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Rubik’s forays into augmented reality, launches ‘Rubik’s Cube Augmented’

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Rubik’s forays into augmented reality, launches ‘Rubik’s Cube Augmented’

Rubik’s associated with Merge Apps to create Rubik’s Cube Augmented – the world’s first augmented reality version of the top-selling toy.

Rubik’s Cube Augmented for Merge Cube will allow players to solve the classic brain teaser in augmented reality. When a player will view the merge Cube with the Rubik’s Cube Augmented app, it transforms into an interactive, holographic version of the Cube in the palm of their hand.

“This partnership with Merge Cube forms a core part of our strategy to leverage the latest available technology to take the Rubik’s brand to a new generation of consumers,” said Lori Heiss-Tiplady, VP, brand strategy at Smiley.

“Our vision for Rubik’s is dedicated to innovation and creating high-quality products that tap into the brands’ rich architectural heritage and that encourages kids and adults alike to ‘Play Smart’, Lori further added.

The AR version is available to download on iOS and Android.

Jessica Biel launches athleisure collection with Gaiam

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Jessica Biel launches athleisure collection with Gaiam

Golden Globe and Emmy award nominated actress, producer, and activist, Jessica Biel has debuted her first capsule collection with yoga, fitness, and wellness brand Gaiam, a division of Sequential Brands Group.

The brand revealed the collection at The One Hotel Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. The event marked the first celebrity-created line for Gaiam as part of a multi-year partnership with Biel.

“It has been a pleasure working with Jessica. She has been a true collaborator; thoughtfully co-designing the capsule collection with a keen focus on the functionality of each style,” said Eddie Esses, President of Sequential’s Active Division.

During the event, Biel expressed gratitude for the partnership and shared her intention to create attainable, comfortable pieces inspired by the runway.

“I wanted something that women could feel good in whether they are doing yoga, working out or just running errands, playing with their kids or simply lounging. The idea was to create something versatile that blends fashion elements with comfort and functionality and that is accessible for every lifestyle,” said Biel

The evening celebration showcased the collection for the first time in an interactive pop-up shop where guests raved about the soft-to-the-touch luxurious fabric and the chic, simplistic design. Biel spoke candidly with guests, sharing the versatile ways to wear her favorite styles.

The collection, inspired by Jessica’s active, on-the-go lifestyle and love for yoga, fuses fashion and function featuring capris, leggings, tops and jackets in a neutral color palette of soft pinks, greys, and sand with pops of oxblood hues.

The variety of silhouettes and colors provide endless options from head-to-toe marble prints, to full monochromatic studio-to-street styles. Deep V’s, cut-outs and open-back styles offer subtle sexiness evoking feelings of comfort and confidence on and off the mat.

“We are excited to strengthen GAIAM’s 20+ year heritage dedicated to making yoga, fitness, and wellness accessible to all. We look forward to the future and continued partnership with Jessica Biel,” said Karen Murray, CEO of Sequential Brands Group.

The collection is available at Bandier, Macy’s and Bloomingdales as well as at select brick-and-mortar locations and online.

Awesome Media & Entertainment launches publishing imprint ‘Awesome Reads’

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Awesome Media & Entertainment launches publishing imprint ‘Awesome Reads’

Awesome Media & Entertainment, the IP and production company founded by writer-producer Jeff Norton, is launching a new publishing imprint Awesome Reads.

Former Managing Director of Simon and Schuster Children’s UK Ingrid Selberg is joining to oversee the company as Director of Publishing.

Awesome Reads will publish 3-4 books a year with a focus on high concept, commercial stories that capture the imagination.

Director of Publishing Ingrid Selberg said, “I’m delighted to be working with Jeff Norton to launch Awesome Reads and bring these stories which are exciting and emotionally engaging to a wide readership.”

The imprint will launch with Alienated: Grounded at Groom Lake, a comedy adventure about the only human boy at the school for aliens at the infamous Area 51, which publishes on 1 November.

