Fido wants more

Co-creator Joanna Ferrone is scouting for more takers in India for her cornball character.

Indians are likely to see more of the gawky, cornball, cartoon character Fido Dido "" outside of Pepsi's 7up bottle. Its co-creator Joanna Ferrone, recently in India, mentioned that she is actively seeking to strike licence agreements with parties interested in putting him to good use.

With this in mind, she has already struck an alliance with Jump Games, which is into game design development.

Jump Games has developed a 2D and a 3D game based on Fido. "We have launched the game on the Reliance and Airtel services and have also sold it to certain markets in Europe and Asia-Pacific. The mobile operators in these regions include players like Vodafone, O2 and Telstra," says Salil Bhargava, CEO, Jump Games.

The company has been experimenting with various modes of connecting gaming to real-life characters by roping in Indian celebrities such as Sameera Reddy, Bappi Lahiri and Baichung Bhutia.

This is necessary, Bhargava claims, as the market is nascent and companies have to evolve ways of connecting with the masses.

Currently, the gaming market is pegged at Rs 100 crore in India compared to $2 billion worldwide. It is likely to grow to $150 million in India in the next four years. As for Fido, he feels it may be a big hit as the character has the ability to cut across age, segments and geographies.

Meanwhile, Ferrone is busy and she has already got Digikore Studio as an agent here which is pushing Fido further into the retail environment. A licence agreement has been struck with Perfect Apparel for casual wear and is "eager to get into more arrangements".

According to her, Fido in other markets is already seen on varied brands "" pretty much like Disney characters. For instance, the character has a fairly good fan following in many markets and is very popular in China and Brazil.

"This is significant as the character has lasted a long time, since he was born in 1985 and then became popular with Pepsico adopting him. He has managed to grow on his own strength and philosophy," she says.

And with the character has grown Fido Credo, which is based on an inclusive philosophy.

Needless to say that if a character is born without a story and happens to be a success, then story and philosophy "" and even takers "" are only too easy to find.