In 2007, the first "Transformers" film came out. While sweeping the $700 million box office worldwide, it also gave birth to a $480 million authorized toy revenue for the famous American toy manufacturer Hasbro. Two years later, Aofei Animation (002292) (002292, SZ) told the capital market a story of "Chinese version of Hasbro" and successfully landed on the small board.
Starting from a toy workshop in Chenghai District, Shantou City, Guangdong Province, Aofei Animation draws on the international toy manufacturing giant's animation culture and toy sales model, and gradually sells its toy products, four-wheel drive and yo-yo, to the whole country, once leading children. The wave of the toy market.
Nowadays, with the power of the capital market, Aofei Animation is expanding the industrial map to the upstream cultural industry, with the intention of becoming a pan-entertainment company integrating film and television production, media communication, games and toy manufacturing.
Zheng Kedong, the director of Aofei Animation, told the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that after the success of the model of adopting Hasbro, the next imitation target of Aofei Animation is Disney. From this perspective, Aofei Animation is more and more not a typical toy company.
However, from the toy industry to the cultural industry, there are still few successful cases. Cai Ling, a researcher in the cultural industry of China Investment Consulting, believes that the operation of the content end of the film and television entertainment industry is more difficult than the development of derivatives. Disney is taking a road from top to bottom and difficult to reach. In comparison, Ou Fei The road to counterattack of anime faces many risks.
From the workshop to the Hasbro mode
Aofei animation experienced a long period of primitive accumulation.
In 1986, Cao Dongqing, the founder of Aofei Animation, relied on an old-fashioned cast that was donated by relatives in Hong Kong to artificially produce plastic small trumpet toys. At that time, Shantou Chenghai, a similar family hand workshop has blossomed everywhere. Zhang Zhenqiang, deputy director of the Economic and Information Bureau of Chenghai District, Shantou City, told reporters that including Cai Dongqing, the toy manufacturing industry in Chenghai was mainly based on the production of low-end imitation toys.
A few years later, a four-wheel drive toy changed the fate of Cai Dongqing. Inspired by the F1 Formula One car, after a few years of toy cars, Audi Toys (Aofei Animation Predecessor) left 600,000 yuan to cooperate with Guangdong TV Station to hold the 4WD competition, and sold 200,000 vehicles in a short time. Four-wheel drive. After the first taste of sweetness, in 1996, Audi Toys cooperated with the State Sports General Administration to launch the "Audi Cup" competition nationwide, which made the Audi four-wheel drive product become a trend at that time. Audi Toys received more than 100 million yuan in sales revenue.
The success of the competitive plus toy model has made Audi toys begin to realize the importance of extending to the upstream of the industrial chain. At that time, relying on the cartoon "Transformers", the US toy giant Hasbro has achieved great success in robots (300024) toys. In order to obtain a more popular communication channel, cartoons have naturally become the first choice for Audi toys.
In 2002, Audi Toys introduced the Japanese animated cartoon "Four Drives" and "Four Drive Brothers" for a price of 1.1 million US dollars. Four years later, the first anime film and television film "Firepower Juvenile King" filmed by Aofei Animation was released nationwide, making the theme toy of the film a yo-yo after the four-wheel drive.
Zhang Zhenqiang recalled to reporters, "At that time, a yo-yo was the most expensive to sell 1,000 pieces, and there were dozens of counterfeit products."
A piece of data can explain the success of Aofei's animation yo-yo: When the yo-yo was launched in 2005, the sales of the Aofei animation series products were 16.25 million yuan, and the gross profit margin was 24%. In 2006, the firepower juvenile king broadcasted. After that, the sales of the Yo-Yo series products increased significantly to 83.97 million yuan, and in 2007 it increased to 187 million yuan. The gross profit margin also increased year by year, from 34% in 2006 to 50% in 2007.
From toy manufacturing to animation culture
Cai Ling, a researcher in the cultural industry of China Investment Consulting, believes that the key to the Hasbro model is the careful design of toy implants and the value added of animation brands. The development of the two should complement each other. For the Aofei animation, which started as a toy manufacturer, the shortcomings on the "culture" must be complemented.