Alienated is written by Jeff Norton, but Awesome Reads is already working with a raft of other authors.

Awesome Media & Entertainment will be actively developing the IP of the books published by Awesome Reads across multiple platforms with a focus on television.

Founder of Awesome, Jeff Norton said, “As both an author and a producer, it’s been my mission to create a virtuous circle from books to screen and back again to inspire young people to become lifelong readers. Awesome Reads closes that circle.”

Awesome is a creative content company dedicated to the creation of compelling characters, engaging stories, and immersive worlds. Founded in 2010, Awesome began as the intellectual property vehicle for author Jeff Norton’s novels and creations, publishing over 25 novels with major publishers.

Disney’s first streaming service ESPN crosses 1 million subscribers

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Disney’s first streaming service ESPN crosses 1 million subscribers

Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer and International (DTCI) segment announced that its streaming service, ESPN+, has signed up more than 1 million paying customers since the app debuted this past April.

The company said the vast majority are new viewers who have adopted the service since its launch. Subscribers to the predecessor platform ESPN Insider were ported over earlier this year, but ESPN said those represent “a significant minority of the total.

The company has been hard at work building out its USD 4.99 per month streaming service, offering sports fans hundreds of live games each year from Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and Grand Slam Tennis. The platform also offers a variety of worldwide professional sports including soccer, cricket, and rugby, as well as top-ranked boxing and UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) bouts.

Kevin Mayer, the head of DTCI, added, “We’re thrilled so many sports fans have quickly come to love the service. The future is bright and we believe growth will continue as we add features, distribution partners, and more exclusive content in the coming months.”

The number of cable subscribers has fallen in recent years, pressured by changing consumer habits and an increasing number of viewing options. After peaking at over 100 million in 2010, ESPN subscribers have steadily declined, falling to 88 million to end 2017, down about 12% over the previous seven years.

The company’s next solo effort is scheduled to debut late next year with a Disney-branded service, which will incorporate content from its Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Disney studios, as well as original programming, developed just for the service.

Artists can now upload tracks directly to the platform, thanks to Spotify

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Artists can now upload tracks directly to the platform, thanks to Spotify

In what could be one of the biggest news in the world of music licensing, Spotify launched a new feature which will enable independent artists to upload tracks to the service directly without any requirement for a third-party aggregator or record label.

The feature currently remains in an invite-only beta mode with a few hundred US artists being ushered in. However, Spotify says that in the future, it will bring upload to even more artists, labels, and teams.

Artists will be able to access the upload function via the Spotify For Artists platform, which counted more than 200,000 verified acts amongst its monthly user base at the end of June.

The platform had earlier worked with independent labels such as Noname, Michael Brun, VIAA, and Hot Shade.

Here’s a quick guide for sign up process:

Sign up for Spotify’s upload your own music beta

You’ll need a Spotify for Artists account to participate.

Once you’ve been accepted, you’ll need to follow a few guidelines to get your music ready for distribution through Spotify.

You’ll need the following:

  • Music files including WAV, WAVE, or FLAC (16- or 24-bit with sample rates 44.1kHz or higher)
  • WAV and WAVE file formats must be PCM
  • Album art must be square, at least 1600 x 1600px in PNG (preferred) or JPEG format
  • The names of your collaborators, including featured artists and non-recording collaborators like songwriters and producers

Interestingly, Spotify’s upload feature is completely free.

The platform isn’t charging any upfront fees for uploads and also not charging artists any additional commission on the royalties generated by this music.

As for the surprise (non) pricing structure, a fresh post on the Spotify blog explains: “Just like releasing through any other partner, you’ll get paid when fans stream your music on Spotify. Your recording royalties will hit your bank account automatically each month, and you’ll see a clear report of how much your streams are earning right next to the other insights you already get from Spotify for Artists.

“Uploading is free to all artists, and Spotify doesn’t charge you any fees or commissions no matter how frequently you release music.”

To be eligible to release through Spotify for Artists, a person will need to control the distribution rights to your music, a US bank account, and tax ID.

