Blue Zoo launches initiative to fund ideas in-house and get them online fast

Band Against Robots by Matt Clarke

UK animation outfit Blue Zoo has launched an internal funding initiative to fast-track the creation of webtoons, animated shorts or games and launch them online.

The Ideas Fund aims to be an alternative method to the traditional industry development model and is open to all those working at Blue Zoo.

There will be multiple calls a year for experimental content across different genres, formats and demographics.

Winning pitches receive a fast-track four- to six-week development process funded by the studio to create a nugget of their idea, be it a webtoon, an animated short or a game.

Blue Zoo said the initiative is “designed to offer a fast-track experimental development process and put creator-driven content directly into the hands of audiences.”

Projects will be launched online, with Blue Zoo’s digital arm analysing audience appetite for the idea. The company said it will not be “driven by data, only influenced by it,” so that the creators “always remain in control of their vision.”

If an idea resonates, Blue Zoo will fund further work to scale the project with the creator. Blue Zoo co-owns the IP with the creator, and the London-based company said any creator of an idea that does take off “fully shares in the IP’s long-term success.”

So far, the Ideas Fund has yielded multiple projects from Blue Zoo’s internal talent, including Found in Wonderland, a romantasy webtoon created by Blue Zoo designer Katie Gascoyne, which is available to read now.

Coming soon is The Great Goblin Detectives, a webtoon written by Charlie P Higson, following goblin versions of Holmes and Watson. Also on the way is Band Against Robots, an animated music video about a girl band who moonlight as robot-fighters, created by Blue Zoo animator Matt Clarke and available to watch on the studio’s dedicated YouTube channel, Disco Chicken, from July 24.

Blue Zoo said the launch comes at a time of “extreme polarisation” in the media landscape, where massive, multimillion-pound TV IPs sit on one end and bite-sized digital content sits on the other, with its initiative designed to bridge that divide “experimentally.”

The Ideas Fund sits alongside Blue Zoo’s traditional production slate and offers “a low-risk, high-reward ecosystem where bold ideas can fail fast or scale rapidly,” the company said.

Tom Box, co-founder of Blue Zoo, said: “For 26 years, Blue Zoo has thrived because we keep questioning how we work. In a fast-moving industry, complacency is where companies go to die.

“If you’ve been in the industry a while, you know the big IP model inside out. You develop an idea for a year or two, raise funds for another two years and spend 18 months making it. Because that financial risk is so massive, executives naturally want to hedge their bets. While this model has worked well for us in the past, it’s getting harder to sustain with fewer commissioning opportunities out there.

“This is creator-led, not committee-led. Crucially, it’s agile enough that it’s not a major concern if a concept doesn’t quite hit the spot. Ultimately, it’s a playground for the bold ideas of tomorrow, and exactly the kind of creative environment we want to offer the talent joining our studio.”