Nominees for Best BRAND: Entertainment / Character/Toy –  Animated within the 2020 Licensing International Excellence Awards come from many corners of the planet, including a pair from Asia and four from the UK and Europe. They also include a pair of toy/game-based properties alongside those from more traditional media sources.

Overall, more than 600 entries were received this year from companies in 22 countries and were judged by a panel of 152 executives from 20 nations. The licensing industry will make its selections from a ballot that includes 175 nominees in 23 categories of brands, properties and companies.

For a full listing of the categories and the nominees please click here.

Here are the nominees for Best BRAND: Entertainment / Character/Toy – Animated:

Batman – Warner Bros. Consumer Products (France)

Highlights included a very successful “Galeries Lafayette x Batman” operation that provided a good sales boost at the iconic Paris retailer. The sell-through ran at double the usual rate, with 80 exclusive products created with famous international & local brands. A six-meters high Batman Mask was displayed on the most iconic Avenue of Paris: Champs-Elysées.

Also, the 3rd largest comics festival in the world (Festival d’Angoulême) carried Batman’s color for edition 2019. 800m2 of exhibition entirely dedicated to the hero. Fans waited for three hours on the first day. An exhibition of Batman x Alex Israël in Marseille also gained huge media attention.

Bing – Acamar Films

Bing has seen extraordinary success since its UK launch on CBeebies. Broadcast now in 120 territories with 6.5 billion+ YouTube watch time minutes and the fastest growing Facebook channel for a pre-school show, Bing has firmly cemented its position as a high growth pre-school brand.

Bing’s successful and ever-expanding licensing program now has more than 100 licensees in Europe. Bing is already impressively the number 8 toy brand in Italy overall, not just for pre-school. Master Toy partner, Golden Bear, had a phenomenal launch in Autumn/Winter 2019, with Bing toys proving to be the company’s fastest selling range in years.

Boonie Bears – Fantawild Animation

Boonie Bears has become an amazingly successful franchise and #1 animation brand in China since its debut. Boonie Bears has partnered with over 200 prestigious licensees at home and abroad, such as Master Kong and McDonald’s. There are over 3,000 types of licensed merchandise and the annual sales of merchandise reached over 735 million USD. It’s the first animation brand in China to engage in licensing in the categories of medicine and home decorating. Fantawild integrated marketing resources both on and offline, to promote the merchandise in a comprehensive manner to create impressive customer experience.

BT21 – Line Friends

Since its release on Sep 2017, BT21 has recorded more than 3.3 billion Twitter exposures and over 19 million SNS followers. Based on this strong engagement online, the sales are also breaking records. It took less than 90 minutes until the BT21 X CONVERSE online sales were sold out, and only 2 hours for BT21 X Anti Social Social Club – of which 70% of sales were made in the US, proving its strong fan base beyond Asia. Also, the limited edition ‘Leica SOFORT BT21’ was sold out within a day and gained lots of attention among millennials worldwide.

44 Cats – Rainbow

44 Cats is proving a long-term success and already boasts awards testifying to its value. The first recognition came from the Media Observatory of Italian Parents Movement, awarding the series as a family friendly show promoting a harmonious view of community, while the second one was the Golden Dolphin for Best Animated Series at the Xiamen International Animation Festival. Indeed, it is growing tremendously in terms of subscribers and views on YouTube, and ratings on TV and VOD are increasing worldwide. Besides being a solid brand spreading positive values, 44 Cats enhances edutainment through original songs created with the renowned Antoniano Bologna.

Peppa Pig – Hasbro / eOne

2019 was one of the biggest years to date for Peppa Pig, with multiple global activations amplifying brand awareness at key moments throughout the year. This included Chinese New Year’s Year of the Pig theatrical release and retail promotions, eOne’s 15th anniversary celebrations for Peppa in UK and Australia, a multi-territory brand collaboration with Hunter, India’s Cricket World Cup campaign, additional World of Play attractions, new live orchestral show format, and the brand’s incredibly successful entry into the music charts which resulted in 24 million global streams in just 6 months.

PJ Masks – Hasbro / eOne

PJ Masks enjoyed another year of growth in 2019, reaching No 3 largest Preschool Toys property in the US. The brand’s success was fueled by the launch of new episodes from series 3 and expansion into new markets including China where the series launched on CCTV in March. A packed schedule of partnership activations and retailtainment tours powered up fan engagement and helped drive retail footfall. The new album release built on the brand’s strong track record and delivered 58 million global streams whilst a new coding app Hero Academy contributed to a total of 81 million app downloads globally.

Pop! – Funko

Pop! is a phenomenon with products spanning the entire globe.  International sales grew 57% in 2018 as Pop! started amassing fans from all over the world.  The Pop! train is going full speed ahead with the next stop potentially on Mars!

Warhammer – Games Workshop

For more than 30 years, millions of passionate fans globally have been collecting, building, painting and playing games with armies of miniatures – from Space Marines to dragons and everything fantastical in between. Warhammer has not only withstood the test of time and been a presence on the high street for more than 3 decades, sales have doubled from £125 million to £257 million in the last three years alone. With new partnerships including Marvel, Bandai and Funko, a hugely successful publishing division and a Live Action TV series in development, Warhammer is set for another record-breaking year!