Tag Archives: news

Reality Gaming Group and Mana Partners unlock the blockchain for APAC brands

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Mana Partners has selected Reality Gaming Group to provide best-in-class blockchain and NFT content solutions to its brand clients in the games and entertainment space, as demand for Web3.0 services booms in Asia Pacific.

Singapore-based Mana Partners is the leading consultancy in the region for Web3.0 marketing strategy and solutions, helping brands, startups, and rights owners unlock new communities and opportunities through partnerships and programmes.

UK-based Reality Gaming Group develops innovative content and marketplaces that combine the best of traditional entertainment with new technology based on the blockchain and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

Ground-breaking games and blockchain collectibles created by publishing arm Reality Studios include Doctor Who: Worlds Apart, Reality Clash and Smighties Universe, plus non-game NFT content with the likes of Toikido toys and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather.

Crucially, all of Reality Gaming Group’s projects are created and managed by its Digital Asset Trading (DAT) Platform, which builds NFTs, online stores and marketplaces connected to its own “side-chain” of the Ethereum mainnet. This enables the creation of environmentally friendly NFTs that offer substantial reductions to the amount of energy used to produce and trade digital collectibles.

Matthew Zatto, Managing Partner at Mana Partners, said: “Brands are only starting to discover the potential value that can be unlocked through blockchain technology. It’s important to us at Mana Partners that we provide our brand clients with nothing less than the best-in-class solution and that is exactly why we chose Reality Gaming Group. No one compares to them in terms of experience, blockchain capabilities and offering a true full-service solution. We’re proud to be partnering with them in the APAC region.”

Reality Gaming Group Co-Founder Tony Pearce said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with Mana Partners to offer its clients the most innovative blockchain and web3.0 content solutions. This partnership is a ringing endorsement of the DAT platform, further expands our presence in Asia Pacific and highlights the growing importance of NFTs to brands. We can’t wait to get started on what promises to be some tremendously exciting projects.”

Reality Gaming Group and Mana Partners unlock the blockchain for APAC brands

Posted on by

Mana Partners has selected Reality Gaming Group to provide best-in-class blockchain and NFT content solutions to its brand clients in the games and entertainment space, as demand for Web3.0 services booms in Asia Pacific.

Singapore-based Mana Partners is the leading consultancy in the region for Web3.0 marketing strategy and solutions, helping brands, startups, and rights owners unlock new communities and opportunities through partnerships and programmes.

UK-based Reality Gaming Group develops innovative content and marketplaces that combine the best of traditional entertainment with new technology based on the blockchain and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

Ground-breaking games and blockchain collectibles created by publishing arm Reality Studios include Doctor Who: Worlds Apart, Reality Clash and Smighties Universe, plus non-game NFT content with the likes of Toikido toys and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather.

Crucially, all of Reality Gaming Group’s projects are created and managed by its Digital Asset Trading (DAT) Platform, which builds NFTs, online stores and marketplaces connected to its own “side-chain” of the Ethereum mainnet. This enables the creation of environmentally friendly NFTs that offer substantial reductions to the amount of energy used to produce and trade digital collectibles.

Matthew Zatto, Managing Partner at Mana Partners, said: “Brands are only starting to discover the potential value that can be unlocked through blockchain technology. It’s important to us at Mana Partners that we provide our brand clients with nothing less than the best-in-class solution and that is exactly why we chose Reality Gaming Group. No one compares to them in terms of experience, blockchain capabilities and offering a true full-service solution. We’re proud to be partnering with them in the APAC region.”

Reality Gaming Group Co-Founder Tony Pearce said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with Mana Partners to offer its clients the most innovative blockchain and web3.0 content solutions. This partnership is a ringing endorsement of the DAT platform, further expands our presence in Asia Pacific and highlights the growing importance of NFTs to brands. We can’t wait to get started on what promises to be some tremendously exciting projects.”

