StinkyKids, LLC has appointed Tracey Beeker with Be More Consultants as licensing agent and publicist in support of the StinkyKids brand and characters. Additional scope of work will include promoting Britt Menzies, the award-winning children’s author and creator of StinkyKids.

StinkyKids is a hilarious and heart-warming new children’s property that centers around 10 diverse characters, each with their own personalities who help kids make right choices and live by the motto, “Always Be a Leader of Good.” Each hilarious and real-life adventure captures the innocence of childhood and the lessons we learn from our mistakes.

The StinkyKids property has a solid licensing program in place, which will be complemented by additional licensing and marketing partners. Current licensees and products include award-winning storybooks from Raven Tree Press; soft-bodied dolls by legendary toy maker, Madame Alexander; bikes, skates, skateboards, scooters, safety gear, and accessories from Cycle Force Group; and collectible labels and tags from Kiddo Tags. In addition, renowned children’s theater group Vital Theatre Company is producing StinkyKids, The Musical, which will debut next spring. Over time, a full licensing program across all major categories for children will be launched and available to consumers.

Chiquita Brands, an international marketer and distributor of fresh food products, appointed Beanstalk as its licensing agency.

Chiquita is the No. 1 consumer-preferred banana brand globally and has more than 90 percent brand awareness in its key European markets. Beanstalk is tasked with developing the strategic licensing program for Chiquita in quality food brand extensions across Europe and the Middle East. Nancy Bailey & Associates manages the Chiquita Licensing Program in the U.S. This is one of the first global assignments resulting from the merger of Nancy Bailey & Associates and Beanstalk in December 2010.

Ciarán Coyle, Beanstalk’s managing director, international, said, “This is an exciting time for the Chiquita brand. Consumers’ fast-paced lifestyles today demand convenience but also quality and freshness. There is an increasing awareness of and focus on natural ingredients and eating for health. There are significant market opportunities now for a brand such as Chiquita, renowned for its commitment to freshness and real fruit taste, to innovate and add value to the food categories with the inclusion of its high-quality fruit.”

Beanstalk will be exhibiting at the Brand Licensing Europe trade show at London Olympia, October 18-20, stand No. D055.

Men’s brand Jack Spade partnered with Coca-Cola to celebrate the beverage brand’s 125^th birthday. Jack Spade released a limited-edition collection of totes, T-shirts, baseball caps, posters, and iPhone covers that became available October 5 in Jack Spade stores, jackspade.com, and select specialty stores.

The collection draws design cues from memorable Coca-Cola campaign slogans. A Jack Spade tote, the Coal Bag, is emblazoned with “It’s The Real Thing” and produced in Coca-Cola classic red and white shading. Jack Spade created posters with tag lines from 1971’s “I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke” and 1989’s “You Can’t Beat The Feeling.” A trio of limited-edition T-shirts feature all-American foods, while nodding to Coca-Cola as a refreshing accompanying beverage.

Reaching further into Coke’s history, Jack Spade repurposed the interlocking C’s featured on merchandise from the 1910s, now using them on baseball caps reminiscent of the earlier era.

An iPhone 4 cover features the Coca-Cola logo alongside the Jack Spade logo, including its signature “Jack Spade, Warren Street, New York,” tag.

Skechers USA, Inc. is working with McDonald’s to launch a three-week Happy Meal promotion with Twinkle Toes by Skechers, starting today (August 26) in the United States and Canada.

During the promotion, Happy Meal customers can receive one of six clip-on miniature Twinkle Toes by Skechers toy shoes, while supplies last. Each toy shoe comes in two different color combinations. Decorated with an image of the popular animated character Twinkle Toes from the best-selling Skechers Kids footwear line for girls, the shoe features a button on the sole, which lights up the sneaker, a signature feature of the Twinkle Toes collection.

In addition to McDonald’s, Skechers has partnered with numerous global licensees to produce a wide range of products including sporting goods, children’s apparel, bags, electronics, sunglasses, legwear, and luggage.

Natures Mistake, under a license agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, is developing Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry apparel collections. Natures Mistake and lead designer Leftyjoe, an LA-based artist, collaborated to design the collections’ graphics. The new collections include T-shirts, sweaters, hoodies, and hats featuring Looney Tunes characters and Tom and Jerry, which will appeal to a diverse youth culture. The collections will be available on the Natures Mistake website (www.naturesmistake.net) and at high-end boutiques across the nation starting in October.

