Mad Beauty lands exclusive Superdrug deal for its Disney’s Mulan beauty and lifestyle range

The health and beauty specialist, Mad Beauty is readying itself for the cinematic debut of Disney’s live action remake of Mulan with the launch of a new range of Mulan licensed beauty, bath and lifestyle products exclusively with Superdrug.

Ahead of the film’s March 27th UK release date, Mad Beauty has developed an extensive range, spanning pampering face masks, cherry-blossom make-up brushes, hair clips, bath fizzers and more.

The Disney Mulan range launched exclusively at Superdrug stores and online on Wednesday, February 26th.

The Disney Mulan Face Mask, Mulan Hair Clip Set, and Chinese cherry blossom Disney Mulan Bath Fizzers are joined by the Mulan Hairbrush set, and make-up brush set. The range also includes a Disney Mulan Lip Balm, Disney Mulan Bath Tea, Disney Mulan Bath and Body Set, and Disney Mulan Eyeshadow Palette.

Mad Beauty has had an ongoing partnership with Superdrug for the past three Christmas seasons. The new Disney licensed Mulan deal will see Mad Beauty extend its range into twice the number of Superdrug stores from this spring.

Trevor Cash, managing director at Mad Beauty, said: “We are very excited about this exclusive Mulan collection. Superdrug has been a valued partner of Mad Beauty’s for the last three Christmas seasons, so to have the opportunity to launch a full range on a FSU in twice as many stores as normal in spring is a fantastic bonus.

“We are very proud of the beautiful collection developed together to coincide with the launch of Mulan movie launch and would like to thank Superdrug and Disney for their support.” 

World Book Day: The Entertainer launches Big Book Rehoming with The Salvation Army

The high street toy retailer, The Entertainer is encouraging kids and families to read together this World Book Day with the launch of its Big Book Rehoming initiative, its charity drive that will aim to support the one in 11 children from disadvantaged homes in the UK who don’t own a book.

The appeal has been launched in partnership with the retailer’s long-time charity partner, The Salvation Army and will run across all of The Entertainer’s 172 stores from today (Thursday, March 5th), aligning with World Book Day.

The Entertainer is calling on families to donate their unwanted children’s books, so they can be rehomed with underprivileged families. The National Literacy Trust found children from underprivileged homes who don’t own a book are six times less likely to read at their expected level.

The Big Book Rehoming aims to encourage all families to read more, after research commissioned by The Entertainer found that of the 807 families surveyed across Britain, one in five (20 per cent) spend less than an hour a week reading with their children and one in 12 (eight per cent) devote less than half an hour to the cause.

In contrast, a third of families (30 per cent), spend over two hours a week watching YouTube videos together with one in seven households quizzed spending more than four hours watching YouTube together each week.

When asked to rank the importance of doing activities together as a family, making social media content together such as creating social posts, Tik Tok and YouTube videos also ranked higher than reading.

On a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most, 14 per cent of families said making YouTube content was the most important thing to do together and eight per cent of families said reading was the least important.

When it came to getting out and about as a family, out of school clubs and trips to the cinema were regular activities on the family calendar with nearly a third of families going to the cinema every month and out of school classes being visited every two to three days for a quarter of families. In contrast, a quarter of families (22 per cent) never visited a library.

Gary Grant, founder and executive chairman of The Entertainer, said: “We are extremely pleased to launch The Big Book Rehoming in partnership with The Salvation Army. Reading is such an important part of childhood learning and development.

“Knowledge and education are fundamental building blocks for life and missing out on having books to read can take away the freedom and imagination reading can inspire. We’re proud to be helping to rehome books with children who need them whilst continuing to support the work of The Salvation Army.”

Kirk Bradley, head of corporate partnerships of The Salvation Army Trading Company, added: “After the success of The Big Toy Rehoming campaign we are delighted to partner with The Entertainer for The Big Book Rehoming.

“Donations from members of the public help The Salvation Army in continuing to provide practical and emotional support to vulnerable people in the UK. This is another vital campaign which benefits those who need it most and we are overjoyed to be taking part.”

The donated books will help to support The Salvation Army and its services, providing assistance to vulnerable people which can include their parent and toddler groups and disadvantaged families.

The Big Book Rehoming will run from March 5th to March 14th in all 172 of The Entertainer’s stores nationwide.

For more information about The Entertainer, please visit www.thetoyshop.com.

Funko, the pop culture lifestyle, and why 2020 is going to be a game changer for its European business

It’s likely the fact that Funko – in one form or another – can be found in most toy shops on the high street or otherwise today, that the firm’s insistence that ‘it is not a toy company,’ takes some time to comprehend.

