Kidscreen, the big event of the children’s entertainment industry held from July 18th to 21st in Miami, has been the framework chosen by Zinkia to present its new production: “Yanco, Dina and the Dinosaurs”. This will be the company’s first original project in 15 years and will target audiences aged 6-8 through a combination of comedy and action. The property will comprise an animation series for TV and specific content for YouTube and handheld devices.

“Yanco, Dina and the Dinosaurs” brings a fun spin to traditional pirate stories, replacing treasure with dinosaur eggs. The protagonists, Yanco, an actor yeti with a penchant for stand-up comedy, and a young girl named Dina, who holds a deep secret, will face the evil Cuddy, a brilliant and charismatic millionaire obsessed with dinosaurs. Together, they will travel to a new corner of the world in each episode to retrieve dinosaur eggs and take them to a safe place before they hatch and become a problem for humans… or rather, the other way around.

The creative team behind “Yanco, Dina and the Dinosaurs” have over 20 years of expertise in the animation industry, after working in series like “Pocoyo”, “Cleo y Cuquin,” “Jelly Jamm,” “Bugsted,” “Shuriken School” and “PINY Pinypon Institute.”

“Yanco, Dina and the Dinosaurs” seeks to bring a new look to the extensive and popular theme of dinosaurs,’ explains Victor M. Lopez, General Manager of Zinkia. ‘The dinosaur cubs born from the colourful eggs retrieved by young Dina and Yanco, a yeti who loves omelettes, will star in a series that will unfold through digital and interactive content.’

A launch backed by RTVE

 The launch of “Yanco, Dina and the Dinosaurs”” at Kidscreen is preceded by its backing by RTVE, through its 2022 tender for animation series; the Spanish public television corporation has opted to broadcast the series through its kids channel, Clan.

The tender, which sought attractive formats aimed at children aged 0 to 14, received 26 proposals, and focused on those with charismatic characters, highlighting emotions, and featuring innocent and simple humour for the youngest kids, as well as references to popular culture for the older ones. Other values that were also taken into account include critical thinking, equality, respect, healthy habits and the environment.

 

Pocoyo keeps working to renew its wide range of apps with new apps on major download platforms such as the App Store and Google Play. One of the latest novelties is the latest update of Pocoyó Colors: the app to draw and paint the character Pocoyo. This new application offers new experiences to the kids, improving the interaction and functionalities of the different proposals while guaranteeing the security and privacy of the contents.

With this new app, which is now available on Google Play and the App Store, children will be able to learn the colors and geometric shapes, and strokes of objects in a fun and educational way. An entertaining game that will allow you to give free rein to your imagination.

The Pocoyo Colors children’s app has different game modes to enjoy anywhere:

• “Draw and color”: with templates of your favorite characters for scribbling, drawing, coloring, and writing.
• “Musical Videos”: with different colored songs to reinforce their learning of them.
• “Strokes”: with more than 30 tiles to learn and practice the correct scrolling and stroke directions.
• “Create Shapes”: where children will know the names of the main geometric shapes, and their number of sides and recognize them in real-world objects.
• In “My World” mode, you can entertain yourself by placing the available stickers in various settings with identifiable geometric shapes. They can also make it rain and snow, or make it day and night.

The benefits of starting coloring and drawing at a young age are innumerable. Children will strengthen, among other things, their ability to concentrate, develop fine motor skills, and learn to master movements. They will even learn to relax and improve their self-esteem.

 

Zinkia were present at Licensing Expo, the major meeting point for the global licensing market, which was held again in Las Vegas from May 24th to 26th. This new appointment with the licensing industry, which has come after two years of absence due to the pandemic, has celebrated its 40th edition in person.

Pocoyo came to show all its novelties, such as the new episodes of the latest season produced, and a preview of its upcoming projects. The series has now accumulated four seasons (52 x 7`), in addition to 53 music videos and special content. It also has a short film of 25 minutes “Pocoyó and the Space Circus”, the production “Pocoyó: your first film”, and the co-production “Isla Dragón” made with the Cabildo of the island of Gran Canaria (Spain).

Víctor M. López, GM of Zinkia, and Eduardo Garagorri, commercial and business development director of the company, attended this new edition of Licensing Expo, where they had the opportunity to meet with the main players in the sector, who have shown great interest in the brand, to establish collaborations and agreements for future projects.

