Aardman Market Research

Their products & services

Their products
The Films they have produced is from 2000 when their first one was Chicken Run, this was
their first theatrical film and it gained an enormous number of awards. From their first movie,
they have continued to make them and impress everyone, the next one was Wallace and
Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit this came out in 2005 and was a film of the TV series
Wallace and Gromit. Shortly after the Wallace and Gromit film they produced a movie called
Flushed Away this was the first a big deal for them as it was their first CG films and this came
out in 2006. After the successful movie Flushed Away they went on to create another
computer generated film this one came out the 11 th of November 2011 and that was good
timing as peoples search for Christmas films would have been in peak and this film was called
“Arthur Christmas”. That movie was the last CG films they created and continues to be, the
next film that came out was another stop-motion film and
was called The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
And came out in 2012. There last movie created was they
first Shaun the Sheep Movie and it came out in 2015, this
was an add on from the series Shaun the Sheep. They are
now three Movies currently in production form Aardman
and the first one to be released it called Early man which is
coming out later this year and has a trailer to it. Their next
one to be released is a sequel to the last Shaun the Sheep
movie which doesn’t have a release date yet but is set to
come out sometime in 2019 and is called Shaun the Sheep
Movie: Farmageddon.
Their services
On the Aardman companies official page you can see
that they have their own slide for their services and it
consists on Advertising, Feature films, Interactive,
Rights &
Brand Dev, Series & specials, Shorts.
One of their interactivities it called Treasure Hunters
and it is a game that people who visit a science
musium get to have fun with the people they are with,
they created a game that allow them to verse
eachother by taking photos of things around the area
which the game specifies. They are many other things
like this, as the Aardman really try to conect with its audience.
Who are their main customers?
After a long period of time Aardman company has gained many different customers, the first
drew the attention of kids and young teenagers, but they then wanted to get the attention of
an even older generation, so they started to develop more content suitable for all ages and
was still good for an older generation.
The company first had hold over BBC1 and had millions of watchers on that and it wasn’t until
March 2007 they got the “Shaun the Sheep” series on CBBC, this triggered the attention of
millions of children and is Widley known by their Shaun the Sheep series.
Despite their connection with CBBC and BBC1 they still created movies during the time Shaun
the Sheep and their other series were playing on them channels. The movies they release are
highly rated and gain tons of medals and receive BAFTA’s, for example in 2000 they released
their first full-length theatrical film which was called
“Chicken Run”, during the creation of this film it was
funded by DreamWorks. it made a large amount of
money at least over £220 million and was directed by
Peter Lord and Nick park who joined the company full
time in 1985. It didn’t stop there in the year 2006 they
produced their first computer generated movie’s which
also got a BAFTA and won movie of the year in 2007, this
movie was called “Flushed Away”.

Who are Aardman’s competitors?

Aardman has a large number of competitors and their biggest rivals are three different
companies called, Astley Baker Davis, Collingwood OHare Entertainment, they all are
relatively the same as Aardman or more.
Astley Baker Davies has been one of Aardman's top competitors. Astley
Baker Davies is a Private company that was founded in 1994 in London,
England. Astley Baker Davies operates in the Gaming industry.
Compared to Aardman, Astley Baker Davies has 101 more employees.
Collingwood OHare Entertainment is one of
Aardman's biggest rivals. Collingwood OHare
Entertainment is a Private company that was
founded in London, England in 1988. Collingwood
OHare Entertainment is in the Publishing industry.
Collingwood OHare Entertainment has 27 more employees vs. Aardman.
Lupus Films is perceived as one of Aardman's biggest
rivals. Lupus Films was founded in London, England}
in 2002. Lupus Films competes in the Movies &
Entertainment industry. Compared to Aardman,
Lupus Films generates $2M more revenue.
Have the Company developed sequels?
During the Companies history, it has had created many films and some sequels, they do plan
to make more movies for the future which are sequels to previous ones.
The ones that are soon to come out is Early man which is coming out later this year and has a
trailer to it. This could be a sequel to their first production Early bird which was actually a
short film.
The next film after that is going to be a sequel
to the last Shaun the Sheep movie which was
called Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the
Were-Rabbit, this film doesn’t have a release
date yet but is set to come out sometime in
2019 and is called Shaun the Sheep Movie:
Farmageddon.
The next film after that is Chicken Run 2 which
of course is a sequel to Chicken Run, this film
doesn’t have a set release date but is currently in production.

