MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Consumer Products has expanded its relationship with Hallmark Cards.
The extended partnership will cover additional titles within the Warner Bros. Consumer Products portfolio, across Hallmark's core categories: greeting cards, gift-wrap, party ware and ornaments.
These include such films and animated properties as Superman Returns, Happy Feet, The Ant Bully and Hanna-Barbera, as well as pre-school programs including Krypto the Superdog, Firehouse Tales and Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs. The Superman Returns product will launch in Spring 2006 and Happy Feet products will launch in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Under the new agreement, both companies will collaborate to focus their resources on designing products, developing marketing plans and promotional programs to enhance Warner Bros. Consumer Products' brands, both new and evergreen.
As an existing licensee of Warner Bros. Consumer Products for more than two decades, Hallmark has effectively developed its core product categories for such brands as Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind and on behalf of DC Comics, Batman and Superman. In addition, for Warner Bros. Pictures' 2004 feature film The Polar Express, Hallmark created an entire gift line and made Hallmark Gold Crown card shops The Polar Express retail destination, supported by a full-scale marketing campaign.
"As a long-standing and successful strategic partner, Hallmark has proven to be an outstanding fit for our well-known and much-loved properties. We couldn't be more pleased to extend our relationship to cover more of our brands, and we look forward to many exciting developments to come," said Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products president Brad Globe.
"We're looking forward to continuing a great partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and its properties. Hallmark takes great pride in working with world-renowned, classic brands and it's a privilege to extend our development opportunities with more of the properties that make up Warner Bros.' rich library," said Hallmark License Acquisitions president Jim Welch.
Territories for the agreement include the US and Canada, as well as certain product rights in Mexico and Latin America.
