Danilo’s Ladybird for Adults greeting card range triumphed at The Licensing Awards 2017, winning the Best Licensed Paper Products or Stationery Range award.
The glittering awards event (organised by Max Publishing, which owns Progressive Greetings) took place in the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, and was attended by 1,400 people.
Top comedian Katherine Ryan hosted the event, with her signature observations on life going down a storm with a crowd made up of retailers, manufacturers and licensed property owners.
Danilo’s win further ratifies the publisher’s decision to expand beyond its historic heartland of entertainment and celebrity-based licences.
“We were over the moon to win the award for our Ladybird for Grown-Ups card range,” commented Dan Grant, licensing director of Danilo. “It really is a demonstration of both Danilo’s creative ability and our ambition to move into new genres such as publishing. People probably perceive Danilo as a celebrity and entertainment calendar publisher, but we have a creative team that can create trend-led, innovative product across all genres, for all levels of the market.
Hinting that more publishing-related ranges are due to launch in the next few months, building on the success it is enjoying with Ladybird and its new Enid Blyton spoof ranges, Dan elaborated that this new tack has seen Danilo open many new doors at retail – with Scribbler and Oliver Bonas being among the first to stock the range – as well as provide an additional strand for its existing customers.
Summing the success of the witty Ladybird For Grown-ups books, upon which the card range is based, Dan says it is because “the writers have tapped into modern day trends to which society can relate. We can then take these successful titles and apply them to our card range.”
Testament to this trend reflection, are two of the best selling designs – The Hipster and Mindfulness. However, when pressed as to what is his personal favourite, Dan plumped for ‘The Hangover‘, adding that “it is very relevant given I’m writing this the day after The Licensing Awards…”
Other finalists in the Best Licensed Paper Products category were: Marvel notebooks from Pyramid International, My Little Pony stationery from Blue Sky Studios, Sara Miller London stationery from Blueprint Collections, Star Wars greeting cards from UK Greetings and Winnie the Pooh giftwappings from Hallmark.
* The Danilo Ladybird For Grown-Ups range is also in the running for a Henries award, as a finalist in the Best Licensed Card Range category, but Dan and the team will have to exercise some ‘mindfulness’ until The Henries Ball on October 5 at which the winners will be announced.
