JLG at Toy Fair 2018

From February 17-20, thousands of toy industry professionals gathered at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City for Toy Fair 2018. The event space spanned the equivalent of seven football fields, all filled with the latest toys and games. Several JLG clients and their brand licensing partners highlighted their latest products at the show.

The World of Eric Carle was present at the show through several licensees who displayed new brand extensions including a new bamboo feeding line from Kids Preferred and Insect Lore’s first World of Eric Carle collection. The World of Eric Carle-inspired products were also shown by Phoenix, University Games, Mudpuppy, Infinity Group, Wonderforge, Phidal and Leap Year.

Meanwhile Kellogg’s branded products from Maxx Marketing and Funko were also on display at the show and Stikbots also had a presence through their licensor Zing and partner Basic Fun, who showcased new Stikbot concepts.  

Zing Celebrates New Milestones For Stikbot

Stikbot, Zing’s stop-motion animation brand, is positioned for record-breaking growth, with a TOTY Award nomination in the Action Figure Category and sales of over 30 million Stikbot figures.

Beyond the appeal of the award-winning Stikbot toys, success is driven by the brand’s enormously popular entertainment hub, the Stikbot Central YouTube Channel.  The channel has established a community of loyal fans and is a frequent destination for fresh, funny, Stikbot entertainment. As a result, the channel boasts over 280 million views, has hundreds of thousands of kids visiting daily and over 800,000 subscribers.  

Fans are also engaging with Stikbot on Musical.ly, where Stikbot content has garnered more than 1.3 million likes since Spring 2017.  The channel’s impact is indicative of the power of YouTube as a platform to engage fans with original series and user-generated content, and the growing importance of Musical.ly.

Zing loads new content including hilarious pop culture parody series and movies on the channel frequently.  Makers have also discovered the unique appeal of Stikbot, and over 100,000 fan-made Stikbot animations have been uploaded to social media, making Stikbot one of the most engaged communities of ‘makers’ and online fans.

“With Stikbot toys now sold in 40 countries, and our YouTube subscriber base approaching 1 million, 2018 is shaping up to be our biggest year for Stikbot,” said Josh Loerzel, V.P. of Sales and Marketing, Zing Global. “Zing’s new Stikbot collections, and additional toy categories and apparel from Stikbot licensees is expanding our retail footprint globally.”

As Zing readies its Stikbot Safari and Stikbot Pet collections, and preps new Stikbot series, JLG is working with Stikbot licensees Hybrid Apparel and Basic Fun on their Spring 2018 product launches. Given the continued growth of Stikbot fans on digital media and the millions of retail impressions Stikbot product will generate in 2018, this brand is one to watch!

JLG ANNOUNCES FIRST STIKBOT® LICENSEES

The Joester Loria Group, the exclusive brand licensing agent for Zing’s Stikbot, has announced new licensees for the company’s social media action figure star.  The first Stikbot licensees will develop toys and apparel, available at retail beginning Spring 2018 in the U.S. and Canada.

“We announced our Stikbot licensing program at Licensing Expo in June and we’re so excited to announce our first set of licenses that will be ready to hit retail in the Spring of 2018,” said Josh Loerzel, VP of sales and marketing for Zing.  “As Stikbot Central approaches its one millionth subscriber on YouTube, we really see first-hand kids’ engagement with the brand on a regular basis.  We truly believe that the Stikbot merchandise will bring the brand to life in many new ways with kids.”

Stikbot’s new brand extensions include:

• Plush and figural stretch toys, which may include sound, construction and roleplay items from Basic Fun.
• Girls, boys and young men’s t-shirts and tops from Hybrid Apparel.

“We are delighted with the response we have had to the Stikbot licensing program from category leaders,” said Debra Joester, President of The Joester Loria Group.  “Stikbot’s consumer engagement on social media and success at key retail accounts has captured the attention of key manufacturers and retail buyers over the past few months, and anticipation is growing over the launch of licensed products in 2018.”

Stikbot's new brand licensing deals were featured by License! Global.