How Aardman research and develop their next products

Aardman research their next products by considering different thing and understanding what
interests people one way, their executive producer is called Heather Wright and has done
research in the growing technology VR which she has found 5 things about during the research
here they are below.
Here are 5 things we have learnt about creating stories in VR and how we can help brands to fully
engage the hearts and minds of their audiences.

“1. There must be a clear shared vision between partners and communications must be candid,
honest and respectful.

2. Wearing a headset will become secondary if audiences are fully committed emotionally. People
should say ‘Wow I love this!’ rather than ‘Wow isn’t this clever!’

3. Directors and Writers need to get into a theatre mindset and relinquish some control of
traditional film making techniques like, order of looking at the shots, cutting to close ups and to a
certain extent pace of the action.

4. There are still technical limitations which affect both the design of the piece and the ability for
direct interactions between the viewer and the characters.

5. Employ big brains who can easily learn new software, create workarounds and can
communicate easily across the creative/technical divide.”

They will also do this with many things that they have produced for example with Shaun the
Sheep they will learn the characteristics famers go through and put some of the elements in
their series to create new problems. This also goes with everything else they produce another
example is Chicken run they would have gone to a place where chickens get killed and
understand how that happens, this would have helped with production of the film.
The Aardman company produce’s stop/start animations that create sequences of movement
so it looks like an animated video, this has been very successful for them as they take very
careful time producing different plasticine characters and different emotions for them, this
makes them videos they create look realistic as they slowly change their emotions, so they
suit the scene they are in, these models are made with very careful thought and in long time
periods, these creations they make are done so smoothly that they look like animations. They
also produce a computer-generated movie which got a BAFTA and a movie of the year award
for 2007, this movie was their first computer generated movies so this would have been new
to all of them when creating it, and would have needed help from other people within the
computer industry.

Aardman’s products diversity & The diversity of techniques used at Aardman

Aardman’s diversity in creating their products is very limited to stop/start animation and they
have made everything with this besides one film called “Flushed Away” this was their first
computer generated films this wasn’t a bad idea, as they gained a lot of medals for this film
and was different to the other ones, Aardman only really produces stop/start so not much
diversity in that area.
Aardman is widely known for its involvement on CBBC, with its series Shaun the Sheep, the
company has mainly had connections with evolved to animal characters and some human, an
example of this is Chicken run, Shaun the Sheep, Wallace and Gromit and some others. What
I’m saying is that the company mainly specialises in animal characters and contains some
diversity in that area.
Aardman doesn’t just provide us with film and series entertainment they ha ve also developed
apps that lets us interact with our surroundings, they have also made a large amount of
website games which lets the customers
interact with different characters. They are
a large amount of diversity in the
department.
Aardman’s diversity differs from area to
area, and overall it is quite diverse as they
have developed many things from films to
app games that the family can enjoy.

What is “Nathan Love”?

Nathan Love is a company that has a partnership with Aardman so they changed the name to
Aardman Nathan Love to show to the public they are partners. Aardman posted on its website
a public statement declaring their partnership here it is below.
“Aardman is thrilled to announce they will acquire a majority share in renowned New York
based Animation company Nathan Love, bringing together two of the world’s most exciting
animation studios. The new company to be re-branded Aardman Nathan Love is a ground-
breaking venture for the studio, signalling its first permanent production facility outside the
UK and further establishes the company’s commitment to its advertising business.”
The company Nathan Love is a very respected company that
is in New York, it has advertised for other famous
companies such as; Kellogg’s, Pepsi, Nickelodeon and some
others it is classed as the best animation company in New
York. Both companies feel that they can grow in other
places from their relationship.

