Les’ Copaque Production Sdn. Bhd, the creator and producer of the highly acclaimed Malaysian animation television series Upin & Ipin has signed a memorandum of understanding with MGV Industries Sdn. Bhd, a soft drink manufacturer.
The new Upin & Ipin chocolate malt-flavoured drink will come head on with BoBoiBoy Koko, an existing powdered chocolate malt-flavoured drink based on the BoBoiBoy cartoon franchise.
BoBoiBoy vs Upin & Ipin
Both BoBoiBoy and Upin & Ipin are highly successful local animations, locally and abroad with a strong following in Indonesia.
At the moment, Upin & Ipin packaged food is concentrated on fruit drink, while BoBoiBoy is into powdered chocolate malt-flavoured drink. With Upin & Ipin moving into soft drinks, this may spur the owner of BoBoiBoy to start thinking of how to leverage the brand to come up with more packaged food products for its fans in Malaysia. In Indonesia, one of the largest milk producers Indomilk, has featured BoBoiBoy on its milk as part of the launch of BoBoiBoy The Movie in 2016.
Malaysia’s strong animated industry offers new character choices
The strength of the Malaysian animated industry is astounding. BoBoiBoy and Upin & Ipin have made it regionally. Other local animations include Ejen Ali, Rimba Racer, Origanimals and SuperSquad can potentially become the next to grace the packaging of food and drinks.
In fact, Forceone Global has licensed the characters from ‘Super Squad’ on its own brand of mineral water. Kincirmas Sdn Bhd has launched a range of fruit flavoured drinks for children based on the SuperSquare animated TV series in November 2015. The SuperSquad flavoured juice range included mango, ice lemon tea, blackcurrant and lychee.
PS Food and Beverage soft launched Ummi Origina at MIHAS 2016. The product features Ummi, a character in the Ummi Tales of Wisdom animation by Hud Hud Media Sdn Bhd. The product is oriented towards the Muslim market as it features a woman in the Muslim attire.
The children’s drink market is currently ripe for the taking. It will not be surprise to see more local food and drinks companies embracing local animation characters to target the children market going forward.
