Emma Hardie started her career working in production and development roles for multiple studios on feature films such as Paddington and Rush, building up an affinity for storytelling. Looking to combine her production and business experience, she made the jump to BBC Studios in 2016 and spent the next seven years overseeing the company’s factual entertainment, international production and investment strategies in several commercial director positions.

She stepped into her newly created role at Aardman in April, excited to oversee her first set of animated IPs. Hardie’s remit is to define and deliver commercial strategies for the company’s entire brand portfolio, focusing on everything from new series financing and distribution, to brand-building through licensing and marketing.

Looking to partner
With experience that spans all parts of the value chain, her first challenge is to maximize the commercial potential of Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Morph and Chicken Run, all while tackling the industry-wide issue of tightening production budgets. To mitigate rapid market changes, Aardman is now actively looking to sign multi-year deals with brand partners and collaborate with co-producers to share some of the risk in bringing more animated projects and interactive experiences to fruition.

Fueling fandom
Besides hunting for new partners, another key pillar of Hardie’s strategy is to leverage Aardman’s characters and licensed offerings to build up its consumer base. She sees demand from audiences wanting to engage with the studio’s brands beyond the screen—particularly in its key growth markets of Asia and the UK. While these regions fuel much of the company’s consumer products and location-based entertainment business, Hardie says the next goal is to use Aardman’s digital communities to develop new audiences.

Initially, she plans to target more than 17 million followers on its YouTube channels and social platforms with digital-first content featuring IPs including Wallace & Gromit. Hardie has also earmarked gaming platforms like Roblox as a way to engage with Aardman’s digital audience. Shaun the Sheep made his debut there last February in The BBC Official: Wonder Chase game, which has been played more than 1.5 million times to date. And there are many more digital experiences in the works as the studio gears up for its 50th anniversary in 2026, she adds.

This story originally appeared in Kidscreen‘s Q3 2024 magazine issue.