Gummy Bear Out In Force at BLCEE Budapest

With popularity booming, the animator, the music label and the licensing agent will represent Gummy Bear at Brand Licensing Central & Eastern Europe.

Birmingham, UK, March 1^st 2010gummy: Popular internet and music character Gummy Bear will be on stand 410 at BLCEE on March 8 & 9 in Budapest and the character costume will tour the exhibition.

Any character needs to build public awareness and popularity to generate strong sales of licensed merchandise and benefit licensees and retailers.  Gummy Bear is one of the first characters to achieve that through skilful use of the new opportunities provided by the internet.

Between January 2008 and August 2009, unique visitors per month to www.gummibar.net increased 480% to 130,000.

In the same period, page views increased 700% to 360,000 and Funny Gummy ecard unique visitors per month rose 260% to 52,000 & page views 270% to 99,000.

Gummy Bear videos are among the top 60 most viewed for all musicians worldwide on YouTube.  The dedicated Gummybear YouTube channel attracted an average of 300,000 daily video views in September 2009, up 1,500% year-on-year.  Total views now exceed three quarters of a Billion.

Almost one million Gummybear songs have been played on the character’s MySpace site and Facebook friends increase by about two thirds every quarter year.

Unlike most of the other characters to be shown at BLCEE, Gummy Bear’s merchandising success actually began in that region.

In Greece, food products company Ifantis adapted a Gummy Bear music video for a TV commercial and the public there have fallen completely in love with the character.  The music album sales are currently thirty times platinum.

So far, 12 merchandise licensees for over 50 products have signed and are launching throughout 2010.

Ifantis will extend their campaign to Bulgaria and Romania this month.

Gathering in Budapest in support of Gummy Bear and on hand to meet licensees and retailers will be the animator of Gummy Bear, the music label people from various countries in the region and AT New Media, the exclusive pan-European licensing agent.

“We all know that licensees and retailers traditionally rely on TV series for merchandise sales,” says Paul Comben, CEO of AT New Media, “But they are learning fast that children and parents get more and more of their entertainment online and 750,000 web viewings of Gummy Bear means huge pent-up demand for merchandise.”

Contact Paul Comben, +44 7931 335831, paul@atnewmedia.com

ENDS

Notes To Editors:

About AT New Media

AT New Media is a licensing agency and consultancy, offering a comprehensive range of services to brand owners, content providers and merchandise licensees.  AT New Media is positioned at the junction where new media meets brand licensing, offering a high level of expertise and experience in some of the most rapidly evolving new interactive platforms including mobile phones, the Internet, Digital interactive TV (DiTV) and videogames.  AT New Media achieved worldwide recognition with licensed merchandise for The Annoying Thing aka Crazy Frog: the first character to emerge from new media into the mainstream.

BBC Radio will air a program about Mr. Men

Title: Let’s Go To Misterland
Date: Sunday 14^th February 2010
Time: 13.30
Producer : Elizabeth Foster

Synopsis : Created in 1971 by Roger Hargreaves, the Mr Men books have been an inherent part of so many childhoods.  Inspired by the author’s son Adam, who one day inquired, “what does a tickle look like?”… and the first character was born.  The Little Miss books followed ten years later, worldwide sales have exceeded 100 million, and today the brand is flourishing under its new owners.

BBC Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders takes a look at the Mr Men business and its growth over the years.  She speaks to Adam Hargreaves who tells us the story behind the books and what inspired his father to create such a simplistic, yet hugely influential brand.  Created in the humble surroundings of a small home office, the characters have reached a global audience, and they appeal to today’s children as much as their 1970s counterparts.  Despite his death in 1988, Roger Hargreaves was the third best-selling author of the past decade, outstripping such feted writers as Jacqueline Wilson, Terry Pratchett and John Grisham.

Stephanie Flanders, daughter of the actor and singer Michael Flanders, examines the appeal of the Mr Men and how these bold, colourful drawings and simple stories continue to capture children’s hearts.

Sunny Days For Gummybear in Greece

Popular internet music character Gummybear has become a  hot property for licensing due to a TV commercial

Gummybear is a very popular internet character with music singles and albums, who has enjoyed tens of millions of views on YouTube and is now the most popular character in Greece, following a TV advertising campaign by salami product company Ifantis.

