Suzy’s Zoo 489No one knows in advance if a new product
will sell, and with licensing, the licensee
assumes the costs of manufacturing and get-
ting the product to the marketplace. The
major disadvantage of licensing, from
Spafford’s point of view, is the loss of creative
control. She has admitted to the need for
many compromises in this area. In addition
to licensing images for nonpaper products,
Suzy’s Zoo images were also licensed to
other manufacturers of greeting cards, such
as Current, a large mail-order house based in
Colorado.
Licensees are renting the artwork for a
stated period of time so that they can apply
Suzy’s Zoo character images to their own
products, such as mugs and T-shirts. A typi-
cal Suzy’s Zoo license had a three-year term
with an option to renew for an additional
two years. The licensing fee was calculated as
a percentage of sales and ranges from 3 per-
cent to 6 percent. International licensees pay
higher fees (10 percent to 12 percent), but
this is split between Suzy’s Zoo and its inter-
national broker. A list of Suzy’s Zoo in-
ternational brokers, the products they license,
and their territories can be seen on the com-
pany’s Web site at http://www.suzyszoo.com.
The company’s wholesale Web site is located
at http://www.suzyszooshowroom.com.
But now, something major and in some
ways unanticipated is underway for this com-
pany. The introduction of the Little Suzy’s
Zoo line in 1999 was hailed as an “unparal-
leled mass-market retail success story.”^1
Created with the same look and feel as the
original Suzy’s Zoo, Little Suzy’s Zoo was
aimed at infants and toddlers. The characters
were drawn to appear very young to capture
the interest of the babies and their parents.
In the early years of the twenty-first centu-
ry, licensing had grown so important that
Suzy’s had reorganized itself into two divi-
sions. Suzy’s Zoo Greeting Cards continues
to offer stationary and printed products,
keepsakes, and scrap-booking items and
memo pads. Suzy’s Zoo Studios was estab-
lished to develop designs and artwork for the
purpose of licensing. There are licensing style
guides for each brand. Little Suzy’s Zoo
characters are the mainstay of this division.
Spafford continues to have an active role and
works with licensees on designs and proto-
types. She has the final review and decision
before a license can go forward.
Eventually licensing revenue grew beyond
the capabilities of Suzy’s Zoo Studios to man-
age. In April 2005 Suzy’s entered an agree-
ment with Earthworks Brand Management.
Earthworks Brand Management was chosen
to represent worldwide licensing for Suzy’s
branded products. Incredibly, Little Suzy’s
Zoo sales had risen to $100 million dollars by
this time!
Both Spafford and the CEO of
Earthworks entertainment issued statements
when the agreement was announced.
Suzy: “We are delighted to name
Earthworks Entertainment as licensing repre-
sentatives for Little Suzy’s Zoo. Both Peter
Keefe and Cathy Malatesta (head of global
licensing and marketing) are highly regarded
by the licensing and entertainment industry
for their innovative and successful program-
ming and licensing achievements throughout
their distinguished careers. We look forward
to a long and successful association with this
outstanding team.”
Peter Keefe: “We have been fans of Suzy
Spafford and the charmingly precious world
of the Little Suzy’s Zoo franchise since the
company launched their marvelous Little
Suzy’s Zoo brand. It is with a special and
heartfelt joy that we begin our representation
of this absolutely splendid franchise to the
licensing and merchandising community. We
believe that this brand is now perfectly
poised to gain a huge share of the global
infant and toddler marketplace in the key cat-
egories ranging from books to apparel to
toys.”
In November 2005, Earthworks had its
first major breakthrough in representing
Suzy’s Zoo. It announced that it had licensed
the rights to Suzy Zoo brands to Sony Plaza
Ltd. Sony Plaza is the retail sales and mer-
chandising arm of Sony Inc. Sony Plaza
planned to begin to produce and distribute