Tag Archives: Hey Duggee

Golden Globe: How staying ahead of the curve put Golden Bear on the international stage

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The park is pretty empty when Barry Hughes, managing director of Golden Bear, logs on to catch up with Australian colleague at 7am. An early start to marry-up the time zones means that they have the place to themselves, before the next slew of visitors start populating their allocated slots.

With just a few clicks, Hughes can navigate the park’s greenery, cross the river, and showcase an entire portfolio of Hey Duggee toys in a room buried in a bristling bush. It all sounds a bit Mary Poppins, doesn’t it? It’s not; it’s simply what Toy Fair season looks like in the midst of the 2021 pandemic.

This is Golden Bear’s virtual toy fair platform, a digitally constructed journey through a colourful park area, populated with break-out rooms featuring the firm’s latest toy products. It’s from here the company can showcase its wares to a global network of customers, any time of the day, every day of the year. This isn’t just toy fair season, this is Golden Bear’s latest phase of international expansion.

By 8pm that same day, Hughes is guiding customers from California around the same platform. While the pandemic has wrapped its fingers around the usual annual travel to Spielwarenmesse, New York, and London’s Olympia this year, Golden Bear’s ability to network with its international customer base is by no means diminished.

But then, ask Hughes how Golden Bear has managed to find such success over the course of 2020 and he’ll tell you that this is a company that has managed to stay ahead of the curve for some time now. The team was among the first to spot the en masse shift to online retail and click and collect before the pandemic rendered it a necessity, and as such was a team well positioned to adapt to the changes that have swept the landscape in the past year.

Meanwhile, it’s not enough that Golden Bear already held the toy rights for some of the country’s best-loved pre-school IP, including Bing and Hey Duggee, but combine this with a diversification of product that has successfully taken the company into the outdoor sector, as well as the Escape Room trend of the gaming space, and the winning formula that Golden Bear possesses begins to shift into view.

Barry Hughes, Golden Bear managing director

“Obviously the bedrock of what we do is pre-school licenses, and our pre-school licenses on the whole did well,” Hughes tells ToyNews. “They benefited from kids being locked down at home; programmes like Hey Duggee were suddenly being watched by parents who might not have seen it otherwise, so that IP did particularly well.

“But where I like to think we have been ahead of the game compared to a lot of competitors is with regards to our online insights and supporting our retailers with their online sales assets. In the shift to online, we were ahead of the curve.”

Over the past year, Golden Bear has strengthened its team in the online operations space, built its own in-house photo studio in order to create image and video assets quickly, and has by and large, been ‘geared up for the digital switch’ long in advance, a presiding factor that has in recent years, won the company its expanding trophy cabinet of industry awards.

Not only that, but it is Golden Bear’s portfolio – a carefully curated clustering of high calibre properties and products – that has played directly into the strengths of the toy industry this past 12 months. This is a company that found its niche in both the outdoor market and gaming market right at the right time; just before the pandemic’s social restrictions thrust the sectors directly into the consumer’s consciousness.

“The Smart Ball Football and the Speed Ball Football came about through insights. Our USP is that we put a lot of stock into our insights,” says Hughes. “We are investing more into that area now, and with being a smaller company we can be more agile, which is a good combination for the toy industry.

“We had identified a gap in football gifts. My son, who was eight at the time and mad on football, got a load of football Guess Who? Games for his birthday. We quickly realised that the footballers were out of date, retired, or at the wrong clubs.

“But at the same time, we’d spotted a surge in searches for football gifts across various age profiles. We felt the need to fill the gap in the market, and now we have a host of new things coming in development for that range, too.”

Golden Bear’s new digital touring platform doesn’t just go the lengths to showcase what this product looks like this year, while doing its best to ‘put the product in the hands of customers,’ without them being in the same country, let alone room, but also to showcase who Golden Bear is; a digital home of the company’s recent re-invention.

The firm kicked off the year with the unveiling of a new logo, coupled with a new messaging that would go on to amplify Golden Bear’s image as a firm at the cutting edge of today’s trends in toys. With the launch of the company re-branding, the message was clear – this wasn’t only a company built on reliability and quality in the pre-school space, but pioneers of innovation across its key sectors – and seriously, take a look at its upcoming Hey Duggee and Bing portfolio if you want to see innovation in the pre-school sector this year – powered by its insight led business.

“The majority of our sales are in non-plush items, which tends to surprise people,” says Hughes. “We wanted to make the best of the past and combine it with the best of our future, and give it all a more modern feel.”

This even extends to the consumer message that Golden Bear promotes, and the changing sensibilities of the modern day shopper. And that includes in its approach to being a sustainably responsible toy company.

