Tori and Her Hair — Introductions for a Bilingual Children's IP

Project Overview

Tori and Her Hair is a New Zealand-created bilingual children's education IP on children's hair-health, confidence and inclusion. MiDeer's role was to introduce the property to potential partners and investors for China and to facilitate the discussions that followed — work that took place in 2021–22. This case is written honestly: no distribution, licensing or investment deal resulted from those conversations, and none is claimed.

The Brief

The IP is built around positive, health-focused messages for children — delivered through animation and short-form video, with live-format extensions — and was created bilingual from the start, with an English-Chinese audience in mind. The ambition was to take that property into China's children's content market.

The problem is that a children's content IP is not a product you can register, ship and list. Its route into China runs through content platforms and distributors, local production and licensing partners, and investors willing to fund a property long before its audience exists. The team came to us because navigating that chain — and getting the right conversations started — was exactly what they did not have in New Zealand.

What We Did

This was an introductions-and-bridging engagement, in two parts:

• ▸ Partner and investor introductions. We introduced the IP to potential partners and investors for China from our network — the beginning of a relationship process, not its conclusion.
• ▸ Facilitated the discussions. We brought the parties together and facilitated the conversations that followed, supporting them as they progressed.

How It Works — the Content IP China Read

Content is not a product. A food brand can clear customs, list on a platform and start selling. A children's content property needs a licensed local route to market, and its commercial value sits in the IP itself — which is why protection and control of the property come first, before any revenue conversation.

Compliance and licensing gate everything. Foreign-produced content for children is one of China's most carefully reviewed categories: it must pass content review, be carried by licensed distributors and platforms, and increasingly be re-made with local partners rather than shipped in finished. A bilingual original is an asset — but never a shortcut past the gatekeepers.

Money arrives late, so financing has to arrive early. Content properties earn after they reach an audience, and children's properties earn slower still. That is why introductions to potential investors — not just platform or distribution partners — mattered from the start.

Where Things Stand — No Fairy-Tale Ending

What has genuinely happened: the IP has been introduced to a set of potential partners and investors for China, and facilitated discussions have taken place.

What we will not claim: no distribution, licensing or co-production agreement has been signed, and no financing round has closed. Those conversations took place in 2021–22 and did not lead to a signed deal. The property has not asked us to resume the process since, so we do not present this as an active engagement — only as an honest record of the work delivered. This page will be updated only when real, verifiable milestones land.

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