London, UK -- Bulldog Licensing has revealed that the world’s favourite cartoon cat has just passed the landmark figure of five million ‘likes’ on Facebook!
As one of the world’s most recognisable characters, Garfield needs little introduction – the cartoon strip featuring the acerbic pet cat was first introduced in 1978 and is now featured in over 2100 newspapers across the globe, holding the Guinness World Record for the most syndicated cartoon strip, whilst Garfield books have sold in excess of 135 million copies to date. Garfield has also spawned two animated television series, two feature-length live-action films, and three CGI animated movies – as well as thousands of lines of Garfield licensed merchandise.
Garfield is hugely popular in the UK, which is one of the brand’s strongest markets – the cartoon strip appears every day in the Daily Mail, the country’s second most popular newspaper with a circulation of nearly 2 million, and ‘The Garfield Show’ cartoon is one of the top-rating shows on digital channel Boomerang. This popularity has led to increasingly impressive sales figures for licensed merchandise, with sales of product in the first half of 2012 alone showing a rise of more than 340% in comparison to the same period last year.
A rapidly expanding licensing programme has seen Bulldog recently bring on board Somerbond for men’s nightwear and underwear and J Fox for bags, belts, wallets, hankies and toiletries in wash bags. This adds to an impressive roster of existing partners that includes, amongst others, Blues Clothing, Brand Alliance and Silverknit for apparel, Sert MST for pet products, Whitehouse for amusement plush, Moonpig.com for online greetings cards and Smiffys for dress up.
“Passing the five million mark on Facebook is a major achievement and the UK is one of the biggest contributors to the site thanks to the huge presence of the brand in this country,” says Bulldog MD Rob Corney. “The team at Paws use their strong presence on social media to great effect, driving footfall to retail by announcing specific product releases to their fanbase. Garfield works as both a classic retro brand and a kids’ property in this country and that ensures a wide consumer base, which is crucial from a retailer’s perspective and ensures strong listings for licensed products.”
Source: Bulldog Licensing