Aspiration to put Vietnam on the world animation map

Little wolf Wolfoo was born in 2018 and gradually became a character that captured the hearts of young audiences.

Every element of Wolfoo animation is imbued with American culture. Mr. Ta Manh Hoang - Founder and CEO of Sconnect explains this: "Setting a big goal - aiming to conquer a demanding market like the United States, the land of the Hollywood film industry, Sconnect's staff has carefully researched filmmaking experience, the characteristics of American audiences' tastes, and constantly applied, improved and innovated the knowledge learned into the product."

Choosing a wolf as the main character in the cartoon also makes many people ask the question "Why".

“In the early stages of development, we considered whether to choose a perfect main character image, in the true sense of "good child, good student", or choose a superhero image in a surreal fantasy world to attract young audiences through a grand setting and space. Finally, after a process of research and analysis, our choice was to create the image of Wolfoo, reflecting reality and focusing on conveying humane andeducational messages through familiar everyday situations," Mr. Hoang shared.

The wolf character often appears in movies as a cunning "villain". But looking at it from another angle, the wolf is a strong, agile animal with great intelligence.

Those characteristics are very suitable for the spirit that Sconnect wants to aim for: A film that is not only entertaining but also combines educational elements both physically and intellectually.

Sconnect has conducted thorough research on children's behavior and the Montessori educational method to incorporate 12 educational standards suitable for children into the film, thereby gaining the trust of parents and the love of children around the world.

Sconnect's next choice is to extend the value that an animated character brings, instead of just stopping at an animated product.

In fact, this model has been applied very successfully in the world with the name "Commercialization of intellectual property products", which is simply understood as exploiting the image of a famous character in many different forms to bring maximum value, helping the character not only exist in the world view of the cartoon but can step into real life and bring more practical values. Many famous cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Spiderman or Minions came out of the movie and left their mark on life-serving products such as drinking cups, stuffed animals or costume patterns.

Wolfoo is a pioneering cartoon character that Sconnect is applying the model of "Commercialization of intellectual property products". With the love of a large number of young audiences, Sconnect continues to develop a game system based on the Wolfoo character set as well as the core educational values of the film at the end of 2021. After a short time, Wolfoo Game quickly reached 3 million downloads worldwide and received 22 Teacher Approved badges awarded by Google's leading education experts.

The worldview of the animated film Wolfoo, including all the characters and educational values, is also transformed into books and educational game products (in addition to entertainment, it also helps educate children - PV), participating in the process of raising children of parents.

Storybooks, playgrounds, clothes, candies and many other children's products have been, are and will continue to be applied by Sconnect with Wolfoo's image. Not only a funny cartoon character, Wolfoo will be able to help guide children to the right behaviors and become a trusted companion of families.

Founded in 2014, Sconnect took its first steps with a staff of less than 10 people and produced comprehensive content on the YouTube platform, soon reaching traffic of 100 million views/month.

After two years of operation, the staff increased to more than 60 people, Sconnect began to expand production content to 2D animation and Stopmotion (clay animation - PV).

In 2016, Stopmotion was not popular in Vietnam, there was almost no unit that went ahead to learn the model. When the market was still "green", there was not much competition, Sconnect had many opportunities to develop, but at the same time this was also a big challenge, because every stage of production had to be learned while doing.

The top motto that every Sconnect employee must know by heart is: “Sometimes choice is more important than effort”. It can be understood that working hard and working smart do not produce the same results. The right choice can help our efforts go much further.

Throughout its development journey, Sconnect has proven that motto more than once.

Before launching Wolfoo and being proud of its product, Sconnect also experienced many failures. But it was also from those failures that the Vietnamese animation brand learned lessons to continue to develop more sustainably.

Along with Wolfoo, up to now, Sconnect also owns 13 animated IPs applying the latest filmmaking technologies, possessing diverse worldviews and suitable for many audiences such as: Fairy Tales, Max's Puppy Dog, Tiny, 3D Minecraft or Doll Crafts.

Starting from only being based on YouTube, Sconnect's animation systems are now available on many TV channels such as SCTV, K+, FPT Play, or paid platforms such as OTT/IPTV like Netflix and in some other countries.

In particular, Sconnect has recently been granted a broadcasting license by the Chinese Government on central television in the country of a billion people and is present on the country's largest platforms.

