Bulldog Brands Set To Shine In Vegas

Bulldog Licensing, one of the UK’s leading licensing agencies, brings a strong and diverse portfolio of brands to this year’s Las Vegas Licensing Expo (stand E214).

Shopkins are the cutest little characters that live in Shopville! There are hundreds to collect, including a few coveted, ultra-rare characters, and are sold inside adorable little bags and packs. The statistics surrounding the brand are staggering - more than 240 million characters have been sold, the webisodes on YouTube have been viewed over one billion times and boasts its very own channel. A rapidly growing licensing programme includes Gemma (party goods), Fashion UK (apparel), BCI (nightwear and underwear), Spearmark (lunchware, tableware, drinkware and lighting), Topps (collectible and trading cards, sticker products and accessories), VMC (headwear, scarves, sunglasses and more), Aykroyds TDP (nightwear and underwear), Bonnier Publishing (publishing), Character World (bedding, inflatable chairs and beanbags), Flair (toys), MV Sports (wheeled toys), DJ Murphy (magazines), Winning Moves (games), Pyramid (posters) and Whitehouse Leisure (amusement plush).

Garfield is the instantly recognizable cartoon cat featured in over 2,100 newspapers across the globe. The portly feline holds the Guinness World Record for the most syndicated cartoon strip ever and is responsible for book sales in excess of 200 million copies to date, two feature-length live-action films, and three CGI animated movies – as well as thousands of lines of licensed merchandise. Current licensees include BCI (apparel), Blues clothing (Ladies’ apparel and nightwear), Poetic Gem (Men’s nightwear and underwear and tshirts for men and women), Roy Lowe and Sons (socks and tights) Sambro (bags and stationery), Ravette (publishing) and J Fox (accessories). Apparel sales on Garfield are at an all-time high with fashion retailers seeing strong sell-through for both adult and kids’ lines.

EA is one of the biggest games companies in the world and is behind major franchises that have dominated the digital landscape for years. Bulldog is working on major licensing programmes for some of the world’s most popular games titles including Mass Effect, Titanfall, EA Sports and Plants vs. Zombies, as well as delivering a fashion range across the classic IP from the studio including Dead Space, Command and Conquer and the company’s early EA logos.

Angry Birds is the mobile game that – through a mixture of simple yet addictive gameplay and striking graphics - is a global phenomenon. The various games in the franchise, from the original through to Angry Birds Star Wars and Angry Birds 2, have been downloaded over three billion times in total and Angry Birds is now a massive property with a reach across the generations. The brand also has nearly 26million Facebook followers, whilst the animated series Angry Birds Toons, Stella and Piggy Tales boast more than two billion YouTube views and five billion views through the ToonsTV video-on-demand platform. The eagerly anticipated Angry Birds Movie, set for release in the UK on 13 May, will boost the brand’s profile even further and has massive support from distribution partner Sony, who have delivered third party promotions valuing more than $250m alongside the film launch.

Yo-kai watch – managed by VIZ Media Europe and represented in the UK by Bulldog Licensing – is the hit anime that follows an average boy, Nate, who gets a special watch empowering him to discover mysterious beings called “Yo-kai.” Yo-kai are everywhere, causing little nuisances in our daily lives. Nate’s ongoing quest is to discover the reason for the Yo-kai’s mischievous behaviour, with hopes of talking them out of it. Each time Nate needs to solve a problem – a problem often caused by another troublesome Yo-kai – he uses his watch to call upon a friendly Yo-kai to aid him. The anime series has already enjoyed huge success in Japan, where it dominates the television, merchandise, gaming and toy markets, generating retail sales of over €2 billion in less than two years. The TV has recently launched in the UK on Cartoon Network. Hasbro, Nintendo, Centum, Panini and Egmont have already signed up for the licensing programme, with further announcements set to be made across a raft of licensees.

”We are very excited about Licensing Expo this year,” says Bulldog Licensing MD Rob Corney. “We’ve got a fantastic range of properties to present to potential partners - from globally established brands to red-hot new arrivals, so I’m sure we’ll be kept extremely busy!”