“We are a company that quietly goes about doing things and doesn’t shout about it much,” explains Hughes. “Sustainability is a good example of that. For instance, the stuffing in our plush has been made out of recycled bottles for years. We have actually now been moving our product lines to make the skins from recycled polyester, too.”

That move will be kicking off with Golden Bear’s Hey Duggee range this year. As well as that, this is a company that now confidently boasts its zero to landfill policy (one that has been in place for a number of years), as well as the installation of solar panels this year, and the switch of all company cars to hybrid and electric.

“We are liaising with licensors and retailers, and we like to think that we are right on the forefront of this movement,” continues Hughes. “We have set out our values and pillars and where we want to be as a company in three years’ time. Everything is underpinned by insights and sustainability, and we are making sure that everything we do has got sustainability and insights as its centre.”

It’s with that messaging now front and centre that Golden Bear will continue to exact its plans for global expansion. A digital platform open to customers 24 hours a day, every day of the year has helped tighten the screws on the firm’s international network, while advanced discussions are ongoing with partners in the US for some of the company’s own IP.

“It was always our plan, pre-pandemic, to grow internationally,” says Hughes. “We are just maximising that opportunity, instead of travelling to overseas fairs, to tap into our contacts via the virtual toy fair platform, and spend more quality time with people, albeit virtually.”

Via the medium, the response from global customers has been consistent; Golden Bear in on to a strong 2021. Tapping into emerging trends in the Escape Room gaming space, pushing the envelope in pre-school innovation, and making a success of the Outdoor sector in a year that will likely be recognised as the summer of the staycation once again, there’s little that Golden Bear offers that doesn’t just seem to fit.

“One of the most pleasing things that I have heard from buyers through this toy fair season is that there is a reason for every product to exist,” states Hughes. “That for me is a real testament to the team; that there has been a thought process and reason behind everything we have done.

“The end of the year was a real time to reflect for everyone. Our warehouses have remained open through the year, and the vast majority of our staff have been working from home. I am so proud of the whole team, given everything that has gone on,” he concludes.

Roy’s Boys gears up for ‘most successful Christmas to date’ as online socks sales surge

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Following what’s been a challenging year across the industry, Roy’s Boys is bucking the trend and gearing for what looks to be its ‘most successful Christmas to date,’ with sales already booming for the licensed socks specialist, as early as October.

Early signs for a successful 2020 in spite of the year’s current narrative, appeared when the family-run outfit sold ‘a year’s worth of stock’ for Father’s Day alone. Now, buoyed by the trending increase in spend on its clothing line, the business is ‘going full force’ to make sure it is fully stocked up for what looks to be its best festive season so far.

“We are looking to employ additional staff locally to make sure we can get all the orders out in time for Christmas,” said account manager Hannah Lowe. “And yes, it is looking like the bald-headed sock seller is going to be pulled out of retirement (temporarily, don’t worry) as we will need all hands on deck down at the Sock Mine.”

The company expects the ongoing Christmas shopping surge to reflect consumer trends of earlier in the year, a matter that is now underpinned by the second wave of Covid-19 infections now washing over the country. The team is expecting to see a majority of sales coming through the online channels – mirroring the Father’s Day uptick – as the most convenient or accessible means for Christmas shopping this year.

Roy’s Boys’ family packs offer a bespoke gift made unique to each customer, a point of difference, states the company, to what most brick and mortar retailers are able to do.

Matching family socks in the range include Peppa Pig, Hey Duggee, PAW Patrol, Bing, Mr Men, and Baby Shark, with ‘at least half a dozen’ characters being added at the start of next year, too.

Ben Lowe, added: “As a business that has been running for almost 25 years, it has been great to see the whole company pull together and completely adapt the usual ways of working.

“For us, one of the main positives to come out of 2020 has been seeing Roy’s Boys take off and as online sales are soaring, it is only looking up in our eyes. For 2021, we are looking to expand the amount of characters we offer with even more key licenses on board – it truly is an exciting time. Watch this space.”

How Step Inside Productions is breaking new ground in the experiential licensing market

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Having made a name for itself amid the Escape Room explosion of the past half a decade or so, Theseus, and moreover its live experiential division, Step Inside Productions is about to embark on a project that makes use of one of the newest formats within experiential licensing at the moment.

Nine years into its business venture of developing the Escape Hunt franchise, Theseus recently unveiled its plans to develop a touring CBeebies-themed interactive pop-up experience for children and parents; a concept that will feature some of the channel’s most popular IP, including Hey Duggee, Something Special, and Sarah & Duck.