As the pop culture explosion that Funko found itself at the centre of mid-way through the last decade continues to surge across the UK, it stands to reason that the purveyor of Pop! has found itself an almost omnipresent figurehead of the trend.

It wouldn’t have escaped many people’s attention that year on year, the Funko brand has been gaining shelf space inch by inch across the retail landscape; most recently it compounded its growth within the toy space with the launch of its ‘revolutionary’ Paka Paka platform into The Entertainer’s boundary-pushing Westfield store – a concept that went on to launch in Forbidden Planet’s Glasgow store, and will be followed with launches in Primark and Smyths Toys.

Nevertheless, Funko’s mantra remains. This is more than a toy company, and for the past number of years it has been actively positioning itself as a lifestyle brand, with a portfolio that spans all manner of categories from its vinyl figures, to softlines, bags, purses, wallets and homewares, developed in conjunction with its Loungefly brand.

There aren’t many toy companies, after all, that can lay claim to presence in such a diverse line-up of retailers; and it’s this, diversification, that has just helped Funko’s EMEA operation to one of its better financial years to date.

“We grew significantly in EMEA, it was the strongest growing of the regions internationally,” Andy Oddie, Funko’s managing director of EMEA, tells Licensing.biz. “And it is being a lifestyle company with the lifestyle businesses that we have got, that has helped us in the face of the challenges in the industry.

Funko EMEA managing director, Andy Oddie, says 2020 will be a game changing year

“We are in a broader channel, and that’s allowed us to tap into many different opportunities at retail and through e-commerce. One of the biggest initiatives for us at the moment is with Primark.

“But with our multi-channel and multi-category approach we can attack in certain areas and defend in other areas, and be in a multitude of places that others would maybe fail to reach.”

It came as a surprise to many in the business when Funko’s US division detailed an eight per cent dip in its Q4 2019 results last month, finishing up at $214 million compared to the $233 million the year prior. It was the challenging retail environment of the US that contributed to the majority of the dip.

The story for Funko’s EMEA operations, however, offers a stark contrast. 

“All categories grew and all markets within EMEA – that’s nearly all 116 markets in the EMEA region – grew, and all those sub-markets that look after and feed into them grew,” continues Oddie. 

“In fact, we grew the workforce by 25 per cent and we have opened a new distribution centre in Coventry, which is state of the art with logistics systems and hardware meaning that we can be even quicker to market with our product.

“We are famously quick to develop items, but we have been criticised in the past for being poor operationally. I think this will be a game-changer for us, our operational capabilities will be massively upgraded with this facility.”

The new facility sees Funko move its current operations unit out of Essex and into its new Coventry address, from where it will service the majority of its key customers. A portion will continue to be serviced from the Netherlands distribution centre it opened in 2018. Oddie summarises the past year and a half at Funko making preparations for 2020 to be a game-changing year for the firm.

“Suddenly we are not only going to be quick to the market with product, but able to fulfil it and get it to the customer quicker than before as well,” he says.

“We have got growth, growth, growth, and we have got the new distribution centre – so that all sounds fantastic.”

But Funko isn’t totally immune to the susceptibility that hounds the toy, entertainment, or licensing industry. It’s US business already placed blame for its Q4 dip at the door of a weaker movie slate through 2019 compared to the year prior, while many have already lamented a softer line up still for the year ahead.

“The Disney slate is lighter than it has been previously,” states Oddie. “Warner has a good film out with Birds of Prey, but net – we are in a weaker environment in terms of properties for 2020. I think fortunately we are in the multichannel and with multi-categories.

“We are somewhat guarded from the difficulties of a soft movie slate, simply because we have such a broad product slate which is tapping into every imaginable piece of IP and opportunity, but at some point or another you can’t directly replace something as large as Marvel End Game… you need a lot of bits to replace End Game or Fortnite.

“But we do have all of the armoury available to defend from any lack of content, and, by the way, the 2021 IP slate looks awesome.”

Funko EMEA’s new state of the art logistics centre in Coventry

Visitors to this year’s New York Toy Fair were offered a glimpse at that armoury that not only spanned the diversity of its lifestyle portfolio, but also witnesses Funko make a concerted step into the toy space with the launch of Snapsies: a toy line developed for the younger market that features snap and match technology that allows kids to collect a diverse line-up of characters.

In a move to offer a fully-branded experience, Funko has even launched the line with content created by its in-house team at Funko Animation Studios.

Funko’s lifestyle division Loungefly gives Disney’s Mulan the Funko feel

On top of this, of course, is Funko Games, the tabletop gaming arm to Funko’s pop culture-spanning entity, that brings the brand roaring into the ever growing market for IP-driven board games with a collection that includes the Back to the Future: Back in Time tabletop game, Godzilla: Tokyo Clash, and a left field title that uses the Pan Am license.

