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Would-be licensees are lining up to get a piece of Skylanders, says Activision.
150 licensing execs attended a special Activision event on Tuesday (February 28th) to find out how they can get the rights to make Skylanders cuddly toys, lunch boxes, clothes, back packs and a whole lot more.
It follows a deal with Penguin Children’s Books, who will release five Skylanders books this year, including a sticker annual, a novel andan e-book.
That deal is just the tip of the iceberg,” Skylanders’ VP of consumer marketing John Coyne told MCV.
We have just held a licensing conference in the UK, with 150 people attending. I’ve worked on a number of these IPs for the likes of Mattel and Spin Master in previous roles, and you can sense things are going well when people approach you about licensing opportunities, rather than you having to approach them. That’s what we’re seeing here.
Lunch boxes, apparel, back packs, publishing, other toy areas – these are all things that are currently in the works. Hopefully Skylanders will be everywhere. It tends to go that way. Once kids get into something, they really get into it. You see that on a number of movie properties and TV shows. It becomes a lifestyle thing for them. Skylanders is following that curve.”
Retailers have been aggressively backing Skylanders. And Coyne says they are now seeing kids come back to their shops each week.
Coming from the toy industry, I never underestimate the importance and power of retail,” Coyne added. That hands-on experience, to be able to see something and interact with it at retail, was something we knew was going to be important from the start.
Kids are going back to stores week-in week-out looking for new Skylanders, which is a great thing for retail.”