Called CBeebies Rainbow Adventure, the concept – one that is already scheduled for regional locations across the UK for the first six months of 2021, but has plans in place that cover at least the next five years – is what the team of IP experts at Theseus has billed as somewhat of a boundary-pushing strand of content consumption for modern audiences.

Just as this is team of experts who have built careers on pioneering in emerging content platforms, including the first VOD deal struck for Warner Bros back in 2003, or the establishment of BT Television and subsequent launch of BT Sport, Theseus and Step Inside Productions is a meeting of talents from across the space, with the aim of innovating in the relatively nascent experiential market.

Licensing.biz takes the chance to catch up with Victoria Molony, director of business affairs at Step Inside Productions to talk about the future of experiential licensing, and how its CBeebies partnership is setting a new precedent in the market.

Hi Victoria, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Let’s start then, by exploring what Theseus and the Step Inside Productions division is…

Theseus was set up back in 2011 by Dan Marks. We have worked together over the years, originally when I was at Warner Bros, then at Universal, then we worked together at BT for a long time, and we have consulted on a variety of different IP brands since then.

Theseus came out of the last bit of work we were doing which was in the Escape Room world for a business called Escape Hunt. From setting up BT Vision and the launch of BT Sport, we have been at the forefront of new ways of exploiting content over the years, looking at and helping IP owners with the latest new route to market.

Dan was part of the team that devised The Wizarding World as the way in which to link Harry Potter with Fantastic Beasts from JK Rowling. I was on the legal side, and we were working for a business called Blair Partnership who owned Pottermore.

Through our work with Escape Hunt, we brokered a deal with BBC Studios for Doctor Who, and that kickstarted an ongoing conversation with the team there.

Aha, and from there, it wasn’t long until Step Inside Productions was born, and you looked at tapping into the rise of the live experience market?

Yes, we felt that the market place is moving and brands are looking for more innovative ways of reaching the consumer. There’s a push back against simply consuming content digitally with brand owners looking to find a more physical connection with their consumers; coupled with the fact that we have reached peak ‘stuff’, and people are looking to spend their disposable income more on experiences rather than on more things.

You also have this situation on the high street where people are rarely going into shops, and the retail landlords are really looking for ways to drive footfall into their shopping centres; you have town council improvement schemes looking for ways to bring people into town.

It takes that holy trinity of things – the wish for physical expression, the wish for people to spend money on things they are connecting with, and the wish for town centres and shopping centres to drive footfall – through which you have this fantastic opportunity to create experiential concepts that draws all of those things together.

So what does your portfolio look like now?

At the moment, we are very focused on the CBeebies partnership, which will be touring the UK for the next six months certainly, and we have the 2021 schedule complete. We plan on having that on the road for up to the next five years. 

We have been really pleased with the interest and demand that some of the regional venues have driven. I think people in the smallest towns and cities around the country aren’t used to getting really high quality entertainment like this. It usually all goes to Manchester or Birmingham, but not so much Hull or Ipswich.

We have other clients in the advisory stage, who are just at the beginnings of their foray into the experiential, and a number at the start of their concept. What we would really like to do is use this as an entertainment format in the same way that TV shows are created, then you use them as vehicles to present content.

Oh, that’s an interesting concept… could you expand on this idea?

Well, we will be looking to find other IP owners as partners to take a similar sort of touring concept on. We believe that live experiences have become a new strand of content consumption for audiences.

We took our cues from the theme parks who do experiential extremely well, such as Disney, Universal, and Merlin. But we wanted to do something that was much more attainable for the majority of brand owners; something that wouldn’t drive all of their budget as a theme park would, but something that ticks that hour or two activity box for families. So, it’s a morning activity, it’s not a day out. It’s something more attune to going to the theatre or an exhibition.

Meanwhile, if you look at the Escape Room concept, you have six or eight people maximum in a group, and most of those sites only have six escape rooms, so you have somewhere between 50 and 70 people per hour attending an escape room. We wanted to do something that is more in the 150 to 200 people an hour, which enables you to be driving revenue to allow yourselves to create something that is a bit more of an in-depth immersive experience.

In the context of CBeebies, it’s such an iconic brand that at its heart has educational entertainment enjoyed by children and parents, and has so much to offer the experiential. Coupled with the fact that you have a consumer market place that is available seven days a week, all year round – we leapt at the chance to work with them.

We wanted, and the BBC wanted, something that would showcase the CBeebies channel, as well as the programming on the channel; so we see the experience we have created as the manifestation of the CBeebies channel, with five different brand experiences within it. We came up with the idea of creating a touring showroom, and the BBC loved it because it fits so well with their public service commitment.