With this now all falling under the Funko brand name, it’s increasingly obvious as to how the pop culture specialist is gaining those inches at retail, while the larger – grand plan if you will – for Funko appears to shift into view.

“We will always say that we want more space,” says Oddie. “Space gives us the ability to trade on a linear basis, and we have the product to achieve that. If we have three bays in retailer X, we say if you give us six bays, we will always achieve double what we did in three bays due to the items we have in strength and breadth.

“What we are looking to do is create Funko dedicated experiences and experiential retail execution that is interesting to fans, people spend time looking at it, perhaps there is a TV screen in there and some Funko branding in there, which really supports a much more interesting kind of experience for the customer – which is what everyone is looking for right now.

“The customer needs to be kept in store and needs to be excited about what’s in store. They need to see something new every week, and we can give that. Very few others can put their hand on their heart and say that they are delivering on all of that,” Oddie concludes.

Vicki Marler-Hausen to spearhead marketing plans for FAO Schwarz and Discovery in new Redlands Distribution role

Redlands Distribution has hired Vicki Marler-Hausen of Elmer Marketing to spearhead the marketing and PR for the company’s portfolio of internationally recognised brands, including FAO Schwarz and Discovery.

Marler-Hausen will take on the role of marketing consultant in the UK and will liaise closely with Redlands’ CEO Mark Handley and the ThreeSixty Group on promoting the FAO Schwarz collection and Discovery/Discovery #Mindblown Science and STEM ranges. 

In addition, she will also explore PR opportunities for Sharper Image R/C and robotics and the store’s now iconic BigPiano. Her remit will cover the management of the company’s marketing calendar, trade show attendance, advertising, PR events and social media to help deliver creative campaign initiatives and develop interactive experiences at retail for UK consumers.

Mark Handley, CEO, Redlands Distribution, said: “We are entering an exciting time at Redlands as we grow our retailer partnerships and raise awareness of our fantastic catalogue of exclusive brands in the UK and Ireland. Since launching the flagship FAO Schwarz store in Selfridges last October, and seeing the incredible reaction to our in-store theatre, we are now looking to expand our retail presence and are also keen to bring even more innovative and fun brands to the UK market. 

“I am therefore delighted to welcome Vicki to the team and know that her many years of experience within the toy industry will help open more doors and enable us to put effective marketing plans in place.”

Marler-Hausen added: “I have been blown away by the impressive retail space for FAO Schwarz in Selfridges and also by Mark’s enthusiasm, passion and ambitious vision for Redlands and its amazing toy ranges.  I am delighted he has invited me to be part of his UK team and I cannot wait to get started on campaign ideas for these famous brands.  Anyone wishing to contact me to discuss opportunities can email vicki@redlandsdistribution.com.”

Funko launches new licensed board games, opens shop-in-shop with Hamleys and moves for the kids toy space

Funko has now partnered with Hamleys Russia to launch a new Funko shop-in-shop in the toy retailer’s flagship Moscow store – helping the firm step its international efforts up a level.

The partnership between the two titans kicked off with a launch party to amplify the shop within a shop model being rolled out in store this February. The Moscow shop-in-shop – also known as the Funko Zone, launched on February 21st to media and influencers, followed by a grand opening for the public on February, 22nd.

 Key press and taste makers took part in photo opportunities at the opening of the new permanent shop-in-shop, which plans to offer an immersive experience, allowing customers to experience and celebrate a world of Funko through a life sized Pop! box, large statues of Disney’s Maleficent, Harry Potter’s Hagrid, and a Star Wars Storm Trooper.

There will also be screen takeovers with Funko’s own animations of Disney’s Frozen and Star Wars.

 The space, which will be a tribute to the Funko stores in Seattle and Hollywood, will be home to new Funko launches including Loungefly (fashion accessories), Funkoverse (board games), a wealth of Pop!, and more, but to kickstart it all – will be the launch of the following Hamleys Russia exclusives; Overwatch D. Va Pop! (Diamond Edition), Cruella De Vil Pop! (Diamond Edition) and Pennywise with Glow Bug Pop!

 Andy Oddie, managing director at Funko, EMEA, said: “Launching a shop-in-shop in Moscow’s iconic Hamleys store is an absolute honour and a key milestone for us. The famous store and brand is the perfect home for a Funko Zone, bringing our pop culture retail experience to Moscow’s city centre.”

