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For more information, contact: licensing@trendformer.co

The rise of a new licensing star

What does it take to create a new brand that is attractive for the licensing community? In most cases, it means an animated series creation: finding a brilliant idea, investing in the bible, then working on the content itself. And then, maybe several years later, the project becomes noticeable for licensing specialists. Content is key. Even the toy-manufacturing giants look closely at the content component; they understand it is crucial to bring the audience the most desirable thing to consume – the content. How does this affect licensing? Let’s look at HEY CLAY, the brand that belongs to Trendformer, the company which makes products for exciting DIY activities centered around creative educational play. Their original product is a set of air-dry clay. To distinguish themselves from dozens (or even hundreds) of clay manufacturers, HEY CLAY took the following steps.

Step 1. To make children develop creative thinking, the clay is sold in sets designed to build colorful characters that each become a standalone toy after drying. The company started with 6 sets of 6 characters each – Monsters, Aliens, Bugs, Birds, Animals, and Dinosaurs.

Step 2. Kids love mobile apps, and the awardwinning HEY CLAY app is designed to inspire kids and teach them basic modeling techniques through step-bystep explanations using the example of charming and funny animated characters. The app connects inspiring clay animation with hands-on experience of modeling. It aims at improving a child’s fine motor skills while having fun. Colorful and engaging, it instantly takes the child on a fantastic journey of creative crafting. What is more important, through using the HEY CLAY app, kids travel from the virtual reality of the app to the actual world where they create characters from clay and then play with them.

Step 3. This is the moment when the characters start living their own lives. The clay is very elastic, and HEY CLAY is a light colorful substance that gives the character distinctive moves. The first step towards animated characters takes place in the application. The next, very natural step is creating an animation that Trendformer is working on with one of the leading studios. Several video formats are in development – 5’, 7’ and 11’ series for traditional channels and 1’, 2’, and 3’ short videos for YouTube. The company is also partnering with leading agencies to create videos aimed at the fastest growing social platforms.

Step 4. Going into the licensing world through multi-channel B2B collaborations, HEY CLAY has proven its success thanks to the versatility of the product itself and the concept as a whole. Successful retail launches and cases have taken place in key regions: North America (Canada), Europe (Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Nordic countries), APAC (Japan, Australia), Gulf Region countries. As a global partner the brand has attracted the leading retail programs that represent the company worldwide. The number of countries where retail activations are to be presented is growing. With the colorful characters becoming more and more visible in different markets worldwide/around the world, it looks like now is just the right time to enter the licensing business.