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Baby Genius Poised to Increase Brand Awareness with Launch of Exciting New Merchandise and Marketing Initiatives
Pacific Entertainment Corporation (PINKSHEETS: PENT), the company formed by Larry Balaban, Howard Balaban, Mike Meader and Klaus Moeller, who created the groundbreaking Baby Genius® brand in 1999 and built Baby Genius into a world-renowned brand of musical edu-tainment for infants and toddlers, is celebrating the brand’s 10th anniversary with the worldwide launch of exciting new merchandise and marketing initiatives. Baby Genius is poised to expand on its leadership position in the pre-school marketplace with a merchandising and marketing campaign designed to elevate the brand to new heights of success at retail around the globe. At the foundation of the merchandising campaign is an exciting new line of 24 individual Baby Genius early learning and development toys from master toy manufacturer, Battat Incorporated. Launch in August for the fall season at Walmart (NYSE: WMT) stores nationwide, the initial assortment of toys includes activity toys, musical toys, and role-play toys that incorporate the Baby Genius principle of music as a core learning tool to engage and encourage children to communicate, connect, discover, and use their imagination to express themselves. The Joester Loria Group, exclusive licensing agency for Baby Genius, brokered the license of the Baby Genius brand to Battat for creation of the new toy line. “We are thrilled to have our toys at Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer. With Battat as our toy partner, we are bringing unique, high quality toys at great prices to both current and new Baby Genius customers for the holiday season,” said Moeller. “The Baby Genius brand’s nationwide presence at Walmart is certain to reach an even greater audience of consumers and should serve as a catalyst to additional licensing opportunities in other product categories as we continue to expand throughout the world.” The Baby Genius toy line will be supported by a strategic advertising and marketing campaign targeting moms with children 2-5 years old. Online advertising will extend to leading parenting websites such as NickJr.com, Noggin.com and DisneyChannel.com. On-air television advertising spots will run on Comcast and Cox VOD channels where Baby Genius commands the #1 spot in children’s VOD on the Comcast Baby Boost Channel with over 10 million views per year. Baby Genius product information sheets promoting the line will be included in Baby Genius DVDs and CDs. A dedicated national publicity campaign including a television media tour hosted by Baby Genius creator, Larry Balaban, will include appearances on network, syndicated and local broadcast and cable programs this fall. The campaign will also include outreach to key mommy blogs and placement in holiday gift guides in top parent and consumer media.
Through a licensing deal with publisher Meadowbrook Press, the Baby Genius brand is also being extended to retail bookshelves with the launch of a series of Baby Genius Sing ‘n Learn board books. Distributed through Simon & Schuster, the books celebrate the Baby Genius philosophy, “music makes a difference,” by teaching children through music and song. The program launched initially with four books, and four additional titles are planned for spring 2010. Completely redesigned and packed with an abundance of new interactive features, the Baby Genius website, www.babygenius.com, will launch this fall with the debut the Baby Genius Club, a membership club offering valuable ways for parents and caregivers to enrich their child’s Baby Genius experience with exclusive, members only promotions, merchandise discounts, opportunities to earn points toward future purchases, and an exciting membership kit. Other new features include a dedicated “The Circle of Education” room, new games and activities, and a room for parents where they can share their experiences with other parents, read testimonials, get tips on parenting and link to external websites for important information. Headlining the extensive library of award-winning Baby Genius DVDs and CDs is the fall 2009 release of the new Baby Animals Favorite Sing-A-Longs DVD. In addition, Pacific Entertainment will release the entire library of Baby Genius DVDs and CDs with all new packaging featuring the delightful and endearing Baby Genius characters children and parents have embraced for the past ten years. On the international front, Baby Genius products continue to rack up sales in duty free and travel retail stores. The products were introduced in 2008 under a landmark agreement with Motta Internacional that established children’s edu-tainment DVDs and CDs, along with learning and development toys, as new product categories for Motta at retail outlets in Central and South America. In support of the extensive initiatives designed to continue building the Baby Genius brand, Pacific Entertainment is pleased to announce that its common shares began trading on the Pink Sheets Electronic Quotation Service under the ticker symbol “PENT”. These new initiatives for the 2009 launch of Baby Genius at retail comprise the latest chapter in a decade-long path of impressive success for the musical edutainment brand that began in 1999. Since its launch, Baby Genius has scored award-winning success as premiere brand boasting sales of millions of DVDs and CDs, and garnered more than one million views per month on Comcast and Cox Cable in 2008. |