What is the product development cycle?

From the Website that’s linked in the sources it lists six major steps in order to complete
anAanimation, the first step being the briefing this is where you understand what it is you’re
going to make, who’s your target market group, who’s your target market group, key
requirements that on needed on your end as well as some style frames. It is also important
to plan your story before you create It, first you should brief them by creating a beginning,
middle, end and then add some in-between them, like little details.
The second stage of the animation process, is the scripting, this is where you choose words
that match your characters, words determine what your animation is about and how they are
done, they are very important to understand your character’s characteristics, and their
position in the animation.
The third step is to do the Voice overs for the characters, this makes it seem like the characters
are speaking as they are using real people to do the voices, this isn’t a long procedure, if the
script is done and ready to use, the people then read the script into a high-quality microphone
that picks up everything they say.
animation is the next process of this and is the fourth step in doing this, depending on what
animation you do the input is different, for an example the people at Aardman specialise in
stop/start animation so with this you will need to create plasticine modals or something else
similar and create different movements for them and gestures. This is the longest step of the
mall as it is very fidgety and difficult to do, the time varies depending if you are making a film
or episode, how long the voice overs are and what they’re doing in it. It is important to finish
the voice over before making the animation so you can move the lips to them words or
sounds.
The fifth step is to do the final editing of this, this is also a long part but not as long as the
animation, the editing is the ordering of the film making it flow smoothly, as well as adding
effects like, music, sound effects and other essentials.
The final step is the exporting, this of course is the easiest step and takes no time to complete
if your product is finished, you just need to have a collaboration with the film or TV industry.

Aardman’s rights and brand development

Aardman’s right and brand development page talks about their licensing and rights, that’s
they have got over the years with their different, but at the top of the page there is a video
of different things they do, with a title “WE DO MORE THAN YOU THINK” not too sure what
this has to do with the rights and brand development.
Licensing our characters Aardamn has Copyrighted all
of their characters that they have ever used, but the
offer the character portfolio for licensing across
merchindise. They also offer effective and
comprehensive expertise to addd value to any product
or brand campaign.
Aardman’s right distribution, offer a service of
publishing TV, DVD and digital. They specialise in marketing of Aardman IP and 3rd party
properties.

What Is the meaning of outsourcing and do Aardman do it?

The word “outsourcing” means otaining something by a contract outside a supplier, which is
basically getting something from a different country because its cheaper, or getting it from a
different company because its cheaper. Im not sure wether Aardman do this but I presume
they would if they have a direct link from a company that sells cheap supplies as this makes
more money for them.
On the 6th of Nevember 2011 the Aardman company said they will
have to stop UK production because it has became to expensive,
this wasn’t due to just the prices of items that are needed to make
things, it is mainly due to the tax, so the many company not just
Aardman began expoting their products of shore in other countrys
so they could be played there and make more profit.

Aardmans Profitability
Below is an image of some statistics of the company Aardman but it is from the years 2010-
2016 so this isn’t up to date as you can see it says their cash, net worth, current assists and
current liabilities and it also has a chart on how the company has changed over the years. It
is obvious that the company is continuously making money as it is a positive correlation. From
the year 2010, the Cash has risen by £10 million, which is a huge amount considering it was
only on £3 million. The company’s net worth has almost doubles as in 2010 is was on £9

million and is now on £17 million. The current assets have also almost doubled as it was on
£11 million and is now on £20 million. The current liabilities haven’t risen that much even
though everything has increased significantly, but this is a good thing as you want the
liabilities to be low.
The company make this money by producing their animations about exporting them to BBC
and other channels, they also get paid by adertising other companies products and their
brands, they also publish some of their work on digital, TV, DVD. They gain more money by
advertising other peoples products.