Paramount, Nickelodeon Animation Boss Ramsey Naito’s MipJunior Keynote

Delivering MipJunior’s keynote on Saturday, a composed Ramsey Naito, president of Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation talked up some of the recurrent themes at this weekend’s kids content confab, not to mention the network’s strategies for its slew of successful franchises. 

In her current position, the Nickelodeon veteran has overseen huge expansion. Five years ago, she said, there were only nine animation properties in development.  That figure has now risen to 60, and includes some of the most successful properties in the business, including “PAW Patrol,” “Dora,” “Transformers” and “SpongeBob.”

Naito said allowing creatives to follow their vision and taking risks has been part of this success.  Not to mention the kids themselves. 

“Nickelodeon always lets the kids lead in creative and business decisions,” she said. 

She added: “When I started working at Nickelodeon in the late ‘90s, straight out of art school, what attracted me was that it had true creator DNA. That’s a secret ingredient. It’s creator driven. It is not one size fits all. Another secret ingredient is taking risks with talent. Ultimately that delivers great characters that feel whole and alive.”

Paramount and Nickelodeon Animation becoming one has allowed the companies to reach an increasingly scattered kids landscape. 

“Two years ago, when Nick and Paramount came together, it was quite historic. Today they are one. It really has allowed us to think big picture, and have control over the big picture strategy,” she said. 

Both parties bring something to the table. “What’s so great about Paramount is that we have YouTube, Paramount Plus, and various platforms. This diversification helps us to reach kids everywhere, which is harder and harder. We are so much more with all these other platforms,” she said. 

Key themes at the confab include reaching kids globally across digital screens and platforms, diversity in story-telling, and the rise of AI, some of which Naito spoke to.

“When there were a wave of hate crimes in the U.S. a few years ago we looked at how to address this in our content, as well as entertaining kids,” she said. 

Latina heroine “Dora” is one diversity success story. “‘Dora’ clips were reaching millions of views on the Internet. It was out of production but never really out of the lives of fans. We began to work on how to bring her back. I’m very proud of ‘Dora.’”

Original content has helped her transform Nickelodeon and Paramount’s animation pipeline with new original series and movies.

“We are committed to originals at Nick,” she said. 

The Nickelodeon Animation Studios is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. During the last five to six years, the studio has expanded to include Nick Animation West (Burbank), Nick Animation East (New York) and offices in Hollywood on the Paramount lot. 

“Kids entertainment isn’t just a job. It’s a calling,” she said. 

More than 1,000 delegates from 60 countries are expected at MipJunior this weekend, according to organizers. 

MipJunior runs Oct. 13-15 in Cannes.