Currently, Zinkia has many licensees, and among these partners are master toy and first-class distributors, such as Bandai, Comansi, Hoffmann, Clementoni, and CyP, among others. Their product references on the market are grouped into more than twenty categories, including toys, publications, textiles, Back to School or baby care, etc.

Licensing Expo, with more than 37 years of experience, has once again consolidated itself as the main meeting point for the industry and starting point for the implementation of new projects.

Pocoyo has established itself, year after year, as one of the children’s brands with the largest audience and the best influence in the digital environment. A success that goes on the rise after beating their own records. After a historic growth on YouTube in 2020, with a 70% increase in views, Pocoyo again achieved excellent figures in 2021. During those 12 months, the brand’s official channels reached 6,155 million viewed hours, a 15% increase, and 34 million subscribers, an increase of 27% over the previous year. Such is Pocoyó’s success on YouTube that the channel extends to 16 languages, and has managed to snatch 7 Gold and 1 Diamond buttons .

In addition, Pocoyo’s digital activity has brought good results to Zinkia’s apps. With more than 15 million downloads in 2021, the character continues to be one of kids’ favorite contents on major platforms.

On social media platforms, Pocoyo is also a phenomenon. On Facebook, it gathers a community of more than 2.4 million followers and 56,000 followers on Instagram. With 15 million downloads in apps for both iOS and Android, the character has achieved a total of 84.7 million downloads.

As for 2022, everything indicates that the brand will continue growing in the digital environment.

Pocoyó also continues to add new licensees. With more than 350,000 toys sold in Spain, Pocoyó is back on growth supported by the new product lines developed by Bandai and its traditional partners such as Comansi, Hoffmann, Musicales Reig, and El Corte Inglés, joined by Clementoni, CyP, among others. Meanwhile, LATAM’s expansion is growing rapidly in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Argentina, where Zinkia is achieving double-digit revenue growth supported by its local licensing agents.

In terms of video games, Zinkia has released “Pocoyo Party”, Pocoyó’s first video game for PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, which has already sold more than 35,000 units in the first nine months. Designed to be enjoyed by the whole family, this video game is aimed at children between 3 and 5 years old. It includes six mini-games, and new episodes and recreates a fully controlled environment combining playful and educational activities.

 

Pocoyó remains unstoppable and reaping great successes. 2021 in particular has been a key year for Zinkia and undoubtedly one of the best years for Pocoyó. The good figures achieved at the end of the year confirm the success of the brand and its strength as one of the children’s characters with the greatest international projection and best audience success.

Zinkia thus closed 2021 as the best year in its history after doubling its revenues, to reach 9. 8 million euros. It also improved its Ebitda (4.05 million euros) by 183%, compared to the previous year.

In 2022, Zinkia embarked on an ambitious expansion plan to expand its portfolio of properties to diversify its business. The first step in this strategic line was taken at the end of last year, after signing an agreement with the Canarian animation studio KOYI Talent to acquire 100% of the company, thus adding three new brands to its content: “Bumpy: The Bear”, “Ghost Bros” and “Bugsted. ” Zinkia is also working on Yanco&Dina, a new title that will be released in June of this year and on which the company has high hopes. On the other hand, the pre-production of the fifth season of Pocoyó has already begun which brings important novelties, such as a subtle redesign of Pocoyó and his friends, the incorporation of new characters, and some surprises that will be revealed in the coming months.

Pocoyó’s global presence grows on its 20th anniversary

Pocoyó also commemorates in this exercise its 20th anniversary and it does so in full swing. Currently, Pocoyó can be watched in 150 countries, among open-air TV, cable TV, VOD, and its OTT platforms in the United States.

A global audience that has gained momentum in recent months after Zinkia closed two new broadcasting agreements. The most recent is with Disney+, which for the first time incorporates the series to its contents in several European countries. Additionally, the agreement reached with HBO for the United States, Latin America, and EMEA and the renewal of its agreement with Netflix and Rakuten TV. These are in addition to the presence that the brand already had on a total of 25 platforms among which are other giants such as Amazon.

At the same time, television stations around the world have continued to rely on the series for their children’s programming, and in 2021 channels such as Panda (Portugal), Rai Yoyo (Italy), TV Azteca (Mexico) and TVE renewed their commitment to Pocoyó by acquiring the new episodes of the latest season produced.