Warner Bros. Consumer Products, on behalf of DC Entertainment, has partnered with fashion designer Blayne Siegel to develop a collection of men’s and women’s premium casual apparel by Kinetix, inspired by Batman. This collection will include a line inspired by Warner Bros. Pictures’ highly anticipated theatrical release The Dark Knight Rises. Items will include tanks, basic tees, hoodies, and textile differentia. The Batman-themed collection will be available at high-end department stores and specialty boutiques throughout the U.S.

Discovery Communications Launches Technology Program for Kids

This back-to-school season, Discovery Communications, Inc. is helping empower tech-savvy kids with the launch of Discovery Kids Puterbugs, a technology-based program that teaches kids age 8 and under to use technology to solve problems and build important skills. Discovery Kids Puterbugs is presented by Discovery Kids and Imagine Tomorrow, the leading provider of computer classes for young children. The deal was brokered on behalf of Discovery Communications by Big Tent Entertainment, the North American licensing agent for the Discovery Kids brand.

A first-of-its-kind program, Discovery Kids Puterbugs is the only interactive experience available that teaches kids, in a fun and age-appropriate way, the full scope of technology skills in today’s digital world. In a safe environment that promotes a healthy foundation and proper tech etiquette, the program helps kids master skills that range from basic file navigation, Internet, and keyboarding skills to an understanding of the latest technology, such as mobile apps and cloud computing. The classes are currently being offered across the country in more than 700 locations, including a rollout of schools through a national partnership with early childhood education provider, Learning Care Group.

The Collective Debuts Licensing Program for The Annoying Orange

Viral sensation The Annoying Orange will break out of the virtual kitchen with the launch of the property’s first licensed program, led by The Collective. Foundation apparel and accessory partners for the juicy brand include Hybrid Apparel and Accessory Innovations, who have signed on to develop collections targeted to young men and juniors. The Hybrid Apparel and Accessory Innovations deals were brokered on behalf of The Collective by The Joester Loria Group (TJLG), the licensing agent for The Annoying Orange brand.

Created by Dane Boedingheimer, The Annoying Orange features an endearingly annoying and highly entertaining Orange that playfully heckles other fruits, vegetables, or nearby objects with puns and jokes. Product designs for the new line will feature the zany fruit stars and “puntastic” content straight from the series. Hybrid Apparel will develop a variety of Annoying Orange apparel including young men’s and junior’s tees and fleece that will be available at key specialty retailers such as Hot Topic and Rue 21 in the fall, and JC Penney, where it will launch as a mid-tier exclusive in October. In addition, Accessory Innovations will introduce a line of headwear and cold weather accessories in time for the holiday season.  Bags and accessories will debut next spring.

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While fans don’t have another Harry Potter film to look forward to next year, they will have the chance to walk Hogwarts’ Great Hall themselves. The film studio will open its Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter next spring at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the production home of the eight Harry Potter films for more than 10 years.

Warner Bros. announced this week that tickets go on sale October 13 and must be booked in advance. The 150,000-square-foot-facility would require three hours to completely tour, bringing fans to Hogwarts’ Great Hall, Dumbledore’s office, the Gryffindor common room, and Hagrid’s hut. The tour also includes the Creature Effects workshop to see Buckbeak the Hippogriff, Aragog the giant spider, Fawkes the phoenix, and the Basilisk head.

Visitors to the studio will see firsthand the scale and detail of sets, costumes, animatronics, special effects, and props from the films. Rupert Grint said in a press release, “The sets all have tiny little details that you may not always notice in the films, but when you actually walk through them, you can see all the work that’s gone into it. It’s really amazing.”

The final battle in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 left the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in ruin, according to previous press material from Warner Bros. “It wasn’t just a question of knocking some walls down; the silhouette was as significant as a piece of sculpture,” said production designer Stuart Craig. “The Great Hall, for example, was the spine of Hogwarts, so in demolishing that, we knew it had to be an image that would leave a lasting impression.”

So after the destruction of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, will Warner Bros. have rebuilt the castle sets, bringing tourists into a pristine castle, like that of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? Launching new Harry Potter attractions is a way to keep interest alive, of course, and signals possible future growth for the franchise, instead of memorializing its end with a ruined Hogwarts castle.

Hermione Granger actress Emma Watson had said, “The idea of everything being taken down permanently felt a bit tragic. I guess I imagined they would always be there.”

As of next spring, Hogwarts will stand again.

—Melissa Tinklepaugh

There’s still time to contribute to The Licensing Book’s Brand Licensing Europe issue! TLB is covering BLE, to be held at the Olympia in London from October 18-20. Michael Acton Smith, the CEO of Mind Candy and the inventor of Moshi Monsters, will be the keynote speaker.

