Gemma International Teams Up With JELC To Develop GEM Fairies

BRANDORA Editorial Staff - March 2011

Gemma International’s ‘Gem Fairies’ property is being developed for launch as a major licensing programme.

Following on from the success of the greetings card range Gemma has appointed JELC to help develop the characters and storylines so they prove irresistible to the toy, publishing and merchandising categories. Highly experienced doll designer, Rachel Godfroy, has joined the team to lead the development work.

Gem Fairies is the only young girls’ brand which combines the aspirational aspects of princesses with the sheer magic of fairies – the main ethos of the brand is to allow ‘little girls to be little girls’ and it embraces everything which is colourful and sparkly!

Developing its own IP is a relatively new venture for Gemma International which is a UK market leader in licensed greetings cards. Product Director, Amanda Parkin, says ‘We had a gap in our portfolio for a really strong girls’ fairy brand and decided the time was right to develop our own. With our experience in the greetings and party market we knew what 3 – 7 year old girls want so had high hopes for Gem Fairies. The card sales exceeded our expectations which prompted us to develop it further for roll out to a wider audience’.

Janet Woodward, Director of JELC says ‘Gemma has created a lovely brand which we are now enhancing by developing the characters and storylines. Our plans are to target the toy and publishing categories to establish the girls, their characters and their environment and then widen the reach internationally and into other categories’.

Triplets Sapphire, Ruby and Amber are princesses living in a castle but they have secret lives as Gem Fairies, under-taking tasks to solve problems which little girls may encounter in their everyday lives.