Tag Archives: argos

The Tom Gates kids’ book series taps back to school market with Sainsbury’s campaign

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The first range of products based on the popular Tom Gates children’s books, and The Brilliant World of Tom Gates TV series are landing in store at Sainsbury’s and Argos this month, with a back-to-school promotion supported by a month-long POS campaign and a national competition.

Developed by The Point.1888, the retail promotion will form part of the UK licensing agent’s wider brand programme to encourage kids to get creative through doodling, music, and crafting. A total of 275 Sainsbury’s stores across the UK – as well as online across Sainsbury’s and Argos – will be selling the exclusive back-to-school range, which includes gel pens, backpacks, doodle books, lunchbags, sipper bottles, and more.

The line will be tied together with a range of the popular Tom Gates books, while the launch will also be supported by a ‘summer doodle’ competition in Sainsbury’s stores run by Tom Gates Entertainment with a range of prizes including an exclusive doodle by creator Liz Pichon.

A writer and illustrator, Pichon has produced 19 award-winning, multi-million-copy-bestselling Tom Gates books to date. Translated into 45 languages, the stories are written to be warm and funny, full of family, friends and treats, and ‘bursting with creativity and music.’

The books are published by Scholastic in the UK and have won over 25 awards and sold more than 11m copies worldwide.  The 19th book in the series, Random Acts of Fun is published in October.

Meanwhile, the TV series, The Brilliant World of Tom Gates (produced by TG Entertainment) launched first on Sky Kids in the UK and Ireland and is now being enthusiastically received by Tom Gates fans around the globe. A range of Tom Gates licensed products have launched in the UK in summer 2021 and roll out internationally in 2022.

Tessa Moore, head of marketing at Tom Gates Entertainment, said: “The Tom Gates brand is warm and funny, bursting with creativity, and much loved by families across the globe. We are excited to launch this exclusive new range with Sainsbury’s supported by a fantastic competition encouraging children to get creative in their summer holidays and win some special prizes.”

Janine Richmond, head of product and brand at The Point.1888, said: “School has been disrupted over the last two years and we hope this new Tom Gates range will help young fans across the country get excited about being back and having fun in the classroom.”

The Tom Gates kids’ book series taps back to school market with Sainsbury’s campaign

Posted on by

The first range of products based on the popular Tom Gates children’s books, and The Brilliant World of Tom Gates TV series are landing in store at Sainsbury’s and Argos this month, with a back-to-school promotion supported by a month-long POS campaign and a national competition.

Developed by The Point.1888, the retail promotion will form part of the UK licensing agent’s wider brand programme to encourage kids to get creative through doodling, music, and crafting. A total of 275 Sainsbury’s stores across the UK – as well as online across Sainsbury’s and Argos – will be selling the exclusive back-to-school range, which includes gel pens, backpacks, doodle books, lunchbags, sipper bottles, and more.

The line will be tied together with a range of the popular Tom Gates books, while the launch will also be supported by a ‘summer doodle’ competition in Sainsbury’s stores run by Tom Gates Entertainment with a range of prizes including an exclusive doodle by creator Liz Pichon.

A writer and illustrator, Pichon has produced 19 award-winning, multi-million-copy-bestselling Tom Gates books to date. Translated into 45 languages, the stories are written to be warm and funny, full of family, friends and treats, and ‘bursting with creativity and music.’

The books are published by Scholastic in the UK and have won over 25 awards and sold more than 11m copies worldwide.  The 19th book in the series, Random Acts of Fun is published in October.

Meanwhile, the TV series, The Brilliant World of Tom Gates (produced by TG Entertainment) launched first on Sky Kids in the UK and Ireland and is now being enthusiastically received by Tom Gates fans around the globe. A range of Tom Gates licensed products have launched in the UK in summer 2021 and roll out internationally in 2022.

Tessa Moore, head of marketing at Tom Gates Entertainment, said: “The Tom Gates brand is warm and funny, bursting with creativity, and much loved by families across the globe. We are excited to launch this exclusive new range with Sainsbury’s supported by a fantastic competition encouraging children to get creative in their summer holidays and win some special prizes.”

Janine Richmond, head of product and brand at The Point.1888, said: “School has been disrupted over the last two years and we hope this new Tom Gates range will help young fans across the country get excited about being back and having fun in the classroom.”

Jazwares appoints new commercial and licensing director amid continued ambitious plans for European growth

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As part of the company’s ambitious and ongoing growth strategy for the European market, toy maker and licensing specialist, Jazwares, has appointed a new European Commercial Director and European Licensing Director.

