Ensuring Early Success

Abstract

Abstract This chapter shows how the Children’s Television Workshop created a global demand for Sesame Street. Locating the Workshop’s marketing strategy in Europe within the wider framework of its global sales plan, the chapter shows how the Workshop’s dealings with the European and other international markets were tightly linked. The analysis demonstrates how the Workshop used promotions at festivals, in particular at the Prix Jeunesse International, and sales agents in London and Paris to raise interest in its show—all the while trying to avoid criticism of its sales methods and the research behind Sesame Street. The chapter combines a historical investigation of the processes that created global demands with insights from television studies to understand the multitude of strategies that were used in Europe and Latin America to prompt sales. Finally, the chapter shows how and why the generic Sesame Street spin-off concept, Open Sesame, was developed from local experiences in France.