TGI Fridays adds new products to Tesco range

TGI Fridays, the iconic American Bar & Grill, has continued its collaboration with SV Cuisine to launch the new restaurant-inspired BBQ Beef Brisket and Buffalo Chicken Wings, in a partnership brokered by TGI Fridays’ global licensing agent, Beanstalk.

Alongside the launch of these new dishes, the TGI Smoked Pork Ribs with BBQ Sauce has been extended to additional Tesco stores.

“Building on the success in Tesco of our TGI Smoked Pork Ribs with BBQ Sauce, we have successfully widened the offer of TGI products to Tesco shoppers,” says James Conway, Head of Sales at SV Cuisine. “Supported by in-store and online promotional activity, the TGI Fridays brand is set to reach additional shoppers and new levels of sales.”

“We’re excited to see this range in the UK’s biggest supermarket continue to grow, through our partnership with TGI Fridays and SV Cuisine,” says Louise French, Senior Vice President at Beanstalk. “With the addition of these new dishes and the roll-out of the range across even more Tesco stores, TGI Fridays continues to offer consumers even more ways to recreate the TGI Fridays experience at home, for the whole family to enjoy!”

The TGI Fridays BBQ Beef Brisket and Buffalo Chicken Wings are available in Tesco stores and online now.

Macmillan Children’s Books launches new Dear Zoo babywear collection to Tesco

Macmillan Children’s Books has launched a new clothing range for Tesco based on the classic and much-loved children’s story, Dear Zoo, created by Rod Campbell. The latest collection follows the success of the first Dear Zoo apparel range across Tesco stores in 2020.

The babywear collection is now available in-store and is made up of six garments for babies aged 0 to 24 months, including a sleepsuit, sleeping bag, pyjama sets, vests, and bibs. The new designs introduce two new colours to the Dear Zoo palette, which fit alongside the existing and classic Dear Zoo imagery.

A large social media influencer campaign accompanies this launch and will showcase sample outfits and books to over 350k consumers.

Stephanie Barton, publisher, preschool, brands and classics, Macmillan Children’s Books, said: “We were delighted by the success of the Dear Zoo babywear in Tesco last year and couldn’t have been more pleased when they wanted to do a new range for 2021. They are a brilliant partner, and the clothing sits well alongside the other bespoke licensing that we have for Dear Zoo.

“The classic story continues to grow in popularity each year and has now been loved across three generations of families. This new apparel gives something extra to families who really love the brand, while introducing new families to the animals and the story.”

The Dear Zoo classic storybook offers the magic of a shared storytelling experience as a variety of animals are sent from the zoo. The story brings a sense of humour, anticipation and discovery as the child turns the pages. It continues to be at the heart of families throughout the UK and around the world and was the bestselling picture board book in the UK in 2019.

Macmillan Children’s Books will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Dear Zoo in 2022 and plans are being laid for an extensive on- and off-line consumer marketing campaign across the brand. The Dear Zoo Live on Stage play production hopes to tour 20 venues with 80 shows nationwide in autumn 2021, depending on COVID regulations. Since its launch in 2018, nearly 85,000 children and families have already enjoyed the performances and it has also successfully toured in the UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore.

This new clothing launch continues the growing story around Dear Zoo and Macmillan is looking forward to building on its success in the soft toy, nursery, gifting and stationery sectors shortly.

Pre-school hit Sunny Bunnies celebrates UK retailer and broadcast commitment for 2021

The popular pre-school IP Sunny Bunnies has secured further commitment to its feature plush range with major UK supermarket chains, department stores, and online retailers through 2021, including the likes of Argos, Tesco, Amazon, and other independent toy retailers.

The range, developed by the plush toy specialist, Posh Paws, launched only last year to a warm reception from retailers across the UK. Media IM Incorporated, the London content distribution company behind the pre-school series, is confident in the repeat success of the toy range for 2020 and 2021.

The commitment from the UK retail space follows news that Media IM has also signed three new UK broadcast deals for the hit series. Ketchup TV, the UK’s leading AVOD children’s channel has licensed seasons one and two for the UK and Eire, Channel 5’s Milkshake has secured a pre-sale agreement for season five, while Sky has signed for season three across its Sky Kids and Now TV channels, as well as the Sky Kids App.

Irina Nazarenko, co-founder of Media I.M. Incorporated, said: “Even in happier times, the UK kids’ market is one of the toughest in the world, which makes closing any UK deal cause for celebration.

