Celebrity Head - A Turning Point

It was out of frustration that the project Celebrity Head was born. Actually the project was originally called "Big" simply because we thought it would be big.

Picture a young accountant, doing Accountant things, playing Australian Rules Football, wondering whether this was all that life had in store. When football training and getting knocked out on the weekends was a celebrated highlight, it wasn't hard to want to break free. Far from what we would call a "spooner" (silver spooner), my life still was pretty easy. Maybe copybook.

The day came that starting a long turn that continues today. I decided it was to learn what it meant to be in business. To answer the question of what revenue was and how to make something from nothing. These questions were fueled by a slight overconfidence given I was becoming successful in my career.

I started from the market. Games were popular back then and the game that amused me the most with friends was putting a Celebrity Name on your head and having to guess who you were. It was starting to get played on a hugely popular TV show in Australia - "Hey Hey its Saturday". The idea was to package and make that into a product. After all people are lazy and buying something that they could instantly play would be a hit. This was big.

A few wines, and a lot of games played and we had a cardboard mock up. As with all good projects, old school friends and basically anyone that could help got dragged in. An old friend was an industrial designer and made same great headpieces with hands that covered the names. They had the added attraction of being a bit like moose ears when they were up. It made folk laugh before they began. We learnt that the biggest customer was a 40 year old female - who was motivated by how easy the box was to wrap - most boardgames are given as presents.

Swirling around too were questions of trademarks, agreements, plans, slide decks. None were pivotal in the biggest challenge. To get the project to market.

With a wonderful prototype, rave reviews by our family we somehow jagged a meeting with the biggest retail buying group in Australia. To this day I am not sure how I did it. I expect it was a combination of flying a little high in the saddle and persistence - not always great traits. Nothing prepared me for the one of the hardest lessons delivered to me. They buyer said words to the effect of "How did you get in here? Don't you know we don't really sell product, we sell real estate space, and your job is to tell me how your product will pay the rent through it's sales. With an advertising budget or TV commercial you are worthless".

Im not sure I heard him properly until I played it over and over in my mind for 6 months. An advertinsing budget would be over $500k and that wasn't possible. It needn't be possible.

One day as the dust was settling on project Big, the problem became more defined ... How do we get an advertising budget without paying upfront for it. How do we get it base don sales? Tough questions, but if there was an answer it might be big.

With fantatic support from "Hey Hey it's Saturday" and in particular Daryl Somers, we formed a partnership. Hey Hey sold their production to the network, so were largely in control of content (so long as it rated). Hey Hey beefed up "Celebrity Head" and we changed the name to "Celebrity Head". We did a deal that meant this was a lot bette than a TV ad. It was a dedicated segment that would also push the game.

Going back to the retailers now with a plan. A plan to make everyone money, meant they could now look at the game and see if it made people laugh. It idid.

The joy of seeing someone buy the game at Toys R Us for the first time had me pay for it.

Born from here are many of the concepts of today. The idea of a complimentary asset (the partnership with Hey Hey), What to do next as critical, Innovation around obtacles. The critical nature of real market needs, Risk, and the inevitable one of - ok now you are a board game seller? Thats another story.

Others have copied, Ellen had a version.

Every idea deserves a path. A real path shaped by the market.

The long turn might never stop.