ETS LICENSING 2021 opens with exciting news

ETS LICENSING

2021 OPENS WITH EXCITING NEWS

ETS Licensing pays close attention to consumer market trends to identify interesting opportunities and build a portfolio of licenses that respond effectively to the potential of targeted audiences.

ETS Licensing has started the new year by adding Floopaloo, a property with growing success, to its catalogue. Produced by the French studio Xilam, Floopaloo is an original animated series for 4- to 8-yearolds. It follows the adventures of cousins Lisa and Matt, during their vacation at a fantastic summer camp, surrounded by a forest protected by a magical and mysterious creature. Airing on Frisbee since 2020, Floopaloo audience figures and ratings have steadily improved, leading the channel to increase its programming to large daily time slots, Monday through Sunday.

Sandro Sgrulloni, Programming & Content Acquisition Senior Manager

at Discovery said: “Floopaloo is one of the most popular series among Frisbee’s target audience, thanks to its ability to transport the audience into an enchanted world with exclusive access: only children know of the existence of this fantastic creature capable of fulfilling any wish and only those with great curiosity and imagination can sense its magical virtues. Floopaloo has given us great results in terms of ratings, but above all, the content is capable of staying relevant, always generating new interest in the public.”

Other properties recently added to the ETS portfolio include Nefertine on the Nile, an original pre-school animated series co-produced by Graphilm, Cyber Group Studios and Waooh!, in collaboration with Rai Ragazzi. The show is about to make itself known to the public on Rai Yoyo which plans to start airing the first season of 52 11-minute episodes in May. Nefertine on the Nile narrates the adventures of Nefertine, a curious and resourceful little girl from ancient Egypt involving exciting adventures with mummies, pyramids, sphinxes and crocodiles. As of April, the first episodes of the series will also be available for preview on the Rai Play platform. In the meantime, an ambitious licensing program has been launched, starting with DeAgostini’s launch of paperback books and sticker albums in bookshops. The company is also setting up partnerships and collaborations with an educational background, to maximize the potential offered by the series’ historical content.

DIGITAL INNOVATIONS

ETS also has a space dedicated to the Web, and among its new entries in this area is the irresistible humor of Pera Toons, whose popularity continues to grow. Pera Toons consists of a universe of jokes and comic riddles created by Alessandro Perugini, with a large social media community of almost 3 million fans.

The engaging riddles of “Who Killed Kenny?” and the hilarious puns of Pera Toons have been transferred from social media to print media with equal success. Ridi che è meglio! the latest book by Pera Toons published by Tunué last November, has already seen four reprints and sold over 20,000 copies in just a few months. It consistently comes first in the Comics/ Non-Paperbacks charts and 4th in the

general Comics charts and has also received a prestigious Amazon Best Seller award. The growing popularity of the Pera Toons phenomenon was also recently highlighted by Rai 1’s popular program “Uno Mattina” which aired an interview with author Alessandro Perugini on January 26. The success of Chefclub has continued unabated, and in 2020 became the digital food brand with the greatest growth on social media worldwide. The innovative cooking brand was launched in 2016 with the aim of transforming the kitchen into a space of sharing and joy through surprising but easy-to-make recipes. Since its launch it has seen exceptional growth of its community, which now has 100 million worldwide followers on Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok, and over one billion organic views per month. In Italy, Chefclub reached an average of 62 million monthly views and 20 million unique viewers across all social media platforms by the end of 2020.

Chefclub’s content has allowed the brand to build a large, highly engaged community that is happy to actively participate in the creation of Chefclub products, which fully embody the brand’s DNA and distinctive values. Fun, imagination, originality, and the use of a few simple ingredients that can be found in any kitchen are the secrets of Chefclub’s incredible success.

And the fun continues with Chefclub Friends, the funny characters on the kitchen team who not only collaborate on the video recipes by providing practical instructions for preparing the dishes, but also represent the spirit of Chefclub. The moustachioed chef Maurice; the piglet Elvis: sous chef and official taster; the mouse Lola, cheese expert; the stern hen Colette with her helpers the chicks Kikitos; and the cat Carlton, sommelier, and bartender, reinforce the positioning of the property between cooking and entertainment, and are destined to expand their role in the Chefclub ecosystem.

The Chef Friends are fun cooking helpers. They guide children in their experiences of independence in the kitchen but adults like them too. Versatile and transformative, they love to dress up for different occasions, such as Easter, Halloween, Christmas, or Chinese New Year. They create an enchanted universe for food lovers and families and are perfect for transposing their smiles and cheerful colors into different types of products and experiences, with licensing initiatives that extend from the kitchen to other worlds, such as fashion, lifestyle, and experiential areas. In addition, Chefclub is developing an ambitious program of international

partnerships and licensing initiatives and recently announced a global master licensing agreement with Groupe SEB.