The more ways that you can really connect people with your brand, the stronger the link is, and there is no better way to form a connection with anything than to do it face to face and in person.

How have you seen the experiential market evolve or how is it currently evolving and what changes are being brought about?

The experiential market itself is in a very nascent state really. Theme parks have been around a long time; while the escape room sector has gone from nothing to an enormous number of players across the world in a relatively short period of time. It is probably close to reaching – it maybe too strong to say saturation – but probably looking at some consolidation around the big players refining their offering.

I do think the market place for revenue generating experiential activity is relatively nascent. It’s been popular from a marketing activation standpoint for brands, but not so much as a means of generating revenue. We like to see ourselves as being at the forefront of leading some of the content creation around that, in that middle market of course.

What does the future hold for the experiential market, and its ongoing relationship with licensing in that case?

This is something that all of the major IP owners are looking at. Anecdotally, experience sits within the consumer products arm with many of the Hollywood studios, and they are looking at rebranding and recreating those divisions to really drive experiential, alongside their historic merchandise operations.

I think there will be a trend to consolidate with people pulling together the new formats that we are looking at in the way that escape rooms came out of nowhere. There will be new formats that come in all of the time, and we see our touring model as being one of those.

BBC Studios taps Step Inside Productions to launch first CBeebies-themed experiential pop-up tour for kids

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BBC Studios has tapped the London-based experiential production company, Step Inside Productions, to develop and manage the first CBeebies-themed interactive pop-up experience for children.

The CBeebies Rainbow Adventure has been designed for children under the age of six and their parents, families, or carers, delivering a transportable, inflatable CBeebies-themed structure spanning 350 square meters.

It contains an array of immersive activities based on CBeebies favourites, including Hey Duggee, Something Special, Sarah & Duck, Go Jetters, and Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures.

CBeebies Rainbow Adventure launches its year-round tour of the UK in April 2020, debuting at Ealing Common, before moving on to Brent Cross, Hull, Ipswich, Richmond, and York. Further UK locations will be announced in due course.

Step Inside Productions is part of Theseus Agency, which consults to clients in entertainment and media to develop new products, brands and business strategies and to source and execute commercial deals.

The company specialises in designing, producing, licensing and operating experiential entertainment formats and combines the vision and extensive experience in entertainment business, rights and design of its partners – Dan Marks, Victoria Molony and Samantha Hardingham – to develop and operate new experiential formats.

Dan Marks was the deputy managing director of British Telecom’s consumer division and CEO of BT TV. He has also held senior executive positions at Universal Studios Networks Worldwide, ProSiebenSat1 and TV3 Russia.

A best-selling author and experienced architectural designer, Samantha Hardingham has curated exhibitions in the UK and Europe. She led on the design of the CBeebies Rainbow Adventure.

Victoria Molony is a qualified lawyer and experienced business affairs adviser specialising in media, entertainment and telecoms. She has advised a range of clients including international broadcasters, Premier League football clubs and J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore on licensing, exploitation and distribution matters.

Marks said: “We’re incredibly excited to be launching CBeebies Rainbow Adventure into the experiential market. The rich insights and cross-sector experience that the partners bring have enabled us to take a truly holistic approach to the creation of new entertainment experiences.”

Mat Way, global director, live entertainment, at BBC Studios, added: “We are thrilled to be working with Step Inside Productions on the first ever CBeebies interactive pop-up experience. CBeebies Rainbow Adventure is an innovative, inspiring and fun way of bringing CBeebies branded activities to the UK regions.”

BBC Studios taps France TV Distribution to manage Hey Duggee licensing programme across the region

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BBC Studios has turned to France TV Distribution to manage the licensing programme for Hey Duggee – or Hé, Oua-Oua in French – across the region.

The news comes as Europe’s largest toy fair, Nuremberg’s Spielwarenmesse prepares to get underway this week. The deal marks the first time Hey Duggee merchandise will be available to consumers in France and it will begin its roll-out this year.

France TV Distribution joins a raft of global licensees for Hey Duggee, including Golden Bear as the IP’s master toy partner for toys and plush, Ravensburger for puzzels and games, 8th Wonder for wooden toys, and Trends UK for electronic learning.

In addition, Jazwares is the master toy partner in the US and Jasnor will distribute both Golden Bear’s and Jazwares’ toys in Australia.

Devised by Studio AKA, the multiple BAFTA and Emmy award-winning preschool series Hey Duggee has an impressive global footprint in over 150 territories. In France, Hey Duggee broadcasts on France 5 and France 4.

Meanwhile in the UK, Hey Duggee consistently ranks as one of the top three programmes on CBeebies and has reached over 1.9 billion minutes of YouTube watch time.