The educational toy and literature company Highlights is kicking off its 75th year with the appointment of The-M-Zone as its North American licensing agent. The-M-Zone will pursue licensees and partnerships that will deliver content, product and experiences that engage, delight and foster joyful learning.
“Partnering with The-M-Zone comes at an opportune time when children’s learning is being redefined, and content and experiences need to be more relevant,” said Lece Lohr, President of Highlights Consumer Business. “The-M-Zone will engage licensing partners, who will help us continue our mission of fostering curious, creative, caring, and confident children.”
As Highlights gears up to celebrate its 75th anniversary, The-M-Zone will leverage Highlights’ world-renowned as a trusted family brand to expand its footprint into new content areas and product categories with the purpose of creating a breadth of experiences that extend through all aspects of a child’s life and development.
Highlights says the content areas are divided into two groupings:
- Educational preschool products that inspire young kids aged 3-5 to learn and help establish building blocks in the areas of reading math and STEM, and
- Fun explorational products that motivate kids aged 5-8 to build, play, experiment, craft, cook, dream and become outstanding citizens of the world.
Product areas to be pursued include preschool learning toys, arts & crafts kits, STEM activity kits, electronic and wooden toys, subscription boxes, as well as others. Additionally, hallmark assets can be adapted for and appear as licensed content in partnerships.
The-M-Zone is led by Melissa Segal and Jeffrey Fradin, and provides “entrepreneurial and creative solutions for brands and companies that want to uncover new revenue streams, develop unique strategic corporate partnerships, and increase brand awareness.” Clients include entertainment companies looking to maximize their IPs, global established brands seeking to gain new consumers and incremental growth initiatives, new brands looking for direction on how to effectively launch, and non-profits seeking assistance in bridging with corporate sponsors.