Charles Falzon is definitely not your typical marketing exec.

Falzon left his post as president of Gullane Entertainment, an affiliate of prodco Catalyst Cambium International, following Gullane’s hostile takeover by U.K.-based HIT Entertainment four years ago. Since then, he’s given some advice to various industry players – including CCI – but mostly passed the days tending to his turkey farm in Caledon, ON and contemplating the plight of the Mayans from a house in Mexico. Along the way, he also took up graduate studies in moral philosophy.

And that’s not all. Falzon also teaches marketing on Tuesdays and media ethics on Thursdays at Toronto’s Ryerson University. And it wasn’t long before the CFTPA’s founding chair and one of Canada’s first indie TV producers approached his old company and former partner, CCI CEO Arnie Zipursky, to rekindle some of the old magic that helped build evergreen mega-brand Thomas the Tank Engine.

‘People think it’s an oxymoron, but I love marketing,’ says Falzon, in CCI’s Toronto headquarters. ‘I tell my ethics students, ‘I’m not at the end of the spectrum where I think making money is bad’ – I’m just concerned about children’s entertainment and branding.’

The duo of Zipursky (head of Cambium Entertainment) and Falzon (founder of Catalyst Entertainment) joined forces to create CCI in 2002, with the former running the shop and Falzon overseeing the U.K.’s Gullane (formerly The Britt Allcroft Company).

‘I think [Falzon] saw the potential to build another Gullane without growing the overhead and without the staffing headaches,’ says Zipursky. ‘We’re both very practical and not interested in fast deals, but in trying to be smarter and strategic.’

Yet while Falzon helped build the enterprise up to a $500-million business with 300 employees, he found the corporate world both positive and scary.

‘It shifts not only the agenda, but your own personal focus,’ he says. ‘I was spending half or more of my time making sure we were improving shareholder value, as opposed to worrying about the brand. Not to mention the fact that I was commuting to England six months of the year.’

It’s Falzon’s passion for the brand experience that’s driving his return to the industry he’s been a part of for more than 25 years.

‘I realized about 10 years ago that it was more about cohesive, holistic entertainment being off-screen as well as on-screen,’ he says. ‘We think it’s going to be even harder going forward to promote a new property – to invite a parent into a trusting relationship on behalf of their child.’

Falzon likes to say that CCI is in the ‘tangible experience business,’ meaning the brand extends beyond television into something you can take home with you, whether in the form of merchandising, an experience on a grassroots level through a mall kiosk, or – in the case of a mega-brand – a theme park.

To that end, the model for CCI is slow development of properties, leveraging partnerships around the world across various platforms, with the hope that one hits big.

The goose that could lay the golden egg is Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs, which Falzon et al have been nurturing for years. Based on popular books, the animated 52 x 12 series, about a five-year-old boy whose dinosaur toys come to life, is a copro with the U.K.’s Collingwood O’Hare Entertainment. On board are broadcasters Teletoon, Cartoon Network in the U.S., and Super RTL in Germany.

And already in the, er, bucket, are deals with Fisher-Price, Random House and shelf space in Toys R Us. The plan is to monitor ratings for the animated series in key markets before a retail rollout within the next year.

‘It’s big in terms of its potential,’ says Falzon, the marketing promoter, before giving way to his philosophical alter ego. ‘What happens in the world is still between luck and strategy. Somewhere in the middle is reality. So far it’s exciting.’

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