SAMG Entertainment, 'Catch! Teenieping' Enters 12 Trillion Won Eastern European Market... Export Contracts with 17 Countries

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] SAMG Entertainment (CEO Kim Suhoon) is entering the 12 trillion KRW-scale Eastern European infant and toddler character market by partnering with global toy and licensing companies.

SAMG Entertainment announced on the 13th that it signed a media distribution contract targeting 17 Eastern European countries and a toy export contract targeting 12 Eastern European countries.

This contract is a large-scale agreement that covers everything from toy distribution to media distribution and licensing business. SAMG Entertainment will actively pursue its character business in the Eastern European region based on its core IPs: ‘Catch! Teenieping’, ‘Mini Force’, and ‘Lulupop’.

The Eastern European region is one of the fastest-growing markets for character businesses. The character business market size in 17 Eastern European countries reaches approximately 10 billion USD (about 12 trillion KRW). The core country, Russia’s infant and toddler toy market, has rapidly grown from 1.5 billion USD in 2012 to 5 billion USD last year.

According to this contract, ‘Gulliver LLC’ will handle the distribution of SAMG Entertainment’s character toys in the Eastern European region. Gulliver LLC, one of the top three toy distributors in Eastern Europe, distributes globally famous character toys in the region. It has over 300 stores across more than 100 local areas in Russia. It is recognized as a global toy distributor that has successfully established both global IPs such as ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and ‘BEN 10’ and domestic characters in the market.

The global content and licensing company ‘WildBrain CPLG’ will conduct licensing business in the Eastern European region based on SAMG Entertainment’s character IPs. WildBrain, with over 50 years of history in the licensing industry, is the world’s leading content licensing company with branches not only in Europe including the UK, France, Germany, and Italy but also in Asia such as India and China, as well as the United States.

‘CLS (Comprehensive Licensing Solutions)’, the official content supplier for Russia’s leading children’s channel ‘Karusel’, will handle the animation media distribution for SAMG Entertainment. CLS has cooperated with SAMG Entertainment for nearly 10 years and played an active role in concluding this contract.

A CLS representative said, “We are pleased to collaborate with ‘Catch! Teenieping’, the most popular IP in Korea,” and added, “SAMG Entertainment’s characters, including ‘Catch! Teenieping’, are expected to be very popular not only in Asia such as Korea and China but also in Western countries including Europe.”

It is rare for a domestic animation company to sign media distribution, licensing, and toy distribution contracts all at once with global companies. SAMG Entertainment and global content companies in each field have formed a kind of ‘dream team’ to actively launch character business in the Eastern European region.

Kim Suhoon, CEO of SAMG Entertainment, said, “This Eastern European export contract is significant as it has established a foothold to enter the European market, the world’s largest character market,” and added, “We will make this year the inaugural year for entering the North American and European markets.”