After almost two decades at Argos and Sainsburys, most recently as the Buying Manager for Sports, Leisure, Outdoor Toys & Nursery, Matt Stent joins Jazwares as its new European Commercial Director, reporting into Jonny Taylor, SVP Europe. Stent will be responsible for growing Jazwares’ business in Europe both through its regional offices and third-party distributors.

Meanwhile, Sam Bourne, the former Head of Licensing and Brand at Rubie’s Masquerade, brings a wealth of experience within licensed consumer goods to her new role as European Licensing Director. Reporting into Global VP of Licensing, Sam Ferguson, her role will focus on ensuring Jazwares delivers commercial value and results to global licensing partners, as the business continues to grow.

In addition to both of these appointments, Jazwares has expanded its UK team with a further ten hires to fill newly created positions across licensing, sales, marketing, operations, and business intelligence.

“We are thrilled to be adding such strong talent to our team, to match our growth both in the UK and across Europe,”  said Jonny Taylor, SVP Europe. “Exciting times ahead.”

Disney, John Lewis, and Argos join BRC charter of 55 retailers with pledge for better diversity and inclusion

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More than 50 major retailers, including The Disney Store, John Lewis, Argos, and The Very Group have signed to a new charter to take ‘decisive action’ to improve their diversity and inclusion practices.

It follows research from the British Retail Consortium that discovered that seven out of ten (around 69 per cent) of retail firms have top three board positions – chair, chief executive, and chief financial officer – all filled by men.

The same research found that more than one in five retailers have no women at all on their Boards, while 15 per cent have no women on their executive committees. Only 9.6 per cent of the industry’s CEOs are women, and only 4.3 per cent of the sector’s Chairs are women.

This is despite the matter that 58 per cent of the retail workforce is made up of women.

Compiled by the BRC in collaboration with PwC and MBS Group, the research also found that retail ‘has very few black or ethnic minority leaders,’ highlighting that 4.5 per cent of Boards, 5.8 per cent of Executive Committees, and six per cent of Direct Reports to Boards are from an ethnic minority background.

Diversity and inclusion has been highlighted as a priority by some 84 per cent of retailers, but only half or retail employees agree that D&I is sufficiently high up their employers’ agenda.

The likes of Sainsbury’s, Asda, LIDL, and Boots have now joined a group of more than 50 retailers to have signed the charter, pledging to improve their diversity and inclusion practices on all grounds.

Helen Dickinson OBE, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Retail revolves around the customer, and to serve the needs of a diverse country, we need a diversity of ideas, experiences and backgrounds across our businesses.

“Five years ago, the BRC set out a vision for Better Jobs and aspired for retail to be a Diversity and Inclusion leader. The data collected by PwC and The MBS Group in our Diversity and Inclusion in retail report shows there is so much more to be done if we are to reach this goal.

“Nonetheless, I am confident about the road ahead. The first step to achieving change is acknowledgement and understanding of where the challenges lie. Now, we must act. I am proud to see so many retailers pledge to better their businesses and create equal opportunities for all and I am excited to see what the future holds once greater diversity and inclusion is achieved.”

Elliott Goldstein, managing partner at The MBS Group, added: “Retail leadership continues to be unrepresentative of the UK population in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+, disability and social mobility.

“Given that women make up 64.3 per cent of the retail workforce, and are responsible for up to 80 per cent of purchasing decisions, it should not be the case in 2021 that women are under-represented at all leadership levels – including in the top role, where under 10 per cent of CEOs are women.

“One in five retailers still have all male boards, and 15 per cent of Executive Committees have no women. Likewise, the level of ethnic minority representation amongst the industry’s leaders falls well short compared to the wider population; our research shows that 81 per cent of the largest retailers have all white boards – and 68 per cent have no ethnic minority leadership on their Executive Committees.

“Whilst undoubtedly significant change has been driven in the last decade, there is still a long way to go.”

Sainsbury’s to close 420 Argos stores amid plans to save £600 million by 2024 and meet changing consumer habits

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A total of 420 standalone Argos stores are to be closed by March 2024, the super market giant and owner of the Argos store brand, Sainsbury’s has confirmed, amid news that it is to cut 3,500 jobs across its portfolio.

The retail giant’s boss Simon Roberts said that the move was Sainsbury’s response to changing consumer habits and the growth of online shopping. Amid the closures will be all of Sainsbury’s meat, fish and deli counters owing to lower customer demand and a desire to cut food waste.

