Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products announce highlights of their portfolio for Brand Licensing Europe 2013.
Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products (NVCP) is headed to Brand Licensing Europe 2013 with a portfolio that’s stronger than ever, for kids, young and old, complete with some of the most popular, time-tested entertainment brands for preschoolers, boys and girls, tweens, teens and adults.
As a global player in the entertainment arena, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV properties have inspired creative and innovative consumer products that enable fans around the world to experience their favourite characters off screen. With integrated programmes across all core properties – including Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as adult targeted brands including Comedy Central’s South Park and MTV Classic - NVCP is set for a stellar 2014 with a number of new initiatives to garner even more excitement and engagement with kids and parents around the world.
The international launch of one of Nickelodeon’s biggest properties to date, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,has taken the world by storm, reaching more than 41.8 million viewers across 18 countries since the series premiere in Autumn 2012.
The property’s cross-category consumer products range, which launched in Autumn/Winter 2012 with global partners Lego and Playmates, has topped the “must have” lists at all major retailers, winning in every category that has hit the shelves to date. Crowned the number one new toy property and number one new action property in the US, UK, Australia and Canada, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is marking its one year anniversary by ticking all the key category boxes, including toys, video games, publishing, home entertainment, apparel and plush, with a number of stand-out promotions in all major markets.
The property will continue to be supported across all Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) platforms, with the rollout of new content and special features via the iOs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run app. Furthermore, season 2 will launch internationally in early 2014 with a multi-platform marketing campaign that will support the series’ storyline. This, alongside new products rolling out in the run up to Christmas and into 2014, plus a blockbuster movie set to premiere around the world beginning August 2014 from Paramount Pictures, all indicates Turtle power is only set to continue!
Looking to NVCP’s best-in-class pre-school portfolio, Nickelodeon continues to have an unrivalled catalogue of shows with the most-loved characters and an unmatched commitment to educational curriculum.
Leading the pack is Dora the Explorer, with a raft of new initiatives keeping her fresh for NVCP’s myriad licensing partners. Now 13 years into her career, Dora ranks amongst the most-watched preschool shows, reaching more than 75 million viewers across 13 countries and ranking as the number one programme in its time slot in Australia, Spain, France, Hungary, Mexico and Poland in 2013. Translated into more than 30 languages, and generating more than $12 billion in worldwide retail sales to date, Dora is a cultural icon, a best friend to kids and trusted universally by parents.
Looking ahead to 2014, NVCP will continue to reinforce Dora’s core DNA – her understanding of the key life events or ‘steps’ in pre-schooler’s development - with the on-going rollout of its cross platform marketing programme, Step by Step Explore with Dora. Following its successful launch in the UK, Spain and France, the campaign will next launch in Benelux in Autumn/Winter 2014 with additional territories thereafter.
Spring 2014 sees NVCP celebrating best friends everywhere with a Dora (Hearts) Friends event and marketing campaign that will air pre-Easter with an on-air themed stunt. Additional primetime tent poles are also slated, including the Dora World Cup brand new football special, timed to the World Cup next summer, as well as Bed Time Adventures in October, which will feature a brand new style guide using character art and bedtime-themed assets that focuses on what mums and preschoolers everywhere deal with each and every day at bedtime!
Looking further ahead to Spring 2015, Nickelodeon will welcome the anticipated international launch of Dora and Friends, conceived by the original creative team behind Dora the Explorer. Appealing to slightly older pre-school fans, the series will take Dora to the next level, giving her a fresh look, new friends and even more exciting adventures, all themed around the idea of helping the community.
Pre-school hit Bubble Guppies is swimming into 2014 with growing international ratings, having reached more than 16 million viewers in more than 10 countries in 2013. The show’s most popular characters, Molly, Gil and the adorable Bubble Puppy, are translating into popular products, including a range of toys from global master toy licensee Fisher Price, with plush in particular becoming the leading item in early toy sales. Additional lines and categories, spanning toys, video games, publishing, apparel, accessories and home, will roll out across the UK, France, Australia, Mexico and Brazil in Spring 2014.
As well as demonstrating on-going commitment to pre-schoolers, NVCP will continue to garner its cross-demo appeal in 2014 for tweens and young adults, with new content and property launches for the ever-popular evergreen SpongeBob SquarePants. For more than a decade, SpongeBob has consistently ranked amongst the top 10 programmes in every major television market and currently holds the number one spot in more than 170 countries with more than $12 billion in global consumer products sales to date.
In Summer 2014, SpongeBob, along with his fellow beloved Nickelodeon characters, will take part in the first ever Nickelodeon Slime Cup to encourage kids to be active through play. The campaign will include the biggest, noisiest, integrated activities from on-air to digital to events.
And in Spring 2015, SpongeBob will be returning to the big screen in his next theatrical release with Paramount Pictures, which will be supported across all of Nickelodeon’s lines of business.
But long before then, this year and next, older fans will also be inspired by a raft of new MTV Classic deals, paying tribute to 30 years of originality by inspiring pop culture among young generations. In partnership with Calypso – part of the Spanish watch company Festina Group – NVCP will launch the first ever MTV Classic watch line in autumn 2013. Complementing the brand’s long-standing appeal for mixing music, creativity, fashion and youth culture for over 30 years, the range of MTV branded watches marks the first collection of its kind, and will feature original and inspired designs that will be manufactured and distributed in 60 countries around the world, in Spain, and across Europe, CEE, Asia, the United Arab Emirates and Latin America.
MTV Classic and Yo! MTV Raps brands will also be featured in three new co-branded apparel deals with Starter Black Label, New Era Cap and Stussy.
A pan-European license agreement has been signed by UK manufacturer Drew Pearson with Starter Black Label¹s exclusive European licensee Refuel Brand Distribution, for a range of MTV Starter co-branded snapback baseball caps and accessories. Meanwhile, New Era Cap will launch a range of caps for Yo! MTV Raps in specialty retailers globally, including the US; and a separate co-branded deal with Stussy has been signed for all international markets outside the US for Yo! MTV Raps T-shirts. Both deals will launch in autumn 2013.
Separately a two year deal in Italy has launched with Mia Bag and Italian designer Monica Bianco, for a range of high-end bags entitled My Bag Vintage MTV Music Television.
NVCP’s adult business has also expanded with a range of new deals for the ever-popular South Park. Now in its 17th season, South Park is being reinvigorated for consumer products as the show continues to dominate in its sector – 230+ episodes, 120+ markets worldwide, 40+ language versions, 46 million fans on Facebook and three US Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program.
Deals span stationary, accessories and consumer electronics and includes a mass market deal with E3! Style for a range of South Park speakers moulded to the shape of the characters, mobile phone/iPod/iPad cases, computing accessories, iPod/iPhone cases and speaker docks.
So as NVCP prepares to fire on all cylinders in 2014, with a slate of new content and brand new categories and lines across all core properties, the future is most certainly a brighter shade of orange!
Source: Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