After the introduction of the authorized image of Japan's Bandai, American Disney and other companies to develop toys and further accumulate experience, Aofei Animation began to explore independent development of animation works. In 2004, Aofei Animation established Aofei Culture. Since then, a number of self-produced cartoons such as "Fire King", "Battle King EX", "Ba La La Xiao Xian Xian" and "Lightning Line" have been launched.
This practice was quite radical at the time. A Chenghai toy industry insider told the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that because of the large amount of investment in an animation, and the life cycle of anime toys is generally short, in fact Some toy companies are excavating from existing animation works, and then developing products after obtaining authorization. There are not many independent investment animations like Aofei Animation.
In addition, from the internal management structure, it can be seen that Aofei Animation attaches importance to cultural and creative content. In addition to the traditional sales and marketing departments, Aofei Animation has set up an image management division, which is directly under the jurisdiction of the general manager. The board of directors of Aofei Animation also has a content committee, which consists of two executive teams, content planning and industrial operation. Zheng Kedong, the director of Aofei Animation, told reporters that “Before the launch of each animated film, the company will set up a special project. The market and creative personnel will evaluate different categories and themes based on years of experience and understanding of the products. â€
However, Cai Ling said that the advantage of the combination of toys and animation in Aofei Animation is that the value of cultural content can also increase the added value of toys, and the popularity of toys will enhance the brand image of animation.
According to the data released by Guolian Securities, the share of animation toys of Aofei Animation has increased from 31% in 2006 to 55.46% in 2013, while the revenue of animation and film also reached 13.97%.
An increase in the added value means a higher gross margin. According to the latest financial report of Aofei Animation, the gross profit rate of its self-developed animation toys has reached 44.88%, and the gross profit rate of non-anime toys is 38.91%.
From anime to media, games
After spending the accumulation of animation around toys, Aofei Animation has targeted the content providers like Disney. This step begins with mergers and acquisitions.
After raising 868 million yuan in the capital market, Aofei Animation first acquired 60% of the equity of Jiajia Cartoon Operation Co., Ltd. for 90 million yuan, and obtained the 30-year operation right of “Jiaitu Cartoon TVâ€.
Chenghai toy industry insiders said that due to the strong monopoly position of TV stations, the publishing threshold of animation works has been relatively high. Previously, some animation and toy companies mostly chose to "broadcast" to obtain the broadcast channels of animation works. However, Zheng Kedong told reporters that in recent years, Aofei Animation has been able to obtain revenue separately through the sale of high-quality film and animation production companies. The most typical case is the acquisition of the “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf†brand and exclusive operating rights in September 2013. In addition, the animation film "Ba La La Xiao De Xian", which was independently released by Aofei Animation, was released in 2013 for only one month, and it has created more than 51 million yuan in box office revenue.
In addition to the traditional animation sector, Aofei Animation has also begun to enter the field of online games and new media. In 2013, Aofei Animation acquired two online game companies, Fangxuan Technology and Aileyou, for 692 million yuan. At the beginning of 2014, it also controlled Wusha (Beijing) Cultural Media Company and Beijing Magic Screen Technology Co., Ltd. for 4.86 million yuan and 25 million yuan respectively. After several mergers and acquisitions, Aofei Animation has completed the layout of online games, children's advertising and mobile Internet services.
The research report released by Hongyuan Securities (000562) believes that Aofei Animation has entered the stage of expanding its strength through epitaxial expansion, and the growth path of the Chinese version of “Disney†will become clearer.
Zheng Kedong told reporters, "From the perspective of profit, the profit of the toy business will account for 50% to 60% this year, and the game has reached 20% to 30%. The proportion of non-toy business in the future will gradually increase."
However, Cai Ling believes that Aofei animation has expanded from the initial pure industry chain to the less relevant field from toy manufacturing to animation culture, and then from animation culture to media and games. Face more unpredictable risks such as technology and talent.
The aforementioned Chenghai toy industry insiders also expressed doubts about the expansion path of Aofei Animation. "For a listed company, it may be more of a means of capital operation."
Display Stand,Retail Display Racks,Retail Display Stands,Necklace Display Cabinet
Apache Industry Ltd. , https://www.apachedisplay.com