One Animation finds success in digital experiences for pre-school comedy IP Oddbods

One Animation has launched two digital experiences in the midst of the pandemic aimed at helping children and families to adjust to the change in circumstances through its twice Emmy-nominated pre-school comedy brand, Oddbods.

First up, the firm has partnered with Google’s Rivet – the new reading app from Google’s workshop for experimental projects (Area 120) – to produce a series of 14 Oddbods books to help tackle child literacy levels. As a result of the success of the launch of a collection of Oddbods titles via the app in March, One Animation has struck a further deal with the company to license two additional properties: Insectibles and Antiks.

The extension of the partnership will see the launch of a total of 35 books.

In a further initiative, One Animation has collaborated with Weyo to develop Oddbods Oddlife, an app which helps kids develop healthy routines, such as brushing their teeth, calming down, and even falling asleep. Launched in February, Oddbods Oddlife offers coping mechanisms to children which help them to tackle life’s small challenges through fun games which harness their favourite characters along with face recognition technology.

The app has seen 30 per cent growth, month on month since launch.

Amir Biran, digital director at One Animation, commented: “We truly cherish our fans and with over 20M subscribers on YouTube we felt we had a responsibility to help parents and kids cope with the challenges presented by the pandemic.

“Through our partnerships with Rivet and Weyo we are able to leverage the Oddbods brand in a meaningful way to help kids with reading skills and routine daily tasks in a fun and exciting way.”

As One Animation looks to grow its digital offering, these new launches build on the success of its hit free mobile game Oddbods Turbo Run. Developed in collaboration with SEGA subsidiary, goGame, the endless runner game gives players the chance to take on the role of Fuse and run across Oddsville to collect as many Oddcoins as they can, while avoiding obstacles in their way. Since its launch in February 2019, the game has amassed 15M installs and been translated into 10 languages.

One Animation and Redan partner to bring Oddbods into Fun to Learn magazine

The content creation, distribution, and licensing studio, One Animation has secured a deal with the pre-school magazine publishing house, Redan Publishing to bring Oddbods into its Fun to Learn magazine titles this month.

Under the partnership, Oddbods will feature in the monthly magazine Fun to Learn Favourites from July 16th, followed by the three-weekly Fun to Learn Friends from August 6th. The magazine will feature Oddbods games, puzzles, and word searches, as well as host competitions for readers to win Oddbods plush and dress up merchandise.

The deal covers the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Rob Spindley, SVP business development at One Animation, said: “An important part of our strategy for Oddbods is transporting the characters from the digital realm and into the physical world. This new partnership with Redan Publishing will offer fans an exciting way to interact and play with their favourite Oddbods characters beyond the screen, and we look forward to seeing the magazines hit shelves this month.”

Julie Jones, managing director at Redan Publishing, added: “When deciding on which new characters to add to our successful pre-school compilation magazines, we take into account how on trend the brand is, whether it will work from an educational standpoint and most importantly will it be popular with our readers.

“What attracted us to Oddbods is the wonderful mix of unique characters. Every child will be able to relate to one of the characters and this encourages children to celebrate difference and individuality especially when it’s all presented in such a fun and humorous way.”

Oddbods has becomed a globally recognised comedy brand featuring seven highly unique friends. Together, despite their differences, they survive the perils of everyday life, unintentionally turning ordinary situations into unexpected, extraordinary, and always humorous events.