 |
|
|
|||||
Its summer again. A decade may have passed in real time since stepbrothers Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher had their last summertime adventure on TV, but its just one unremarkable school year later for the characters in the beloved animated TV series Phineas and Ferb. The longest-running show in Disney Channel history, Phineas and Ferb aired from February 2008 to June 2015, winning five Emmys and becoming the most successful animated series for kids (ages 6 to 11) and tweens (ages 9 to 14) in Disney Television Animation history. It became the No. 1 animated TV series among tweens in 2009, supplanting Nickelodeons SpongeBob SquarePants. Tina Fey, Ben Stiller, Seth MacFarlane, and Chaka Khan guest-starred, among many others, attracting a wide audienceroughly 25% of whom were older than 18. A live show featuring costumed actors doing musical numbers toured North America from 2011 to 2013. Then, after a seven-year run of 126 two-part episodes, co-creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh ended the show. They were exhausted. But viewers were notPhineas and Ferb has since racked up more than 13 billion viewing hours across linear and streaming platforms. It remains Disneys top-ranked title among boys 6 to 11, and has achieved cult status among many of its original fans. Dan Povenmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh, creators and executive producers of Disneys Phineas and Ferb [Photo: Disney/Michael Kirchoff] During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Povenmire got on TikTok because I was bored, he says. Almost immediately I got millions and millions of followers. (He has 6.8 million today.) I realized that all the twentysomethings who grew up with the show had all moved to TikTok. Posts in which hed evoke the voice of Phineas and Ferb archvillain Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz would get millions of views overnight. [Image: Disney] In January 2023, Disney announced it was bringing the show back. Forty new episodes are set to run, starting with two episodes on Thursday, June 5, at 8 p.m. ET and PT on Disney Channel and Disney XD. (The first episode will be available that same day on Disney Channel YouTube). The first 10 episodes of the season will then premiere the next day on Disney+ and also be available to stream on Disney Channel On Demand. The action picks up the summer after the shows original run, with the kids a year older but not visibly changedexcept for an extra orange stripe on Phineass trademark T-shirt. (You can see the new trailer here.) [Image: Disney] If you were bingeing the whole series and got to the end of the fourth season and went right into the fifth season, it shouldnt feel like a different show, says Povenmire, who returns to the helm with longtime collaborator Marsh (they also voice the characters of Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Major Monogram, respectively). Most of the original voice cast is also returning, and the new series will have the same format: two stories contained in a 30-minute time slot. But since the shows original run, the world has changed, the way audiences consume media has evolved, and the Disney universe has expanded. So with the reboot of Phineas and Ferb, Disney is using every trick in its marketing playbook, hoping to optimize new platform synergies and maximize engagement with fans well beyond the typical Disney Channel demographic of 6- to 14-year-olds. With Phineas and Ferb, we have a rare opportunity to tap into both nostalgia and discovery, says Shannon Ryan, president of marketing at Disney Entertainment Television. Many original fans are now young adults or parents, and our campaign is designed to celebrate that cross-generational appeal. [Image: Disney] “Hey, Ferb! I know what were going to do today! Phineas and Ferb is known for its rapid-fire puns, visual gags, and zany pop-culture eferences, all of which came easily to creators Povenmire and Marsh, veterans of The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy. The shows plot is essentially always the same: Phineas and Ferb dream up an over-the-top, large-scale inventionan other-dimensionator, a giant robot shark, a tower to the moon, an animal translator, a time machine, a backyard beach with an oceanand get their pals to help them build it. Their teenage sister, Candace, tries to bust them. Meanwhile, the boys pet platypus, Perry, in his alter ego as super-spy Agent P., battles the gleefully evil supervillain Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his latest -inator device (De-Love-Inator, Hot-Dog-Vendor-Revenge-Inator, Double-Negative-Inator, to name a few). Almost always, the story ends with the evidence of the boys invention being wiped away, leaving Candace fuming. Early on, we decided to make the show a nicer show, Povenmire says. We decided to get rid of a lot of the attitudinal humor that is the easiest to write and say, Let’s see if we can make a good, edgy show without making the characters into jerks and idiots. And I think thats what you geta show that’s wholesome but not cringey. [Image: Disney] Integral to the shows appeal are its catchy songs, written by Povenmire, Marsh, and collaborator Martin Olson. Every episode of Phineas and Ferb features at least one musical number, and these songs have continued to inspire viral content on TikTok and Instagram many years later. Id see Jason Derulo [dancing to] Platypus Controlling Me, Povennmire says, Lizzo doing Squirrels in my Pants in front of a sold-out crowd at a concert, Jimmy Fallon and Reese Witherspoon doing Squirrels on TV. It was really bizarre, but it gave us this feeling like theres still a very rabid fan base out there. Its an unusually broad one. The first generation of Phineas and Ferb fans are college age. Their parents, who were often won over as well, are now (gulp) in their fifties. And an entire new generation of youngsters has discovered the show through streaming on Disney+. Each of these audiences has different viewing habitsand presents unique marketing challengesand Disney has made a calculated plan to appeal to them all. [Image: Disney] Seize the day! Even during the shows original run, it was clear that fan appetite extended beyond traditional TV, Ryan says. Thats why we launched early original short-form series like Take Two With Phineas and Ferb and Doofs Daily Dirt to keep the world alive between seasons. This summer, Disney will debut two new original shorts, Cartoonified With Phineas and Ferb, a Take Two update featuring interviews with real-life celebrities drawn in the style of the series, and Agent P, Under C, featuring Perry as Agent P. battling rivals from A.N.A.T.H.E.M.A. (the Alliance of Nefarious Animals That Has an Exceptionally Memorable Acronym). The shorts will play on Disney Channel, Disney+, and Disney YouTube channels. The new episodes themselves will initially run at 8 p.m. ET and PT on Disney Channela prime family viewing hour. They will then stream on Disney+ the next day, with more episodes released over subsequent weeks. The linear and streaming platforms dont seem to be cannibalizing each other, says Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded TV. Kids are title loyal, platform agnostic, and they watch anything, any and everywhere. [Image: Disney] Meanwhile, thanks to Disney+s extended constellation of properties including Marvel and Star Wars, there are new brand synergies to capitalize on. There were a couple of crossover episodes in the original run of the series, including Mission Marvel and Star Wars. This time around, Marvel will publish new comics featuring Phineas and Ferb and other show characters reimagined as superheroes. [Image: Disney] New show-related merch will include the first Phineas and Ferb FunkoPop! collectible figures and, on May 9, an album from Disney Music Group called Lofi: Phineas and Ferb, featuring chilled-out renditions of 10 songs from the original series. The summer celebratory takeover, in Disneys marketing speak, will also include trailer placement with in-theater screenings of the Warner Bros. Minecraft movie; promotion at this years Vans Warped Tour music festival; branded ice-cream trucks at beaches; and a sponsorship at the San Diego Zoo, home to the only two platypuses in the U.S. Near the start of the new series pilot, Phineas, Ferb, and their gang frantically throw out dozens of ideas for their next invention. Rather than deciding on one, they build them all. Disney seems to be doing much the same thing. Our campaign is about more than launching a new season of a hit show, Ryan says. Its about making Phineas and Ferb the must-experience event of the summer. Its going to be hard to miss.
