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to life on the web
Clothing icon's lead role in internet cartoon series
By Marty Beard
Before there were such things as Winnie-the-Pooh underpants and Tweety Bird cardigans, there were the characters of children's literature and cartoons.
Only after Bugs and Mickey had become American icons did Warner Bros. and Disney open mega-stores selling all manner of apparel with their cartoon images.
It was the old paradigm at work: Invent a character, then sell the T-shirts.
Paul Frank, a Newport Beach, Calif., clothing designer, is trying the opposite approach.
Having established a line of cartoon character-themed apparel, he's now bringing them to life as animated characters, and he's doing it on the internet.
Last month, Paul Frank Industries launched "Julius and Friends," a cartoon series on Sony’s entertainment site Screenblast.com.
"We have inverted the revenue pyramid," says Ryan Heuser, Paul Frank Industries’ president and co-founder.
"Most people start with a cartoon first, then back into the merchandise."
The goal, of course, is to use the series to promote the clothing line, which sells in Paul Frank boutiques, the catalog Delia’s and department stores.
But Paul Frank executives see the series as guerrilla marketing at its best: Infuse the message, don't beat the customer over the head.
The thinking: Paul Frank’s hip, youthful clientele might be put off by mainstream advertising messages but they'll be open to a set of cartoon characters that subtly promote the clothing line.
"It’s really about discovery," Heuser says. "We have a customer who is that indie type who shops at thrift shops and is not mainstream.
"Finding out on their own about this show and about our line is a lot more rewarding than someone saying, ‘Hey, have you seen that big "Julius and Friends" ad?’ They would be very turned off by that."
Jason Schwartzman, who starred in the 1998 comedy "Rushmore," voices Julius the Monkey. The plots are short, simple, and fanciful; for example, in the episode titled "Peanut Butter and Jellyfish," Julius and sidekick Clancy the Giraffe go on a diving exploration in search of grape jelly from a grape jellyfish.
"An 8-year-old could view it and not understand some of the layered content, in terms of the intellectual conversations that are going on, but from a purely aesthetically pleasing point of view he would easily gravitate toward these characters," Heuser says.
"It does have that sort of ‘Simpsons’-esque wit, that sharp wit and intellectual layering to story lines."
"Julius and Friends" will be promoted in Paul Frank stores and via low-key methods such as Julius postcards.
"Part of the marketing plan is to have no specific marketing agenda," Heuser says. "We don’t really believe in advertising in the traditional sense, in terms of print ads to publicize what we’re doing with our clothing line."
Paul Frank first launched his clothing line five years ago with a red vinyl wallet emblazoned with the face of a monkey dubbed Julius.
Frank has since developed a cast of supporting characters, including Clancy the miniature giraffe, Worry Bear, Bunny Girl and Vic the Snail. Their colorful visages have graced a line of urban, mod-ish tees, belt buckles, pajamas, purses and the like.
The company, which this year projects revenues of $14 million, has placed its products in films such as "Austin Powers."
The impetus for the online cartoon series, as Heuser tells it, came from an out-of-the-blue telephone call from a fan, Obie Scott Wade, who happened to have a background in animation.
That phone call led to the collaboration with Wade in which Paul Frank commissioned 26 short "webisodes" of "Julius and Friends," working with Mondo Media, the animation site.
Currently the show is viewable only with broadband connections via Screenblast, but it will go into syndication next year, when it will be accessible via dial-up connections.
The web launch of the cartoon series might seem to be coming at an odd time in the brief history of the internet, following the collapse of a number of cartoon and entertainment sites over the past two years.
But most of those were launched with far bigger expectations, both in terms of traffic and revenues from advertising. Also hurting their chances was the lag in technology, notably in the growth of broadband.
Paul Frank's expectations are far more modest, and so has been the series' debut. So far, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, traffic to Screenblast.com and Paul Frank’s web site comes in at less than 100,000 visitors a month.
But the series' creators believe traffic will build over time.
"'Julius and Friends' is different in a way because it comes with a built-in audience," says Christina Chavez, a Mondo Media spokeswoman. "You have a show that already has brand recognition, so it takes away the challenge of having to go out and introduce characters to an audience."
October 5, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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