You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Macmillan Children’s Books has announced a new apparel deal for the classic story Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell.
Campbell's book, about a child who writes to the zoo asking them to send a pet, was one of the bestselling pictures books of 2018 and saw sales increase by 19% last year.
A range of baby clothing has now been developed by Paul Dennicci for F&F at Tesco, launched this week today in 165 stores nationwide.
The launch is being supported by a campaign with marketing agency ComeRound. Over 100 families will receive a pack of Dear Zoo books and merchandise and will celebrate at the end of July with at-home Dear Zoo Read and Play Days.
Stephanie Barton, publisher at Macmillan Children’s Books says, “We brought the licensing of Dear Zoo in-house to take full advantage of the popularity of this evergreen and well-loved book. We are targeting a small number of core product categories to build on the success of our current, long-standing licensing partners. We’ve had such a wonderful response to Dear Zoo, in part due to the wonderful new assets that Rod Campbell himself and the team at Macmillan have created. We are delighted with Tesco’s commitment and enthusiasm and I know that Dear Zoo readers and their parents will be very excited by these lovely new products.”
Other licensing deals are already in place with Hacche Retail for puzzles and games for Marks & Spencer, Milly & Flynn for games and wooden toys, Neviti for party paperware and Paul Lamond Games for puzzles.
The original board book celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2017, and has now sold over 8 million copies and been published in over 25 languages, the publisher said.