Kidding Around For Global Success (Malaysia SME)

An award-winning digital animation company believes that by “letting the kid out” of its creative team members, it can change the world for the better.

The names Johan and Mustang Mama may not ring too loud of a bell with most Malaysians, yet both these characters are already internationally recognised with television audiences worldwide.

Unless you are a eight year-old or 38 year-old ‘child at heart’ cartoon connoisseur, you will likely not have come across these animation titles or be aware that both were created by Malaysians.

Since its establishment in 2002, Inspidea Sdn Bhd, which creates, produces and distributes original digital animation for the television and mobile industry, have seen their shows out in Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, AXN, Animax, and many other terrestrial TV stations.

Its creations have reached out to more than 30 countries, with most of the customers coming from Europe. While its team of 110 employees can bask in the success of the youthful
MSC-status organisation, the founders reflect upon the bumpy ride in reaching their current position.

“To a certain extent, I was rather forced onto this business, as I had lost my job due to the economic downturn in 1999. “Yet, thinking back, that was perhaps the best thing to have happened to me, else I may never had ventured into setting up Inspidea with my business
partner,” says Inspidea sales and marketing director C.J. See.

The pair makes highly unlikely business partners of an animation studio as See comes from the finance and accounting background, while founding partner Andrew Ooi was working as a town planner.

The first two years, the pair went through what they termed as the research and development stage of the business. See reveals: “Truth is that, we were not doing well in terms of sales, and we also realised that the Malaysia market may not be ready for what we have to offer.”

In 2004, the pair took their first visit to Cannes, France to explore the world’s audio and visual market. It was then that they realised, as See puts it “the world is much bigger then what we
thought”. The visit, although did not bring upon immediate sales, at the very least validated their belief that there is a lucrative market out there for creative animation products and services.

Since securing their first production from Dubai three months after their visit to Cannes, Inspidea’s programmes are today distributed globally. The company’s first born was Johan The Young Scientist which took slightly over a year to produce. The series was soon distributed to Indonesia, Korea, Dubai, Singapore, India, Portugal, Malaysia, and in the United States.

Its second effort, Mustang Mama Football Fever which was completed in 2006 became an instant hit worldwide, including receiving an award in 2006 for Best of Media and Entertainment from APICTA (Asia-Pacific ICT Award).

Its follow-up Mustang Mama Diehard Sports Fan was launched in 2007 in collaboration with Yahoo! In conjunction with the Beijing Olympics.

Inspidea’s following creations include Disney’s A Kind Of Magic, SIP Animation’s Ko-Bushi and Combo Niños, Scrawl Studios’ Milly Molly, and its latest ‘environment-conscious’ animation
series Boo and Me in partnership with KidsCo, the international children’s channel owned by leading media company NBC Universal.

With 95 per cent of its sales revenue coming from the overseas market, it is rather ironic that the creative team has found success across the globe but remains relatively unknown back home. See points out that this is because the Malaysian market although visibly growing, is not big enough for animators to fully depend on to sustain them.

“The level of appreciation amongst the general public for animation work is also not as high as say in Korea, Japan or Europe. ‘Then there is also the difficulty in attaining sufficient financial
support and project backing from local programme channels.

“Unlike outside where projects are evaluated based on its own merits of potential, here it’s more difficult is you are not from a big production house or with a long track record,” remarks See, who travels frequently around the world in search of new markets.

Judging from their 300 per cent average sales revenue growth over the last couple of years, having a track record will no longer be an issue. The founders swiftly credit their pool of creative talents for their successes to date.

“Our philosophy ‘Let The Kid Out’ has been with us since the very beginning. The concept behind this is to make the team feel and think like children do,” says See.

But it is not all kids play for the digital animation company as they see the increasing demand for animation productions catered for teenagers and adults. Developing content for the mobile media is also a fast-growing market.

Not just limited to entertaining children, Inspidea also does its part to help them out through their Community Renewal Program. This includes the Johan Helping Hand, a project that raised money for the Kiwanis Foundation which cared for Down Syndrome children and their families by providing help, counselling and support.

While we may still be some distance from taking away an Oscar from Pixar Studios or Disney, if Inspidea continues to let more kids out of our Malaysian talents, it would surely not be too long
of a wait.