Ignition Licensing Brand Licensing Update

Fraggle Rock

Fraggle Rock is the great retro brand that is still rocking its heart out with 25 years of classic history and zany, funky characters. Manhattan Toy Company, the worldwide plush partner for the brand has been steadily growing distribution through the UK and overseas in France! The new range of 5” “Bobblehead” plush which launched earlier this year has gone down a storm, featuring Red, Gobo and Wembley. The greetings cards ranges from Hype have now extended as regular lines in Paperchase and Waterstones and Loud Clothing are in the throes of launching a new range of music inspired tees, picking up on the key phrases from the series. This new range further enhances Loud’s current t-shirt range and they are now in the middle of promoting the range internationally. Also on the clothing front, snazzy Fraggle Rock themed underwear hit Primark stores in May courtesy of character clothing licensee Somerbond.

Big Cook Little Cook

Big Cook Little Cook, the pre-school kids TV cookery show airing daily on Cbeebies is continuing to achieve great ratings 10 years after it launched. Viewer’s ratings currently put it 7th place in the top performing children’s TV Shows for May 2011 (Source: Infosys/Barb) The show brings to life the art of “learning how to cook from an early age”. Featuring two presenters, Big Cook & Little Cook, they create an environment where story-telling, humour, singing and guest visits of fantasy characters all lead to a new food learning experience for kids to try out at home.
Big Cook Little Cook provides a perfect licensing opportunity to tap into the kids’ area for learning new life skills. The show picks up on topical subjects of healthy food choices and how food impacts on the environment and its origins. Licensed product will tap into the traditional pre-school market, as well as practical funky ranges of branded kitchen equipment and accessories with dual functionality ie great product for kids and adults to use together in the home inspired by the Big Cook Little Cook celebrity chef status.

Tracey Russell

The Tracey Russell brand is one of endless charm and the real pleasure lies in receiving a piece of her very own hand made art, whether it’s a greeting card or one of her gorgeous embellished prints. Having started her business, making all the cards by hand on her own, Tracey now has an enthusiastic team creating the cards which truly show her bespoke style, whilst leaving Tracey to concentrate fully on what she does best, developing new designs and ranges! Her current product range consists of greetings cards, photo albums, keepsake boxes, social stationery, wrapping paper and prints. Ignition has recently appointed Jarrold Calendars for dated stationery and Widdop Bingham, who will be producing a whole new range of Tracey Russell gifts for Spring 2012 launch to include: photo frames, mugs, ceramic christening sets, glassware, keepsake boxes, photo albums, storage boxes, guest books and social stationery. Proposals are also on the table for advent calendars for Christmas 2012, gift wrap, and tags & bags launching Spring/Summer 2012. BLE 2011 sees the official licensing launch of Tracey Russell Designs.

Marzipan

Marzipan is the amazingly successful greetings card brand which is sold up and down the high street featuring the larger than life characters in both their Classic and Toybox ranges. The brand’s creative versatility works across a wide age range. Marzipan’s Toy box characters are perfect for a younger audience combining all their favourite childhood storytelling characters and Marzipan Classic, featuring images such as gorgeous flower and cupcake designs, which picks up on one of the key trends of the moment.

Robert Frederick who came on board at the end of 2010, are already expanding their successful paper products moving onto dated stationery, melamine, colouring and activity books, jigsaws, and stacking blocks for launch Spring 2012. The existing ranges of adult social stationery launched at Spring Fair this year, included notebooks, ring binders, mini magnetic books, memo pads, collapsible storage boxes has been extremely successful at retail .

“Marzipan will once again strongly feature on the Ignition BLE2011 stand and we should be able to announce new deals including an exciting plush range and children’s kitchen’s textiles by then..” says Maggy Harris, Licensing Director, Ignition Licensing

Jessie Steele

Jessie Steele is the market leader in fashionable aprons in the USA. Created in 2002, by mother and daughter team, Helena & Claire Steele, the company was created for women like themselves who were rich in tradition and fearlessly feminine. The brand’s beginnings in 2002 used as inspiration Helena's vintage 20th century apron collection. The most cherished were the patterns that had been handed down from her mother Joan and Grandmother Jessie over the years. Helena saw the perfect opportunity to re-introduce the apron as an accessory, a fashion piece and a positive statement. Naming the company after her grandmother, (Jessie Steele) gave them an opportunity to turn a century of tradition into a wearable story, which they wanted everyone to share. Heading towards their 10 year anniversary, the company has now gone global in over 30 countries and Jessie Steele aprons appear on TV, print and in feature films. With new in-house collections launching every season, these prints are now licensed internationally including Ignition Licensing in the UK. DNC-UK are the first licensee to come on board and are set to launch a new range of kitchen textiles including adult & kids aprons, oven mitts and tea towels for S/S 2012. Ignition is looking to appoint partners for licensing opportunities within the publishing, greetings cards, stationery, bags & accessories, gifting, apparel, partyware, bedding and toiletries categories.

