Tag Archives: dear zoo

Macmillan marks 40 years of Dear Zoo with new key partnerships

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Celebrations are underway at Macmillan Children’s Books to mark the 40th anniversary of Rod Campbell’s interactive picture book, Dear Zoo. The publisher will celebrate this much-loved family classic with a year-long programme of activity, starting with the publication of a new golden board book edition in January.

A dedicated marketing and PR campaign will see a series of immersive events, national press coverage, experiential advertising and other surprise deliveries. A year-long digital advertising campaign will run alongside far-reaching trade and consumer promotions. An instore competition is currently running with JoJo Maman Bébé across 88 UK and Irish stores.

A major partnership with leading family attraction ZSL London Zoo launches in the spring. A Dear Zoo trail featuring all the animals from the book will feature through the zoo during the Easter holidays, launching on 2 April. ZSL will also be running an experiential activity based on Rod Campbell’s 2021 book Look After Us.

The sell-out Dear Zoo Live! on stage production will return for its third nationwide tour in 2022. https://dearzoolive.com/

Further partnerships designed to bring the brand to an even wider audience will be launched through the anniversary year.

Sales of Dear Zoo now exceed 13 million copies. In 2021 it appeared 38 times in the Preschool & Picture Books weekly Top 20. Rod Campbell’s titles had a record year in 2021, with sales across all of his titles growing 9% to total 1.5m copies across all markets. Internationally his sales grew by 59% in volume across all markets. Five new languages were sold, bringing the total to 31.

Dear Zoo is available in a variety of formats in addition to the classic board book edition, including paperback, cloth and buggy, sound and pop-up, as well as audio books. For countless babies and toddlers Dear Zoo is their first book and many go on to share it themselves with their own children.

Rod Campbell said: “I am absolutely delighted that so many generations of young children continue to love Dear Zoo. Their pleasure when interacting with the story is so pleasing to see, and for me is the greatest of compliments. Here’s to the anniversary activities bringing Dear Zoo to an even wider audience of families.”

Stephanie Barton, Publisher, says: “With just eight animals, 16 pages and 115 words, Dear Zoo hits the spot every time. Putting the child at its centre, Dear Zoo is a joyful, playful first book for little children everywhere, and is much loved by parents and grandparents who remember it fondly from their own childhood. Rod Campbell finished 2021 as the second bestselling author/illustrator in the UK’s Preschool market and Dear Zoo was the number-one best-selling preschool title by an author /illustrator in 2021. That’s quite an achievement over 40 years and we are so proud to work with Rod and on Dear Zoo.”

 

Macmillan Children’s Books launches new Dear Zoo babywear collection to Tesco

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Macmillan Children’s Books has launched a new clothing range for Tesco based on the classic and much-loved children’s story, Dear Zoo, created by Rod Campbell. The latest collection follows the success of the first Dear Zoo apparel range across Tesco stores in 2020.

The babywear collection is now available in-store and is made up of six garments for babies aged 0 to 24 months, including a sleepsuit, sleeping bag, pyjama sets, vests, and bibs. The new designs introduce two new colours to the Dear Zoo palette, which fit alongside the existing and classic Dear Zoo imagery.

A large social media influencer campaign accompanies this launch and will showcase sample outfits and books to over 350k consumers.

Stephanie Barton, publisher, preschool, brands and classics, Macmillan Children’s Books, said: “We were delighted by the success of the Dear Zoo babywear in Tesco last year and couldn’t have been more pleased when they wanted to do a new range for 2021. They are a brilliant partner, and the clothing sits well alongside the other bespoke licensing that we have for Dear Zoo.

“The classic story continues to grow in popularity each year and has now been loved across three generations of families. This new apparel gives something extra to families who really love the brand, while introducing new families to the animals and the story.”

The Dear Zoo classic storybook offers the magic of a shared storytelling experience as a variety of animals are sent from the zoo. The story brings a sense of humour, anticipation and discovery as the child turns the pages. It continues to be at the heart of families throughout the UK and around the world and was the bestselling picture board book in the UK in 2019.

Macmillan Children’s Books will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Dear Zoo in 2022 and plans are being laid for an extensive on- and off-line consumer marketing campaign across the brand. The Dear Zoo Live on Stage play production hopes to tour 20 venues with 80 shows nationwide in autumn 2021, depending on COVID regulations. Since its launch in 2018, nearly 85,000 children and families have already enjoyed the performances and it has also successfully toured in the UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore.

This new clothing launch continues the growing story around Dear Zoo and Macmillan is looking forward to building on its success in the soft toy, nursery, gifting and stationery sectors shortly.

Macmillan Children’s Books celebrates Dear Zoo in new F&F at Tesco range

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Macmillan Children’s Books has struck up a new deal with Tesco’s clothing brand F&F to launch a range of baby clothing based on the classic pre-school storybook Dear Zoo created by Rod Campbell.

Developed by Paul Dennicci for F&F at Tesco, the range launched last week across 165 stores nationwide, tying in with a special Tesco Baby Event. The initial collection features six garments, including vests, bibs, and a sleeping bag, all designed for babies aged 0 to 24 months.

The launch reflects the renewed interest in Dear Zoo and builds on the success of the core licensing partners, including Hacche Retail (puzzles and games for Marks & Spencer), Milly & Flynn (games and wooden toys), Neviti (party paperware) and Paul Lamond Games (puzzles and dominoes).

The launch will be supported by a campaign with ComeRound (www.comeround.com), the word-of-mouth marketing agency that is dedicated to harnessing the power of real people recommending products they genuinely love from inside the home. Over 100 families will receive a pack of Dear Zoo books and merchandise and will celebrate at the end of July with at-home Dear Zoo Read and Play Days. Alongside, there is also strong online influencer activity, focusing on the new apparel.

Stephanie Barton, publisher at Macmillan Children’s Books, said: “We brought the licensing of Dear Zoo in-house to take full advantage of the popularity of this evergreen and well-loved book. We are targeting a small number of core product categories to build on the success of our current, long-standing licensing partners. We’ve had such a wonderful response to Dear Zoo, in part due to the wonderful new assets that Rod Campbell himself and the team at Macmillan have created.

“We are delighted with Tesco’s commitment and enthusiasm and I know that Dear Zoo readers and their parents will be very excited by these lovely new products.”

The Dear Zoo classic storybook continues to be at the heart of families throughout the UK. Following on from its place as the number one Picture book in 2018, sales last year were up 19 per cent. The classic board book version appeared in the Nielsen Preschool Top 20 every single week of 2019.

The Dear Zoo Live on Stage play launched in 2018 and already nearly 85,000 children and families throughout the UK have enjoyed the performances. It also successfully toured in the UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore in 2019. With World Book Day 2021 already in mind, Macmillan Children’s Books is intending to add to the list of Dear Zoo licensees across the core dressing up, soft toy, nursery, gifting and stationery sectors shortly.