“To have closed three broadcast deals and to have had our merchandise relationship renewed by two of the country’s leading retailers is a serious result. We’d love to take all the credit – but the real heroes are those unstoppable, irrepressible Bunnies…”

This latest round of UK sales follows on the heels of two landmark deals in late July, which launched Sunny Bunnies into several new Asian territories, as well as on to one of China’s biggest VOD platform.

A deal with Kidzone saw the first four seasons of Sunny Bunnies debut this summer on Pakistan’s leading children’s entertainment channel. The show is set to be extended to Kidzone’s pay-TV channels in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

In addition, Media I.M. Incorporated signed a non-exclusive two-year agreement with Chinese VOD giant Tencent for seasons one to three of Sunny Bunnies. The show is also on air on Youku, Mango TV and Huawei via a string of previous deals with major Chinese platforms.

Sunny Bunnies brand diversification also continues apace branching into gifs and stickers through giphy.com with 130 million views in one year with 20 million views in two days on the launch of the ‘bye!’ gif.

Produced by Digital Light Studio, the Sunny Bunnies are five beaming balls that can appear anywhere there is a source of light, from sunshine to moonlight.

In each episode, the cheeky creatures bring their fun and games to a different location – a circus, a sports stadium, a park – embarking on mischievous adventures and spreading laughter and happiness. And at the end of every episode, the fun continues with a collection of bloopers.

Macmillan Children’s Books celebrates Dear Zoo in new F&F at Tesco range

Macmillan Children’s Books has struck up a new deal with Tesco’s clothing brand F&F to launch a range of baby clothing based on the classic pre-school storybook Dear Zoo created by Rod Campbell.

Developed by Paul Dennicci for F&F at Tesco, the range launched last week across 165 stores nationwide, tying in with a special Tesco Baby Event. The initial collection features six garments, including vests, bibs, and a sleeping bag, all designed for babies aged 0 to 24 months.

The launch reflects the renewed interest in Dear Zoo and builds on the success of the core licensing partners, including Hacche Retail (puzzles and games for Marks & Spencer), Milly & Flynn (games and wooden toys), Neviti (party paperware) and Paul Lamond Games (puzzles and dominoes).

The launch will be supported by a campaign with ComeRound (www.comeround.com), the word-of-mouth marketing agency that is dedicated to harnessing the power of real people recommending products they genuinely love from inside the home. Over 100 families will receive a pack of Dear Zoo books and merchandise and will celebrate at the end of July with at-home Dear Zoo Read and Play Days. Alongside, there is also strong online influencer activity, focusing on the new apparel.

Stephanie Barton, publisher at Macmillan Children’s Books, said: “We brought the licensing of Dear Zoo in-house to take full advantage of the popularity of this evergreen and well-loved book. We are targeting a small number of core product categories to build on the success of our current, long-standing licensing partners. We’ve had such a wonderful response to Dear Zoo, in part due to the wonderful new assets that Rod Campbell himself and the team at Macmillan have created.

“We are delighted with Tesco’s commitment and enthusiasm and I know that Dear Zoo readers and their parents will be very excited by these lovely new products.”

The Dear Zoo classic storybook continues to be at the heart of families throughout the UK. Following on from its place as the number one Picture book in 2018, sales last year were up 19 per cent. The classic board book version appeared in the Nielsen Preschool Top 20 every single week of 2019.

The Dear Zoo Live on Stage play launched in 2018 and already nearly 85,000 children and families throughout the UK have enjoyed the performances. It also successfully toured in the UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore in 2019. With World Book Day 2021 already in mind, Macmillan Children’s Books is intending to add to the list of Dear Zoo licensees across the core dressing up, soft toy, nursery, gifting and stationery sectors shortly.

 

Carte Blanche’s Me to You partners with Tesco for Mother’s Day £1,000 shopping spree competition

Carte Blanche Greetings’ award-winning Me to You brand has partnered with Tesco for the seventh year running to offer customers the chance to win a £1,000 shopping spree for Mother’s Day.

The campaign will roll out across 400 of the supermarket giant’s stores, and will be hosted online, as well as promoted across all of Me to You’s Mother’s Day gifting and cards, including pajamas, mugs, and chocolates.

Customers to the store can enter the free prize draw simply by entering the competition URL promoted on Me to You Mother’s Day product and submitting their details online.

Me to You marketing manager, Grace Elphinstone, said: “We are really excited to be partnering with Tesco for the seventh year running on this Mother’s Day activity. We are delighted that Tesco has recognised the synergy between the Me to You brand and this special occasion, allowing our product portfolio to own the Mother’s Day space in store, offering customers a one stop solution for their Mother’s Day gifting and the ability to shop across categories for the brand they love.”