Danilo’s Dan Grant on PEPPA PIG’s enduring success in cards and calendars

Dan, thanks for making time. PEPPA PIG celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Why do you think the brand has resonated to such a degree with kids – and parents – over the years?
At the heart of PEPPA PIG are really strong core values around family, fun and life lessons, which both kids and parents buy into. There’s such a wide array of characters which most kids will relate to in one way or another.

The brand has managed to keep the content very topical and fresh, while maintaining the key relationships between Peppa’s family and friends. It’s one of the shows that has content that both kids and parents can engage with. As such, it provides an opportunity for families to bond during that key preschool development age.

At what point in the brand’s history did Danilo begin working on PEPPA PIG products?
Danilo has a long history of working with Hasbro and the Peppa brand, for over 10 years on calendars and family organisers – plus, five years ago Danilo acquired the additional rights for greeting cards and gift wrap.

Why was PEPPA a good fit for cards and calendars?
The PEPPA PIG brand brings fun, sentiment, life experience and humour, which are the key ingredients when developing a range of cards, wrap and even family calendars. The artwork is also really strong and there is also a constant flow of new style guides to work with, which helps us massively when we are developing hundreds of SKUs each year. Working with a license such as PEPPA is an easy decision, especially when there is so much support at retail for it as well.

Can you talk us through the creative process behind putting your licensed ranges together?
The start point is always to understand the brand attributes, the key characters and any key moments from the show. We would then consider themes and any trends that we identify for the coming years, which is really important given that our ranges are quite often developed more than a year in advance of the on-shelf launch.

With greeting cards, we then have to consider the event and end recipient to select relevant characters, artwork and captions to go on the front page. The caption side is always key as it needs to suit both the brand and appeal to the end recipient – the language being used has to be considered very carefully so that it’s in-keeping with the characters featured in the artwork.

“The brand has managed to keep the content very topical and fresh.”

The creative process is a really important part of our business as there has to be a great understanding of a number of different parties… From the end recipient of the card, the shopper purchasing the card, the retailer selecting the cards for their store and the licensor who owns the brand.

A lot of touchpoints!
Yes, it’s not an easy process, but the Danilo design team have a lot of experience and knowledge, which helps reduce the challenges that are faced and ultimately deliver award winning product ranges.

How do you generally access when to ‘embrace’ a brand? Are there benefits to being an early champion?
Our product categories are not seen as lead categories and so we can usually get a view of how a license is performing from the likes of the toys, apparel and publishing that generally work about six to nine months ahead of us.

“Peppa is a great example of a brand that grew steadily, with the licensing being managed very strategically by the team.”

However, if we feel a brand is going to be a big success then we would tie up a deal as early as possible and plan in a product launch timeline. This helps us avoid going too early and not achieving the success we need to at retail. Like anything in licensing there is an element of risk, so a lot of the time decisions are based on gut feel and experience, but always being prepared for some licenses not meeting expectations.

Peppa is a great example of a brand that grew steadily, with the licensing being managed very strategically by the team. I think this has been the secret to the brand still leading the way 20 years later.

These days you’re working with the Hasbro team on the brand. How have they been to collaborate with?
We work closely with Hasbro across their whole property portfolio, and have a great relationship with them. Since acquiring Peppa, I feel like they have really kept the momentum going with the brand and are now moving it forward even further, with lots of activity this year for the 20th anniversary and beyond.

Dan, this has been great. I have one last question! What’s the key to successful creative collaborations with licensors?
The key is to engage the licensee’s design team with the licensor’s design team as early as possible – and build a close relationship to understand the parameters for each brand. It’s very much a two-way process to create products that effectively utilise the artwork that is supplied, but also to be in a position for the licensee’s design team to be able to use assets in a different way sometimes. This generally only comes from being in a position of trust and both parties having a good understanding of what each other’s capabilities are to create the best products.

Great answer. Thanks again Dan.