Unit 12-Finacial Report -Chris Crook

Market Trends
A market trend is a perceived tendency of financial markets to move in
a particular direction over time. These trends are classified as secular
for long time frames, primary for medium time frames, and secondary
for short time frames.

Products and services: Aardman Rights and Brand Development is renowned for
developing and building enduring character brands across all media. They
specialise in marketing and realising the commercial potential of their properties
in a way that celebrates and respects their creative values. There are lots of
strategies that Aarman have used in the past to get people viewing their
product/services. For example: Google teams up with Aardman for 360-degree
animated Christmas caper. As this is a clever strategy, that hasnt really been
used before. So what exact services do Aardman have to offer? Aardman, is a
British animation studio based in Bristol. Aardman is known for films made using
stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine
characters Wallace and Gromit. After some experimental computer animated
short films during the late 1990s, beginning with Owzat (1997), it entered the
computer animation market with Flushed Away (2006). It has plenty of cartoon
films that are amazingly animated.

Research and Development: For this particular part (Research and Development)
I found out some research about the founders and history of the company, as
well as the year by year history of Aardmans created films.
About the founders:
Peter Lord- (CBE) Born 4 November 1953 is a British animator, film producer,
director and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations
studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts,
particularly those featuring plasticine duo Wallace & Gromit. He also directed The
Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! which was nominated for Best Animated
Feature at the 85th Academy Awards.

David Sproxton- (CBE) Born January 6, 1954 is one of the co-founders (together
with Peter Lord) of the Aardman Animations studio. David graduated from
Collingwood College, University of Durham before starting as an animator,
producing segments for the Vision On TV program, Sproxton and Lord created the
character of Morph for Take Hart. He is credited as the cinematographer for the
BAFTA Award Nominated War Story, and the Oscar nominated Adam, as well as
the Oscar-winning Creature Comforts directed by Nick Park.
Other production credits include Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the
Were-Rabbit and Arthur Christmas.

The Year by Year history:

1976- Aardman was founded in as a low-budget project by Peter Lord and David
Sproxton, as you well know from the paragraph above. who wanted to realize
their dream of producing an animated motion picture. Their first big break was
providing animated sequences for the children's art series, Vision On, for which
they created Morph, a simple clay character. Around the same time Lord and
Sproxton made their first foray into adult animation with the shorts Down and

Out and Confessions of a Foyer Girl, entries in the BBC's Animated Conversations
series using used real-life conversations as soundtracks.
1982-Conversation Pieces commissioned by Channel Four Television meant that
the pair was able to develop its innovative technique of animating puppet
characters to real-life conversations.
1985-Peter and David met Nick Park at the National Film and Television School
when he was working on his student film A Grand Day Out. joining Aardman on a
full time basis.
1986- Peter Gabriel suggested that they collaborate with director Stephen
Johnson and the Brothers Quay to create a new rock video. Sledgehammer went
on to collect almost every award that year. That original combination of rhythm,
energy, style and visual flair was also harnessed to provide the visual
accompaniment to the late Nina Simone's My Baby Just Cares for Me and Robert
Parker's Barefooting'.
1989-The studio was again commissioned by Channel Four Television to create a
series of five 5-minute films, Lip Synch. This ground-breaking series further
explored the world of animation based on true characters and real voices and
included Peter Lord's War Story and Going Equipped, Barry Purves Next, Richard
Goleszowski's Ident and Nick Park's Creature Comforts, which went on to win the
1990 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
1993- The Wrong Trousers was another success for Aardman animations,
acclaimed worldwide and winner of over thirty awards, The Wrong Trousers has
become one of the most successful animated films ever made.
1995- Aardman produced Nick Park's third Oscar winning film A Close Shave. An
immediate success, it confirmed the studios reputation as well as establishing
Wallace and Gromit as household names.
1998- Aardman won a BAFTA for Stage Fright, an 11-minute short film
commissioned by Channel Four Television. Steve Box, Nick Park's key animator
on both The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, directed Stage Fright. A very
successful year all around.
2000- In 2000, the world famous Chicken Run was released earning awards in
USA and the UK. Aardmans Chicken Run generated 200 Million at the worldwide
box office.
2005- After a quiet 5 years, Aardman released Wallace and Gromit's first feature
film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was released by DreamWorks in October 2005.
The film topped the box office charts in both the US and UK and garnered many
prestigious international awards including the Academy Award for Best Animated
Feature Film and a BAFTA for Best British Film.
2007- Flushed away was the next big hit. Being nominated for a BAFTA award.
The first sign of Shaun the Sheep was finally publish. It is currently still on our
British TVs today. 2010 also saw the launch of Shaun the Sheep spin off game
Home Sheep Home, which proved a huge success and reached nearly 70 million
plays within its first year and won numerous industry awards.