Being misunderstood as an “imported” product is a funny story that Sconnect often mentions. Happy that its products can stand on par with foreign products.

However, the founder of the Vietnamese animation brand also seriously acknowledged that this is an issue that needs to be pondered, when it is not possible to take advantage of Vietnamese cultural values, bringing the identity of his country to international friends.

Sconnect's future goal is to be able to launch an animated product inspired by Vietnamese life and cultural values, containing the most familiar stories, conveying the values of Vietnamese identity.

Not only setting development goals for its business but also aiming to make Vietnam's animation industry stronger, Sconnect hopes to be able to join other units in the digital content service business chain, develop products to supply the global market, and bring Vietnamese digital content creation products to the world. Thereby, soon realizing the aspiration of putting Vietnam's name on the world animation industry map.

“We are willing to share our experiences with businesses in the same field, especially startups. Sconnect is developing many large-scale content production projects, a Vietnamese blockbuster animation film, and is willing to share opportunities with other businesses to invest in production and business exploitation,” said Mr. Hoang.

At the end of 2022, Sconnect was supported by the Vietnam Digital Communications Association to become the founding unit of the Vietnam Digital Content Creation Alliance Club (DCCA), a professional social organization of organizations/individuals participating in the field of digital content creation.

Although it has only been established for 8 months, DCCA has had many practical contributions to the industry such as: Organizing a series of seminars and workshops to share professional knowledge for members' staff, making recommendations on tax policies for the content creation sector...

Currently, DCCA is continuing to implement a series of activities such as: Organizing separate awards for the content creation industry, organizing scientific research activities on the business exploitation of intellectual property assets, copyright assets...

Mr. Hoang Dinh Chung, Director of the Digital Copyright Center (DCC): Sconnect has gathered all the "Heavenly time - Earthly advantage - Human harmony" I am very impressed and appreciate Sconnect's aspiration to put Vietnam's name on the map of the world animation industry. I completely believe in the feasibility of realizing this aspiration. We often say that to do great things, we must first have great aspirations. Only when we have great aspirations can we prepare great plans and gather enough conditions to realize that great aspiration. We often mention the necessary and sufficient conditions such as Heavenly time, Earthly advantage and Human harmony. I think that currently, Sconnect has gathered all three of the above mentioned factors. Regarding "Heavenly time", not only Vietnam, the whole world is carrying out a strong digital transformation, and Vietnam is being evaluated as the country that most strongly responds to the 4th industrial revolution, considering this as an opportunity to narrow the development gap with the world. In the past, we have fully prepared digital infrastructure to be able to integrate equally with the world. If in the past, to conquer a market, we encountered many barriers when penetrating the host country, now, with multinational digital technology platforms, we can access the market more easily. Vietnamese enterprises in general, Sconnect in particular, can devote more resources to investing in the best products within their resources, immediately thinking of products for the global market. Regarding "geographical advantages", the Ministry of Information and Communications has had many specific strategies, even establishing a "Consulting Group to support digital technology enterprises going abroad" with the desire to create products that are truly "Made in Vietnam". Vietnamese enterprises like Sconnect have received strong encouragement and support from the Government, ministries, departments and branches in their efforts to create high-quality digital products for the world, considering the digital economy in general and the field of digital content creation as a strong development prospect in the future. Regarding "Human harmony", Vietnam has the advantage of a workforce in the field of high-quality digital content creation, a very young and abundant workforce, and a sufficient income level to create a competitive advantage compared to any country in the world. Sconnect is a group of more than 1,000 employees with nearly 10 years of experience in the field of producing animated content, with products that have made their mark on the world market. With strong will and aspiration, I believe that Sconnect is fully capable of realizing its great aspiration. However, when going international, we will have to compete fairly with global rules. Understanding international law and local law is extremely important. In particular, compliance with copyright and intellectual property is mandatory. We will have to face more competitors. Sometimes, just having a desire and ambition is not enough. We may be unfairly defeated in specific situations that we have never encountered when doing business in Vietnam. When cooperating with multinational platforms, we need to clearly understand their regulations. We also need to build an image of a business community in the field of digital content creation that is increasingly healthy, highly trustworthy in the world and in the eyes of major digital platform partners. I hope that with the efforts of Sconnect, the Digital Content Creation Alliance and the community in this field, we will soon put Vietnam on the map of the world animation industry.

Article: Dawn

Design: Nguyen Cuc

Vietnamnet.vn