New Kids on the Block

Cabbage Patch Kids (CPK), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), Yu-Gi-OH!, Viva Piñata and Monster Jam are just a taste of the 14 brands 4Kids Entertainment offers for licensing. 4Kids provides licensing for products such as toys, video games, health and beauty products, apparel, housewares, footwear and books.

4Kids Entertainment’s licensing division develops and implements licensing and merchandising programs for popular children’s television series, properties and product concepts. The company acts as the exclusive merchandising agent to grant third parties licenses to manufacture and sell all types of merchandise.

Those of us who were around in the ‘80’s probably have fond memories of some of the aforementioned brands and are probably wondering why they are still being offered. Well, this year is the Cabbage Patch Kids’ 25th anniversary and CPK have debuted their new Lil’Sprouts collection. It is TMNT’s 25th birthday as well, and they also came out with a movie in March 2007. The newer brands such as Viva Piñata and Yu-Gi-OH! have also proven successful among children.

According to Roz Nowicki, 4Kids’ EVP, marketing & licensing, “4Kids Entertainment has been the source of many successful brands including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cabbage Patch Kids and Monster Jam at retail through standard licensing arrangements. We feel to continue to maximize these and our other brands we need to look at other ways to reach the consumers and we consider direct to retail programs an essential part of our licensing strategy going forward.”

A goal of 4Kids is to provide companies a “way they can differentiate themselves by using licensing.” For example, when it comes to licensing healthy snacks, Cabbage Patch Kids’ Lil’ Sprouts are a good brand to apply to the snacks because they are “family friendly” and can appeal to parents and children alike. Also, TMNT is an excellent brand to use for organic and healthy foods because children associate the brand with pizza, and therefore may be more attracted to the healthier foods when TMNT grace the packaging.

“We enjoy partnering with selected retailers to produce exclusive branded programs featuring our animated characters and lifestyle icons.  This enables our retailers to have an exclusive program that will build traffic in their stores and differentiate them from their competition,” said Antoinette Reed, general manager/SVP, retail development, 4Kids Entertainment, Inc.

4Kids TV

4Kids Entertainment enables children to “catch the coolest shows,” and also entertains them with video games on 4Kids TV. Customers can watch 4Kids TV on the television or the web. A four hour block is allocated every weekend to shows such as Monster Jam and Dinosaur King. TV and video game can be accessed 24/7 on the web. To add to this impressive service, 4Kids Video On Demand is now available in 13.5 million homes through Comcast, Cox and Bresnan Networks.

And there’s more…TC Digital Games is a new subsidiary of 4Kids Entertainment. TC Digital has developed a proprietary printing process that places a unique alphanumeric code on trading cards. That specific code ties back to an online data base. When a player logs on to the website and inputs the individual code, a virtual image of the card appears on the screen. The player can then play the card game online with anyone in the world who is on the website.

Looking at 4Kids Entertainment’s impressive services, it is evident that they are at the top of their game, presenting their customers with the most up-to-date, relevant and exciting brands.
For more information about 4Kids, visit: www.4kidsent.com.