ITVS GE Signs First U.K. Licensing Partners for Oddbods

LONDON: ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE), the U.K. licensing agent for One Animation’s animated kids’ comedy series Oddbods, has secured the first deals for the brand in the territory.

ITVS GE secured partners across outdoor toys, apparel, publishing and greetings. In the publishing category, Bonnier will develop an Oddbods activity and sticker book that will be released in April 2017, with additional formats to follow later in the year and into 2018. Greeting card website Moonpig recently launched its range of customizable Oddbods birthday cards.

Cooneen and Misirli will make kids and adults nightwear, underwear and socks set to launch in spring/summer 2017. Kids@Play will introduce outdoor playballs and hoppers in fall/winter 2017, while Whitehouse Leisure’s line of plush exclusively for arcade machines will be available in summer 2017. These partnerships support the Oddbods toy line launched by master toy partner Golden Bear in July.

The sketch-based, non-dialogue CG-animated slapstick comedy series follows the adventures of seven characters, each with distinctive colors and personalities. Exclusive online mobile shorts have received nearly half a billion worldwide views on platforms such as YouTube.

“Oddbods is showing all the signs of becoming the next breakthrough kids’ brand with global viewership ratings soaring and consumer demand for merchandise growing at a remarkable rate too,” commented Trudi Hayward, the senior VP and head of global merchandise at ITV Studios Global Entertainment. “We’re therefore delighted to welcome our first U.K. partners to the consumer products program and to be developing a fantastic range of products that will really bring the show’s unique humor and lovable characters to life.”

“The strategic licensing program that ITVS GE has been working on will see the introduction of a full range of very exciting consumer products over the course of the next few months, which are very much in line with the show’s DNA,” said Bettina Koeckler, One Animation’s executive VP of global consumer products and licensing.

Koeckler added: “The Oddbods brand has been busily building a large worldwide following of fans which span a wide age range and this has resulted in high TV ratings, coupled with a tremendous appetite for Oddbods content online. All this indicates that the time is right for further commercial expansion, and ITVS GE is the ideal partner for us to work with on making this a success.”