastic toys.
The 59-year-old lives in Monaco, the affluent principality on the Riviera. He drives Aston Martin sports cars while collecting millions in royalties each year from a group of cartoon puppies that he drew in 2011, who now appear on televisions in more than 160 countries speaking more than 30 languages.
It’s the kind of animated world domination that even Chapman, the creator of Paw Patrol, worries might never happen again.
“It’s harder now to get something to become a success because there are so many channels and so many outlets and so many more shows,” he said in an interview. “If you wrote it all down — from the spark of the idea to a global brand doing a billion dollars a year — it’s almost impossible. It’d be harder than winning the lottery.”
Almost nobody recognizes Chapman on the street but nearly any preschooler or parent of school-age kids has likely seen his work. Paw Patrol is the mostwatched television show for preschoolers this year, according to Nielsen, and Viacom estimates the show has generated about $7 billion (U.S.) in global retail sales.
In the fourth quarter of last year, the research firm NPD Group found, Paw Patrol got the largest share of U.S. licensed merchandise sales from kids under 15, topping the NFL and Disney’s Frozen, Mickey Mouse and Star Wars.
“I have not seen anything like this in preschool in all of my years,” said Pam Kaufman, Viacom’s president of global consumer products, who has been working in the kids TV business since the early 1990s. “It’s a global phenomenon.”
Paw Patrol may be the high watermark for its breed of carefully engineered global children’s entertainment. It would take “a perfect storm” to create another show as popular, said Jim Silver, an industry analyst and founder of toy review site TTPM.
Before Paw Patrol first aired five years ago, there had been just a few preschool hits since Sesame Street: Peppa Pig, Blue’s Clues and Dora the Explorer. But nothing that utterly dominated the landscape, Silver said, creating an opportunity for Paw Patrol to fill the void.
The chances of a hit are already slim. Success in kids TV requires more than just a great idea — you need talented producers, animators, voice artists, writers and directors, as well as retailers committed to putting toys on its shelves.
Now the prospect of a megahit has become even slimmer because there are so many shows on multiple platforms, like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube, diluting preschoolers’ attentions. The ratings for kids TV networks in the U.S. like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel are in steep decline. That means fewer kids to sell toys to — and with the death of Toys “R” Us south of the border, fewer places to sell toys.
“It’s going to get harder and harder because of all the fragmentation,” said Peter Robinson, head of research at Dubit Ltd. “I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing gets to Paw Patrol’s size in the next 10 years.”
The premise of Paw Patrol goes like this: A 10-year-old boy named Ryder organizes a team of six puppies with oversize eyes and paws and real-world jobs like firefighter or police officer.
In every episode the pups jump into transforming vehicles and save a cat stuck in a tree, stop a runaway train or otherwise prevent a cartoon calamity.
Chapman is not the only one cashing in on the Paw Patrol frenzy. The co-founders of Toronto-based Spin Master — the toy company that bought Chap- man’s idea — are billionaires and among Canada’s wealthiest people. Spin Master owns the rights to sell Paw Patrol toys and the broadcast rights in Canada, while Viacom’s Nickelodeon has the merchandising rights for other categories and the television rights outside Canada.
There are dozens of Paw Patrol licensing categories, from live theatre to fruit snacks to birthday cakes to a theme park debuting this week in the Mall of America.
Chapman was born in Basildon, a suburb of London, and his teachers often threw him out of class because all he wanted to do was draw cartoons.
He graduated from art school and started his career in advertising, then took a job working for Jim Henson and the Muppets. He spent nights trying to create his own characters and came up with ideas for children’s books, TV shows, cartoon strips and greeting cards.
In the late 1990s, he got his first breakthrough with Bob the Builder, a show about a friendly construction worker and his team of machines. He sold the concept to Hit Entertainment, which is now owned by the toy giant Mattel.
In 2002, he started his own production company, Chapman Entertainment, but when the global recession hit in 2008, parents stopped buying expensive toys. So Chapman was forced to shut things down. The bank seized his intellectual property and sold the shows to DreamWorks Animation, which is now owned by Comcast Corp.
Around that time came the call from Spin Master, which was soliciting famous creators of kids TV shows for ideas. Chapman thought all kids could relate to puppies; his three sons had dogs growing up, as did Chapman. Dog kennels, he figured, would be the perfect device for transforming into emergency vehicles.
He called his concept “Robbie and the Rescue Dogs.” Spin Master liked the idea but thought the name wasn’t right. The dogs, after all, do community service as well as rescue missions — Rocky, a mixed breed, is devoted to recycling. Paw Patrol was born.
Chapman gets a cut of the fee for every episode of Paw Patrol that airs, plus consulting fees and a share in the profits from licensing and merchandise. He estimates that his shows, including Bob the Builder, have generated more than $10 billion in total revenue, including broadcasting fees, licensing and merchandise and DVD sales.
“To walk around and see kids wearing the backpacks or the clothes, I get a real kick out of it,” he said. “I’m totally anonymous. I can just watch and feel quite proud about that.”
So why is Paw Patrol so popular? Analysts and those involved in the show offer several theories.
For starters, the characters are puppies. “Every kid wants a puppy,” said Jennifer Dodge, the executive vice-president of Spin Master Entertainment.
Paw Patrol also appeals to a broader age range than most preschool shows. Paw Patrol has fans as old as 7 because its teamwork-oriented storylines are more complex and coincide with the developmental stage of older kids, Robinson said.
Unlike other TV shows, entertainment for children isn’t only about attracting a large audience. The corporate interests are developing characters that sell toys — what industry experts call “a play pattern.”
Paw Patrol has a narrative that’s easy for kids to understand, and in case they need help there are YouTube videos of people playing with Paw Patrol toys that have racked up millions of views.
“You’re playing out the adventure,” Silver, the toy reviewer, said. “It’s not just the dogs. It’s the character of the dogs. You have to remember, the dogs are heroes.”
Entertainment for children isn’t only about attracting a large audience. The corporate interests are developing characters that sell toys