February 20, 2020

Coolabi Group kick starts 2020 with brand new Clangers content

Independent international media group and rights owner, Coolabi Group has today announced a series of creative brand extensions, which will be aimed at families with preschool children, for the award-winning preschool property, Clangers.

 

Announcements include a license deal with Gulliver’s Theme Park Resorts, new episodes launching on CBeebies UK and YouTube Kids, a new creative direction and brand-new YouTube series focused on the youngest members of the Clangers family, Tiny and Small.

 

A new Clangers licensing partnership with Gulliver’s Theme Park Resorts is a live experience aimed at families with pre-school children launching this February half term. The partnership features a 15-minute live Clangers stage show with Tiny and Small Clanger, and will also include special hotel and birthday packages, where little ones will be able to enjoy an intimate show plus meet and greet photo opportunities. The partnership will run across four locations throughout the year.

 

Brand new episodes of the BAFTA winning show Clangers will air on CBeebies in March and will conclude Series 3. Narrated once again by Sir Michael Palin, the new 8 x 11’ episodes will follow the Clangers on a whole host of new experiences and adventures.

 

The stop-motion animation series of Clangers is also continuing its global expansion on YouTube, by bringing even more episodes to YouTube Kids in the US. The first 10 x 11’ episodes of Series 3 launched this week on the streaming service.

 

The recently launched YouTube series The Tiny and Small Clanger Show, which has accumulated over 500k views so far, uses hand puppetry and is produced by Wildbrain Spark and Coolabi Productions. Available to watch now on the Clangers official YouTube channel, the short-form series follows Tiny and Small as they embark on lots of educational adventures together from learning about recycling and nursery rhymes, to finding out more about music, shapes and counting.

 

Available for licensees, the new creative direction, Tiny & Small Dreams will feature a unisex palette on a clean white base, with pops of colour, flat character art, stitching detail and applique details. The range will be launching on the Clangers official store this quarter.

 

Director of Content at Coolabi Group, Michael Dee said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be starting the new year with some brand new Clangers episodes on CBeebies and also celebrating our core pre-school family audience by focusing on the youngest members of the Clangers family, Tiny and Small, with a series of creative new brand extensions including live experiences and licensed apparel.

 

“YouTube is an essential platform for content creators to reach preschoolers. The Tiny and Small Show is full of educational messages, songs and adventure, and we are confident that it will resonate and be embraced by little Clangers fans across the globe.”

February 17, 2020

Clangers announced as finalist in British Animation Awards 2020!

The British Animation Awards, now in their 24th year, celebrate the very best in British animation across a variety of categories.

We are delighted that Clangers has been selected as a finalist in two categories.

Clangers episode THE VISITOR has been nominated in the BEST CHILDRENS PRE-SCHOOL category, and THE TRAVELLING SALESMAN has been nominated in the BEST USE OF SOUND category.

The ceremony is being held at London’s BFI Southbank on 12th March 2020.

Find out more here

#BAAwards #Clangers

February 12, 2020

WarriorCats.com wins “Best Website” at Kidscreen Awards!

The Kidscreen Awards celebrate the very best work in kids television and digital media each year. We’re thrilled to announce that Coolabi has won the award for the Warriors Cats hub www.warriorcats.com as the Best Website for kids, beating YouTube Kids and Nat Geo who were also nominated!

Winners were announced at the Kidscreen Summit in Miami on Tuesday 11th February 2020.

#kidscreenawards20 # warriorcats

February 11, 2020

Seeking Digital Content Editor for Warrior Cats – Maternity Cover

(Updated 17th April 2020)

We are looking for a passionate and highly organised Digital Content Editor as a maternity cover, to take full responsibility of planning, briefing, curating, editing, publishing and analysing content for the official Warriors website www.warriorcats.com, Warrior Cats Hub app, marketing emails, and related PopJam channel as well as running a fan outreach programme.

The successful candidate should be a skilled digital content editor, with an eye for detail and a detailed understanding of the special requirements of writing and producing content for websites and social media.

The role will take full responsibility for the daily running of the website, planning for and publishing new content, assessing what’s working well and what’s less popular by analysing the website data and providing recommendations, listening to and liaising with the fanbase (both through messages to the site and on other platforms) and managing, creating and publishing content on the PopJam Warriors channel.

