Including Superdrug and Primark coming on board for a new range of Men’s Health toiletry gifting later this year.
Source rounds up more news from the licensing industry across the globe from the week.
In a deal brokered by Golden Goose, two major retailers have committed to ranging new toiletry gifting developed by Thumbs Up UK for the Men’s Health brand. The new range consists of body washes, deodorants and shower gels, enhanced with accompanying gifting products such as a sports bottle, sports earphones and sports armband. The ranges will go on shelves in Superdrug from August and Primark from October this year. Men’s Health UK page views rose by 84% (year-on-year) to 11.5 million during the month of May alone, with more than 4.8 million unique users looking for online fitness and nutritional advice. Not surprisingly, this increased traffic also led to a sales spike for the well-established Men’s Health home fitness range at Argos.
Children’s lifestyle brand, Lemon Ribbon has hired Glue Creative Thinking as its UK licensing and brand collaborations agent. Lemon Ribbon licensed product is already available across 11 countries (including the US, Spain, China, Russia and Taiwan) with licensees such as Adalberto, K Stationery and NICI to name a few.
The Insights People has revealed a number of new appointments and additions to support the company’s continued global expansion. Following a strong six months despite the challenging conditions, the company has welcomed a host of new clients including Amazon, LEGO, Star Stable and Turner, as well as expanding relationships with the likes of LeapFrog, SEGA and Warner Bros. After announcing expansion into Brazil and Mexico earlier in 2020, The Insights People is also working on the feasibility to launch into other countries and continents. Meanwhile, further new hires include Robert Lambert as senior development; Richard Wainwright as data scientist; and Jordan Shaw as junior developer. The company has also expanded its research team, welcoming recent graduates Lucy Holland and Sarah Waterhouse, while Connor Walsh has joined the marketing team and George Sarakins has taken on the role of North America account director.
Keith Chapman has partnered with Studio Liddell in the UK and Alpha Group on Camp Furly, a new CGI animated upper preschool TV series which aims to inspire children to venture outdoors and connect with the environment and nature. Raydar Media is managing all broadcast and consumer products rights and strategy outside of China and Asia, while Alpha Group is a co-producer and global master toy partner handling distribution and CP in China and Asia.
The Point.1888 is partnering with Nick Butterworth to bring properties from his portfolio of literary brands to life through consumer products. Nick is the author and illustrator of the Percy The Park Keeper series – which has sold more than nine million copies in partnership with HarperCollins – as well as the likes of My Dad is Brilliant, My Mum is Fantastic and the Altogether Now series.
Mondo TV has secured a new licence for Magic Light Pictures’ The Gruffalo, with Pon Pon Edizioni due to launch a range of products including activity and colouring packs and sets. The deal covers Italy, along with San Marino, Canton Ticino and Vatican City.
Sagoo has brokered a deal with Difuzed for a new range of apparel for adults and children for Rilakkuma. In addition, the collection will also include fashion bags, backpacks, phone cases and tablet/laptop sleeves and covers. Products will retail throughout Europe.
Archie Comics and Kate Spade New York have revealed plans for a collaboration starring classic comic BFFs, Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge, in a deal licensed by King Features. Inspired by the classic 1940’s Archie comic book style, the collection includes a variety of handbags, tote bags, backpacks, keychains, pin badges and small leather goods (such as wallets, pouches and coin purses).
Spin Master, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and WayForward have revealed Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia, a new action role-playing game which will be coming exclusively to Nintendo Switch on November 3.
Reality Gaming Group has secured a global licence with JoyPixels to develop and publish tradable emoji icons and a companion game. Emojibles will enable players to collect their favourite icons before adventuring through a game – Emoji Clash – and battling their friends in real-time contests. Each icon will be tokenised into a non-fungible token, secured and protected on the blockchain, meaning collectors will own truly unique digital items which can be used in the game or traded with other players. A pre-sale period on Emojibles packs will begin in September, while the game will arrive for mobile and PC in 2021.
Mixed martial arts brand, UFC has revealed that combat sports apparel and accessories specialist Venum will become its new exclusive global outfitting and apparel partner from 2021. The deal was brokered by IMG, which exclusively represents UFC.
Animaccord has renewed it multi-territory deal with Egmont. The company will continue to develop a wide range of Masha and the Bear items including books and magazines, with distribution in countries such as Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey, Slovakia and Slovenia among others. The programme will include colouring and activity books, board books, storybooks, lift-the-flap books and music books among others.
Xilam Animation has secured a pair of deals with Nickelodeon for its short-form CGI series, Athleticus, and animated comedy, Mr Magoo. The broadcaster has taken exclusive pay-TV rights to two seasons of Athleticus covering Asia Pacific, EMEA and Latin America, plus TV rights in Benelux, Italy, Vietnam, Philippines and Argentina. In addition, Nickelodeon has picked up exclusive pay-TV rights for Mr Magoo in the UK, where the series has launched on Nicktoons this week.
7-Eleven Malaysia has teamed up with emoji to launch its collectable premium loyalty programme, EMOBEAR. The collection has 27 designs each featuring a different emoji icon on the jersey of the bear. Customers will be rewarded with programme stickers for every purchase of RM5 and above in a single receipt at any 7-Eleven Malaysia outlet until August 16. An EMOBEAR is redeemable with a total of 24 stickers.
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