Of its Argos portfolio, the grocer has stated that 150 outlets will be opened within its supermarkets, but that by the end of its restructuring, which will see the permanent closure of 420 standalone outlets, its total number of Argos stores will be around 100. The restructuring will save about £600 million by 2024, the firm said.

Sainsbury’s suffered a £137 million loss in its half-year results, a dive it has blamed on closures and market changes.

The company, which bough Argos in 2016, said in its statement that the 120 standalone Argos stores that had not reopened since they were closed in March would now be shut permanently.

In addition to the 150 Argos stores it plans to open in its supermarkets by 2024, it also plans a further 150-200 collection points.

“We are talking to colleagues today about where the changes we are announcing in Argos standalone stores and food counters impact their roles,” said Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s chief executive.

“We will work really hard to find alternative roles for as many of these colleagues as possible and expect to be able to offer alternative roles for the majority of impacted colleagues.”

He said the aim was to make Argos “a simpler, more efficient and more profitable business”. Products from the Habitat brand will also be more widely available in the stores and via Argos.

“Our other brands – Argos, Habitat, Tu, Nectar and Sainsbury’s Bank – must deliver for their customers and for our shareholders in their own right,” he said.

Despite the cutting of the 3,500 roles, the supermarket expects that it will have created about 6,000 net new jobs by the end of the year.

Pre-school hit Sunny Bunnies celebrates UK retailer and broadcast commitment for 2021

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The popular pre-school IP Sunny Bunnies has secured further commitment to its feature plush range with major UK supermarket chains, department stores, and online retailers through 2021, including the likes of Argos, Tesco, Amazon, and other independent toy retailers.

The range, developed by the plush toy specialist, Posh Paws, launched only last year to a warm reception from retailers across the UK. Media IM Incorporated, the London content distribution company behind the pre-school series, is confident in the repeat success of the toy range for 2020 and 2021.

The commitment from the UK retail space follows news that Media IM has also signed three new UK broadcast deals for the hit series. Ketchup TV, the UK’s leading AVOD children’s channel has licensed seasons one and two for the UK and Eire, Channel 5’s Milkshake has secured a pre-sale agreement for season five, while Sky has signed for season three across its Sky Kids and Now TV channels, as well as the Sky Kids App.

Irina Nazarenko, co-founder of Media I.M. Incorporated, said: “Even in happier times, the UK kids’ market is one of the toughest in the world, which makes closing any UK deal cause for celebration.

“To have closed three broadcast deals and to have had our merchandise relationship renewed by two of the country’s leading retailers is a serious result. We’d love to take all the credit – but the real heroes are those unstoppable, irrepressible Bunnies…”

This latest round of UK sales follows on the heels of two landmark deals in late July, which launched Sunny Bunnies into several new Asian territories, as well as on to one of China’s biggest VOD platform.

A deal with Kidzone saw the first four seasons of Sunny Bunnies debut this summer on Pakistan’s leading children’s entertainment channel. The show is set to be extended to Kidzone’s pay-TV channels in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

In addition, Media I.M. Incorporated signed a non-exclusive two-year agreement with Chinese VOD giant Tencent for seasons one to three of Sunny Bunnies. The show is also on air on Youku, Mango TV and Huawei via a string of previous deals with major Chinese platforms.

Sunny Bunnies brand diversification also continues apace branching into gifs and stickers through giphy.com with 130 million views in one year with 20 million views in two days on the launch of the ‘bye!’ gif.

Produced by Digital Light Studio, the Sunny Bunnies are five beaming balls that can appear anywhere there is a source of light, from sunshine to moonlight.

In each episode, the cheeky creatures bring their fun and games to a different location – a circus, a sports stadium, a park – embarking on mischievous adventures and spreading laughter and happiness. And at the end of every episode, the fun continues with a collection of bloopers.

Argos launches LEGO Super Brick delivery van as online shopping reaches new heights

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Argos has teamed up with Diversity’s Jordan Banjo and Perri Kiely to unveil the first LEGO Super Brick delivery van, a new decorated van created to deliver the LEGO Super Mario range and celebrate the latest stats from the retailer that see more customers turn to online shopping than before.

New research from Argos has found that that almost half (49 per cent) of Brits are now doing the majority of their non-grocery shopping online, a trend that has seen Argos home deliveries increase by a huge 184 per cent in the past year.