They will need to ensure content is refreshed daily including creating monthly content schedules and themes based around key brand /product milestones, considering optimal frequency of different types of content, tagging and titling content, briefing the Exec to create and curate specific content, setting up competitions, promoting new merchandise available and looking at the analytics to optimise and inform future content creation/sourcing.

Ideally they should have a passion for Warriors books by Erin Hunter, and good knowledge of the series or be willing to gain this knowledge. The books are written by a team of authors under the pseudonym “Erin Hunter” at Working Partners Ltd, a Coolabi Group company. Coolabi owns the IP and Warriors website.

The Editor will report into the Director of Digital at Coolabi and work closely with the other people in the content and brand management team who will also be contributing to the running of the hub, to support with any image /design requests, the Erin Hunter editorial team and authors at Working Partners, the digital agency that created the hub and a Warriors Digital Content Executive who will create articles, quizzes, polls with direction.

Responsibilities

  • Oversee all content layout and presentation, deciding on what should be most prominent, categorising, creating titles, choosing imagery and tagging content to help with search and SEO. Decide on optimum frequency and mix of content.
  • Create a monthly schedule/plan mapping out all content uploads and any new content requirements for the website, and social media channels and briefing out/project managing delivery of all the content
  • Publish content on the hub using bespoke CMS system
  • Liaise with in-house team members and authors to suggest and brief in new “Erin Hunter” content for the site, and conduct brainstorm sessions to plan for the year ahead
  • Check all content for accuracy, proofread and edit material.
  • Respond to messages sent to Contact Us on the site with appropriate responses (mostly pre agreed set responses) and flag any topics that could be addressed more generally in future content updates.
  • Use Google Analytics to look at key data and assess what content is more/less popular, what is keeping fans engaged, where traffic is coming from, and provide recommendations for future content planning.
  • Liaise with the team to facilitate driving purchase of product / merch on the Warriors online store – balancing out “buy now” commercial messages with editorial. Check links to purchase books and product are still valid across the site on regular basis and along with the wider team, select product to promote on the site and use Shopify CMS to update product descriptions and placement. Liaise with external merchandise team to discuss and plan new product launches based on audience research and feedback
  • Create a fan outreach programme to drive traffic to the hub and keep the superfans engaged
  • Prepare a monthly email to go out to registered users using MailChimp (with support from Design team)
  • Decide on images to use to promote and support content and resize using Photoshop according to requirements of the CMS to publish content on the hub.
  • Create images and posts suitable for the young audience on PopJam channel to promote the hub and key brand messages/products while keeping audience as engaged as possible.
  • Provide a monthly report to share with senior management team, showing key stats, analysis and highlights from the hub, emails and PopJam each month.
  • Create and publish content/push notifications specifically for the Warrior Cats Hub mobile app
  • Review regular fan art submissions and create/moderate monthly art challenges using the CMS
  • Liaise with external development team to discuss and implement new features/improvements for the hub and app
  • Work closely with Harper Collins social media team to plan new Instagram/Facebook promotions around new content /merchandise releases
  • Research relevant industry trends/competitor activity and update wider team on a regular basis

Requirements

Essential skills and qualifications:

  • Proven experience in organising, planning and project managing a content-based website
  • Experience in using CMS systems to update websites
  • Qualifications in digital media/content or similar field and work experience in a related role of at least 2 years
  • Excellent writing skills (in English)
  • Confident at sourcing and manipulating/resizing images using Photoshop
  • Experience of writing and designing email newsletters

Desirable skills/qualifications:

  • Experience of writing/curating content for a young audience and editing copy for digital
  • Good understanding of creating content / copy / tags with SEO in mind
  • Experience of fan outreach
  • Creative mind
  • Knowledge of Warriors book series and fans
  • Social media management experience

Start date: ideally the candidate will be available to start late June 2020.

Hours: 24 hours a week

Location: The role will be working with a team based in London and require some days/meetings in the London office (usually one day a week once it’s safe to do so after the Coronavirus lockdown) but the role can mostly be undertaken working remotely with regular skype meetings. The candidate will need to provide their own PC/phone/equipment.

Contract: Fixed term contract for 1 year (TBC) with a one-month notice period

Salary: Dependent on experience

Closing date for application: 7th May 2020

Applying for the role: Please send CV and cover letter explaining your interest in the role and example of relevant experience to Naomi Dare at naomi.dare@coolabi.com.

Please note that we won’t be able to respond to all applicants, only those shortlisted will be contacted.