THE ITALIAN MARKETPLACE
TOTAL LICENSING
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Baby Shark is fast becoming one of the most well-loved preschool properties on the Italian market with developments on digital, TV and in retail as ViacomCBS Italy celebrates the opening of the first Baby Shark YouTube channel, plans it debut TV series and launches new consumer products lines across multiple categories. ViacomCBS Italy is focused on growing the property Baby Shark, owned by Pinkfong, across all platforms in the country. Since the launch of the famous Baby Shark Dance on YouTube, in November 2015, Baby Shark has literally conquered the world with now over 7.9 billion views to date. Today Baby Shark continues as an online phenomenon with its own YouTube channel dedicated to Italian families. Now accessible to Italian children in their native language, new content created by child education experts is uploaded each week, including nursery rhymes, number songs, lullabies, children’s classics, fairy tales and much more. With more than 2 million views, the channel is set to engage families across Italy with more storytelling, fun and learning opportunities. Beyond digital, ViacomCBS Italy plans to debut the highly anticipated TV series Baby Shark’s Big Show, late spring this year. Following the success of the special Christmas episode of Baby Shark in December, which generated +52% share growth in the broadcast slot (compared to the same range of the previous 4 weeks), it was time to bring families more of the loveable shark. This runs in parallel with the expan-
sion of ViacomCBS Italy’s licensing and marketing activities around the successful property. An important online campaign was rolled out for Christmas 2020 in time for the baby Shark special, on major web and social media platforms, generating over 1 million contacts. Now the Italian ViacomCBS Consumer Products team is preparing for the launch of a new Baby Shark cross-category range for the entire 2021. The range will include over 15 collaborations with important players in toys, publishing categories, personal care and soft lines.
Leading Italian licensing agency and management consultancy Maurizio Distefano Licensing (MDL) has continued to work with licensees throughout the pandemic. MDL’s CEO Maurizio Distefano explains why he believes the Italian licensing market will continue to be resilient. No-one would pretend that 2020 was a great year for Italian licensing, although as Maurizio Distefano, founder and CEO of Maurizio Distefano Licensing (MDL) points out, it was looking that way until the February lockdown. However, as Distefano says, “Between March and June, we never stopped supporting our licensees and provided them with answers to their queries and digital support to keep them running.”
From June, business resumed, with digital marketing activities making up for the lack of trade shows and
face-to-face meetings. Now, Distefano says,“Our main goal is to consolidate 2020’s results for entertainment properties and to launch new properties we now represent. We also aim to expand our target audience.” Which MDL has – notably with a growing portfolio of fashion brands. MDL recently announced the launch of a new e-commerce outlet to bring accessible fashion design and sportswear from talented young Italian stylist Filippo Laterza to an even bigger audience. It also announced the arrival of Premoli + Di Bella home linen and high-end pet-focused design collections, inspired by the work of creative directors Giovanni Premoli and Dario Di Bella. A strong line-up of music brands received a major boost recently through a partnership with Global Merchandising Services, adding some of the most iconic artists in music history to MDL’s brand portfolio: Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Backstreet Boys, Little Mix and Louis Tomlinson, to name only a few. The same partnership is also bringing multi-Michelin starred chef Gordon Ramsay to the Italian market. But MDL still retains its traditional strength in children’s entertainment – a key sector during lockdown. Russian children’s animated series Leo & Tig is about to enter the world of publishing in Italy via Fabbri Editori. An MDL partnership with digital media company Moonbug Entertainment, will make MDL the licensing agent in the Italian market for the global sensations CoComelon, Blippi and My Magic Pet Morphle. And then there’s the massive pre-