According to the report, since the start of 2020, over half (53 per cent) of those surveyed ‘admit to getting overly excited on delivery day when they hear a knock at the door, looking forward to their delivery more than video calls with friends and family (16 per cent) and clocking off work for the day (11 per cent).’

It also found that 82 per cent of Brits now prefer internet shopping, due to its ease and the ability to track spending more closely and 68 per cent of Brits now constantly track the arrival of their new purchase on their smart phone or tablet, with more than one in ten (11 per cent) such regulars that they even know their delivery driver by name.

Following the results, Argos has now created the LEGO Super Brick delivery van, and has teamed with Diversity’s Perri Kiely and Jordan Banjo to launch the new service. On top of this, Argos is giving customers across the UK the chance to win the full range of LEGO Super Mario toys worth over £300, delivered in the unique Super Brick delivery van.

Speaking of the launch, Perri and Jordan commented: “We’re thrilled to have had a hand in bringing this incredible Super Brick van to life – it’s exactly the type of thing that used to live in our imaginations when we’d play with LEGO growing up. Even as adults, we’re still massive fans of LEGO, and we can’t wait for children to be just as amazed as we were when this turns up on their doorstep.”

Juliet Ward, head of toy buying at Argos, added: “With so much time spent inside over the past few months, we are really excited to be able to bring people an extra bit of joy along with their new products. Our customers have been huge fans of both LEGO and Super Mario for years, and we know they have loved getting hands on with this new range.

“As our study has shown, people are choosing online shopping as their preferred experience more than ever before and toys have once again made into the top three most popular categories purchased online.

There are so many benefits of online shopping and home delivery, and we pride ourselves in giving customers an experience, from selecting the product to delivering it at their door. But it’s interesting to see how in this digital age, it’s the doorbell ringing and getting that delivery which really excites the nation.”

PAW Patrol, Star Wars and LEGO Nintendo among Argos’ top 12 Toys for Christmas 2020 picks

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Argos has revealed its top 12 toys for Christmas 2020 in anticipation of the Christmas toy shopping season and a nation that ‘has rekindled its love for toys,’ through more time spent at home throughout lockdown. Among the top toys, PAW Patrol, Star Wars, and LEGO’s Super Mario collection all feature.

With less than 200 days to go until December 25th, the British store predicts LEGO Lamborghini, Baby Yoda and a pooping flamingo to be among its top sellers this Christmas, while this season will see consumers tap into nostalgia-fuelled shopping driven by the lockdown and time spent at home.

According to research carried out by Argos, more than a fifth of parents plan to gift their child something that conjures memories of their own childhood this year. It goes some way to explain why the likes of Star Wars and LEGO’s Nintendo Super Mario range are among the predicted top sellers for 2020.

Juliet Ward, head of toy buying at Argos, said: “With so much time spent inside during lockdown, the nation has rekindled its love for toys, turning to them now more than ever to keep themselves entertained during what has been a difficult time for many.

‘This year’s top toys list offers a huge variety of new products, ranging from toys inspired by the biggest TV and gaming franchises to bizarre – but crucially, fun – pooping animals.

‘When we craft the list of our top toy predictions for the year, we always try to accurately gauge the “toy crazes” that are set to make thousands of wish lists.

‘This year it’s heartening to see so many toys that will encourage families to spend time together, whether that’s putting together a LEGO Lamborghini or reminiscing over the Mario games of the 80s and 90s.”

An animatronic doll of The Child from The Mandalorian – affectionately known as Baby Yoda – is expected to be one of this year’s biggest hits, joined by the LEGO Adventures with Mario Starter Course, enabling fans to recreate the iconic platform game in brick form.

As Argos’ research goes on to suggest that 40 per cent of parents are set to purchase more toys that encourage active and imaginative play this year, the retailer is firmly tapping into the trend with its Little Live Pets Gotta Go Flamingo that tells kids when it has to sit on its potty. Joining it is the Poopsie Dancing Unicorn.

Familiar faces come in the form of new toys from LOL Surprise and PAW Patrol. Spin Master’s PAW Patrol Dino Rescue Dino Patroller is joined by the LOL Surprise OMG Fashion Dolls Series 3.

The £350 LEGO Technic Lamborghini denotes a desire for the high-end toy lines this year, while the £60 KidiZoom Studio reflects the youth’s lean in to the world of TikTok and YouTube. The list is rounded out with the Hatchimals Pixies Crystal Flyers, and Laser Battle Hunters, promoting active play.