Acamar Films’ BING signs new licensees
Skwigly
Acamar Films’ and its licensing agent The Licensing Company (TLC) have signed two key partners for its award-winning preschool property BING.
Woodmansterne and Rainbow Productions will join the hand-picked select group of companies already committed to taking BING to a children’s audience beyond the TV screen which includes: Harper Collins for publishing; Ravensburger for games; Studiocanal for home entertainment, and Fisher-Price which has just launched the first wave of carefully crafted toys at retail. The new toy range includes key interactive plush ‘My Friend Bing’, plus a wide collection of figures, vehicles, playsets and bath toys.
Woodmansterne is launching a beautiful range of greeting cards, sheet gift wrap, gift tags, note cards, thank you cards and paper based advent calendar, coming soon to all good card shops.
Rainbow Productions have worked with Acamar to create fantastic Bing and Flop character costumes which will be making special guest appearances throughout the year at leisure attractions, retail outlets, holiday parks, airports and specially arranged private parties.
Sara Tossell, Acting Head of Licensing at Acamar Films comments: “We are excited to be creating more ways in which Bingsters can connect with Bing and his friends beyond the television programme, and we’re privileged to work alongside market leaders Rainbow and Woodmansterne to make that possible.”
Emma Benfield, Rights Licensing Coordinator says: ‘Bing struck a chord with all of us at Woodmansterne, we’re thrilled to be able to bring him and his friends to life through our quality launch range of greeting cards so children can enjoy Bing on their birthday.’
“Rainbow Productions is delighted to be working with Acamar, helping extend the popular Bing brand into live events. We look forward to managing the personal appearances of duo Bing and Flop, placing the characters in front of family audiences at shopping centres, festive events and a range of UK venues as part of our licensed character appearance programme.” adds Danny Smith, Sales Manager at UK mascot manufacturer and events company Rainbow Productions
Produced by independent studio Acamar Films and Dublin-based partners Brown Bag Films, BING has seen extraordinary success since it launched last year. The series has won a Writer’s Guild Award, a BAFTA nomination for best Pre-School Series and has been a ratings hit on CBeebies in the UK and on ABC in Australia and will launch in over 40 territories in the next 12 months.
BING has consistently topped the animation charts with its selection of episodes on the UK’s iTunes store and has had a remarkable 50 million views since launch on the BBC’s iPlayer. The DVDs have sold an unprecedented 75k copies since launching in May, highlighting the series’ unique appeal and resonance with an ever-growing audience of both pre-school children and the grown-ups in their lives.
BING has been adapted from the insightful books by award-winning author and illustrator Ted Dewan. The series has been meticulously developed by a hand-picked team of experts at Acamar in partnership with leading Irish animation studio Brown Bag Films.