The Saddle Club
 |
|
The very successful horse based book brand aimed at girls aged 7 -14 has expanded its TV coverage by partnering up with the one of the UK’s largest equestrian TV satellite channels, Horse & Country (Sky Channel No 280). This latest addition to Saddle Club’s portfolio of UK TV partners complements the popular Pop Girl Channel which has been airing the show daily since 2008.
The Saddle Club is well placed to capitalise on the growing opportunities available in a marketplace where 2.4 million people in the UK ride horses. 4.5% of the population ride at least once a week and 45,000 lessons are paid for every year. As the Pony Club membership approaches 33,000 and Riding Club membership 35,000. Saddle Club is a unique licensing property in an uncrowded marketplace.
On the merchandise front, master toy licensee, Treasure Trove received a great response from the launch at London Toy Fair for Breyer’s Saddle Club collection of horses, figures and accessories. The product lines are now on sale in all toy independents and online stores and Treasure Trove report some great repeat business coming through. Treasure Trove‘s next steps include a TV advertising campaign and presentations to the multiples for 2011. |
Carrots UK, (www.carrotsequestrian.co.uk) the home of fab, fun, and funky equestrian apparel has now signed up to produce a range of children’s bags, socks, lunch bags, riding shirts, gloves, bedding and hat covers for the equestrian and affiliated markets.
Saddle Club’s website, www.saddleclubtv.com/home.php was relaunched in June with the emphasis on localising the site for non English speaking territories and creating new areas on horse care and riding; and a new karaoke page for sing along to the popular and extensive Saddle Club music tracks. A new online shop has also been added with links to products available in the relevant territories.
TV coverage for The Saddle Club is now in 14 countries worldwide and licensing agents have now been appointed by master European Agent, Marathon Media in Spain & Portugal, Germany, Benelux and Italy.
|
Kiwi and Pear
Kiwi and Pear is a very popular line of greeting cards created by an American born artist and designer Joyce Wan. The cards feature two adventurous monkeys who are always wrapped in a seemingly endless hug. The Kiwi and Pear range of products are sold in hundreds of stores worldwide and the licensing programme has included book publishing with the first Kiwi and Pear children’s book launched last year in the USA by Scholastic, with further titles planned for 2011.
Zephyr Games, a New York City based independent game development company has just finished working on new art for the Kiwi and Pear I-phone/I-touch app. Based on the Kiwi and Pear card designs, the application will feature the two monkeys embark on a worldwide adventure with several animated and interactive scenes from the book and 6 new scenes and 3 mini-games! Ignition is also pleased to announce a partnership with new print on demand greetings card company Cardtribe, in the UK. Cardtribe is due to launch its new online website www.cardtribe.com in September. |
|
 |
Kerwhizz
 |
|
The Ker-razy and wacky racing TV quiz show Kerwhizz from CBeebies continues to build its profile here in the UK & internationally with a new 13 x 22 minute episodes series now in production for Spring 2011 transmission.
The latest stats from the BBC show a growing fan base. 2009 Ratings averaged 20-25% 4 – 6 year olds (The BBC average was 17.8% for this age group) and Spring 2010 sees it still a regular Top 5 Cbeebies rated show. The show is highly interactive and consistently achieved first place for i-player downloads & podcasts in 2009. The Cbeebies website which contains games, activities and downloads averaged 400,000 unique users per month between March – Dec 09 www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/kerwhizz
After the success of the One Shot Kerwhizz Magazine (published Jan 2010), a new stand alone monthly Kerwhizz magazine has launched this month. BBC Magazines report good trade support and key grocer listings. A taster magazine was published via Toybox & Cbeebies weekly publications and other distribution channels throughout June. |
|
Studio 100 has also just confirmed its latest international partnership with ABC TV in Australia. Kerwhizz is brilliant, humorous, entertaining and versatile and perfect for interactive, educational and fun preschool products. Ignition is continuing to sow seeds amongst retailers and had a great reaction from the Argos pre-school buyers at the recent Suppliers and Inventors Open day.
Marzipan
Marzipan with its very successful range of colourful and engaging greetings cards published by Paper Rose, has signed a new licensing agreement with Robert Frederick. The deal will see a range of Marzipan baby and children’s publishing, adult social stationery including storage and photo albums, dated stationery, bags, and arts & crafts. The deal reflects the brand’s creative versatility across a wide age range. Robert Frederick’s rights include a number of overseas territories including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America. |
|
 |
Juicy Lucy
Juicy Lucy continues to bring new devotees to the brand and wow its current followers by spreading its “Love, Inspiration and Laughter” into the UK high street this year.
 |
|
Cheeky fashion t-shirts from Poetic Gem launched at Asda George, TK Maxx, and www.play.com, in the first half of the year, along with pyjamas and cami-sets for Knickerbox. Poetic Gem now has interest from a number of high street fashion stores to widen the ranges into further t-shirts, nightwear and underwear ranges.
The Juicy Lucy celebration cake is now retailing in both Tescos and Asda. Created by Greencore and launched at the beginning of April, the cake has already sold 12,000 units in its first sales quarter. The cake retailing at £5.98 has a universal appeal with great design for little girls to ladies of all ages!
Cotton Crosses have also now launched a range of 8 new cross-stitch kits. The kits can be purchased from www.cottoncrosses.com and are being sold in craft retail outlets. |
The latest signings are for CTI Balloons who will be bringing out a range of foil and latex celebration balloons in the UK & USA and Shreds, who will be producing a wonderful range of housewares products to include children’s aprons, tabards, bags, backpacks, lunch bags, drawstring bags and both children’s and adult gifting sets.
|
Luv Me Buddies
Ignition Licensing is pleased to announce its representation of the latest property from the Lavish group of companies. Luv Me Buddies is an innovative sentiment driven property with an East meets West theme featuring an initial range of 25 cute little heart shaped animal characters.
Lavish Rights conducted extensive development research within the girl’s marketplace before creating Luv Me Buddies. This resulted in them focusing on the development of an exciting new digital platform to launch the brand globally that makes use of universal web symbols and images. The new dedicated Luv Me Buddies website launches on Friday, 23rd July at www.luvmebuddies.com
Luv Me Buddies core target is girls aged 9- 15 and Ignition initially will be concentrating on the categories of apparel & accessories, gifting, publishing, stationery, back-to-school and posters & badges. |
|
 |
 |
|
Pet Poets Club
The Pet Poets Club (PPC) is pleased to announce a new tie-up with www.funkypigeon.co.uk who specialise in online, personalised greetings cards, posters and calendars. The new set of PPC e-greetings cards will launch imminently. Silverknit is now working with BHS on a gorgeous pyjama set aimed at girls aged 8 years+ which will hit stores in August. |
|
The Bogies
The Bogies continue to march on with strong high street reaction to the current apparel ranges which are now featured in Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Tescos, Asda, Littlewoods, Next, Sports Direct and for A/W 2010 Peacocks. The boys brand known for its brilliant humour and parody has just released its latest style guide with additions including a range of “Bogies Little Green Monsters” including the much favoured characters Zombogie, Frankenslime, and Count Hackula. “Extreme Green” featuring the Bogies taking on Extreme Sports and includes the famous formula one racing driver, “Gooey Hamilton” and “No Smear”.
Wild Pumpkin in Australia has now signed licensee The Promotions Factory (TPF) for a great collectible range. Worldwide discussions are underway, so watch this space as Bogies collectibles take off in 2011 and 2012. |
|
 | |
