CONTACT Magazine (Vol.18 No.3 – December 2018)

looking outwards
The voice of
experience
Six successful T&T exporters describe the
export journey they have taken, and offer
encouragement and advice for those who are
starting out
WORDS BY: Natalie Dookie
Writer/Business Development Consultant
Full Circle Animation Studio: build trust
and reliability
courtesy full circle animation studio
Jason Lindsay, Managing Director, Full Circle Animation Studio
Full Circle Animation began its export journey in
2012, supplying animation production services in the
Caribbean, North America, and the Far East. Today, its
annual exports account for more than 50% of sales.
In 2018 it secured a contract from Big Jump Entertainment in
Canada to supply animation for the HBO show Animals.
Although the digital services economy is borderless,
exporting from Trinidad and Tobago has been tough, says
Jason Lindsay, Full Circle’s Managing Director. “Most local
business infrastructure facilitates product export,” he warns,
“and is geared to medium and large companies.”
Full Circle is an SME, operating in an industry (animation)
which does not have enough local demand to make the
business viable. “Many local agencies that support, promote
and finance exporters still have not caught up with the
services sector,” Lindsay says, “and do not fully understand
how the digital economy operates. We were born locally but
are sustained globally.”
So Full Circle is pushing ahead with its export drive,
and plans to add intellectual property development to its
portfolio. Investing in digital properties, such as TV shows,
will allow the company to benefit from ownership value on
the same product.
Lindsay encourages other digital services exporters to
emphasise trust, effective communication, and reliability as
core values, in order to build confidence with clients in the
world of borderless animation.
38
Trinidad
and Tobago Chamber
of Industry and Commerce
www.chamber.org.tt/contact-magazine