Monday, February 23, 2026
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Smiley joins forces with Best Seller Group’s Only design for new apparel range

Smiley has joined forces with the Best Seller Group to bring out a new apparel range exclusively in Best Seller’s Only stores throughout China for the first time.n

The new collection will aim to pay tribute to the brand’s mission to make the world a happier place and will place on the classic Smiley logo through a variety of dresses, tees, blouses and more.

Nicolas Loufrani, chief executive officer, Smiley Company said,“After the huge success of the Smiley London launch with Selected, we are now working with another great brand from the Best Seller Group.”

“The Smiley studio and Only design team have come up with a fantastic Smiley London collection that pays tribute to our authentic roots in street culture. It is always a great pleasure to work with a retail group where everybody understands that the success of collaboration is based on creating a real event in their stores with a wide range of very creative products. This is what really attracts customers in this very competitive marketplace,” he added.

Best Seller is one of China’s leading fashion retailers, operating more than 8,000 stores in more than 300 cities throughout the country.

 

Thomas Cook ties up with Fremantle Media Kids & Family

U.K. holiday company Thomas Cook has tied up with Fremantle Media Kids & Family to feature a host of Danger Mouse-themed activities at Thomas Cook and Airtours kids’ clubs.

Under the terms of the agreement, forty Thomas Cook and Airtours kids’ clubs locations will include two-hour sessions featuring themed activities based on the action comedy series.

Delving on the subject, Tony Hopkins, product director, Thomas Cook U.K. & Ireland said, “We want all of our younger holidaymakers to have a great holiday, and the activities we’ve developed with the ‘Danger Mouse’ team will definitely help make our kids’ clubs a memorable experience,”

The themed activities that will kick off this July will continue through September. The initiative is expected to reach approximately 65,000 children in the U.K.

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20th Century Fox to celebrate twentieth anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

 

20th Century Fox Consumer Products will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the television cult classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer on March 10 with a slate of products, activations and more.

Additionally, Fox has secured a range of key licensing partners across categories including apparel, publishing, novelty items and games. Licensees include Dark Horse, Simon & Schuster, Insight Editions, Hot Topic, Harper Design, AC/DC Apparel, Jasco, Upper Deck and Ripple Junction, among many others.

BoxLunch, a novelty gift store with a cause, will also mark the series’ 20th anniversary with an exclusive promotion across all of its U.S. retail locations and website.

Merchandise featured in the collection will include themed apparel, accessories, jewelry and books. The retailer will also unveil a selection of designs from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Adult Coloring Book on its Facebook.

BoxLunch has also partnered with Fox to launch a Sunnydale High Yearbook Contest on March 10, when contestants will be rewarded for uploading their high school class photos with their best Buffy caption in the form a senior quote. The winner will win a trip to Comic Con at San Diego.

 

 

 

Strong move by Viacom 18 has police raiding two stores in Mumbai selling counterfeit merchandise

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Troubled by the menace of counterfeit merchandise being sold openly in the market, Viacom 18 decided to undertake an investigation into all this.

This led to a raid in two stores namely Shubham Return Gifts and Eliperi Stationery at Mumbai’s main market Abdul Rehman Street. The stores that were raided by a team of Court receivers of the Bombay High Court along with representatives of Viacom18 were found to be selling counterfeit Dora the Explorer products.

The owners of the stores will soon be summoned to the Court to identify the source and locations of the manufacturers of the seized goods.

Commenting on the same, Saugato Bhowmick, Executive Vice President & Business Head, Consumer Products and Integrated Network Solutions, Viacom 18 Media said, “We see this as an essential step towards ensuring that our characters are not represented on inferior, unlicensed products which may pose health and safety risks. We are extremely grateful for the cooperation of the judiciary and the police who have executed the appropriate legal action to protect our intellectual property and to prevent inferior and potentially dangerous products from being sold to unsuspecting consumers.”

This indeed is a strong move that should be carried forward all across the metropolis that is already flooded with counterfeit merchandise all over.

Sanrio Entertainment ties up with Insta VR to add VR experience of Hello Kitty theme park

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In a content production deal that will add VR experiences to Puroland, Sanrio’s official Hello Kitty theme park in Tama, Japan, Sanrio Entertainment has joined hands with virtual reality authoring, publishing and analysis company InstaVR.

The deal will cut Sanrio’s costs and delivery times to half for VR apps built on the InstaVR platform. According to Sanrio, production of mock-ups that usually take two to three weeks were completed in one week and the actual delivery date was realized in three weeks, from the beginning of filming to app delivery.

The partnership comes as more companies including California-based Baobab Studios are investing in kids VR experiences, and follows Sony’s successful consumer launch of PlayStation VR, which sold nearly one million units in its first four months of availability.

With the goal of attracting more international visitors to the park, InstaVR has created a Gear VR-compatible app for Sanrio that lets viewers experience their favourite characters that includes Hello Kitty as they serve as Puroland guides. With regards to this, a parade featuring Sanrio characters will also be used as a VR engagement in the app.

The app launched this month at Sanrio Expo and larger VR experiences are in the works for Puroland this spring. They include plans to leverage InstaVR’s point-of-gaze heat map functionality, which lets viewers see areas where app users are looking within the theme park.

Then, Sanrio expects to analyze VR visitor behaviour data to guide future content development such as adding app interactivity with hot spots and navigation.

 

Walker Productions signs licensing deal of Bear hunt with Aurora

 

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, the animated co-production by London-based Walker Productions and Lupus Films met with a tremendous success last holiday season.

The half-hour special was commissioning broadcaster Channel 4′s most-watched programme in 2016 that attracted more than eight million viewers between its Christmas Eve and Christmas Day airings.

