Baywatch Heats Up with New Deals
With the new Baywatch movie in theaters, Paramount Pictures announced a list of brand partners and licensees with promotional programs for the pop-culture franchise.
“These partnering companies have truly tapped into the comedic tone and iconic beach lifestyle that is the new Baywatch movie,” says LeeAnne Stables, president, Worldwide Marketing Partnerships & Licensing at Paramount Pictures.
Under Armour created the iconic custom swimsuits and lifeguard gear seen in the film, and inspired-by apparel and swimwear is now available on UA.com and at select Under Armour Brand House stores. Sprint features custom Baywatch-themed SprintWatch digital spots for Sprint’s Unlimited Plan. Samsung offered a special promotion of the waterproof Galaxy S8 on opening weekend at its Samsung 837 event location in NYC, at which consumers reached into a pool of submerged phones to reveal their movie-themed prize. Bloomingdales decked its NYC 59th street flagship store windows with a Baywatch-themed interactive display, produced a swimwear fashion show hosted by the film’s star Ilfenesh Hadera, and offered a Baywatch gift with purchase of swimwear at all its store locations. Mastercraft, whose boats are featured prominently in the film, have an in-dealership promotional campaign, movie ticket giveaway plus digital and print media. Coast Soap features special-edition Baywatch packaging on its classic scent Coast 8-bar and body wash products sold at retail locations nationally, and the Coast $5,000 Always to the Rescue sweepstakes offers a lucky consumer the chance to win a trip to Miami. Crunch Gym is offering a two-month Baywatch Beach Body group class work-out program exclusively at select locations in New York City, Los Angles, Miami, and San Francisco, and will host movie-themed in-club takeover nights complete with ticket giveaways, photo opportunities, and a sweepstakes. Rockstar Energy Drinks features a national sweepstakes alongside in-store signage and a digital campaign.
In addition to the brand partner campaigns, a new roster of Baywatch movie licensees has developed products themed to the film. These companies, organized by category, include:
- Apparel & Accessories: Under Armour, TSI, ACDC, Sugar Clothing, Ron Robinson, Freeze, Tipsy Elves, Hybris, NTD Apparel, Santex Moden, Carneiro & SA, Bespoke Technologies, H&M, Primark
- Footwear: BM Fashion UK
- Beach Towels & Bags: Franco, Skybrands
- Sunglasses: Knockaround
- Health, Beauty & Personal Care: Cinema Secrets, Nail Alliance, Million Dollar Tan, Co-brand
- Costumes: Rasta Imposta & Smiffy’s
- Novelties: Surreal
- Die-cast: Greenlight Collectibles
- Wall Decor, Posters & Standees: Pyramid, Trends, ACCO Brands, Advanced Graphics
- In-Theater: Zinc
- Mobile: Big Fish Casino Social Slots
PercyVites, Nickelodeon Partner for Digital Invites
PercyVites, a digital party platform, has partnered with Nickelodeon to offer additional kid-approved licenses to its current lineup of personalized party video invitations.
PercyVites now features Nickelodeon characters in its customizable digital invitations and thank you videos. Characters include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, PAW Patrol, SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Shimmer and Shine, and more.
Users are able to upload photos, party details, and messages directly into the video template with the end result of co-starring alongside Nickelodeon characters in their own personalized video invitation and thank you video to send after your party. Products from this partnership will be available across the U.S. and Canada.
Teletubbies Gets New Distribution Partner, Agency in China
DHX Media is expanding its global reach through a deal with Youku, one of China’s most popular streaming platforms, to launch its new Teletubbies series in the country.
Youku will deliver seasons one and two of the preschool series to Chinese audiences via subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and advertising-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services. Season one premieres in the territory on June 1, 2017, with season two to follow at a later date.
To date, DHX Media has licensed more than 9,700 half-hours of content across numerous digital and linear services in China, leveraging more than 2,500 half-hours of Mandarin-dubbed content in its library.
Youku is China’s leading digital entertainment platform. Youku is committed to building an expansive multi-screen entertainment and media ecosystem for the global Chinese audience. Covering 580 million monthly active devices, Youku’s content is accessible acrosss multiple screens.
In a separate deal, DHX Brands, DHX Media’s brand management and consumer products arm, has appointed Promotional Partners Worldwide (PPW) as the licensing agent for Teletubbies in China. with the appointment, DHX Brands aims to tap into the potential in the country for the Teletubbies consumer products program. This follows the recent appointment of Candy Ho as business development director for DHX Brands, establishing a base for the business from Hong Kong.
PJ Masks Adds New Partners
Entertainment One (eOne) expands its line-up of partners for its top-rated animated preschool series PJ Masks, airing daily on Disney Junior. A host of companies, including American Greetings, Colorforms, CSS, Parragon, and Redan, will launch an exciting array of publishing and paper goods to arrive at major national retailers in the U.S. and Canada this fall. The latest partners will help expand on the PJ Masks offerings from master publishing partner Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
New products set to release this fall include greeting cards and seasonal wrap (American Greetings in the U.S.), reusable sticker sets (Colorforms in the U.S.),
seasonal stationery exchange(CSS in the U.S.), publishing (Parragon in the U.S. and Canada) and magazines (Redan in the U.S. and Canada).