4Kids Entertainment, the children’s global entertainment and merchandise licensing organization, has announced its appointment of four new agencies Bruno Productions, Planeta Junior, Euro Lizenzen and m4e, to represent a number of 4Kids properties in three key European territories. These sub-agency appointments reflect the continuing major growth of the 4Kids portfolio of brands across Europe.

Monster Jam®, has made quite an impact in the region, attracting 33,000 people to the inaugural Monster Jam live event in Brussels’ famed Koning Boudwin Stadion in July. Tens of thousands more are expected when the tour reaches Holland in late September with no fewer than three shows to take place over one weekend.

Netherlands-based Bruno Productions will be taking on Monster Jam at an important time: The world’s leading monster truck tour is now established, and growing in popularity throughout Europe, attracting vast crowds to events across the continent. Bruno will be representing the property across both the Benelux and GAS (Germany/Austria/Switzerland) regions. Founded in 1989, Bruno specialises in all aspects of syndication and licensing, representing a large range of properties for both children and adults across numerous media.

Planeta Junior was 4Kids’ choice to manage the expansion of three key brands into the key Italian market: hit photographic properties The Dog and The Cat, along with the popular trading card property Dinosaur King. Part of the vast audiovisual entertainment group DeA Planeta, Planeta Junior has become a major name in licensing and promotion in southern Europe, representing a diverse range of properties spanning children’s entertainment, sport, design and the arts across the region.

m4e (which stands for ‘made for entertainment’) which 4Kids earlier appointed to represent Dinosaur King in GAS, will add licensing responsibilities for The Dog in that region. A brand management and media company that specialises in the development and utilisation of high value brand and intellectual property rights, m4e has a large and impressive portfolio of clients across the entertainment, sport and personality fields.

The strength of the 4Kids portfolio is illustrated by the continuing popularity in Europe of such long established brands as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), which Euro Lizenzen will be taking on in GAS as the hit property celebrates a major brand milestone by turning 25 in 2009. A major retro campaign is already under way, with Euro Lizenzen working on all aspects of the TMNT program leading up to its silver anniversary “Shell-ebration” events.

Euro Lizenzen offers licensors marketing and promotion for their properties across a network of established businesses in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux and Scandinavia. Under its MD, Gunter Vetter, a pioneer in licensing in the German-speaking territories and a leader in developing programmes for many well-known companies, Euro Lizenzen has become one of the leading merchandising agencies in Europe.

“With more and more 4Kids’ brands making a major impact in more and more territories across Europe, it is essential to find the right partners to represent them,” said Sandra Vauthier-Cellier, Co-Managing Director at 4Kids Entertainment International. In Bruno Productions, Planeta Jr, m4e and Euro Lizenzen, we are confident that we have chosen partners that are not only experts in their own territories but world-class licensing professionals.”

4Kids Entertainment will be one of more than 200 European exhibitors showcasing thousands of exciting new licenses at Brand Licensing Europe in London, 1-2 October. For more information, please click here.