Precious Moments

Precious Moments the iconic American brand launched in the 1970’s is all about “heartfelt emotions and messages of love, caring & sharing”. Over 30 years of classic brand evolution and growth year on year internationally the brand appeals to women aged 18 – 49 and young mums.
Having expanded out of its North American heartland in 2000 to encompass South & Central America and South East Asia via sub agents, it now has over 100 licensees worldwide and is worth US$350 million annual sales at retail. Over 25 million Precious Moment books and 100 million Hallmark greetings cards have been sold in North America and Precious Moments Inc themselves produce and sell an extensive range of 3D figurines and ornaments celebrating life’s experiences.
Ignition is currently looking to appoint licensees across a range of core product categories include publishing, toys & games, greetings, stationery, gifting and apparel.

Izak – “Fashion Designer to the Stars”

Izak Zenou, originally fashion designer turned illustrator brings a timeless feel to capturing the essence of everyday women.
Taking his artistic inspiration from the eras of Audrey Hepburn and Toulouse Lautrec , his association with exclusive brands and high end publications has enabled him to work with a wide and impressive range of clients across a broad spectrum of formats for advertising, promotional materials and editorial content
His international client base has included stylish window dressing for La Samaritaine in Paris and for the last ten years, Henri Bendel in New York where their windows are adorned with Izak’s engaging scenes of both Parisian and American fashion and style.
Izak’s work has also been published in key fashion bibles such as Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Instyle magazine and The New York Times. His work also has mass appeal and the licensing programme commenced in the US with Stationery, Accessories & Apparel hitting stores from Spring 2010 Izak’s timeless designs are also making waves in the Far East with five very successful solo shows in Printemps, Japan since 2010.
Ignition Licensing was appointed UK agent Spring 2011 and is pleased to announce their first UK licensee: Otterhouse who are signed to produce a wonderful range of greetings cards, wrap, tags and bags, social stationery including magnetic list pads, A5 organiser, spiral notepads, note cards, shopping lists, ceramic mugs and dated stationery for launch during 2012.

Juicy Lucy

The Juicy Lucy fairies are on the case to show everyone how to get the Fab Fairy look with the launch of their new “Look Book”. The gorgeous photo-book showcases all of the wonderful product ranges both from a licensed and generic stock that the team will be promoting for Christmas 2011. The brand has seen increased high street exposure over the last six months from the collections of everyday birthday and occasions cards which launched in WH Smiths & Asda earlier this year, as well as Sainsburys who continue to stock greetings cards and a range of everyday gifting which has been in 130 stores since August 2010.

W H Smith is also expanding to include gifts from Spring 2012. Excitingly, Juicy Lucy has also been nominated for The Henry Cole Award at the Henries 2011.

Sainsburys also continue their very successful sales history of the Juicy Lucy celebration cake created by Greencore. The cake continues to keep his position as a popular brand amongst consumers, with a wide reach of appeal for little girls to ladies of all ages!
The range of celebration balloons from CTI Balloons are continuing to grow their retail exposure as are kids’ housewares supplier Shreds’, who have produced a gorgeous range of Juicy Lucy children’s tabards, mini tote bags and adult fairy aprons and tea towels now on sale in Dunelm and independents nationwide. Print on demand greetings card giant, www.funkypigeon.co.uk will also be launching a new range of personalised notebooks in three sizes of A4, A5 and A6 to add to their already comprehensive greeting card ranges which spans all occasions and relations.
Promotional opportunities have included a feature in the July edition of Cross Stitch Crazy magazine with Juicy Lucy creator, Lucy Heavens, revealing to the readers her inspiration for those magical fairy designs. The magazine also featured alongside the article, a fabulous cross stitch Special Project encompassing one of Lucy’s favourite designs called “Share the Love” for readers to embroider.