For the third consecutive year UK mascot-company Rainbow Productions has exhibited at the Dubai Entertainment, Amusement & Leisure Exhibition (DEAL), which took place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from April 26th to 28th 2009.
During the three day Show a character mascot called Bernie – created for Thomas Cook Northern Europe Resorts & Hotels - made special guest appearances at the official show opening, as well as greeting visitors who came onto the Rainbow Productions exhibition stand.
Rainbow Productions met with park operators, shopping mall owners and visitors from family entertainment centres to also discuss developing walk-about mascots and characters for use in stage shows.
Helen Ede, the company’s Marketing Manager, comments:
“Mascots created by Rainbow Productions are all made to order, with each one following unique design specifications. In the six weeks immediately following DEAL, Rainbow has already delivered eleven promotional costumes to two different clients based in Dubai, for use in their campaigns. A number of other leads obtained at the Show are also being followed up; clients are seeing the benefits of investing in Rainbow costume characters as a relatively low-cost way of appealing to family audiences at their own leisure venues and as a way of generating merchandising opportunities based around their mascot”.
In addition to DEAL providing a forum to meet face-to-face with clients in the region to discuss the creation of bespoke mascots, the exhibition also enabled another key service to be highlighted to visitors; leisure clients can book meet and greet licensed cartoon character appearances exclusively through Rainbow Productions.
The licensed properties represented by Rainbow Productions for personal appearances in the Middle East region include Twentieth Century Fox’s evergreen characters Bart and Homer Simpson, Yo Gabba Gabba’s Brobee, Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit, Noddy and friends, the Mr. Men, Chapman Entertainment’s hit property Fifi Forget-Me-Not and Bumble, mischievous Dennis the Menace and TV-Loonland’s character called the Little Princess.
Rainbow Productions has also developed two 15 minute stage shows which star HIT Entertainment’s Bob the Builder and presenter Sam. The interactive stage shows are called “Bob the Builder’s Sunflower Sailor” and “Bob the Builder’s Hide and Seek in Sunflower Valley” - both feature singing, dancing and audience participation and developed to appeal to shopping malls and attractions in the GCC.