Ifantis adapted the internet animation for the song ‘I Am A Gummybear’, to promote its processed meat product and the colourful video and catchy tune have captured the imaginations of Greeks.

Universal Music is responsible for distribution of music and DVDs in Greece and has enjoyed a massive sales success, with over 300,000 units to date and still going strong – a huge number in the Greek market, where a record qualifies for platinum status at just 6,000 sales.

Gummybear character costumes manufactured by UK-based Rainbow Productions have been appearing on Greek television shows and at live events in shopping malls.

Exceptionally high levels of interest in Gummybear from licensees and retailers in Greece are leading to multiple agreements being concluded and products launched throughout 2010.  They so far include retail plush, leisure plush, bags, stationery, sugar confectionery, chocolate Easter eggs, towels, beach toys and books.

A licensed promotion with Greek tabloid newspaper Espresso for collectable stickers and albums will be television-advertised for 6 weeks from mid-January.

AT New Media is the exclusive licensing agent for Gummybear in the European Union.  The company’s AT Merchandise division is well-known for managing the worldwide licensing programme for Crazy Frog.  Similar to Gummybear, Crazy Frog was a popular internet animation made popular through television advertising by mobile phone content company Jamster, which led to great licensing success.

“The huge success in Greece proves to companies there and in other countries that Gummybear deserves serious consideration for licensing,” says Paul Comben, Director of AT New Media, “We will be inviting advertisers of family food products to borrow the same formula and we will be urging merchandise licensees and retailers to capitalize upon the character’s online and offline popularity.”

The Ifantis advertisement can be viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRVHPLupGCE

Christopher Hart Appoints AT New Media To Seek Games & Software Licensees

Christopher Hart, who has over 2.5 million How-To-Draw books in print that have been translated into 18 languages, has appointed AT Brands, a division of AT New Media, as the worldwide licensing agent to target interactive games and software licensees.

The desire to improve drawing ability is widespread amongst people of all ages and nationalities and the evolution of digital hardware and software makes drawing an ideal subject matter.  In particular, the stylus of the Nintendo DS & DSi or the present and future motion controllers for Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation.

For example, THQ already has a very popular games brand called Drawn To Life for young children, which enables them to create characters and other elements for play.

AT Brands, the division of AT New Media that represents brand owners’ interactive content rights, will be presenting the opportunity to license Christopher Hart and his vast treasure trove of how-to-draw intellectual property to games and software publishers worldwide.

Christopher Hart is the world’s leading author of How-to-Draw books, covering the teen world of popular arts such as cartooning, superheroes,  manga, fantasy-adventures, occult and horror, as well as educational subjects such as drawing animals and human anatomy.

Hart’s book, “Manga Mania,” about drawing Japanese style comics, was the number one art book in the USA for over a year, according to Nielsen Bookscan.  Hart has also had the distinction of having the number 1, 2, & 3 top selling art books in the USA simultaneously.

He has a reputation for turning out “evergreen” titles, which find their audience and keep on selling, year after year.  Many of his books have sold over 100,000 copies.  As an example, his first book, now over twenty years old, has sold almost 200,000 copies and still sells well.

Christopher’s books have been recommended by the ALA (American Library Association) and YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association), and have won numerous awards.

“How-to-draw lends itself to the category of interactive games and software,” says Christopher Hart, “I can offer the most popular, cutting edge drawing programs, based on my books. I have characters and cartoon styles that are targeted to a wide range of people and both genders. I have in-depth knowledge and a track record that will enable interactive content publishers to produce popular drawing software.”

“Drawing is an increasingly important genre for interactive games and software,” says Simon Kay, Business Development Director, AT New Media, “We know that Nintendo and Sony and Microsoft agree that drawing will showcase the capabilities of their current and new controller devices Wiimote, PlayStation Motion Controller and Project Natal.  We invite publishers to contact us, to learn how they can take advantage of Christopher Hart’s knowledge and popularity.”

Web addresses: www.chrishartbooks.com