Egmont has the rights to a range of book and magazine formats that will launch in the UK in Spring 2013, serving up freshly-squeezed comedy in a joke book format. Orange, Grandpa Lemon and the whole cast will be providing juicy jokes and 100% pure annoyance, says Egmont.
David Riley, Managing Director, Egmont Publishing Group said: “We know that children spend on average 1.6 hours a day on a computer, 94% go online and 74% have their own laptop. We are therefore very interested in properties which originate online.
Annoying Orange is clearly highly appealing to children and adults alike with a YouTube following of over 1.4 billion YouTube views and more than 12 million fans on Facebook — more than 1.5 million of them in the UK!”
He continues: “The popularity of YouTube, which currently receives four billion views per day (a 400% increase from 2009; 30% of which has risen in the last 8 months alone) meant Annoying Orange was of particular interest to us. We love the iconic look and anarchic humour of this property: it’s a huge hit with 7+ boys and, we believe, will translate brilliantly into books and magazines.”
Emma Cairns Smith, Licence Acquisition Director, Egmont UK said: “We are really excited about our Annoying Orange publishing. The brand is so hot right now and the style guide is just fabulous. We can’t wait to translate the humour and characters’ personalities into publishing that will be bright, bold, colourful, and above all, funny.”
Rob Wijeratna, Joint Managing Director, Rocket Licensing Ltd commented: “Annoying Orange is thrilled to be extending its fruitful consumer products programme with master publisher: Egmont. Annoying Orange is the #1 watched web comedy series so a joke book is the perfect format to launch with.
“There are already over 120 episodes of Annoying Orange online, with new segments introduced weekly and a TV show due for broadcast soon in the UK. With imminent toy, apparel and gifting products, these are exciting times and we can’t wait to see Annoying Orange come to life in publishing.”
Created by Dane Boedigheimer, Annoying Orange took the Internet by storm when it debuted on YouTube in October 2009 and since then has quickly racked up 1.4 billion total views with over 2.5 million YouTube channel subscribers.
The popularity has also translated to more than 12 million likes on Facebook and to its official web site, www.annoyingorange.com, which generates nearly four million page views each month.
Annoying Orange recently embarked on a new adventure with the debut of its television series on Cartoon Network in the U.S. The television series has become an instant hit and continually ranks #1 in its time slot among boys 2-11 and 6-11 versus all TV.
