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Pingu's Biography
By Silvio Mazzola, the author of the Pingu stories.
PINGU grows up
A lot has happened since
1986, when we first had the idea of telling stories for children and everyone else who wishes to keep a fresh approach to
life and to be open to nature. PINGU has grown up, but has remained a naughty, charming and surprising little penguin. With
his red beak, big eyes and disarming character, he has reached more than a billion people through TV and products. His adventures
are still the same everyday stories and he has not learnt so much that he has had to change his character or his behaviour.
PINGU has grown up more at the merchandising side. Millions of fans and consumers watch PINGU on TV and buy articles with
its friendly face on them. PINGU has become one of the most well-loved comic characters. In Japan, where PINGU is known by
over 90% of the high school girls between the ages of 13 and 17, PINGU is a celebrity. In England PINGU has become a household
name. The BBC has shown PINGU regularly for several years and is still having a huge success with his programme. In Switzerland,
where PINGU first came into the world, even though he does not feel at all Swiss, he has found an important partner. MIGROS,
the largest retailer in Switzerland, has fallen in love with PINGU and is offering an incredible range of food and non-food
products. Soon PINGU will be as famous as Swiss watches and Swiss cheese. What MIGROS has done in Switzerland we hope that
it can be done in France too. The difference is that that market is four to five times bigger than that of MIGROS. So little
PINGU will be moving into bigger markets, and will hopefully find a place as a private label with the big retailers. This
should not be a problem because PINGU offers a unique position to partners: who else can give retailers the opportunity to
use, on an exclusive basis, the same label as a current and highly popular TV series? Plus the fact that PINGU can be used
for any article or idea that fits in with the main target group: the family. Children and adults have the same degree of sympathy
for this black-and-white hero from the South Pole. This has been proved by thousands of licensed products. Cosmetics, food,
toys, beach articles and clothing are just a few of the successful products with the name of PINGU. Let's now take a look
at what our partners have done with PINGU.
Pingu tomorrow
What has happened over the last 10 years cannot be repeated.
PINGU has reached a size that requires a lot of administration. The trademark has to be registered and protected, the partners
have to be monitored, the proposed items have to be checked in a short space of time, the finance of the administration and
the protection of the rights require high capacities. PINGU is still small but is growing. Tomorrow we will have to do more
than today. Fortunately almost everything has been computerized. But this is not enough. We are going to go onto INTERNET
to make things easier and faster. We will keep you informed. One of the steps is to produce longer stories rather than another
TV series. This should give us a better impact on the video business and a better position in TV selling. Perhaps PINGU will
start to speak, as he already does successfully on the 900'000 audio cassettes that have been sold. But there is still a lot
to do, such as finding a good voice artist with the characteristic PINGU voice of Carlo Bonomi
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