Introducing TMR’s New ‘Decision Makers’ Series – First up, Teletoon’s Caroline Soucy

Tech Media Reports' Decision Makers Series probes the top issues affecting Canada's communications industry through a series of one-on-one interviews with business executives and senior government officials. Each installment will feature an article and complete interview transcript - available exclusively to TMR subscribers on our website. Our first interview is with Caroline Soucy, the new director of Teletoon Interactive, who shares her ambitious plan to move the cartoon channel into the top spot in Canada's online entertainment market.Teletoon Canada Inc. is adapting to a changing marketplace and positioning itself for a run at the top slot in Canada's online entertainment market through a complete revamp of its web presence and interactive content, including an aggressive push on the gaming front, Soucy tells Canadian New Media. (Click here for interview transcript)One of her most top development priorities is to bring more games to users. "We're already doing episodes and video content, but not much in gaming. That's definitely an area we'd like to move into."Teletoon, she notes, has already concluded a partnership with a design company whose game engine architecture can be "re-skinned" and re-used across multiple applications. "Once it's been re-skinned five times, it appears to the user as five different games."Partnerships like this will enable Teletoon to rapidly increase both the size and quality of its game inventory. "One of the games we just started is called ‘Hug Cute Monsters' and there will be a lot more coming in the next few months."Another priority is to improve Teletoon.com's search engine optimization so users can find the website quickly and easily. "We basically didn't really show up really well in organic searches."To make the site more intuitive and easy to use, Soucy is also overseeing a "usability testing" program, that includes focus-group sessions where they study how kids browse the website and accomplish specific tasks.On the content side of the equation, Soucy has a new "video player" which she plans to release in the next several months that will centralize all Teletoon video clips in one location. "So we're bringing all the video content together inside a video section and kind of creating a YouTube video watching experience."Deep roots, new challengesSoucy says her history in the new media sector begins at, "the roots of the whole Internet thing." She started out playing in a band and moved to learning digital video creation and editing, then web design and digital media. This led to a position at Vancouver-based Network Records, where she created enhanced CD's and websites for artists such as Sarah McLachlan.From Vancouver, she moved to Toronto to work for YTV. "So I was basically at the very beginning of YTV and learned a lot about kids and gaming ..."Soucy later held positions with TVOKids.com and Microsoft MissionX, an online community for children, and later produced and managed Corus Entertainment websites such as WNetwork.com, CMTCanada.com and screamtv.com.With her background in communications and entertainment and her kills on the technical side of the business, Soucy says Teletoon represented a perfect fit. Being a fan of Teletoon since its start-up also didn't hurt. "So it's funny. You keep something in your mind and you end up where you want to be."In her new role, Soucy is responsible for all of Teletoon's website properties, including its new Teletoon Retro initiative and Detour, its late night brand. In addition to ensuring they have the right team in place, she is also in charge of business development. This includes planning for the future and determining what tools, resources and partnerships Teletoon needs to create "a strong pillar" as a top interactive destination.Kids at the cutting edgeSoucy cites two main variables that have altered the nature of online entertainment for kids in the past several years: a growing number of competitors, particularly in the United States, and the changing consumption patterns of young people.In the past, she notes, "Canadian kids did not even know how to get to Cartoon Network. Today, however, "they go to Barbie.com, Disney, Club Penguin and that kind of thing."A major shift has also taken place in the way young people consume online game content. For example, with games like Sony's LittleBigPlanet, "kids are actually creating their own universe and their own environment, where they play in."LittleBigPlanet allows kids and their friends to build a game environment that is their "own little universe" and where something is always happening. "They're building it and they're playing it. So in terms of trends and where kids are at, it's huge."She expects these kinds of evolutions in user behaviour to continue. "Even in three years it's going to change quite a bit from what it is now, with the shift from watching on air (to) watching a lot more videos on line."Soucy suggests that, with the work currently underway, Teletoon.com is well positioned to compete with the biggest names in the sector, including Disney. To underline her point she notes that Teletoon recently took home the Promax/BDA Silver Award for the design of its consumer website.Second place, however, is not going to satisfy her for very long. "We want to be number one."

Introducing TMR’s New ‘Decision Makers’ Series – First up, Teletoon’s Caroline Soucy

News | 10/21/2008 7:35 pm EDT

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