Celebrities and charity events have long been a successful pairing to raise awareness and funds for any number of causes. Now, New York City—based [212] Media, a firm that develops programming and products for media companies, has taken this idea into the children's audio arena with Arthur Celebrity Audiobook. Author-illustrator Marc Brown'sbeloved book (and PBS television) character, Arthur the aardvark, and a host of his famous friends are at the heart of this first project in a new audio series called Stories for Heroes. The enhanced CD [which includes bonus visual material when played on a computer] is a fund-raising project for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Bubel/Aiken Foundation and the National Education Association Health Information Network. The CD includes the stories "Arthur's Computer Disaster," read by American Idol star Clay Aiken, and "Arthur Lost and Found," read by actor Kevin Bacon. Other high-profile participants include Marcia Gay Harden and Kelly Ripa.
"The whole idea was conceived about two years ago," said Vinodh Bhat, a co-executive producer on the project and a managing partner for [212]Media. "At that time [actor] Richard Gere's foundation had wanted to bring the idea of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation's successful celebrity carnivals to India. We got involved in a fund-raising capacity [raising $500,000 in six months], and Time for Heroes: India was a great success. The experience gave us a taste of what it's like being a nonprofit trying to raise money for a cause. We got to thinking, 'How could we help charities supplement their traditional methods of grant writing and going to corporations for money? What could we bring to the table as a media company?' "
As a result of this brainstorming, Bhat said, Stories for Heroes was born. "Through our established contacts, we knew we could line up some well-known children's properties and celebrities, combined with a low overhead so that the vast majority of the proceeds would benefit children's charities," he added. Partnering with such companies as Bang Music (which has recording studio facilities), Little, Brown and Marc Brown Studios, the CD began to take shape. The celebrity readers logged studio time in New York, Los Angeles or sometimes in their own homes (using Bang's high-definition recording devices).
Future plans are to produce two projects per year. Next up is a Curious George collection tentatively slated for July. "Based on the amount of buzz around our first CD, Houghton Mifflin and some other publishers have contacted us about working together. There are several discussions taking place," Bhat said. Licensing and promotional partners Time Inc., Collectible Concepts Group, Club Mom and America Online's Kids Online are helping to get the word out to a wider audience.
The Arthur CD is available through Baker & Taylor; booksellers and other retailers can also obtain it through [212] Media at (212) 931-0182 or www.storiesforheroes.com. "We're treating this as a regular retail product," Bhat said. "Even though there is a charitable component, we do not expect retailers to sacrifice their margins to stock this on their shelves." According to Bhat, 70% of the money earned from the sale of Arthur Celebrity Audiobook goes to the three designated charities.
"We're looking to expand this in other areas as well," Bhat noted of the Stories for Heroes concept. "We're talking to comedians about reading nursery rhymes and fairy tales, for example. We are really happy to play a part in easing the difficulties of fund-raising for these charities. We even handle all the promotion of the product, so they don't need to get involved in that. And at the end of the day, they can collect a royalty check."
