Zinkia Entertainment has entered into an agreement with Random House Children’s Books to develop a broad range of books for the U.S. and Canadian markets for its award-winning children’s brand Pocoyo.
Under the terms of the multiyear agreement, Random House will publish Pocoyo storybooks, leveled reader books, coloring and activity books, board/novelty books, and e-books (based on the published books in the referenced formats) in the English language. The first three books, to be published and available at retail this summer, include a Pocoyo storybook, coloring book, and board/novelty book.
Following the online success of the “Pocoyize” feature, which allows users to create personalised Pocoyo-style avatars, entertainment brand specialists Zinkia Entertainment has unveiled a “Pocoyize” application for iPhones, which is now available from the gallery at Apple Store.
Users can design their own character by accessing the micro website , where a host of different options are available to define features and style, including World Cup football shirts from each participating country. Completed creations can be used as iPhone profile pictures, sent to friends, or posted on social networking sites such as Facebook.
The App, which is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish, has more than 6 million characters ‘Pocoyized’ to date. Competitions are being organized to create celebrity lookalike characters, World Cup team players, and generally to inject some laughter into life.
Since Pocoyo first aired on the small screen in 2005, the property has evolved into a multi-platform global brand. The series has been licensed to more than 100 countries worldwide, with over 100 licensees on board, over 1,000 licensing references in the market, over 4.5 million visitors to the virtual world pocoyoworld.com, over 130 million hits on YouTube, and 25 million downloads from the offical Pocoyo website.