Brand Watch: DreamWorks
Last Thursday Comcast confirmed it would acquire DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion. Comcast anticipates the deal to go into effect by end of year. DreamWorks Animation will become part of Comcast’s NBCUniversal portfolio and current CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg will vacate that role. Katzenberg had been eyeing an opportunity for some time (a 2014 acquisition by Hasbro fell through). Spun off from DreamWorks SKG in 2004, DreamWorks Animation suffered a shaky 2015 with several box office flops and company layoffs.
Comcast has its sights set on building a family entertainment business to rival that of Disney’s. Brooks Barnes writing for The New York Times’ DealBook speculated that Comcast’s interest is in DreamWorks Animation’s ownership of valuable intellectual property, from newer cartoon creations like Shrek and Kung Fu Panda to classics like Casper the Friendly Ghost and the iconic canine, Lassie.
As Stuart Elliott suggested in his column last week, companies may be better off going after animated assets (and hero Collie dogs, as may be the case). Cartoons are less inclined towards the PR crises that their human counterparts can incite.
What effect will the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation have on ad spend? We turned to our sources at AccessConfidential.com for some facts and figures.
- DreamWorks Animation spent just over $3MM in measured media in 2015, with the largest percentage of ad spend going towards cable TV.
- Between 2013 and 2014, DreamWorks Animation decreased its total national spend by more than $10MM.
- By comparison, Comcast-owned Universal Pictures spent nearly $370MM in 2014 with media duties covered in part by Maxus.
Can Comcast compete with Disney’s stake in family entertainment or will it be back to the drawing board? What new ad strategies will integrate DreamWorks Animation into NBCU? We’ll stand by for the latest.
Get profiles on 30K advertisers and find the contact information for the decision makers you need to reach at AccessConfidential.com.
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