Please send editorial info to Bryan Joiner (that’s me) at bjoiner@licensingbook.com and Melissa Tinklepaugh at mtinklepaugh@licensingbook.com. All editorial information will be embargoed until the first day of the show. We love pictures! Please include 300 dpi artwork with your submissions. The deadline for submissions is September 1.

Streambank LLC is working to sell intellectual property rights related to the CBGB brand from the estate of founder Hillel Kristel, including trademarks, domain names, recordings, and artifacts from the club, according to a Bloomberg.com article.

Manhattan’s CBGB, on the corner of Bowery and Bleecker streets, closed in October 2006 after the property owners refused to renew the club’s lease. CBGB had opened in December 1973 as Country Blue Grass Blues. But punk rockers including The Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith, and the Talking Heads launched their careers at the club, defining its rock n roll identity for the next 33 years.

Two weeks after the club’s closing I attended a CBGB reunion where CBGB owner/founder Kristal, Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone, Blondie co-founder and guitarist Chris Stein, Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jenifer, Joey Ramone’s brother Mickey Leigh, and others talked about the club’s good old times and the recent closing.

At the reunion, Kristal revealed that he salvaged much of the venue’s original interior, which he placed into storage with an eye toward an eventual second life in Las Vegas. As a 2006 article from BooklynVegan.com recalls, Kristal declared he would never sell the club in order to prevent it from resembling the Hard Rock Café.

Kristal died in 2007 after suffering from lung cancer.

In 2008, an upscale John Varvatos clothing boutique opened in the location. The shop preserved a section of a CBGB wall covered in band fliers under glass. A tiny TV showed videos of performances from the club. Varvatos employees wore black T-shirts that said “Birthplace of Punk” on the back. Varvatos said he believed the store helped carry on the club’s legacy and didn’t trade on CBGB. He admitted, however, to using the walls to help sell his clothes, according to a New York Times article.

Even in 2006, when the club was closing, T-shirts with the club’s logo became a fashion trend.

Streambank expects the CBGB brand to sell for a few million since it still offers “new opportunities in live clubs, apparel, and interactive media.”

While whoever buys the brand would want CBGB for its history and its appeal to fans, can CBGB experience a second life true to its original spirit?

—Melissa Tinklepaugh

I walked in a Barnes & Noble store Saturday and quickly noticed a Harry Potter display with a sign that read, “It all started with a book.” The display included not just J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, but also an unofficial Harry Potter cookbook, Lego sets and books, a chess set, and wands. With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 opening in theaters July 15, Harry Potter mania will take over as fans grapple with the end of 13 years of material based on the books. What is the future of the Harry Potter franchise?

J.K. Rowling’s announcement of the “Pottermore,” an online reading experience, creates a whole new portal for muggles to travel into the wizarding world. Pottermore will launch in October, and boasts partnerships with Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Sony, and Warner Bros. in a Pottermore shop that will sell eBooks of the Harry Potter series. (The series has not yet been released in digital form.) Rowling and her Pottermore team also worked with TH_NK, a UK digital agency, to develop Pottermore, which will include an interactive experience.

To bridge the gap between the final film and Pottermore’s launch, fans still have the Harry Potter amusement park and the traveling Harry Potter: The Exhibition, which is at Discovery Times Square in New York City until September 5. The amusement park helped raise revenue for Universal’s Islands of Adventure Park in Orlando by 16 percent to $95 million during the first quarter of 2011, said Forbes‘s Dorothy Pomerantz.

The Harry Potter franchise brought Warner Bros. around $10 billion during the last 10 years—between $800 million to $1 billion per film at the worldwide box office and around $200 million on DVD/Blu-ray and TV rights for each film, according to Forbes‘s Mark Hughes, which isn’t even counting revenue from merchandise tie-ins.

Hughes expects Warner Bros. to fill the revenue gap left by the end of the Harry Potter movies with superhero movies. But he also says that Harry Potter might not go away. Studios have been mining established franchises for reboots. While I don’t believe that Harry Potter will see a film extension reaching outside of the novels, and I assume that Rowling maintains a clear vision over the brand and quality, I find it unlikely that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is really the end of franchise growth. Perhaps Hughes will see his predicted animated Harry Potter TV series. Or Tales of Beedle the Bard will get the green light for animated specials. New video games could provide new opportunities for the wizarding world.

As someone who has been reading and watching Harry Potter since the sixth grade when I blazed through the first three books, I just can’t accept Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as my last trip from my broom cupboard—also known as a New York City apartment—into a world of magic, but I’d still bet there’s more to come.

—Melissa Tinklepaugh