Discovery Kids launches School Contact Program ‘Little Singham Squad’

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Discovery Kids launches School Contact Program ‘Little Singham Squad’

Discovery Kids, India’s fastest growing kids channel, announced the launch of an all India School Contact program titled “Little Singham Squad”.

Little Singham, as a part of the school contact program, will sensitize young minds about the importance of self-defense. The initiative has garnered support from marquee advertisers including Dabur, Cipla, Unicharm, and Dettol.

Vikram Tanna, Head of Advertising Sales, Discovery Communications India, said, “This special school contact program will work towards enlightening young minds about learning practical ways to defending themselves in the hour of need. Little Singham is an inspiration to young children – he is brave, intelligent, responsible, patriotic, honest and is an agent of change. We want our audiences to imbibe these positive traits of Little Singham and join the Little Singham Squad.”

As a part of the special contact initiative, Discovery Kids will showcase a specially created movie offering practical tips to children to handle difficult day to day situations such as a powerful elder grabbing a young one et al. The aim is to make the child more aware of the situations that can arise and offer a guidance towards a plausible solution.

Talking about the initiative, Harkawal Singh, Marketing Head- Oral Care, Dabur India said, “Dabur is committed to its motto of being dedicated to the health & wellbeing of every household. Oral hygiene is an important part of being fit & healthy. With this initiative, Dabur has taken the onus of promoting oral hygiene among school kids.”

 “Immuno Boosters by Cipla Health is proud to partner with Discovery Kids in their School Contact Program. It allows the brand the opportunity to strengthen our connection with kids by educating them about the importance of ‘Suraksha and immunity’ via a much-loved character like Little Singham. We are sure that through the engaging content that the teams have built, kids will be more mindful of their nutrition and learn various ways to improve their own immunity,” said, Ketan Mohile, Category Director (Kids Nutrition Category), Cipla.

Little Singham is creating history across dimensions. The IP has helped in propelling ratings of Discovery Kids by more than 400% this year. ‘Little Singham’ Mobile Game added to the IP’s success hitting the top of the charts in the Arcade section by garnering more than 5 million downloads till date.

In May, Discovery Kids climbs to 2nd position in kid’s genre. The ground-up Super Hero Indian IP Little Singham accelerated the channel increase its reach to 24 million. Significantly, the channel also garnered the 2nd highest time spend of 111 minutes per viewer in the kids’ genre in Week 17, according to the latest BARC data.

Inspired by ‘Singham’, Little Singham becomes India’s favorite animation character, targeting children in the age group of 5-11 years. Dabur Red Paste has come onboard as the title sponsor of the show. The digital rights of the show have been sold to Netflix.

Singham was a 2011 Indian action film directed by Rohit Shetty, starring Ajay Devgan in the title role alongside Kajal Aggarwal and Prakash Raj as the antagonist. Director Rohit Shetty came up with another sequel – Singham Returns in 2014, where actor Ajay Devgan reprises his role from the previous film, as well as co-producing the project, while Kareena Kapoor plays the female lead thus replacing Kajal Aggarwal.

Little Singham premiered on Discovery Kids channel starting April 21, 2018, and airs every day at 1.30 and 5.30 PM respectively.

Samsung launches Galaxy Watch in India

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Samsung launches Galaxy Watch in India

Samsung India launched the new Galaxy Watch that allows users to stay seamlessly connected and in the groove, day in-day out with new lifestyle functions such as stress and sleep monitoring capabilities.

These analog watches have been crafted into three new variants – Silver, Midnight Black, and Rose Gold. Galaxy Watch.

The product range will be priced at Rs 29,990 for the 46mm version and Rs 24,990 for the 42mm version.

“The Galaxy Watch extends our smartwatch tradition of blending timeless design with revolutionary technology. It is the perfect fashion accessory that can change completely to go with your look. And beneath its refined exterior, Galaxy Watch is a beast of a device, with features that keep up with a wide variety of activities and lifestyles,” said Aditya Babbar, General Manager, Samsung India.

