Tag Archives: PlayMonster

PlayMonster, LEGO, and Crayola among 2021 Licensing International Excellence Awards winners

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PlayMonster, LEGO, Crayola, and Hasbro have all been named among the winners of the 2021 Licensing International Excellence Awards at a ceremony held via a virtual gathering during this week’s Licensing Expo Virtual.

Big name toy companies featured among the 22 award winners from seven different countries, including China, Finland, France, Japan, Singapore, the UK, and the US at the event that brought together nearly 1,000 industry executives.

The winners were whittled down from a total of 152 nominees – itself a shortlist of finalists from more than 650 entries from around the world. An elite judging panel narrowed the entries down to the final ballot, which was then voted on by members of the licensing industry.

PlayMonster secured its win in the Toys, Games, Novelties for ages 0 to 8 category, receiving its accolade for its popular Peppa Pig Grow and Play Peppa Pots, while LEGO secured its Toys, Games, Novelties for ages 8 upwards category win for its Andy Warhol LEGO Art Edition.

Hasbro took home the Entertainment, Character Brand: Animated category win for Peppa Pig, and Crayola was voted Best Licensed Collaboration in its tie up with Adidas and Donovan Mitchell.

The Licensing International Excellence Awards honour innovation and creativity in licensing, as well as how licensees develop and bring to market products, and how retailers creatively spotlight licenses on their shelves. A special award this year – Pandemic Pivot – went to Peanuts Worldwide to honour its work in developing and making available for free in-home educational materials and lesson plans.

“In our 36th year of honoring the best of the global licensing industry, it’s inspiring to see the quality of the work produced by people and companies even as they were adapting to new ways of creating and collaborating amid the effects of the pandemic,” said Maura Regan, president, Licensing International.

“The achievements that we honor today are testament to the power of brands, and the power of licensing as a business to create products and programs with lasting appeal.”

Here are the 2021 Licensing International Excellence Awards winners:

Best Licensed Products

⦁ Apparel / Footwear / Accessories – Dr. Martens for Jean-Michel Basquiat Boots
⦁ Appliance / Automotive / Housewares / Electronics – Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co. for Pokémon Travel
⦁ Toys / Games / Novelties for Ages 0 – 8 – PlayMonster for Peppa Pig Grow & Play Peppa Pots
⦁ Apps / Sofware / Video Games – Top Golf for Angry Birds Interactive Golf Game
⦁ Food / Beverage – Kinnerton Confectionery for Harry Potter Chocolate Range
⦁ Health and Beauty Aids – Mad Beauty for Friends Bath & Body Essentials
⦁ Home Decor – Secret Lab for Batman Gaming Chairs
⦁ Publishing / Back to School – Chronicle Books for LEGO Note Brick
⦁ Toys/ Games/ Novelties for ages 8 upwards – LEGO for Andy Warhol LEGO Art Edition

Best Licensed Brands
⦁ Art/ Design/ Celebrity/ Fashion Brand – The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Studio
⦁ Digital App/ Video Game Brand – Super Mario by Nintendo
⦁ Corporate Brand – Goodyear by The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and IMG
⦁ Entertainment/ Character Brand: Animated – Peppa Pig by Hasbro & Hasbro China
⦁ Entertainment/ Character Brand: Live-Action – Harry Potter by Warner Bros. France
⦁ Food/ Beverage/ Restaurant Brand – Coca-Cola, Hi-C & Sprite by The Coca-Cola Company
⦁ Sports/ Collegiate Brand – NFLPA by NFL Players Association

OTHER AWARDS
⦁ BEST LICENSED PROMOTION – Direct Line & Born Licensing for “We’re On It” with Transformers, TMNT & Robocop
⦁ BEST LICENSED COLLABORATION – Crayola x Adidas x Donovan Mitchell
⦁ BEST RETAILER FOR A CHARACTER / ENTERTAINMENT INITIATIVE – BoxLunch for Marvel Eat the Universe
⦁ BEST RETAILER FOR A CORPORATE / LIFESTYLE/ SPORTS INITIATIVE – H&M for Coca-Cola
⦁ BEST LICENSING AGENCY – IMG
⦁ THE PANDEMIC PIVOT AWARD – Peanuts At-Home-Offerings by Peanuts Worldwide

 

Toy firm Playmonster appoints Hollie Holmes as global head of licensing

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The international toy firm, Playmonster, has appointed a new global head of licensing in the form of Hollie Holmes, an industry expert boasting more than 20 years experience of the consumer products business.