Marie-Laure Marchand, SVP Global Consumer Products & Business

Development at Chefclub, said, “We are proud to announce our global partnership with Groupe SEB to create a full range of cookware, kitchenware and small appliances under the Chefclub by Tefal brand. The new Chefclub by Tefal product line will be launched in the coming months and will primarily cover France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Nordic countries, Russia, Brazil, and Mexico. Created in collaboration with the Chefclub community, this fresh and colorful line is based on Chefclub’s expertise in inspiring people in the kitchen and Tefal’s know-how in making reliable, high-quality kitchen products. The range will reflect Chefclub’s disruptive tone, and it is designed to appeal to millennials and families. We also recently launched our first DTC Chefclub by Tefal initiative, the Raclette King, a raclette-making tool paired with a card game. Partnering with an absolute global leading brand in the category will make a wide selection of products available to Chefclub fans. Italy is an important market for Chefclub on social media and we are excited to work with ETS to expand our reach beyond the digital sphere.” In Italy, the licensing plan kicked off with an agreement with Vallardi Editore for the publication of cookbooks for adults and will continue over the coming months with ongoing negotiations with several major players.

THE STRENGTH OF CLASSICS

The pandemic has led Italians to rediscover reading and has also brought the younger generation closer to children’s literature classics, with a special place is reserved by Pippi Longstocking, who, despite her 75 years of age, is still as relevant as ever.

That is why Centauria chose the little girl with the red braids for the first issue of

its new series of books - La biblioteca dei ragazzi (Children’s Library) - on newsstands since January. Pippi, in fact, rightfully belongs to the timeless masterpieces of fiction of the last 80 years, characters with whom we identify and have become heroes of our childhood. The development of its licensing program in Italy continues with new partnerships, including agreements with CIAO for carnival costumes and party goods, and with Micki Toys for the distribution of playsets and 3D characters. In addition,

a new line of Clementoni puzzles and a Multiprint collection of stamps and colors will be launched on the market in spring. Here there are also incredibly positive results for the Pippi of Today campaign, launched in 2020 by Astrid Lindgren Company in partnership with Save the Children to help migrant girls fleeing war and poverty. Despite the difficulties caused by the health emergency, partners participating in the campaign have so far donated significant sums of money to Save the Children towards its goal of generating 2.5 million euros. The campaign has also seen an excellent new addition: Google joined the campaign and, in collaboration with partner retailers, launched an initiative with Chromebook and Google Nest Mini, the smart speaker with integrated Google Assistant. The promotion allows you to listen to stories and information about Pippi Longstocking, contributing directly to the Pippi of Today campaign at the time of purchase. The initiative, which launched in late 2020, is available in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark, and is set to expand to other countries. The Pippi of Today campaign will continue throughout 2021 and will see new initiatives to support it.

NEWS FOR LITTLE ONES

2021 opened with new developments for Lottie Dottie Chicken, the preschool Property born as a YouTube phenomenon. Its funny videos of songs that have spread worldwide have now landed on the small screen with the cute animated series Mini

Lottie Dottie Chicken. After the growing interest in the first season (52 x 6 min) broadcast on Frisbee in 2020, a second season of 52 six minutes episodes launched in January; with the production of the 3rd season being finalized.

In addition to its television successes, the cute blue hen has achieved other important milestones: its nursery rhymes videos and animated series are now also available on Amazon Prime, and you can listen to the music on major digital music platforms including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and Deezer. Proof of the growing love of the Italian public for the cute blue hen and her friends can be found in social media data: in just 8 months, the Italian Facebook page and Instagram profiles have reached almost 350,000 people with high levels of engagement, exceeding 18,000 interactions. In addition to these numbers, there are over 200,000 subscribers of the Italian YouTube channel with over 5 million views. And the news continues: there will soon be a new collection “Le Fiabe della buona notte di Gallina Puntolina” (Lottie Dottie Chicken Fair Tales), a collection of videobooks accompanied by a printed version, telling some of the most popular classic fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Ugly Duckling and The Three Little Pigs, interpreted from a new perspective. The Italian licensing program is proceeding, with the newsstand release of two Play Press publications (Magic Album, Sticker&Color) in March, and the launch of the special editorial project “Read, sing and dance with Lottie Dottie Chicken” created by Pon Pon Edizioni for the bookstore channel in April.

There is also news on the Mini Pet Pals. The fourth season of the animated series will be broadcast on Rai Yoyo in the second half of the year, with 26 new six-minute episodes, in addition to the 152 episodes already available and constantly airing on the network. Another 26 episodes are on the way for the end of the year. In the new season, the Mini Pet Pals - following their adventures in the playground, in the flower park and in the nearby woods - are now entering kindergarten for the first time. They will have new experiences, feel new emotions and gain a better knowledge of themselves and the world under the careful guidance of teachers and new friends. In 2021, for the 3rd consecutive year, the licensing partnerships will also include Walcor’s Easter egg surprise produced exclusively for the MD supermarket chain; Sbabam’s soap bubbles has been added and will be launched on newsstands at the end of spring, followed by modeling dough and slime for back to school.

GLAMOROUS PROPOSALS FOR FASHION ADDICTS

For the joy of all little girls who love the world of fashion, the team of the super fashionable Hairdorables is about to welcome new stylish friends. In April, Giochi Preziosi will launch the brandnew Hairmazing collection of fabulous fashion dolls with fantastic hairstyles, 25 cm tall and packed with accessories. Each package contains 6 surprises and once opened acts as a playset and customized setting. In April to provide more opportunities to have fun and express your personality with imagination, another brand-new line

is coming: Hair Art, 26 dolls with long hair and creative looks, available in blind boxes containing 11 different surprises, as well as a hair clip with a personalized lock of hair. Both launches will be supported by an intensive promotional program, with TV commercials, a targeted social media strategy, digital content, and POP materials.