Galaxy Watch comes in two variants – a 46mm case in silver with a contrasting matt black bezel and a 42mm option in full body midnight black and Rose gold.

Users can customize the watch with a massive selection of watch faces and straps that can be purchased at any regular watch store. Galaxy Watch features analog watch ticks and hourly chimes, and a depth effect that casts shadows defining every detail on the watch face for a traditional look and feel.

The watch is powered by a 1.5GHz Exynos 9110 Dual-core processor and comes with daily activity tracker and a My Day watch face that will show you your schedule over the next 10 hours. It also comes with an advanced sleep tracker that will monitor REM cycles and will provide you with data so that you can adjust your sleeping habits. The Galaxy Watch also gets 21 new indoor exercises for a total of 39 workouts.

In addition, Galaxy Watch’s also got Corning Gorilla Glass DX+ and it is water resistant with a 5 ATM rating.

The Galaxy Watch will take on the likes of Fitbit Versa and Apple Watch Series 4. Apple’s latest smartwatch is yet to go on sale in India and is likely to come with a much steeper price tag. The Galaxy Watch will be available across online and offline channels in October.

DuckTales is getting a reboot, Shaan and son recreates title track

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DuckTales is getting a reboot, Shaan and son recreates title track

In what could be termed as good news for 1990s kids, Disney Channel India is finally launching the reboot of DuckTales on October 1. It is said that the series will reach out to the next generation and set an example for them to be confident, curious, independent and innovative.

And adding punch to its relaunch is singer Shaan and his 13-year-old son who has crooned the recreated title track of the blockbuster cartoon series.

The song in Hindi was released on the official social media handles of Disney India.

Check it out here:

Shaan said in a statement, “I am a huge fan of the original series and really happy that a new generation of kids, including my son, will have the opportunity to grow up with ‘DuckTales’. The title sequence absolutely complements the sense of adventure and excitement of the show and it was fun recording the Hindi version; especially because I could share the experience with my son Shubh.”

American animated television series DuckTales was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and first aired on television in September 1987. It went on to be dubbed in multiple languages across the world. In India, it was telecast on Doordarshan in Hindi, back in the 90s. Its title track was originally sung by Chetan Shasital.

Earlier, Devika Prabhu, Executive Director, and Head-Product, Media Networks, Disney India had said, “DuckTales holds a very special place in Disney’s storytelling history, especially in India. The new series brings the same energy and adventurous spirit for a whole new generation of young fans.”

Ducktales will be telecast every Monday at 6 PM.

Mondo TV announces major broadcast deals for ‘Sissi the Young Empress’

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Mondo TV announces major broadcast deals for ‘Sissi the Young Empress’

Mondo TV, one of the largest European producers and distributors of animated content announced two more major broadcast agreements, taking its popular animated TV show for four-to-eight-year-olds, Sissi the Young Empress, to channels serving four countries.

From June this year, Sissi has been appearing on Club Illico, an SVOD subscription service and one of the leading Canadian digital platforms in the French language. The agreement gives Club Illico owner Videotron, a major cross-platform Canadian media operator, a license for the French-language SVOD rights of the first season of Sissi for a period of two years.

Matteo Corradi, Mondo TV CEO said, “More and more channels are discovering the enormous appeal of Sissi the Young Empress and adding their names to the many broadcasters that have made it such a hit. Its combination of storytelling, romance, magic and humour with a cast of very engaging characters has made it a favourite with many young audiences, and we are delighted to welcome Nickelodeon viewers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Club Illico viewers in Canada to Sissi’s fast-growing fanbase.”

Along with the Canadian deal, Mondo TV has announced a three-country deal with Nickelodeon that brings a German-language version of Sissi series one to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for a five-year period, which started in September this year. Nickelodeon will have exclusive free-to-air and pay-TV rights in Germany, and non-exclusive free-to-air and pay-TV rights in Austria and Switzerland.

