Montreal’s CineGroupe approaches potential productions with merchandising foremost in mind: ‘It’s one of the determining factors in picking a property up. We have had merchandising plans on the cards ever since we picked up Mega Babies,’ says Marie-Christine Dufour, CineGroupe’s vp communications and public affairs. ‘All products we approach we approach with merchandising and interactive in mind. We look at projects as a fully integrated product.’

Mega Babies stars three babies who are blessed with superpowers after having been struck by a bolt of lightning ‘and battle evil in their very natural bodily functions – super farts and super burps.’ The series is aimed at the eight-to-12 age group, ‘what [the Mega Babies] do is funny to kids that age,’ says Dufour.

It seems to be working – Mega Babies was the number one new show on Teletoon last year and came in at number two overall, second only to The Simpsons.

As of September, the series is being broadcast on Fox Family in the u.s. It has also been sold to Channel 5 and BSkyB in the u.k. and to Fox Family in France, Spain and Belgium, as well as to broadcasters in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

The exploitation of licensing potential is shared with one of its production partners: CineGroupe handles Canada, French- and Spanish-speaking territories, Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries through agency Saban Europe, while production partner Sony Wonder has the rest of the world.

Plush products, backpacks and stickers have already been released through Canadian licensee Danawares, puzzles through PuzzImage, and trading cards through Promo Zone.

‘The reason we pursued this project was that we saw the merchandising potential,’ says Jean-Pierre Dion, CineGroupe’s vp licensing and merchandising. ‘It’s a series with characters that appeal to children. We’re developing an interactive game based on Mega Babies and shopping it around to publishing new media houses looking for financing.’

Merchandising is also a means of further entrenching the product in the mind of the consumer, Dufour says. ‘It’s very much a trend in the market, the multiplication of windows of exploitation, you end up looking at all the aspects of creating your branding. You look at market trends, where the market is going, growth areas. The multiplication of channels makes it essential to create a brand in multiple media. [Merchandising] is the way to have your product out there; a product is no longer only an event on television, it’s a series of events on multiple media.’ *