Disguise announces worldwide licensing deal with MGA

Disguise has partnered with MGA Entertainment to design, manufacture and distribute costumes and dress-up accessories for brands including L.O.L. Surprise, Rainbow High, Little Tikes and Bratz.

Tara Cortner, president and general manager of Disguise, said: "We have prior experience collaborating with MGA Entertainment and are well aware of the immense popularity of their brands in retail, as well as the fervour for dressing up as these characters.

"We have exciting and innovative ideas for these lines, and you can look forward to seeing them in stores and online all over the world later this year."

Mindy Puente-Escalera, svp of global licensing, MGA Entertainment, added: "We are pleased to be extending our relationship with Disguise. Their attention to detail and creative ideas for costumes and dress up bring a new level of interactive play to L.O.L. Surprise and Rainbow High.

"It's important to us that our brands continue to have many touchpoints allowing us to engage with our fans, and we believe these new products will be fan favourites from the start."

Disguise's costumes and accessories for MGA Entertainment brands will be available online, at major retailers and specialty stores across the world this year.

Nicola is the new divisional managing director for the retail, manufacturing and engineering division of the business.

Nicola joined Hyve in August 2022 as portfolio director for Spring and Autumn Fair, soon adding a number of other events to her remit, and taking on leadership responsibility for the entire retail portfolio.

Mark Shashoua, ceo of Hyve Group, commented: “During her time with us so far, Nicola has shown herself to be a strong and calm leader for her team and she is currently overseeing the rollout of Connect on the Spring and Autumn Fair portfolio. It’s her connection with Hyve’s ‘why’ that really makes her the ideal candidate for this role. I am very much looking forward to working with her to maximise the portfolio’s potential and create even more gamechanging impact for our retail, manufacturing and engineering customer communities.”

Nicola added: “I feel honoured to be guiding such established events through an exciting time for the industry, working alongside incredibly talented and passionate teams. We are transforming the future of events with the launch of Connect at Spring and Autumn Fair, and our aim is to generate higher returns on investment for our exhibitors and an unrivalled return on time and experience for visitors across the entire division.

“It is our role to provide the best platforms to showcase great products and innovation as well as nurture the brands and retailers of the future to ensure continued business success.”

The build started on 20 March with 75 balloon professionals from around the world, building a display using 120,000 balloons over three and a half days.

Under the direction and guidance of Stuart Davies, director of the Big Balloon Build, the build was then gifted to Inspiration Ministries who ran four days of events at Covenant Harbor in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Events started with a ribbon cutting ceremony and early sneak peek for VIPs including sponsors and charity service users.

The build partnered with local balloon professional, Sara Meyer, owner of Wisconsin Balloon Decor in Lake Geneva. The planning for the event started almost two years ago when Sara was selected to host, and she chose Inspiration Ministries and Inspired Coffee to be her benefitting charity.

The theme for the Big Balloon Build was ‘Inspired by the Great Outdoors’ and it was a camping and wilderness themed event.

Stuart Davies explained: “If you can imagine the most spectacular outdoor scenery using 120,000 balloons and making them into life-sized cartoon animals doing fun things such as camping, swimming, fishing and birdwatching… you’ve got yourself an incredible immersive Big Balloon Build.

“We had a racoon roasting marshmallows, while one of them was hanggliding from a giant 15’ butterfly.”

Kimberly Voller, a representative from Inspiration Ministries, was thrilled with the results that the Big Balloon Build garnered. The event raised over $116,000 for the organisation, and had over 3,500 visitors to the display, but the event also gave the charity global exposure.

To date, since the Big Balloon Build started, it has raised over $445,000 for charity, brought in 16,000 lbs of canned goods for local food drives and reached more than 56.5 million people worldwide. Big Balloon Build is also now a 501 (c) charity and has several more Builds lined up for 2023, 2024 and into 2025.