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One of the charity's most successful corporate partnerships notches up milestone.
Hit Entertainment's Thomas & Friends property has helped to raise over £1 million for the National Autistic Society since 2001, the firm has revealed.
One of the charity's most sucessful corporate partnerships, NAS has now extended the partnership for a further three years.
Research conducted by NAS and Hit in 2007 found that 98.8 per cent of parents of children with autism surveyed, reported that their children either liked Thomas & Friends or liked it very much. Over 60 per cent said that Thomas was the first fictional character their child liked or associated with.
Hit first collaborated with NAS in 2001, granting the image rights of Thomas & Friends to the charity. Since then, the two companies have worked together on a number of fundraising initiatives including branded merchandise, cause-related marketing activities and community events.
"Thomas & Friends holds a very special place in the hearts of young children and their families," said Victoria Bushell, brand manager at Hit. "We are delighted to be working with the NAS who continue amazing work in reaching out and supporting families of children with autism."
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Recent activity includes the first ever national Train Walk, a series of Thomas & Friends themed sponsored walks taking place across the country.
It's great that in 8 years Hit Entertainment has been allowing the NAS licensing rights to Thomas and Friends and has raised over a million pounds. Every bit helps.
My autistic 3 year old learned a great deal from watching the show, it's just a shame that when we see a product in the store and the price tag is $20 US he can't have it.
Perhaps Hit Entertainment could finance some research into why Thomas is so appealing and helpful to children with autism, or release what research they have done already to help them market and profit from our kids.
Yeah it's nice but they could do more. I wonder if you added up all the money parents with children diagnosed with autism have spent on Thomas product how many hundreds of millions it actually is. Licensing rights is one thing, funding research is another.
