Moomin is steadily proving itself as an ever-expanding global brand. License Global Magazine has released their report on the Top 150 Global Licensor, placing the Moomin brand and its proprietor Moomin Characters at place 56 of leading licensors in the world.
The Moomin brand continues to be one of the strongest licensing brands globally – climbing from place 60 in 2019 to place 56 in 2020. The report is done by License Global Magazine, the leading news source for the brand licensing industry, and ranks the most influential licensors in the world based on retail sales of licensed merchandise in all categories
The complete list can be downloaded on License Global’s website here
The Moomins motivation:
This year, the Moomin brand celebrates 75 years. The first book about the Moomins by Tove Jansson was published in 1945. Eight novels and four picture books followed, and Moomin has since established itself as a heritage brand with a wide art and publishing base.
The Moomin brand’s top collaborations in 2019 included Makia (functional Finnish design wear), Uniqlo (second collection of Moomin wear); Tatty Devine (jewelry collection); BVLGARI (handcrafted chocolates); Haupt Lakrits Luxury Liquorice; and more. Arabia continued to evolve its Moomin collection, remaining one of the brand’s top-selling licensees.
In March 2019, Moominvalley Park opened in Hanno City, Japan. The park, which boasts the largest Moomin shop in the world, invites guests to the Moomin house and other well-known locations from the books. It features characters, 4D shows, theaters and art exhibitions. Moominvalley Park has been an enormous success with more than 800,000 visitors in 2019.
Japan, Thailand, the U.K., Finland and Hawaii all have Moomin-branded stores and cafés. Moomin’s worldwide master agent Rights & Brands has actively been seeking new ways to broaden licensing initiatives and is increasingly working with retailers to develop pop-up shop concepts and direct-to-retail programs, as well as creating online opportunities.
Royal Design, a leading Nordic e-commerce player in design, furniture and interior decoration, has been running monthly Moomin campaigns. From a publishing perspective, Rights & Brands, on behalf of Moomin, has created several lines including Moominvalley animation books by Macmillan U.K., Back to Tove picture books based on Moomin novels and illustrated in a style very close to Tove Jansson’s own as well as educational programs by Ladybird PRH and Otava Publishing.
The sea is a vital part of the Moomin universe, and following the tradition of investing heavily in CSR campaigns, Moomin is running the #OURSEA campaign to save the Baltic Sea. #OURSEA has raised funds and attracted nearly 130 licensees. Reebok is a new client joining the campaign, creating 75 pairs of special-edition sneakers to be auctioned at Moomin.com and donating all proceeds to #OURSEA.
The brand’s website Moomin.com is ever expanding, reaching more than 100 million impressions on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. “Moominvalley,” the Moomin animation by Gutsy Animations, was first screened in the U.K. and Finland in spring 2019 and has since sold to more than 40 countries accompanied by a successful publishing and merchandising program. “Moominvalley” also won the award for Best Children’s Series at the British Animation Awards.
Through Rights & Brands, Moomin is expanding its network of subagents by adding King Features (U.S.), The Point.1888 (U.K.), Bavaria (GAS) and PPW (China).