Activision and Alpha Industries team for Call of Duty real-world/in-game jacket

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Activision and contemporary fashion leader Alpha Industries have announced the launch of a unique physical and in-game product collaboration with Call of Duty – the new limited-edition Call of Duty x Alpha Industries B-15 Flight Jacket.

Revealed during last autumn’s Call of Duty: Vanguard launch event, the limited-edition Call of Duty x Alpha Industries B-15 Flight Jacket is now officially available to purchase for fans in celebration of Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone’s Season 2.5 mid-season update and Free Trial for players.

The jacket is available in limited quantities via the Alpha Industries website at a $300 price point, while a digital jacket version can be found within Call of Duty: Vanguard’s in-game Flyboy Bundle at 1100 COD Points.

The in-game operator skin is an exact replica of the physical jacket, making this collaboration unique in its accessibility to a wide range of fans wanting to don the jacket either physically or virtually. The in-game Flyboy Bundle includes the jacket as a new Operator Skin (that will also unlock the Operator), a Killcam Vanity, and an MVP Highlight, which are only usable in Vanguard.

 

Activision and Alpha Industries team for Call of Duty real-world/in-game jacket

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Activision and contemporary fashion leader Alpha Industries have announced the launch of a unique physical and in-game product collaboration with Call of Duty – the new limited-edition Call of Duty x Alpha Industries B-15 Flight Jacket.

Revealed during last autumn’s Call of Duty: Vanguard launch event, the limited-edition Call of Duty x Alpha Industries B-15 Flight Jacket is now officially available to purchase for fans in celebration of Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone’s Season 2.5 mid-season update and Free Trial for players.

The jacket is available in limited quantities via the Alpha Industries website at a $300 price point, while a digital jacket version can be found within Call of Duty: Vanguard’s in-game Flyboy Bundle at 1100 COD Points.

The in-game operator skin is an exact replica of the physical jacket, making this collaboration unique in its accessibility to a wide range of fans wanting to don the jacket either physically or virtually. The in-game Flyboy Bundle includes the jacket as a new Operator Skin (that will also unlock the Operator), a Killcam Vanity, and an MVP Highlight, which are only usable in Vanguard.

 

Kate Smith Company celebrating bumper first year in business

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Kate Smith Company, which launched its greeting cards and calendar UK business in spring 2021, is celebrating a successful first year in business, having achieved in less than 12 months what many small businesses dream of achieving over the course of several years.

Kate Smith Company stands for positivity and creating joyful moments with happy faces, simple phrases and uplifting tones. Having appointed Lisle Licensing as their exclusive UK agent in 2020, owners Kate and Ryan Smith entrusted MD Francesca and her team to find best-in-class partners for their business, leaving them time to work their creative magic generating content for categories including greetings, stationery, gift and dated products. It was important to re-design the existing Kate Smith Company ranges as UK v USA humour, style, sentiment and even wording in the greetings sector is vastly different.

Lisle appointed Hallmark Cards for greetings cards, Moonpig for print-on-demand and greetings, plus Carousel Calendars for wall calendars and the diaries, all of which launched in 2021. The numbers speak for themselves:

  • In three Quarters of 2021 Moonpig sold more than 166,000 in cards alone, with sales surpassing forecasts by more than 250%
  • Hallmark sold more than 99,000 cards between June and December
  • Carousel Calendars sold more than 30,000 pieces of the three SKU’s they listed. The wall calendar sold 18,000 pieces alone.

Looking ahead to 2022, Kate Smith Company and Lisle Licensing will together focus on expanding the distribution of existing licenses and broaden the seasonal collections, including Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Christmas. Lisle will also turn its attention to expansion of the Kate Smith Company brand into secondary categories and hopes to schedule meetings at upcoming industry trade shows.

Commenting on the success, brand owner Kate Smith says: “We’re so excited about the launch of our brand in the UK with the help of Lisle Licensing. Bringing on three spectacular licensees in the first year has really helped us spread lots of hugs, high fives and LOLs. We look forward to making humans smile every day through our growing UK product offering.”

