Santa Monica, CA and Hamburg, Germany —  Award-winning global independent animation studio ZAG has signed an exclusive agreement with Emoji Company, the creator of one of the most expressive  and influential lifestyle brands in the world, to develop and launch a one-of-a-kind collaboration that will combine the strength of two power brands, Miraculous™ – Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and emoji™.  The announcement was made today by Julian Zag, EVP Global Operations and Head of Consumer Products, ZAG, and Marco Hüsges, CEO and Founder, The Emoji Company.

This new agreement will see the magical superhero world of Miraculous™ and the energetic and optimistic characteristics of emoji combined to create an emoji™ x Miraculous™ brand collaboration that will offer new partners a dedicated, state-of-the-art brand style guide featuring unique emoji™ x Miraculous™ brand icons for licensing across categories such as Apparel, Accessories, Footwear, Electronics, Figurines and Collectibles, Drinkware, Fan Merchandise, Home Goods, Stationery, and more.

Since bursting onto the global stage in 2015, Miraculous™ has become one of the world’s favorite superheroes, topping TV series ratings charts with leading global broadcasters, dominating across social media with over 30 billion views on YouTube, and hitting over US$1 billion in retail sales at the end of 2021.  Together with emoji™, a globally awarded and established lifestyle brand that appeals to a broad audience, the two companies will deliver a magical, miraculous, and vibrant global licensing program.

“The emoji™ brand is globally known for its expressive consumers goods, events and entertainment services, and is one of the most versatile and used forms of communication and icons in the world,” commented Julian Zag.  “We are at the most exciting point in our Miraculous adventure to date, with a $100+ million animated feature premiering later this year, and season five rolling out this fall following astounding season four ratings, and we look forward to creating a unique and exclusive brand collaboration for emoji™ and Miraculous fans the world over,”

“Miraculous, featuring the beloved Ladybug and Cat Noir, has become a worldwide phenomenon with its unique stories and strong values of friendship, empowerment, and courage, added Marco Hüsges. “With emoji™ ’s global brand recognition across all age groups, we will work together with ZAG to bring this new collaboration to key licensed categories with an initial focus on apparel and giftables.” 

Miraculous™ – Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir continues to be everyone’s favorite superhero story and is ranked by IMDB amongst the Top 10 Best Animated Shows in the last 20 years[1].  Available in over 120 countries, season five of the series will debut this fall, alongside the highly anticipated $US100M+ animated feature to be supported by several yet unannounced cobranded partnerships with some of the most influential companies across the globe across numerous consumer products categories.  With a massive fan base of young adult “Miraculers,” (ages 15-25), Miraculous has become a digital planetary craze with over 30 billion views on YouTube (authorized and user-generated content); over 180 million downloads of the official app; and over 300 million+ plays on Roblox. Over 280 million products have been sold to date, and retail sales have surpassed US$1B worldwide to date.   Miraculous is the winner of 27 awards, and has the honor to be a finalist for Best Licensed Brand among perennial classics in the Licensing International Excellence Awards, 2022. 

About Miraculous™ – Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

The 3D-CGI-animated superhero aspirational action-comedy series Miraculous™ – Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, created by ZAG and co-produced with ON kids & family follows the adventures of two seemingly typical teens with secret identities, Marinette, and Adrien, who magically transform into superheroes, Ladybug and Cat Noir. As secret superheroes, Ladybug and Cat Noir are partners in the action. But in the daytime, Marinette is just a normal girl, living a normal life. Cat Noir will do anything to support and impress Ladybug but does not know this is Marinette from his class. Marinette, the regular girl, in turn dreams of Adrien and simply gets little response. When evil threatens Paris, their beloved City of Lights, can they beat the unexpected villains?

About ZAG

ZAG America, LLC is a global independent entertainment studio specializing in world-class storytelling across TV, film, and digital platforms. ZAG’s foundation is rooted in compelling characters, limitless imagination, and masterful storytelling infused with original musical scores. The company is home to world-class entertainment properties under the ZAG HEROEZ label, including Miraculous™: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir as well as new titles Power Players (2019) and Ghost Force (2021). Visionary director and composer Jeremy Zag founded the Zag Kids and Family Entertainment Group in France in 2009, further expanding the company to the USA in 2012 with the Global Brand Franchise office in Santa Monica, California. Based in Paris, the creative headquarters, known as the “ZAG Lab,” focuses on developing engaging stories beyond the screen into brands that inspire the new generation to discover their true character.  https://www.zag.com.

About emoji™ – The Iconic Brand

The emoji company is the owner of the registered emoji™ trademark in up to 35 classes for goods and services in more than 100 countries around the world.

The emoji company´s extensive rights portfolio covers more than 1,000 trademarks and more than 25,000 emoji™ brand icons and designs protected under copyright laws and available for legal licensing and merchandising, promotions & events, for entertainment services and marketing campaigns.

Official partners of the emoji company include more than 1000 world famous global license partners amongst them Sony Pictures Animation, PUMA, L´Oreal, Ferrero, Unilever, Burger King, Zara, The Hershey Company, Walmart, Danone, Nikon, Fuji, Nestlé, Lidl, Kellogg´s, Danone, Nikon, Aldi, Pepsico, Miss Sixty, the BBC, C&A, The French Post amongst many others.

The globally and multiple awarded emoji™ brand was decorated as the 3rd most influential brand behind Lego and Coca-Cola by the Powerlist.  The emoji company is on position # 42 of the Top 150 Global Licensors and the emoji™ brand is one of the most influential universal lifestyle brands of all times.