The Source explores the feelgood wave of mindful, uplifting brands working their licensing magic.
According to the findings of the current ONS Happiness Index, the average Brit, when asked to rank their ‘happiness’ out of 10, would put themselves just over three quarters of the way up the happy tree – at 7.92.
Meanwhile, as was highlighted by Mental Awareness Week (which was marked from May 16-24), one in four of us will suffer from mental illness, including depression, severe anxiety or stress, at some time in our lives.
While not disastrous, and there are certainly those a lot worse off elsewhere in the world, there is room for improvement. Thankfully there is a growing happy bunch of licensing brands out there that are proving great therapy for sharing joy, spreading happiness and encouraging wellbeing.
You only need to look back at the origins of the iconic Smiley brand, that was created over 40 years ago, to recognise the value of surrounding ourselves with brands that lift the spirits. Back in 1971 journalist Franklin Loufrani back in 1971 hit upon the idea of including a smiley face as a way to indicate to readers of the French newspaper France-Soir which stories contained good news. The Smiley Company headed up by Franklin’s son Nicolas has continued this essence through a myriad of licensing activities.
While Matt Winton, marketing director of Smiley Company says that “Happiness is an evergreen trend” he accepts that ‘it’s really started to boom in the UK in the last couple of years. This is probably a reaction to a lot of the negativity around our lives today. Certainly Brexit has acted as a massive trigger to a tidal wave of negativity in UK society and ever since then deep divisions have become more apparent socially.”
As the original emoticon, Smiley has been in a prime position to benefit from this, as evidenced by its recent signings with licensees Tache, Blueprint, Moonpig, Kinnerton, Tikiboo and hip streetwear brand Ami. On the DTR retail front Primark has launched a major cross generational collection, while over in France Orchestra has done something similar with Smiley while a million pieces have sold through Zara in the last 12 months.
While Happy Jackson may not have as long a heritage as Smiley, nonetheless this uplifting lifestyle brand, co-created by Giles Andrea and Heather Flynn broke new ground with its joyful pitch both in editorial flavour and colourways when it launched a decade ago.
With an eye-popping new colour palette now percolating through on the licensee front – having debuted on greeting cards from Pigment at the start of the year – and with the plans for a major product launch in the States well underway with IG Design Group and Leanin’ Tree, the brand’s positive vibes are growing.
With his ‘claims to fame including having created Purple Ronnie, Edward Monkton and World of Happy, Giles Andreae has something of a pedigree in ‘feelgood brands’.
“It’s something that I’ve always done naturally. Both Heather and I love the energy that an upbeat voice and design idiom allow us to work in.” He sees the proliferation of more contemporary editorially-led concepts, as evidenced on greeting cards ranges for example, as healthy for the nation.
“It is pretty scary out there at the moment. The fact that people are more honest about wanting to say how they feel about their friends and family is a good thing. If we can help do this through a combination of words and designs with Happy Jackson then Heather and I will be very happy.”
Someone whose infectious positive demeanor should be bottled and dished out by the NHS is Emily Coxhead, creator of The Happy News. What started out as a free newspaper featuring only true, positive stories interspersed with Emily’s illustrations and messages, has now spawned a licensing programme (handled by DRi). What’s more, Emily’s book, Make Someone Happy published by Penguin Random House, has received a very big thumbs-up, including from Richard Branson!
It was impossible to miss the bright yellow tuk-tuk on Widdop and Co’s stand at the show festooned with its Happy News range of gift products or walk past the colourful displays on Blueprint’s and Pigment’s stands without noticing their respective collections of stationery/accessories and greeting cards.
These join the greeting cards from Pigment and Moonpig as well as dated products from Portico with other deals in gestation.
When asked where Emily feels the nation is now on the happiness scorecard she feels we still have some way to go. “I think we’re slowly getting better, but it’s tough to be happy in a world that doesn’t profit from our happiness, we’re often made to feel like we’re missing out, whether that’s the latest gadget or scrolling through social media… we’re all very easily sucked in.”
As to what advice she would give of how we can all get on that sunshine yellow tuk tuk of life, Emily adds: “I think it’s important for us to step back and remember what actually makes us happy and do more of that.”
Reed-ing into the thoughts
‘Simple cartoons conveying a soulful message’ is how Charlotte Reed sums up May the Thoughts Be With You. Based on Charlotte’s own hand-drawn illustrations coupled with her uplifting philosophical messages, have already done a lot of good for many people – including Charlotte herself.
Sparked by her own journey out of depression, when she decided to draw and write a positive message each day as part of her own self-therapy, Charlotte’s May the Thoughts Be With You brand is now being licensed out by Larkshead Media.
With Danilo’s launch of its greeting cards and calendars, a second book deal for in the offing which will form the basis of a film about her journey, the Evening Standard publishing one of the brand’s cartoons every week, not to mention Charlotte’s appearances in connection to her ambassadorial role for mental health charity Mind, ‘Thoughts’ are most definitely translating into actions.
Charlotte says that she is “genuinely so happy” that licensed products, such as the cards and calendars are launching, “so that they can help people to think more positively and spread awareness of mindfulness.”
This feature originally appeared in the summer 2018 edition of Licensing Source Book. Click here to read the full publication.