Kate Smith Company celebrating bumper first year in business

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Kate Smith Company, which launched its greeting cards and calendar UK business in spring 2021, is celebrating a successful first year in business, having achieved in less than 12 months what many small businesses dream of achieving over the course of several years.

Kate Smith Company stands for positivity and creating joyful moments with happy faces, simple phrases and uplifting tones. Having appointed Lisle Licensing as their exclusive UK agent in 2020, owners Kate and Ryan Smith entrusted MD Francesca and her team to find best-in-class partners for their business, leaving them time to work their creative magic generating content for categories including greetings, stationery, gift and dated products. It was important to re-design the existing Kate Smith Company ranges as UK v USA humour, style, sentiment and even wording in the greetings sector is vastly different.

Lisle appointed Hallmark Cards for greetings cards, Moonpig for print-on-demand and greetings, plus Carousel Calendars for wall calendars and the diaries, all of which launched in 2021. The numbers speak for themselves:

  • In three Quarters of 2021 Moonpig sold more than 166,000 in cards alone, with sales surpassing forecasts by more than 250%
  • Hallmark sold more than 99,000 cards between June and December
  • Carousel Calendars sold more than 30,000 pieces of the three SKU’s they listed. The wall calendar sold 18,000 pieces alone.

Looking ahead to 2022, Kate Smith Company and Lisle Licensing will together focus on expanding the distribution of existing licenses and broaden the seasonal collections, including Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Christmas. Lisle will also turn its attention to expansion of the Kate Smith Company brand into secondary categories and hopes to schedule meetings at upcoming industry trade shows.

Commenting on the success, brand owner Kate Smith says: “We’re so excited about the launch of our brand in the UK with the help of Lisle Licensing. Bringing on three spectacular licensees in the first year has really helped us spread lots of hugs, high fives and LOLs. We look forward to making humans smile every day through our growing UK product offering.”

Bandai celebrates 40 years in business

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With its 40th anniversary coming up on 29 April, Bandai UK is celebrating four decades of bringing some of the world’s most iconic brands to the UK market.

Having successfully set up as a UK arm in 1982 for its Japanese parent company, Bandai UK launched trading with its foundations steeped firmly in the boys’ action figure market, gaining significant success with the likes of big-name properties such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers.  Over recent years, however, the business has undertaken a period of realignment to establish itself as a top multi-category player within the toy industry.

Forty years on and Bandai UK possesses an enviable portfolio of leading brands and ranges within its key divisions – Toy, Collector, Own IP, and Third-Party Distribution – all equally fundamental to the company’s early and ongoing success. Primary IPs include the best-selling Tamagotchi, Pac-Man and hit anime series Dragon Ball, while distribution lines such as CoComelon, Miraculous, McFarlane, and National Geographic are proving to be hugely successful inclusively within their associated categories and the overall toy market.

“It’s a massively exciting time to be at Bandai UK,” says Nic Aldridge, Bandai UK’s Managing Director. “Our approach is to continually challenge and evolve to remain relevant, and innovative, especially as the market becomes increasingly competitive. We are now well-established as a multi-category toy company and our recent positioning as the No.15 toy company (February 2022 NPD) assures us that this is the right approach for growth and driving forward the business. We’re looking forward to celebrating with our partners, retailers, and consumers, and planning ahead to thrive for years to come.”

 

Bandai celebrates 40 years in business

Posted on by

With its 40th anniversary coming up on 29 April, Bandai UK is celebrating four decades of bringing some of the world’s most iconic brands to the UK market.

Having successfully set up as a UK arm in 1982 for its Japanese parent company, Bandai UK launched trading with its foundations steeped firmly in the boys’ action figure market, gaining significant success with the likes of big-name properties such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers.  Over recent years, however, the business has undertaken a period of realignment to establish itself as a top multi-category player within the toy industry.

