Queen legend Brian May makes acting debut
We have been keeping a huge secret for our brilliant new client Andy and the Odd Socks, but the news is finally out! Queen legend Brian May is making his acting debut in the brand new series of Andy the Band, which will land on CBBC and iPlayer from 24th January.
The New Year has been an absolute whirlwind of activity over a Sundae HQ, and it’s safe to say we hit the ground running orchestrating this out of this world announcement alongside Brian May’s brilliant team, Odd Socks HQ and of course our friends at the BBC.
We’ve been honoured to join the team, as Andy and the Band features a band like no other. The Odd Socks can sing, they can play instruments, and they can completely ‘rock out’ until all their hair stands on end. Famously making their live debut at Glastonbury, Andy the Odd Socks also share a very important message as being an Odd Sock means digging your differences, bigging-up your bizarre bits, taking on the world AND helping everyone else in the world be whatever kind of Odd Sock they want to be too.
Rockstar royalty Brian, stars as the Godfather of Rock in brand new episode Planet Rock and even joins Andy and his band the Odd Socks for the ‘best jam ever’ while also helping them overcome a global ‘rocktastrophe’! The single, Planet Rock, by Andy and the Odd Socks featuring Brian May will be released on 18th February.
As anticipated, the response to the announcement was huge, and the story and accompanying interview were picked up by the Sun Online, Mail Online, Daily Star, Mirror Online, Metro, Independent, the NME, Planet Rock and uDiscover Music, plus hundreds of other titles across the UK and beyond, many of which shared a clip of the Planet Rock music video, creating huge excitement for both the series and upcoming single release.
Brian also did an exclusive interview with the Express Online, where he gave further insight into why he wanted to be in the show and what working with the Odd Socks means to him.
Meanwhile, children’s TV legend Andy Day, was in his element undertaking a series of interviews we placed with the likes of Fun Kids Radio, First News and Kidzcoolit, ensuring that parents, and children across the UK were all ready to tune in to Planet Rock, and find their own air guitar.
Now the planet is ready to rock, our work here is done and we’re going to sit back and enjoy the show x
A fang-tastic Sundae celebration for Scream Street Series 2
We first launched Scream Street back in 2015, so we’re dead-icated fans, and it’s been a spooktacular delight to create a hybrid live and digital campaign to launch the new series on the BBC iPlayer and CBBC this Halloween for our long standing clients and co-producers of the show, Coolabi Group.
From laugh out loud jokes to silly spooks, it’s undeniable that Scream Street, co-produced and animated by award-winning Altrincham-based animation studio Factory (Clangers, Strange Hill High), is a very funny show and this October the brand has also launched its very own ‘Spooktacular Joke Book’ this year with Walker Books.
Our campaign focused on the rib-tickling themes of the programme, partnering with family entertainment company, Comedy Club 4 Kids, to deliver a super fang-tastic dead or alive family screening and interactive kids stand up comedy show, plus a content partnership with MEGA Magazine filled with comedy tricks and treats for kids across the UK to enjoy.
One of our very first live events of 2021 took place at Everyman King’s Cross Cinema, featuring three brand new episodes on the big screen, lots of tasty popcorn, free goodies from MEGA magazine and Walker Books. Comedy performances and games were delivered by some of the finest family friendly comedians in the UK; Tiernan Douieb, Bec Hill & Howard Read, performing for an audience of families, influencers and press.
In attendance we had First News, who brought along a junior reporter, TV Times and Families South West. Family and parenting influencers also included London Mums Blog, Gabi Gandolfini, Lauren Chella and family travel blogger A Moment With Franca.
For families at home, Comedy Club 4 Kids and MEGA also co-produced a four part comedy tutorial series for MEGA’s channel, which has now had nearly 20k collective views. The series, ‘Screaming with Laughter’, features an engaging crash course on how kids can kick start their comedy careers. Episode topics include ‘How To Be A Fangtastic Comedian’, ‘How To Write Spooktacular Jokes’, ‘Doing A Dead Good Performance’ and ‘Scary Stage Fright’.
Scream Street is fun for all the family, so we also delivered a media partnership with Girl Talk magazine, as part of which talented 13-year-old chef Sienna Cecco, a specialist in Italian cuisine, cooked up a delicious spooky storm for the Girl Talk World YouTube Channel, creating a Scream Street themed cook-a-long video to make eyeball spaghetti, which accumulated nearly 5k views in the first few days.
All of this, in addition to a wide reaching TX campaign with placements across Daily Mail Weekend, TV Times, First News, The Week Jnr and much much more, delivered a hugely successful launch for the show.
The brand is going from strength to strength, and the overall brand strategy also takes in a brand new Roblox game, new promotional partnership with Frankie & Benny’s and Deliveroo, a live experience at Alton Towers, and the return of the ‘Halloween at Home’ party pack available free to all families, via the CBBC and Scream Street websites, all of which generated some excellent trade and licensing coverage in titles such as License Global, Kidscreen, Total Licensing and Licensing Biz.
Don’t miss all new episodes of Scream Street available NOW on BBC iPlayer.
MC x
Strange Hill High hopes…
Strange Hill High is the brand new animated series from CBBC, FME and Altrincham’s Factory Transmedia.
Using a brand new form of animation, invented specifically for the show by Kat Van Henderson, the show is a wonderful mix of Japanese vinyl puppetry, CGI and just a little stop motion, which essentially adds to produce something magical that neither kids nor their parents have never seen the like of before.
The incredible looking show launched last week at the spookily pristine Ordsall Hall, which we found lurking quietly in the middle of Salford, as if it knew it would be needed just for this.
Showrunner Josh Weinstein flew into Manchester especially for the occasion on a particularly dreary Wednesday in May. Fortunately it transpires that he absolutely loves bad weather, which I can only put down to it being a novelty when you live in L.A.
Reactions to the show have so far been exactly as we hoped. It’s a charming, witty, dual level comedy animation of the incredibly high standard you’d expect from the showrunner behind The Simpsons and Futurama. It’s fabulous that it’s commissioned out of Salford and made in Altrincham and I have everything crossed that from its launch on Wednesday 8th May it will fast become the hit show it deserves to be.
As big as The Simpsons? You just never know….