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A Look
Sherry Gunther Shugerman, CEO, Popstar Club Where did you get the idea for Beatrix Girls? Ultimately the approach was to create a multi-platform brand that really reaches kids everywhere, recognizing that kids are not just watching TV, playing with dolls or toys, playing online games, or being social, they’re doing all of the above. A forward-thinking property really needed to have presence in all of those mediums and integrate all of those formats. The Beatrix Girls is a real pop star band; we’re creating real music written by a platinum-winning writer/producer and mixed by a Grammy-winning engineer. The medium that we used felt so much more current and fresh and innovative and it felt much more fitting to the brand itself. It allows us to play up that real factor for them, and the scale gives us a lot of humor opportunities for 12-inch dolls interacting in a life-size world. Tell me about the deals you’ve signed with iTunes and Pandora. We’ve put the music on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music. With Pandora we created our own channel and we’ve targeted moms and kids in the correct age groups. We’ve targeted pop stars that we know kids love to listen to—Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and One Direction—and so Pandora will guide you to Beatrix Girls songs and then to our channel. The Beatrix Girls channel is beautifully designed and visually and graphically on brand, and it has all of those stars’ music, with our music interspersed in it. It will actually deliver 50 million commercials for us, that will drive kids to retail. Are there any plans for 2014 that you can share at this time? In 2014 we are going to go mass and global. We’re clos-
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ing deals daily for mass retailers in the U.S. as well as global distribution in Europe, South America, South Africa, etc. We intentionally launched small in order to really brand it and put the story forward, so it would be a different kind of product rather than just another doll on the shelf. All of our licensees have provided us with designs and have started to go out and sell them to retailers for 2014 in various categories. Can you tell me about your licensing partners? We have Jay Franco & Sons for bedding, Peavey for musical instruments, Playa Vista Designs for footwear, Children’s Apparel Network for apparel, Hanover Group for jewelry and accessories, Skyhigh International for backto-school and stationery, Fast Forward for backpacks and bags, AME for pajamas, and Berkshire Fashions for outerwear. The instruments match the ones that we created for the dolls so they look very unique. Brayden’s guitar looks like a butterfly with a flame design on it, Lark has a very geometric-shaped bass, and the drum set is sparkly pink with a picture of the band on it. The Beatrix Girls is about girl empowerment. What made you design a brand with that message? I have two daughters. If there’s one message I always focused on imparting on them it’s dream big and go after your dreams. You can do anything you set your mind to doing. I’ve personally overcome some hardships and always kept my eye on the ball moving forward. It’s the one theme or lesson that I personally feel very strongly about and that is a powerful tool to navigate through life. ■ Visit toybook.com/beatrixgirls to read the full interview.
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014