 Sveta Farnieva, brand director of Hamleys Russia, added: “Partnering with the pop culture giants of today to bring their collectibles and apparel via the vessel that is our store is just the beginning of amazing things to come. Watch this Funko space.”

Funko has been expanding its brand depth in recent weeks, culminating with the recent unveiling of the newest titles to emerge from its Funko Games umbrella. It was at this year’s New York Toy Fair that Funko Games, the board game group of the Washington-based pop-culture firm, unveiled a diverse lineup of games.

Among its first wave were the likes of Back to the Future: Back in Time, Godzilla: Tokyo Clash, and a new title making use of the Pan Am license.

“The Funko Games new releases span from deep strategy board games to collaborative family fun to quintessential party picks that are all rooted in clever stories, nostalgic pop-culture touchstones, and fan-favourite licenses,” read a statement from the outfit.

On top of this, Funko also used the New York Toy Fair as the launch pad for its debut into the toy category via its newest product line called Snapsies. Through Snapsies, Funko has developed a toy line specifically for the younger market, featuring patent pending snap-and-match technology which allows kids to add personalisation to a diverse lineup of characters like rock star unicorn Jett, super-athletic mountain goat Billie, and hedgehog Boe, the baker.

Eva Verhaak, head of marketing and strategic sales at Funko, EMEA, added: “We are ecstatic to launch into toys with Snapsies, a product that heroes friendship, creativity and being an individual.

“The fact this is intertwined with a new snapping technology makes it a unique proposition for retailers and consumers. Additionally, all characters were brought to life with beautiful animations created by our in-house team at Funko Animation Studios. Collectively, we can’t wait to see kids ‘snapping and matching’ away this year and building their collections.”

Snapsies  will be available in the UK this summer.

MGA Entertainment partners with Uniqlo for exclusive LOL Surprise fashion line

MGA Entertainment has partnered with the fashion label Uniqlo for a nw LOL Surprise by Uniqlo fashion capsule, to launch across stores this April.

The new product assortment will include LOL Surprise t-shirts for young fashionistas. There will be familiar LOL Surprise brand attributes incorporated into the styles and messages that empower fans to be themselves.

As part of the launch, a new stop motion video will be released showcasing two of the new styles. The video features signature LOL Surprise dolls, Diva and Queen Bee, who embark on a fashion journey that ends in an epic runway show. The video will be featured in Uniqlo’s retail stores and digital/social, as well as shared with LOL Surprise fans around the world on the brands’ social channels.

Having debuted in December 2016, LOL Surprise has become a worldwide phenomenon and was named once again the Toy of the Year at this year’s TOTY Awards ahead of New York Toy Fair.

Funko is relocating its operational base to ‘state of the art’ centre in Coventry

Funko is relocating its operational base to a new ‘state of the art’ distribution centre located in Coventry, in the Midlands, in a move prompted by the firm’s continued ‘exceptional growth’ across the UK and Europe.

Since it began trading in January 2017, Funko EMEA has seen significant expansion, with the past three years growth surpassing expectations as the business continues to extend into new and existing markets.

In 2019, Funko further accelerated its business development through diversification, bringing in brands such as Loungefly, Funko Games, Funko Home + Gifts, and softlines, all in order to meed the demands of new and existing customers across EMEA.

Compounding the expansion, Funko is relocating its operational base to the new centre in Coventry in order to ‘provide its partners with an upgraded level of service, and alleviate pressure on the company’s operational infrastructure.’

With 349,000 sq. ft. of operating space, including 17,000 sq. ft. of new offices, the state-of-the-art fulfilment centre is nearing completion. The new facility will mostly be servicing the UK and Irish markets, however, a portion of its capacity will be dedicated to mainland European customers.

Managing director of Funko EMEA, Andy Oddie, confirmed: “We are reacting to our customer needs with an innovative operational system that can mirror the pace of our company – the new space meets all our extensive requirements, and we are delighted.”

The transition to the new location in Coventry has already begun, and is scheduled to go live from early April, 2020.

The Pokémon Company launches half term pop-up at Harrods

The Pokémon Company International has launched a month-long pop-up in Harrods’ famed Knightsbridge store in London, featuring a host of special Pokémon activities for fans and families his half term.

The pop-up opened on Friday, February 14th, with a special area in Harrods themed after the Galar region, which is a UK-inspired new region from the recent Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield video games.

The two new releases have become the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch titles, with more than six million units sold worldwide during last November’s launch weekend, with global sales now totalling over 16 million units.

Running through to Friday, March 13th this year, Pokémon has taken over the pop-up space in the store’s fourth-floor toy department.

