HIT Entertainment, one of the world's leading independent producers and rights owners of children's entertainment, is set to unveil the 2010 winners of the company's fourth annual International Pingu™ Awards at a special event being held this afternoon in Las Vegas.

First launched in 2007, the International Pingus are awarded to licensees, agents and retail partners to celebrate outstanding achievement across eight categories of the licensing industry, including the prestigious Agent of the Year.

The much-prized 2010 International Pingu Award for Agent of the Year is being awarded to Cocoban, the company's agent for Korea for its work across all of HIT's brands. Despite economic challenges, Cocoban has significantly raised the level of awareness of Thomas and Friends in Korea, making it the number one boy's pre-school brand in the country. And, through a combination of revenue generation and cohesive sales and marketing strategies, Cocoban has made the HIT portfolio a major player in the Korean licensing market.

Among the other seven categories, HIT Entertainment has awarded the following agents, licensees and retail partners a 2010 International Pingu:

• Food & Beverage Licensee of the Year - BIP, Germany, for Bob the Builder(tm) confectionary
• Hard Goods Licensee of the Year - Learning Curve, EMEA, for their Thomas Wooden Railways
• Soft Goods Licensee of the Year - Casco Blue, Australia, for its Thomas & Friends range of apparel
• Live Event of the Year - CPLG, Benelux, for Thomas Weekend
• Attraction of the Year - Pleasure Cast, Japan, for Thomas Town Attraction, Shin-Masatu
• Third Party Promotion of the Year - Sumitomo, Japan, for their Pingu and Sumitomo promotion
• Retailer of the Year - Mueller, Germany, for their support of Bob the Builder and Thomas & Friends

And the Merit Award Winners are:

• Food & Beverage Licensee of the Year - Ceres, South Africa, for their Barney fruit juice
• Soft Goods Licensee of the Year - Everfitt, Latin America, for their Barney apparel