Caroline Mickler Ltd at BLE 2016: diverse brands, diverse opportunities

BRANDORA Editorial Staff - October 2016

From The Beatles to Jamie Raven: powerful classics, music, magic and more at stand A60

Award-winning boutique agency Caroline Mickler Ltd is bringing some of the world’s most exciting names in music, magic, publishing, kids entertainment and more to BLE 2016. Visitors to stand A60 will be invited to join a celebration of the continuing success of classic brands like The Beatles, Yellow Submarine, Moomin and Horrid Henry alongside the very modern appeal of award-winning illustrator Jennie Maizels and Jamie Raven — the astonishing magician who wowed judges and audiences alike on Britain’s Got Talent.

The UK brand extension programme for The Beatles, managed by Caroline Mickler Ltd together with Apple Corps, has built on The Beatles brand as a design-led property, successfully taking the multiple associations of the brand into a large number of categories across a wide range of products. These now range from tailored shirts, jackets and fashion bags to cushions, calendars and watches, underlining the success of The Beatles licensing programme in addressing multiple market sectors with high quality product that appeals not only to the high end but also to the high street and tourism markets.

And brand awareness will be even higher this year, thanks to the release just before BLE of a major new documentary, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years. Award-winning director Ron Howard’s highly anticipated authorized documentary feature film about The Beatles’ phenomenal early career is set for a global theatrical release on September 16th. It will be preceded by a new album, The Beatles: Live at the Hollywood Bowl, that captures the joyous exuberance of the band’s three sold-out concerts at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965.

Yellow Submarine is a much-loved and fun property that is also rich in extraordinary imagery, which, like the classic film that inspired it, still resonates powerfully today. That’s why Yellow Submarine is today the focus of a varied range of licensed products ranging from collectible miniature vinyl figures by Titan to a beautiful customised Rolex watch from The Bamford Watch Company.

Stationery, a mindfulness colouring book, apparel, homeware and fashion accessories are all part of the recent success of a Moomin licensing campaign focusing on young women who have long responded with great fondness and affection to the charming, friendly inhabitants of Moominvalley. Successful fashion nightwear ranges and women’s t-shirts in particular have firmly positioned Moomin as an affordable but unique and stylish fashion brand. A parallel campaign focusing on the pre-school market is led by a publishing programme for kids with Puffin and a strong promotional push. This strategy has exceeded expectations, leading to a vastly expanded presence for the brand at retail outlets, and many more licenses.

Horrid Henry is the star of the long-running and very popular CITV animated show. Episodes of Horrid Henry — 208 have so far been recorded — regularly air at weekends both on CITV and on ITV1. Horrid Henry also launched on the Netflix platform in the UK in late 2014 and immediately became the most viewed children’s show on the platform. Henry’s official YouTube channel — therealhorridhenry — has achieved 28.5 million views in the past year. The most successful literary character in the UK after Harry Potter offers licensing opportunities in multiple categories, but is expected to be a particularly strong performer in toys and games.

Fifty Shades of Grey is one of the biggest-selling series of books in publishing history; the trilogy has now sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and the brand is at the centre of a sophisticated licensing programme targeting a number of key categories. With the arrival in early 2017 of the Fifty Shades Darker film, brand awareness, already high, is certain to grow even further. Caroline Mickler Limited has recently signed a license agreement with luxury lingerie brand, Coco de Mer to launch the Fifty Shades Darker lingerie collection. The feminine, sophisticated and elegantly provocative range is being launched this autumn.

Jennie Maizels is not only an award-winning illustrator of pop-up books, fabrics and stationery but the re-inventor of the iron-on patch! Trained at Central St Martin’s Art School, Jennie has produced 12 books with sales of over a million worldwide. Her titles include Pop-up London, Pop-up New York and Earthly Treasures. The Great Grammar Book was nominated for Children’s Book of the Year 1999 and The Global Garden was winner of the Aventis Prize 2006. Home furnishing will be the lead licensing category for this enormously popular writer.