Design-led pre-school brand Lemon Ribbon eyes master toy partner in franchise-building plans

The brand extension, collaboration and licensing agency, Glue Creative Thinking is embarking on a mission to bring the children’s lifestyle brand and online platform, Lemon Ribbon, into the pre-school toy space by ‘tapping a gap in the market for a design-led pre-school property.’

Lemon Ribbon is an online activity hub and character brand for pre-schoolers and parents looking to engage their children with ‘make and do’ tasks, arts and crafts, and online games centred around its cast of colourful and engaging characters.

The team at Lemon Ribbon has already embraced the principle of play-led educational content in its current partnership with ‘Imagine That Publishing’ who has produced 10 books featuring the characters and Lemon Ribbon’s design aesthetic. However, it is under a new licensing representation partnership with Glue Creative Thinking that plans are underway to expand its presence across the pre-school space.

“We have worked with the team at Lemon Ribbon Studio to build a three-year strategy to kick start the licensing journey for the brand here in the UK,” Carla Bowden, founder and director of Glue Creative Thinking, told ToyNews. “Initially we are planning to launch with brand collaborations across lifestyle categories including apparel, homewares, stationery and gifting, and we will look to complement this with a master toy licensee.

“From there we will be building a core licensing programme across all categories as we move into years two and three.”

Glue Creative Thinking is already talking with Cloth Cat Animation to develop new animation for the Lemon Ribbon brand, drawing on its bold and colourful cast of characters, including Monster, Cat, Lion, Bunny, Dino, and Unicorn. The move to develop the property across consumer products comes from Glue Creative Thinking’s belief that ‘there is room for a new design led brand in the pre-school market.’

“Even before the Covid-19 pandemic we felt there was room for a new design-led brand in the pre-school market, one like Lemon Ribbon, which could resonate with children and parents alike and the lockdown has definitely amplified this,” continued Bowden.

“Lemon Ribbon has the great ability to engage and inspire families. Now more than ever we appreciate how important it is to enrich pre-schoolers minds and this is supported by the science which tells us 90 per cent of a child’s brain development happens before the age of five.

“Through their refreshing, inclusive and joyous characters Lemon Ribbon will captivate children’s imaginations and ultimately, we want to bring these characters to life through the range of consumer products we are aspiring to create through a program of brand collaborations and licensees.”