Planeta Junior Italia is one of the key players in today’s entertainment industry through its licensing and content development & distribution business units, whose products and contents have reached – and delighted – millions of consumers
The Planeta Junior portfolio reaches all audiences, from infants to adults, with a core focus on kids and families. The offer is a wide one, ranging from ‘evergreen’ titles such as Maya the Bee and Heidi to more recent TV successes such as Miraculous, Gormiti and popular toy-driven brands such as Magiki and Playmobil the Movie. Planeta Junior is especially proud of the recent acquisition of the brand Pucca as a key lifestyle offer for women and girls, evoking fun, love and empowerment.
Gormiti is one of the most successful properties in the recent history of licensing, a toy-driven phenomenon created by Giochi Preziosi, which co-produces the animated content inspired by the brand with Planeta Junior and the animation studio Kotoc. The TV series is receiving high ratings on Rai YoYo and Rai Gulp with peak audiences of 400,000 viewers across the two channels. The second animated series debuted on air on both Rai YoYo and Rai Gulp in December 2019. More content will be announced soon and a new season is already in development.
The licensing programme has the solid underpinning it needs to become a European success, with a number of international broadcasters confirmed, including Gulli in France, Clan in Spain, Nickelodeon in Greece and ITV in the UK. This strong broadcast interest will be a major boost to the franchise and its merchandising programme, for which more than 40 licensee partners are already on board, with a number of product launches and partnerships planned for 2020 involving over 1,000cross-category products.
The Official Gormiti Magazine was launched by Panini in April 2019 and a sticker album was launched in October 2019; both are unmissable products for the young fans of the heroic warriors of Gorm Island and will continue to have strong appeal in 2020. Following the big success of these publications in 2019, ranking among the top five bestselling kiosk products, there will be new releases from Februarythrough to June 2020, all of them packed full of new surprises.
A strong Planeta focus for 2020 is the re-launch of Pucca as the ultimate lifestyle brand, adding some brand-new content to the brand’s iconic essence. After a successful launch in Spain, thanks to a partnership with Maria Escoté, one of Spain’s most on-trend fashion designers, and a media partnership with Atresmedia, Planeta Junior is planning – both in Italy and other territories –a fashion strategy built on media partnerships and exclusive collaborations.
To support this strategy, the agency has already announced a brand-new partnership with the fashion company White, which has chosen Pucca for a capsule collection launched at the very beginning of 2020 – perfect timing for Valentine’s Day! This partnership is even more relevant for the fashion industry as White is one of the hottest fashion brands at the moment in Italy; many fans will greatly appreciate new fashion creations and cute products arriving in stores!
A key pillar of the Pucca licensing strategy is on the digital front. Building and posting dedicated content daily on the main online and social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook is a good way of reaching a growing fan base. Social media and digital content are clearly essential.
This is a brand that addresses a target market of young women, the so called ‘millennial generation’, who share and identify with the values of this iconic character. Pucca stands for fun, cuteness, love and girl power: the brand has a strong affinity with the girls of today who fearlessly pursues their goals and dreams and know how to get them – and who share every second of their life through social media!
The brand strategy for 2020 is to establish Pucca as a lifestyle brand, in partnership with fashion brands and fashion retailers. The partnership with White is part of this strategy. Following the launch to millennials, Planeta aims to extend its licensing programme to much younger girls, from 4-8, leveraging the content, by the end of 2020. There’s clearly an exciting year ahead for the Pucca brand and its growing number of partners!