These two agreements add a number of important new broadcast outlets to the vast number already showing Sissi around the world. They follow on from the recently announced major three-year deal with DBS children’s channel JeemTV, through which Sissi has been showing in Arabic from July 2018 in a number of countries.

Already a big hit with its a core audience of young girls, Sissi the Young Empress is now an established rating hit in over 40 countries.

Sissi is based on a real historical figure – a charming young empress who over the years captured the public imagination well beyond her Austrian homeland. This animated version of her story offers its audience lots of adventure, romance, mystery, intrigue and even magic when Sissi discovers a magic bracelet, which leads to exciting and unusual adventures as she seeks to help her many animal friends.

The adventures of the free-spirited princess who resists etiquette and the duties of the court to follow her heart is a big success with its target audience of young girls, who love Sissi’s strong and positive character and identify with her desire to follow her dreams.

A licensing campaign for the property is already strongly established and has brought to retail toys, books, magazines, puzzles and board games, confectionery, personal care products, carnival costumes and a Dress Up Your Sissi game app. With plans already advanced for series three and the continuing success of the first two series, an expanded licensing campaign is on the way.

Cosmoprof India enthralls in its debut. Here’s how

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Cosmoprof India enthralls in its debut. Here’s how

BolognaFiere and UBM India inaugurated the much-awaited maiden edition of Cosmoprof India at the Sahara Star Hotel in Mumbai, which took place from September 10-11.

With successful, signature trade shows in Bologna, Las Vegas, and Hong Kong, which cumulatively involve over 370,000 professionals and 7,000 companies from across the world, the Cosmoprof platform has ventured in India which is a dynamic and a growing market for the beauty sector.

The Show was inaugurated by Cinzia Barbieri, Board Member, BolognaFiere Cosmoprof S.p.A.; Enrico Zannini, General Manager, BolognaFiere Cosmoprof; Michael Duck, Executive Vice President, UBM Asia Ltd.; Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India, and Rahul Deshpande, Group Director, UBM India amidst an industry gathering.

Speaking at the inauguration Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India said, “The awareness of beauty products and treatments is at an all-time high in India owing to factors such as increasing premium on personal grooming, changes in consumption patterns and lifestyles, improved purchasing power and effective marketing of the brands. The Indian sub-continent is keen to discover finished world-class beauty products that are now in demand among a broader base of consumers.”

“Cosmoprof India, backed by the immense knowledge and expertise of a coveted international brand like Cosmoprof Worldwide, aims to analyze and forecast trends and developments in the Beauty and Cosmetics industry along with helping businesses prosper,” Mudras further added.

The two-day cutting-edge event with 107 companies – both local and international from 15 countries   represents a new opportunity both for brands of finished products, especially for Cosmetics and Toiletries, Beauty Salon, Hair, Nail and Accessories, and for the supply chain, with the leaders in raw materials and ingredients, contract manufacturing and private labels, applicators, primary and secondary packaging.

“The Cosmoprof network lands in India for the first time, to maximize the business opportunities offered by the country,” said Cinzia Barbieri, Board Member of BolognaFiere Cosmoprof and BolognaFiere Group.

The Cosmoprof India Preview is studded with a number of captivating presentations and features. For instance, the in-depth sessions and seminars of Cosmotalks, in the preview, leveraged the collaborations of internationally renowned partners. Beautystreams, specializing in consulting projects and development of market lines presented the ’Spring/Summer 2019 beauty trend forecast that spoke on colors, textures and looks inspirations for the beauty industry for the upcoming season. Euromonitor, a highly referenced market research organization, organized a session under the title ’New consumer values and novel concepts in beauty.

Furthermore, the expo also witnessed Beautystreams examine the show floor trends and innovations of the exhibitors’ products.

To increase business opportunities during the event, the preview included an International Buyer Program by Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna that aided B2B meetings between companies, distributors, buyers, importers and suppliers from India, United Arab Emirates and South-East Asia.

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