Category:
E-Commerce
At Visas ETA Transact event on April 3, the payments giant introduced three new products designed to simplify and secure payment acceptance. These innovationsAuthorize.net 2.0, Unified Checkout, and the ARIC Risk Huball aim to enhance efficiency and fraud protection for businesses navigating an increasingly complex commercial landscape. By integrating the three new tools, Visa seeks to service businesses end to endfrom integrating with existing platforms to accepting more payments, reducing checkout friction, and managing risk efficiently. Visa is looking to wherever appropriate to invest in next-generation technologies and uplift our products, says Rob Cameron, global head of Visa Acceptance Solutions. Authorize.net 2.0 A major overhaul of one of the first internet platforms for e-commerce payments, Authorize.net 2.0 enhances the user experience while connecting businesses with banks and merchant acquirers across the United States. New AI-driven tools further enhance the platform by automating tasks and optimizing payment strategies. Businesses can now issue invoices simply by speaking to Authorize.net, which will generate the invoice, locate the customer, and prepare the invoice for sendingeliminating manual entry. Subscription-based businesses, such as tutoring services, will benefit from the platforms streamlined setup to accept payments and then charge customers on a recurring basis. This saves time and allows small-business owners to operate more efficiently, Cameron says. Unified Checkout Unified Checkout is Visas next-generation solution for online payments, designed to create a seamless experience for merchants and customers that reduces lost sales at the checkout point. By automatically adapting the checkout page to match a businesss website, the system ensures a consistent look and feel while improving security. Itll look at your existing website, and then itll configure a checkout page so it looks like youre still in the same environment, even though weve insulated the website from the credit card data and all the things that websites dont actually want for security, Cameron says. Businesses can customize the checkout button order based on insights, prioritizing payment methods like Apple Pay to match customer preferences. With 25 out-of-the-box, different payment types, including Klarnas buy now, pay later services, the system helps reduce cart abandonment by ensuring customers find their preferred payment method. The platform also enhances customer retention through tokenization, allowing returning customers to shift from guest checkout to remember me next time for a smoother purchasing experience. ARIC Risk Hub Visas 2024 acquisition of Featurespace led to the development of ARIC (adaptive, real-time, individual, change identification) Risk Hub, a fraud-detection and risk-management tool that enhances acquirers ability to monitor risk and protect merchants. Featurespace’s powerful, adaptive AI helps identify risky transactions and builds profiles around genuine customer activity to increase approvals and stop bad actors in real time. This system enables dynamic settlement, meaning businesses can receive payments based on risk assessments. If I decide youre low risk, maybe Ill decide to settle you instantly and Ill give you money right away, Cameron says, noting that for higher-risk businessessuch as those selling furniture that wont be delivered for monthsreserves can be adjusted dynamically. The platforms ongoing monitoring allows financial institutions to approve more merchants up front. Without it, strict barriers are needed to block risky merchants. However, by continuously analyzing transactions and merchant behavior, acquirers can make smarter decisions over time. Cameron says this can ultimately boost revenue by increasing approval rates. Additionally, ARIC Risk Hub provides fraud prevention through acquirer-backed monitoring services. If a merchant receives a suspicious order, the system can detect risks and issue a warning, which, Cameron notes, allows acquirers to actually provide monitoring services to protect their merchants.
Category:
E-Commerce
Walking around the factory floor of Twincraft Skincare, outside Burlington, Vermont, there is the unmistakable scent of soap. The general manager points out the luxury lines and designer labels for whom they manufacture soaps and lotions, as well as the basic, inexpensive bars and bottles left on hotel room sinks. The factory runs two 10-hour shifts per day, four days a week, with an overtime option as needed. At over 400 employees, Twincraft is one of the top employers in the state. In the last few years, theres been a boom in skincare products and, to meet demand, Michele Asch, Twincrafts chief people officer, says theyve had to hire over 180 people over the past 18 months. But, pre-pandemic, Asch had begun to notice a problem in hiring workers: People couldnt find local childcare. One standout employee, she recalls, spent an hour driving each morning to drop her kids off in two different towns before driving to workthough she lived only 15 minutes away. In 2020, Asch met with Aly Richards, the director of Lets Grow Kids, the organization responsible for spearheading the decade-long campaign to provide a comprehensive fix for the states childcare shortage. Via Zoom, Asch recalls asking, Aly, we make skincare. Cant I just pay into a system so we can get this childcare fixed? But fixed isnt so simple for childcare. Childcare is an industry in crisis, where the demand is high, the supply is low, and market forces alone cannot correct it. The high teacher-to-student ratios required for childcare mean that