The pop-up features a range of Pokémon products, including toys, the Trading Card Game, stationery, and accessories. Activities planned for the month include giveaways and character appearances from Pikachu and friends, a screen showcasing the TCG and toys, and additional surprises planned to mark Pokémon Day on February 27th.

Mathieu Galante, licensing director EMEA at The Pokémon Company International, said: “We are delighted to be returning to this iconic store for another Pokémon pop-up.

“We were thrilled with the response to our previous pop-up at Harrods in May and are looking forward to providing another great experience for Pokémon fans old and new over the coming month.”

The pop-up follows a successful month at Harrods last May when Pokémon took over the pop-up space in the renowned store’s newly launched fourth-floor toy department with a range of products and activity to promote the launch of the live action movie Pokémon Detective Pikachu.

BuzzFeed’s Tasty brand launches kitchen and cookware ranges through Haven Global deal

Haven Global has detailed the launch of a new range of cookware and kitchenware inspired by and themed around BuzzFeed’s own popular food brand, Tasty into Big W stores from today.

The line of kitchen products aims to bring the fun, ease and accessibility of Tasty’s signature recipe videos to consumers across Australia. The Tasty-branded cookware line includes 28 products ranging from non-stick cookware and bakeware to kitchen gadgets and accessories.

Matt Drinkwater, head of international at BuzzFeed said: “There is no better way for Tasty fans to prepare delicious recipes at home than with our bright and beautiful cookware range. We’re so proud to partner with Big W to bring the line to a broad audience of beginner and more experienced cooks alike. Together we’re making cooking more fun.”

The Tasty cookware line features bright colours and includes the tools necessary to prepare Tasty’s portfolio of recipes. The line features non-stick forged aluminium cookware, non-stick metal bakeware with silicone handle inserts, emoji cookie cutters, silicone head utensils and soft grip gadgets.

BuzzFeed research shows that two out of three Tasty fans have made a Tasty recipe, using its bank of videos as guidance. The kitchen line is the same range as is used in Tasty’s library of videos and was designed and developed with the Tasty fan in mind.

Tom Punch, managing director of Haven Global, who facilitated the deal, added: “We are delighted we are to be working with BuzzFeed to bring the iconic Tasty brand to the Australian market. This launch reflects the huge shift in how millennials are consuming media along with the brand recognition that online content can offer for consumer products.

“There is so much potential for many more partnerships and categories to come – keep an eye out for this fabulous brand as we further expand into food aisles and more in the coming months.”

The Tasty line of kitchen products is licensed and manufactured by Fackelmann.

CEO of Fackelmann Housewares Australia, Mark Batson, said: “We are thrilled to be the product partner for the launch of Tasty into the Australian market. The new range of millennial focused kitchenware products includes solutions for all stages of meal preparation from knives to bakeware to frying pans.

“All, of course, have been designed to be insta-friendly with bold colours across the range and perfect for recreating the Tasty recipes we see online.”

Tasty reaches over 325 million people globally and can be viewed across social platforms including Facebook, YouTube and TikTok; through Tasty.co and the Tasty app.

The growing Tasty portfolio includes additional brands Proper Tasty, Tasty Demais, Tasty Miam, Einfach Tasty, Tasty Japan, Bien Tasty, Tasty Vegetarian, Tasty Grill, and Tasty Jr.

Mr Men Little Miss launches into McDonald’s Happy Meals with reusable cup collection

Sanrio’s iconic Mr Men Little Miss brand has partnered with McDonald’s for a new Happy Meal promotion across the UK and Ireland, that brings its cast of characters to a line of reusable cups, tapping into the global sustainability movement.

This isn’t the first move from Sanrio to align itself with sustainability. The firm has told Licensing.biz that it has for the past number of years been working with partners – where possible – on sustainable ranges, such a its latest Carex deal for refillable pouches with Tesco.

The company will also be launching a Mr Men Go Green book this June, in which its character Little Miss Inventor cooks up a number of inventions to help her friends in Happyland be kinder to the planet.

It’s latest deal with McDonald’s will bring a collection of Mr Men Little Miss themed reusable, sustainable cups to the Happy Meal offering. The promotion will run from February 5th to March 17th.

It will see eight popular characters that kids can choose from and collect, while each Happy Meal box has received a makeover to feature Mr Tickle, Little Miss Sunshine, and Mr Bump.

The Mr. Men and Little Miss characters are even making a splash on TV with a new McDonald’s advert, as well as in store presence with a host of kids’ activities, including colouring sheets and balloons.

Sabrina Segalov, senior licensing manager at Sanrio, said: “We’re delighted to extend our partnership with McDonald’s to the UK and introduce a new range of sustainable cups as the gift in each Happy Meal.”