In her newly created role, Holmes will oversee the company’s global licensing business with an emphasis on the development and expansion of new IP across new and existing categories. Holmes will report to Scott Flynn, vice president of sales and marketing at PlayMonster.

Over her 20 year career to date, Holmes has secured partnerships with a number of leading global entertainment, gaming, celebrity, influencer, toy, automotive, and pop culture culture brands. She has a long history of developing and maintaining strong executive relationships and is a collaborative partner.

“Hollie brings vast experience and demonstrated success in building strong licensing programs that impact business in a meaningful way,” said Flynn. “It’s a whole new level of focus for us that we expect will not only amplify our existing portfolio but open more doors to exciting new opportunities.”

Most recently, Holmes served as senior director of strategic development: Global Licensing Acquisitions and Entertainment Partnerships at Mattel, where she was responsible for entertainment partnerships and license acquisitions across Mattel’s global portfolio, including those for its iconic brands – including Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Fisher-Price.

She oversaw the acquisitions for hundreds of licenses each year, negotiating and executing agreements with partners, and evaluating and acquiring new content in various stages of development.

Tim Kilpin, president of PlayMonster, said: “Hollie is one of the most widely respected and visionary executives in the licensing industry today, and we couldn’t be happier that Hollie chose to continue her career with PlayMonster.”

Holmes said: “Working with Tim previously at Mattel was an incredible experience, and I’ve always known I wanted to work with him again. Scott, and the entire PlayMonster team are innovative, fun, known as a great partner, and incredibly agile, which I’ve learned brings the term “moving quickly” to a whole new level.

“I’m thrilled at the opportunity to help expand our focus and accelerate growth for the PlayMonster team.”

PlayMonster is continuing to build its portfolio of brands and content-driven IP across categories, strengthening its activity not only in core categories but incrementally with the introduction of new business lines, including Koosh and BriteBrush, that significantly scale the company’s growth and leadership position.

PlayMonster taps Wind Sun Sky to develop animated Snap Ships series

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The global toy company PlayMonster has teamed up with the award-winning entertainment company, Wind Sun Sky to develop a new animated series based on the firm’s recently launched Snap Ships brand. The series will be developed for streaming on YouTube.

Season one of the series, Snap Ships: Dawn of Battle will take viewers to a future world that is under constant attack from a brutal alien threat, and where the fate of humanity rests with the heroes of the Snap Ships fleet, called The Forge.

The series will aim to expand the appeal of the newly launched Snap Ships toy line, bringing its Build to Battle action play to life with animation, battle scenes, and development of the characters and story line. Essentially, the pilots and villains of Snap Ships have faces, personalities and back stories that will thrill fans as they watch it all unfold onscreen.

The animated series marks PlayMonster’s first venture into franchise-driven content production. Wind Sun Sky, however, boasts vast experience in the business of evolving IP in such a way.

“We were excited about the Snap Ships brand when it was a building system with a few items and some big ideas. Now, after working with Wind Sun Sky and seeing those ideas come to life and grow into thrilling content and story, we’re more excited than we ever have been about a new product line,” said Scott Flynn, VP sales and marketing of PlayMonster.

“Wind Sun Sky is a valuable partner with impressive abilities, and who is easy and fun to work with—it’s a big win for PlayMonster.”

Wind Sun Sky’s creative work on comics, interactive gaming, online programming, and film and TV such as The Walking Dead, Camp Bonkers, Super Dinosaurs, My Singing Monsters and Summoners War is what impressed PlayMonster and led them to reach out and inquire about a potential partnership.

Catherine Winder, CEO and executive producer of Wind Sun Sky, said: “We knew right away that we wanted to be a part of Snap Ships because of its all-around potential. We’re excited to partner with PlayMonster, one of the fastest growing toy companies in the industry, to bring the Snap Ships story to life through multi-platform storytelling.”

Snap Ships invites kids to build, battle and display an exciting array of cool spacecrafts, merging two of the biggest play patterns for boys – action-play and construction.

For more information about Snap Ships, visit www.snapships.com.