IP owner Walker Books is now on the lookout to capitalise on Bear Hunt‘s success with a comprehensive year-round consumer products programme as the special rolls out worldwide.

Home entertainment partner Universal is launching the DVD of Bear Hunt this month. The special is currently available on Amazon Prime in the US.

Additionally, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is set to air later this year on a number of international broadcasters, including France’s Canal+ and ABC Australia.

From a licensing point of view, we got into overdrive really early on, We locked down as many deals as we possibly could,” said Julia Posen, EVP and commercial director of group rights and development for Walker Productions and Walker Books..

One of the first licensing agreements was with Aurora, whose plush products reached UK retailers in November, several weeks before We’re Going on a Bear Hunt premiered on Christmas Eve.

Aurora will be releasing new plush products this year and a number of other licensees will soon roll out products including games (Channel 4 Gaming), apparel (Paul Dennicci, Cooneen By Design) and stationery (Portico Designs). Following the brand’s success in the UK, a CP program will soon launch in Australia.

Additionally, a number of new books inspired by We’re Going on a Bear Hunt will be released by Walker Books in April. They will be aimed at older children and pick up on the special’s themes of exploration and appreciating nature.

 

Mondo TV collaborates with Alianzas Producciones to make two new seasons of Heidi

Mondo TV has joined hands with Alianzas Producciones to co-produce two new seasons of the live teen series Heidi.

The two new projects, tentatively titled Heidi, bienvenida to show and Heidi, bienvendia a la fama will consist of 60 episodes each and will maintain a modern adaptation of the character in continuity with the first season.

Furthermore, Mondo TV Iberoamerica Group has decided to take up worldwide distribution excluding Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay for the upcoming seasons.

The first season of Heidi, bienvenida a casa will begin airing this month across Latin America on Nickelodeon in collaboration with a major marketing campaign.

The show’s launch in the region will also support the series’ licensing programme which will be taken up by Smilehood in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia; and Agosin in Chile and Peru.

Toei Animation and Funimation Entertainment strike agreements in multiple apparel categories

 

Toei Animation and Funimation Entertainment have announced agreements with multiple licensing partners in a variety of apparel categories for the new Dragon Ball Super and original Dragon Ball Z anime series.

For over 20 years and counting, Dragon Ball has been an iconic global brand and one of the most beloved anime franchises in North America. Dragon Ball Super is the first new storyline from original creator Akira Toriyama in more than 18 years and will create a whole new generation of Dragon Ball fans.

These new agreements represent the first in series of licensing announcements for both Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Z. Licensed merchandise will be available in a variety of retailers across the USA and Canada.

Toei and Funimation are actively seeking additional licensing partners in other apparel categories including sleepwear and underwear.

New licensing with who agreements have been struck are:

Bioworld, the leading merchandiser of licensed apparel and accessories in the pop culture space has designed new themed collections based on Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Z. Items will range from t-shirts, fashion cut and sew tops, bottoms, skirts, dresses and leggings to sweaters, hoodies, vests, jackets to joggers, athleisure and novelty apparel.

JCorp, the Canadian-based supplier of fashionable apparel and accessories will launch a collection of Dragon Ball Z themed apparel. Apparel items include men’s sleepwear and loungewear and men’s / boy’s swimwear, t-shirts, tank tops, muscle tops, hoodies, popovers, active wear, shorts, joggers, and jackets as well as ladies’ and girls’ long and short sleeve t-shirts, fashion tops, hoodies, popovers, leggings, and joggers.

Great Eastern Entertainment: One of the leading makers of anime and video game merchandise is creating themed apparel collections for both Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Z. These will include t-shirts, cut and sew tops, jackets, hoodies, sweatshirts, pajama onesies and lounge pants in both adult and children’s sizes.

 

Top 150 Licensors

The extensive research period for License Global‘s exclusive Top 150 Global Licensors report, the most widely read and publicized study in the retail and brand licensing sector, has been extended.

Companies wishing to be considered for License! Global’s exclusive, annual Top 150 Global Licensors report must submit information by March 3 and not later.

In order to be included in the Top 150 Global Licensors Report, company data must be submitted via a link that has been provided.

The report that comes out annually has become the foremost study in brand licensing and proves retail sales data on the world’s largest licensors in the entertainment, sports, fashion, corporate brands, art and non-profit sectors.

The Top 150 Global Licensors report not only ranks the world’s largest licensors, but also provides valuable insight about the world’s most important and well-known brands.

The Top 150 Global Licensors report, which will be published in the April issue of License Global, has been sponsored by Eisner Amper LLP, one of the largest accounting and auditing firms.

Referenced throughout the year by retail executives, licensees, agents, brand executives and business-to-business/consumer media, this report will also be distributed at key trade shows, meetings and offered in a digital format on License Global’s website.

 

Studio 100 completes its contract with m4e for acquisition

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Studio 100 has completed its contract with m4e regarding the former’s acquisition of the majority interest in the German brand management and media company.

Under the terms of the agreement, Hans Ulrich Stoef will continue to serve as chief executive officer of m4e. In the course of the winding up, former members of the supervisory board of m4e namely Oliver Jansen, Ceese Wessels and Andreas Kinsky have resigned from their posts.

The executive board of m4e has filed an application with the district court of Munich in order to complete a supervisory board of m4e with Hans Bourlon, Koen Peeters and David Lloys as well as three representatives from Studio 100.

The group of three which was announced last month will aim to create one of the leading kids’ and family entertainment and content companies in Europe and will enable m4e to continue investing in new content and its worldwide exploration. It will also help bolster both companies’ local and international distribution power.

While Studio 100 is known for its programmes like Maya the Bee, Arthur and the Minimoys and Heidi among others, m4e is known for properties such as Wissper, Mia and me and Tip the Mouse among many others.