Forty years on and Bandai UK possesses an enviable portfolio of leading brands and ranges within its key divisions – Toy, Collector, Own IP, and Third-Party Distribution – all equally fundamental to the company’s early and ongoing success. Primary IPs include the best-selling Tamagotchi, Pac-Man and hit anime series Dragon Ball, while distribution lines such as CoComelon, Miraculous, McFarlane, and National Geographic are proving to be hugely successful inclusively within their associated categories and the overall toy market.

“It’s a massively exciting time to be at Bandai UK,” says Nic Aldridge, Bandai UK’s Managing Director. “Our approach is to continually challenge and evolve to remain relevant, and innovative, especially as the market becomes increasingly competitive. We are now well-established as a multi-category toy company and our recent positioning as the No.15 toy company (February 2022 NPD) assures us that this is the right approach for growth and driving forward the business. We’re looking forward to celebrating with our partners, retailers, and consumers, and planning ahead to thrive for years to come.”

 

Moonbug Entertainment names Danny Spronz as Head of Global Loyalty & Promotions and EMEA Retail Development

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Moonbug Entertainment has announced the appointment of Danny Spronz as Head of Global Loyalty & Promotions and EMEA Retail Development. In this role Spronz will be responsible for driving the Loyalty & Promotions programmes at Moonbug as well as developing the EMEA retail strategy across Moonbug’s portfolio of properties, including Blippi, CoComelon and Little Baby Bum.

Spronz’s newly created role will include setting the strategy for Moonbug’s loyalty, rewards, QSR (quick service restaurants) and third-party promotional programmes. Within the role Spronz will be building global programmes with key international partners to both expand brand awareness and affinity with the Moonbug target audiences. For the retail element of the role, he will be overseeing all EMEA retail activity. Spronz is based in the UK head offices, working closely with the Moonbug team in the USA.

Prior to Moonbug, Spronz was Managing Director EMEA at PocketWatch, where he was responsible for all business operations, advertising sales, consumer products licensing and content sales across EMEA. Before this, he was Vice President Digital Partnerships & Influencer Marketing EMEA at The Walt Disney Company, where he managed overall talent strategy, partnerships and management for the company’s on-screen and digital influencer talent. Spronz joined Disney from Maker Studios, where he developed the strategic partnerships and network business across EMEA, LATAM and SEA.

Spronz says: “I couldn’t be happier to be joining such a thriving and growing business as Moonbug, which has paved its way in the digital IP space. Our brands are currently experiencing fast-paced growth and I am looking forward to speaking to agencies or companies about how our IP can help generate affinity for their brands and develop customer loyalty.”

“Danny’s appointment reflects our expanding consumer product business at Moonbug,” says Ryan Gorman, Head of Global Retail & Consumer Product Marketing at Moonbug Entertainment. “Danny’s extensive experience combined with our rapid growth provides a perfect time for this new role and the opportunities it will bring for our brands. We’re excited to have Danny on board.”

For more information on Moonbug, visit www.moonbug.com.

M&M’S Adventure launches on Apple iOS and Android devices

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Free-to-play games publisher Tilting Point, along with partners Gear Inc. and Mars Retail Group, have announced that M&M’S Adventure, a puzzle game featuring the beloved Mars M&M’S characters, is now available on mobile devices on the Apple App Store and for Android devices on the Google Play Store.

Mars has been creating the bite-sized colorful candies for over 80 years, and the iconic M&M’S characters are some of the most recognisable around the world. The M&M’S characters will take players on an adventure around the world, travelling to locations such as New York and Paris, with many more locations to come with each update.

M&M’S Adventure includes more than 1,000 levels, and features multiple types of in-game events, including competitive leaderboards and month-long seasonal events, during which players will play unique levels and unlock new characters. M&M’s Adventure will continue to add to the fun with  monthly seasonal events, kicking off with Easter in April where players can earn exclusive and time-limited Easter characters.