Riki Group's most famous series, Kikoriki, is back

 

Riki Group's most famous series, Kikoriki, is back - the new season premiered on May 18 in Russia, exclusively on the Kinopoisk HD SVOD platform. The company also held its first licensing online conference with the support of Yandex, Russia’s leading digital and tech company, and launched an overall rebranding that will influence both visual design and brand philosophy.

 

The organizers emphasize that the event itself in its online format is not only a forced measure during the pandemic, but also a new opportunity that will attract participants from different regions of Russia, significantly expanding the event’s reach compared to the traditional in person approach.

"The relationship between licensors and licensees is a civilized form of market based on respect for the results of other people's work and intellectual property rights. That is why, in times of crisis, we consider it important to offer our partners new ways that will serve the common good. We rely on the development of technology and the digital direction. Now this is where a breakthrough in customer relations is expected. With a delicate and competent interaction with a viewer, we can instantly turn him or her into a grateful buyer of licensed products," - commented Maya Moskvicheva, General Director of the licensing Agency "Marmalad Media".

The conference speakers were: Ilya Popov, Founder and General producer of Riki group, Mark Zavadsky, Managing Director of Riki Group, Maya Moskvicheva, General Director of the rights management Agency Marmalad Media, Julia Nikolaeva, Director of strategic partnerships of Riki Group, Julia Sofronova, producer of the Fixies project, Olga Filipuk, content Director of Kinopoisk HD, Svetlana Perlovskaya, head of children's products of Yandex media services, Anastasia Zhiteneva, commercial director of Yandex media services.

 
 

Riki Group launches rebranding process

Riki Group has launched an overall rebranding with changes to the company logo, visual design and brand philosophy.

The dynamic transformation of the business structure and active development of Riki Group projects in both the Russian and international markets led to this redefinition of the company's essence, values and mission. The rebranding process is being carried out in stages over the course of 2021-2022 and will eventually cover all aspects of the company's operations. The new logo and style of Riki Group will be presented during its partners’ conference, which is being held online on May 21 with the support of Yandex.

"So many major events took place in the company's life almost simultaneously that we have reached a new level, which demanded an updated approach to the style," - said Ilya Popov, General Producer of Riki Group. “First, we recently consolidated the shares of Aeroplane JSC together with its famous brand “The Fixies”, significantly strengthening the company's position in the market. Second, both "Kikoriki" and "The Fixies" have released new seasons in Russia, and for "Kikoriki" it’s for the first time in 10 years. Third, we have actually entered into a large-scale strategic partnership with Yandex. And we are still anticipating more changes that will support our updated identification."

The rebranding concept was prepared by the design team SKAM.TEAM, which was founded by Alexey Maslov and Vyacheslav Kuteyev. According to Alexey Maslov, when developing a new style, the team set the goal of creating a brand identity that "will help the company look modern at the international level, easily adapt to existing products of the company and expand the opportunities for creating new content." According to Vyacheslav Kuteyev, the developers managed to "simplify the company's graphic logo so deeply that it should not require any changes for decades while still maintaining a modern look, regardless of what year is on the calendar."

The new logo is formed of repeating elements based on elongated rectangles: in normal form they correspond to the Latin letter i, in folded form they correspond to the letters r and k. The logo is intended to be used, in particular, in the form of stencil windows that can combine elements of any brands included in the portfolio of the "Riki" company.

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Press materials:

The KIKORIKI animated TV series premiered in 2003 and is the longest broadcasted animated TV series in Russia.  The series was produced in 2D (216 х 6’30’’) with one season was produced in CGI (52 х 11’).   Riki Group also produced three animated features for the Kikoriki franchise in 2012, 2016 and 2018.   The series and features have been broadcast in over 70 countries and translated into 15 languages. 
 
In November 2019, Yandex and Riki Group signed an agreement to create new kids content for a family audience. As part of the agreement, the companies agreed to jointly release a new season of Kikoriki in 2D with exclusive premieres of the new episodes on Kinopoisk HD, as well as to use the Kikoriki brand on Yandex services and projects.


Riki Group has been one of the leaders of the Russian animation market for over 16 years with a portfolio of properties for kids of all age groups, including such successful Russian animation brands as Kikoriki, The Fixies, Pincode, BabyRiki and Tina & Tony. The shows have been broadcast in more than 90 countries and translated into over 50 languages and dialects. More than 100 hours of animation have been produced over these 16 years.
Today, Riki Group includes a production center, a design studio, two animation studios -  Petersburg Animation Studio and Aeroplane, Marmalade Media – a multi-brand licensing agency, Smart Masha - a publisher of educational games and children's literature, New Media – an online game developer, 4Screens - a studio for the production of children's game content for YouTube, and other companies.