2011- In 2001, two films were aired for the very first time, these being: Arthur
Christmas an action-adventure comedy set on Christmas Eve was released in
November 2011 and The Pirates! - In an Adventure with Scientists.
2015- Shaun the Sheep in production, a half hour special Shaun the Sheep: The
Farmers Llamas being produced for Christmas 2015 and a number of feature
films projects in development.
From my research, I have found out the best movies that have been given the
most popular films. Starting from 1993 to 2015.
1993
The Wrong Trousers
Directed by
Nick Park
Produced by
Peter Lord
David Sproxton
Written by
Nick Park
Bob Baker
Starring
Peter Sallis

2000
Chicken Run
Directors
Nick Park, Peter Lord

Producers
Nick Park, Peter Lord, David Sproxton
Production companies
Aardman Animations, DreamWorks

2007
Flushed Away
Directors
Sam Fell, David Bowers
Featured songs
Dancing with Myself, Mr. Lonely, more
Production companies
DreamWorks Animation, Aardman Animations, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures

2015
Shaun the Sheep: The Farmers Llamas
Director
Jay Grace

First episode date

November 13, 2015
Film series
Shaun the Sheep
Network
BBC One

Product Diversity: The definition of product diversity is: The process of expanding
business opportunities through additional market potential of an existing
product. Diversification may be achieved by entering into additional markets and
pricing strategies. Often the product may be improved, altered or changed, or
new marketing activities are developed. Aardman has been doing many things
related to this, as Ardman have sold many toys and teddys e.c.t to go alongside
with the movies, therefore, this becomes a better experience.

Product Development Cycle: With every major company, planning only starts
when the budget has been confirmed that it is too available to cover all costs of
the operation. Once the budget has been ticked off, this is the process that the
planning starts, for Aardman animations, the first process of planning is
storyboarding and clay modelling, this process is all about trial and error.
Development: The next stage is the development of the product. Prototypes may
be modified through various design and manufacturing stages in order to come
up with a finished product that consumers will want to buy. Testing: Before most
products are launched and the manufacturer spends a large amount of money on

production and promotion, most companies will test their new product with a
small group of actual consumers. This helps to make sure that they have a viable
product that will be profitable, and that there are no changes that need to be
made before its launched. Analysis: Looking at the feedback from consumer
testing enables the manufacturer to make any necessary changes to the product,
and also decide how they are going to launch it to the market. With information
from real consumers, they will be able to make a number of strategic decisions
that will be crucial to the products success, including what price to sell at and
how the product will be marketed.

Customers: It is important to have a good reputation, when it comes to

customers as Aardman animations first point of sales is to its customers and
target audience. A customer is an individual or business that purchases the
goods or services produced by a business. Attracting customers is the primary
goal of most public-facing businesses, because it is the customer who creates
demand for goods and services. Businesses often compete through
advertisements or lowered prices to attract an ever-larger customer base. The
situation is somewhat complicated in that ultimate customers of so-called
industrial goods and services who are entities such as government bodies,
manufacturers, and educational and medical institution either themselves use up
the goods and services that they buy, or incorporate them into other finished
products, and so are technically consumers, too. However, they are rarely called
that, but are rather called industrial customers or business-to-business
customers. Similarly, customers who buy services rather than goods are rarely
called consumers

Current international and national market trends: I had to research further in

terms of this heading as it is current I look on Aardmans website and others,
heres is what I found: Jeans saw similar positive growth in the UK in 2015
compared with 2014, of 3% in current value terms. There was substantial
competition amongst the different brands, as jeans faced increasing competition
from leggings and yoga pants as part of the ever-present athleisure trend. The
latter were already popular in 2014, and other denim garments appeared
(especially for women) which can easily be seen as a substitute to jeans, such as
jeggings or disco pants. Referring back to Aardman, there is several new movies
coming out which is part of a trend.

Industry Trends
Industry trends are examined to make predictions. The study
includes trends related to consumer behaviour, employment,
technological advancements, new product development,
competition, government norms and other factors that impact the
industry.

Property Rights: Property rights establish relationships among participants in any

social and economic system. Holding the rights to property is an expression of
the relative power of the bearer. Holding such power or rights commands certain
responses by others that are enforced by the community or our culture. For
example, a producer owning 100 acres of cropland is entitled to the returns from
his property, management ability, and good sense. He is protected from trespass
by his neighbours cultural customs and the laws of the community. The
production, or stream of benefits from the land, is his to sell, give away, or
otherwise dispose of as he sees fit. Aardman has the ability at any time to
withdraw their products from the public if they choose to as well as films, shows
and series as well as merchandise.

Outsourcing: In business, in this particular case Aardman outsourcing involves

the contracting out of a business process to another party The concept
"outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one
firm to another, but not always. Outsourcing is also the practice of handing over
control of public services to for-profit corporations. Outsourcing includes both
foreign and domestic contracting and sometimes includes offshoring relocating a
business function to another country Financial savings from lower international
labour rates can provide a major motivation for outsourcing or offshoring.

Sequels:

A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre,

television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon,
some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel
portrays events set in the same fictional universe as an earlier work, usually
chronologically following the events of that work. In many cases, the sequel
continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and
settings. A sequel can lead to a series, in which key elements appear in a
number of stories. Although the difference between more than one sequel and a
series is somewhat arbitrary, it is clear that some media franchises have enough
sequels to become a series, whether originally planned as such or not. Sequels
are attractive to creators and to publishers because there is less risk involved in
returning to a story with known popularity rather than developing new and
untested characters and settings. Audiences are sometimes eager for more
stories about popular characters or settings, making the production of sequels
financially appealing.