Head of Franchise Strategy

Coolabi is a leading, PE-backed Kids & Family entertainment company focused on building publishing-led IP into global multi-platform franchises. Our portfolio includes globally recognised brands spanning publishing, television, digital, gaming, licensing and consumer products.

The business is entering a major new growth phase, with investment in franchise expansion across television, gaming, digital audience development and global licensing. As part of this evolution, Coolabi is building a more integrated, franchise-led operating model designed to maximise the long-term value and cultural relevance of its IP.

The Opportunity

This is a high-impact, cross-functional role sitting at the centre of the company’s franchise strategy. Working closely with the CEO and senior leadership team, the role will help define long-term franchise roadmaps, identify new growth opportunities, deepen audience understanding, and align publishing, television, digital, gaming and licensing initiatives around a coherent strategic vision.

The successful candidate will combine strategic thinking, commercial awareness, audience insight and strong communication skills. They will act as both the internal voice of the fan and a strategic growth architect for the business’s major IP. This role is ideal for someone excited by the challenge of helping build modern entertainment franchises in an entrepreneurial, ambitious and highly collaborative environment.

Role Purpose

Working closely with senior leadership, the Head of Franchise Strategy will act as a central strategic integrator across the business, ensuring all franchise activity contributes to a coherent long-term vision and growth plan. It is a cross-functional role, working closely with senior leaders across books, consumer products, television, digital and finance, and reports directly to the CEO.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain 3-5 year franchise roadmaps
• Define priority growth pillars by brand
• Sequence publishing, licensing, digital and TV initiatives coherently
• Identify white space opportunities across categories and platforms
• Lead quarterly franchise strategy reviews

• Own master brand decks for each franchise
• Define and maintain clear articulation of brand pillars/values, audience positioning and growth narrative
• Ensure consistency across all external presentations
• Support Directors in partner meetings and pitches
• Represent the full franchise vision in strategic conversations

• Commission rolling brand tracker research
• Conduct regular focus groups
• Analyse sentiment and engagement data
• Identify shifts in audience behaviour
• Integrate insight into roadmap and growth planning

MARKET & COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

• Monitor peer franchise activity across publishing, gaming, digital and licensing
• Track emerging platform trends
• Identify category adjacencies and expansion opportunities
• Surface early signals in international markets

PROACTIVE PARTNER IDENTIFICATION

• Identify potential strategic partners across digital platforms, gaming studios, media producers and international distributors
• Work with Directors to shape pitches and partnership frameworks
• Support senior negotiations with strategic context

INTERNATIONAL GROWTH STRATEGY

• Develop territory prioritisation plans and identify under-penetrated markets
• Align local publishing, licensing and digital activation strategies
• Work with commercial teams to drive coordinated territory plans

• Work with the Finance team to maintain consolidated P&Ls by franchise across all revenue streams
• Analyse margin by territory and category
• Identify revenue acceleration and margin expansion opportunities
• Highlight investment cases for Board discussion
• Bring together data and KPIs from publishing, digital, licensing and gaming to build a unified view of franchise performance, including franchise-level dashboards integrating sales data, digital performance, licensing results and territory metrics
• Identify correlations, growth drivers and leading indicators of franchise health
• Provide regular reporting to CEO and Board

• Act as central integrator across the business, aligning functional initiatives against the franchise roadmap
• Surface conflicts or trade-offs to the CEO

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Franchise strategy or franchise management within a studio, entertainment or gaming business
• Entertainment, gaming or media consulting
• Multi-platform IP or brand strategy roles
• Consumer products or licensing strategy
• Audience, fan or category strategy within an IP-led business

Experience Required

Package