ER Launches New Consumer-Products Initiative for Waldo

NEW YORK/LONDON, June 10:
Entertainment Rights is gearing up for the 21st anniversary of Where’s
Waldo? this fall by rolling out a
new multimedia marketing campaign and consumer-products program for the
property, aimed at fans in their 20s.

An official online Waldo
presence has been established on
social-networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Flickr has also
launched an online photo hunt to support the property. A user-generated toolkit
providing official character art, scenes, images, icons and graphics debuts
this week, while Waldo’s new online destination at www.canyoufindwaldo.com will
launch in September.

Candlewick Press is set to
release new Waldo books,
including The Ultimate Travel Collection—a travel-friendly bind-up of five classic Waldo titles—this June. An additional title will
follow this fall. USAOPOLY is working on a line of adult puzzles, which will be
sold in collectible Waldo-themed
boxes and tins at book and specialty stores beginning in 2009.

Local Celebrity is
planning a line of Waldo-themed
young men’s and juniors’ T-shirts, with screen-printed tops to hit department
and specialty stores and boutiques this fall. BioWorld is also working on a
range of bags, headwear, wallets and luggage tags. Elope has plans to develop
Halloween costumes for the iconic property that includes Waldo’s trademark hat,
glasses and red and white striped top.

“Waldo is a true global
icon and the question Where’s Waldo? has become a popular catchphrase,” said Nicole Blake, the senior VP
of marketing for Entertainment Rights for North America. “Local Celebrity,
BioWorld, Elope and USAOPOLY
are the perfect partners to debut a product program that captures Waldo’s
signature style and reflect the brand’s ‘search-and-find’ essence.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski