Kids’ wellness and homeware products join new toy range at retail

Bulldog Licensing, the leading licensing agency which represents Sesame Street in the UK on behalf of non-profit organization Sesame Workshop, has announced new deals for the much-loved brand as Sesame continues to grow its presence on screen, on digital and at UK retail. Two of the newest launches – in the wellness and homeware categories – underline the diverse appeal of the brand. Supreme Imports, a leading name in the wellness market, has launched a Sesame Street range through its Sealions brand of kids’ multivitamins. Containing eight essential nutrients, these gummies are sugar-free and vegan-friendly, with a delicious natural raspberry flavour little ones will love. The Sealions range is now available on the company’s website.

Meanwhile GHS Studio, one of Europe’s leading designers, manufacturers and distributors of upholstered furniture, is planning a range of kids’ beanbag sofas and chairs, homeware and onesies all decorated with your favourite Sesame Street characters, which will be launching later this year. And of course, the first products from the new Sesame Street master toy partner Just Play are now flying off the shelves of major retail outlets, including Smyths and The Entertainer.One of these high-quality toys – designed to support children’s learning and development – recently starred in the window of Hamley’s Regent Street store in London: the delightful Potty Time Elmo, an interactive kids’ plush toy that helps little ones to learn healthy habits. Sesame Street fans visiting Hamley’s were treated to free character soft toys and cookies when Elmo dropped in to celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Day on Friday the 17th of February.

This strong retail and licensing performance comes at a time when Sesame Street programming is enjoying a hugely successful and growing presence on Tiny Pop, the UK’s number one commercial channel for pre-schoolers. There are now six shows featuring on the channel: Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck, Elmo’s World, Super Grover 2.0, Cookie’s Crumby Pictures, Smart Cookies and Elmo and Tango’s Mysterious Mysteries, with four of these formats ranking as Tiny Pop’s top performing titles last year, helping to continue the stellar growth of the brand.

And Sesame Street’s digital content is also boosting brand awareness: its YouTube channel has an incredible 94 million annual views in the UK and Ireland, totalling over eight million hours watched, while the brand has over one million UK followers on social media. The incredible availability of Sesame Street content, which also now boasts Sesame Workshop’s Mecha Builders, airing on Milkshake, acts alongside the heavyweight marketing support of Just Play’s master toy programme and a rapidly growing licensed product offering at all major retailers, to make Sesame Street one of the UK’s must-have pre-school brands. Sesame Street is one of the best-known and best-loved children’s brands in the world, engaging fans of all ages while delivering on its mission to help kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger and kinder.

Bulldog Licensing Group MD Rob Corney says: “The strength of Sesame Street both at retail and on TV is a testament to its continuing relevance and enduring appeal across multiple generations. As more youngsters discover this wonderful brand, we expect to see an even stronger retail presence in the UK for Sesame Street in the coming years.”

Can you tell us a little about Two Daughters Entertainment? (They’re clearly expanding – I see they have just appointed Finn Arnesen as COO).
Two Daughters Entertainment was founded by James Reatchlous, born out of the love he had for telling bedtime stories to his children. He wrote these stories down in journals, which his daughters later brought to him to lift his spirits during a lengthy hospital stay. This inspired the creation of Moley, the company’s first production. Featuring an all-star cast including Warwick Davis, Stanley Tucci, Jessica Henwick, Julie Walters and Gemma Arterton, Moley has been hugely successful and is now distributed in over 140 countries and 30 languages. It’s been a pleasure to see TDE grow. As you’ve mentioned, they’ve just brought Finn Arnesen on board as COO, who will bring years of experience in the kids and family entertainment world to the table. He previously spent 10 years at Hasbro Studios, where he oversaw the global expansion of properties like My Little Pony and Transformers, as well as 16 years at Cartoon Network, so it just goes to show the international level of ambition at TDE right now. Following the success of Moley, they’re now working on three new properties which will start rolling out soon.

What’s so special about Moley? How does this IP stand out in a crowded market? (It’s certainly got an all-star cast.)
Moley is a beautifully animated show with a fun storyline set in a unique environment, compelling characters and a world of adventure. The voice talent in the show is stellar, the scripting is superb and we’re seeing incredible levels of support from our media partners around the world. The brand has been conceptualised as a multi-media property with high levels of marketing investment both in physical and digital worlds, providing a huge platform from which the merchandise sales will build.

What has been the reaction to the series in the UK market?
We’ve had a phenomenal reaction to Moley from multiple partners. Initially our discussions are focused on master toy and publishing with a number of the industry’s leading partners looking to pitch.

In which categories do you think Moley could score big? Toys? Stationery? Publishing? Apparel? Food and Drink? Gaming?
Moley lends itself ideally to a full cross-category merchandise programme. There are amazing, interactive venues, vehicles and strong characters for our toy partners, great storylines and imagery for our publishing partners and an incredible styleguide for apparel, home and stationery partners. Upcycling is a major theme throughout the show with the inventor Mish Mosh creating all sorts of useful (and some less than useful!) items from discarded products and we intend to focus on this as a major theme in the development of STEM toys and opportunities which kids can explore in the world around them.

Can you share details of any collaborations currently in the works? Are any goods expected to hit retail in time for Christmas?
We’re in advanced discussions with a number of partners in both toy and publishing with expressions of interest across a very wide range of categories. From a UK perspective the show has been attracting good audiences on Boomerang who have been supporting the broadcast with an expansive marketing plan. It will launch on our free to air partner, Pop later this year and we are targeting a 2024 launch of our initial product lines. We are seeing similar successes in international territories with good viewership across the whole of EMEA on Boomerang and free to air partners such as Kika, who launched the show in December, will pre-empt the rollout of our related licensing programme.