parents pay high costsoften more than they can reasonably affordwhile providers are compensated little. Many providers rely on public benefits or are unable to afford sending their own children to the childcare locations in which they work. Like Aschs employee who had to drive an hour to find care, half of the country is living in childcare deserts, where no workable care options exist. Vermont is in a deep demographic crisis now, says Richards. With a dwindling and aging population, Vermont was losing potential workers and the tax base that accompanies it. Many women with education and careers would work if they had access to affordable childcare. And if businesses, like Twincraft, wanted to stay, grow, and manufacture products in the state, they needed to find a way to retain young employees and bring new ones in. Richards appointed Asch to the board of Lets Grow Kids and to the CEO Task Force, a group assigned to devise a funding plan for childcare that business leaders in the state could get behind, facilitated by a former state tax commissioner. Initially, the task force was adamantly against a payroll tax to finance childcare. But after exploring every funding optionincluding an income tax and property taxthe payroll tax emerged as the solution that checked every box, according to Asch. A payroll tax allowed the payment burden of the childcare program to be placed on workers, not retirees. As more people took advantage of the program and went to work, the revenue stream would grow. Asch began speaking one-on-one with business leaders on the need to invest in childcare. She personally invited other manufacturing leaders in the state to meet with Richards, vet the proposal, and ask any and all pointed questions. The Twincraft conference room was filled with business leaders of Vermonts most recognizable brands: Bag Balm, Runamok Maple, Birrn Chocolates, Vermont Creamery, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Burton’s Snowboard, and Mamava. Those peer-to-peer conversations were critically important, explains Richards, because you have a trusted business partner running a successful business. They can literally say, Ive studied this deeply with my values and my prowess and Im here to tell you, [this] is the deal with childcare in summary form. ‘Childcare is necessary infrastructure for doing business’ Childcare has long been a social policy issue without a designated home. It is part education, part parenting, part economicsas obstacles to childcare remain one of the top reasons that parents cannot access paid work. Even in message testing surrounding childcare, arguments about the economic and workforce benefits are considered the most persuasive. Data from Lets Grow Kids and the University of Vermont estimated that with the additional childcare funds in the state, 5,000 additional parents could participate in Vermonts workforce, and by parents paying less for care and receiving more income as wage-earners, and providers receiving more, there would be a $375 million annual boost to the states economy due to such influx. Aschs biggest challenge wasnt that her business colleagues disagreed with the need for childcare, but that they didnt fully understand why this state-organized effort funded by the payroll tax was the proposed solution. Once they understood [the childcare plan] they would enthusiastically or reluctantly support it, she said. I dont pay individually to have our roads done. I pay into a system to have the trucks come in to pick up the soap. [Childcare] is necessary infrastructure for doing business. In January of 2023, Vermonts business leaders testified in support of the childcare legislation, now named Act 76, in front of the states Senate Economic Development Committee, both for the need for childcare to support their employees and hire more, and to show their willingness to shoulder the payroll tax that accompanied it. Cara Tobin, a chef and mother of two whod opened the restaurant Honey Road in Burlington and become a James Beard finalist, testified that it was easier to open a restaurant than find childcare. Tobin was one of 10 business leaders who testified in support of Act 76, including a cross-section of business interests of the state: a solar company, an entrepreneur, a ski resort, and, of course, manufacturers. In June 2023, the legislation passed with bipartisan support, and after a veto from the governor, passed with a bipartisan veto override. The payroll tax took effect in July 2024: 0.44% split between employees (0.11%) and employers (0.33%). Some employers, Twincraft among them, have opted to cover the entire tax for their workers. In January 2024, childcare providers began seeing a change in compensation, and since the legislation has taken effect, childcare supply has boomed in the state: 90 new childcare programs have opened, with a net gain of 1,000 new childcare spots. For the first time since 2018, more childcare programs have opened in the state than closed. Asch has noticed that more of her employees can find chidcare closer to where they work, and have more affordable options and therefore less stress, she said. Shes exploring opening a childcare center adjacent to Twincraft. Tobins youngest child went to kindergarten when Act 76 took effect; she hasnt been able to personally take advantage of the program, but her restaurant employees have. I see it working for other people for sure, Tobin said. This completes the circle: You are supporting your workers who can make money, then spend money in the community, and it keeps coming back around. When we support the community, they support us.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||