Multi-IP strategy, the risks of going all-in on a single character

At the '2026 Sanrio Character Awards' ceremony held on June 28, 2026, Pompompurin took first place for the second consecutive year. Cinnamoroll took second place, Pochacco third, and Kuromi fourth, filling the top spots, while Hello Kitty, who was actually the face of Sanrio, only managed to secure fifth place. Furthermore, in this year's awards, a character named Choco Chilla made its first appearance in the newly established 'Happy Lina Friends' category and swept first place in all three categories, receiving cheers from fans.

Sanrio, which used to be synonymous with Hello Kitty, has now become a company where various characters are equally loved.It has changed. However, this change wasn't created overnight. Just over a decade ago, the situation at Sanrio was the exact opposite.

Hello Kitty's 93% Sales, the Crisis Hidden Behind It

In fact, Sanrio didn't cultivate various characters evenly from the beginning. In 2014, Hello Kitty accounted for 93% of Sanrio's total sales. EssentiallySanrio = Hello KittyThe dependency was so overwhelming that the formula [that] held true.

However, after peaking at this period, Hello Kitty's popularity gradually began to cool down.Sanrio's performance deteriorated for a staggering seven consecutive years from 2015 to 2021.We went through that. The structure, which relied on a single representative character to sustain the entire company, turned into a crisis as soon as the character's popularity waned.

Sanrio brings back dormant characters

In 2020, Sanrio completely changed direction as Tomokuni Tsuji, the founder's grandson, took over the new management team. Moving away from a Hello Kitty-centric structureA multi-IP strategy to simultaneously nurture multiple characters such as Cinnamoroll, Kuromi, and PompompurinThat is the choice we made. Instead of concentrating all resources on a single character, we distributed content and collaborations so that each character could have their own worldview and fanbase.

The part to note in this strategy isI didn't rush to level up the new characterThat is the point. Cinnamoroll and Kuromi were not characters created overnight; they had existed within Sanrio's lineup for a long time but had not received much attention because they were overshadowed by Hello Kitty. Sanrio re-examined the characters they already had and built a fandom by steadily expanding each character's worldview and story. Instead of hastily creating entirely new characters, they essentially gave strength to existing characters in a sequential manner.

The sales structure has completely changed.

Sanrio simply switched to a multi-IP strategy, and now it generates 65% of its revenue even without Hello Kitty. This has created a structure where the company's overall performance is not shaken simply because Hello Kitty's popularity has declined.

Not only did sales increase, but the scope of collaborations also broadened as the worldviews of each character expanded. Since each character suits different industries and collaboration partners, we naturally expanded to consumer bases that were difficult to reach with a single character. In this wayAs each character develops an independent fandom and revenue stream, Sanrio has a business structure that does not rely solely on a specific industry or consumer base.We created [these]. Each character serves as a different entry point, with game-loving fans drawn in by Kuromi and beauty-conscious consumers drawn in by the Cinnamoroll collaboration products.

If you are an IP holder with characters, try expanding the worldview first.

If you decide to create another character, you don't have to try to establish a complete worldview and merchandise lineup right from the start. Sanrio also expanded its character activities not by raising a new character all at once, but by gradually exposing various characters over a long period and giving more support to those that received a good response.

if If you plan to implement a multi-IP strategy, try starting by naturally introducing new characters into the worldview of your representative character.You can expand your character lineup by extending your existing worldview without having to build a new story from scratch every time. Additionally, it is safer to gauge the reaction to new characters through webtoon panels or short social media content first, rather than producing merchandise. By testing fan response with low initial production costs and then producing merchandise only for characters whose reactions have been verified, you can significantly reduce the burden of initial investment.

Prepare the next character while it is popular.

Above all, you must prepare the next character while your flagship character is still doing well. One of the reasons Sanrio suffered a seven-year slump is that they only started developing other characters after Hello Kitty's popularity had already declined.When the main character's popularity is at its peak, resources and time are relatively surplus, so preparing the worldview and content for the next character at that time.This is a way to prevent this crisis in advance.

The problem is that as the number of characters increases, so does the amount of work to manage. Since each character requires separate social media management, portfolios, and collaborations, it is not easy to take care of multiple characters simultaneously by yourself.To alleviate this burden, Inner Booth supports the registration of multiple IPs, allowing you to manage each one simultaneously.If you want a stable revenue structure, try preparing a multi-IP strategy step-by-step with Innerbooth.