Zuma the Dog Launches New Website

SMALL DOG GROWS WITH NEW MERCH 

 Bertish and Company Ltd, the creator and owner of children’s character brand Zuma the Dog, is thrilled to announce the launch of its new website, www.zumathedog.com. A website update that was long overdue and tells more of the brands story.

 

Welcome to our Homepage

The site, now character lead tells the story of Zuma the real dog along with everything the character dog represents. It focuses more on diversity education, tolerance and antibullying, which has always been a part of the brands philosophy since its creation in 2009, It incorporates an activities section full of resources designed to help teachers and parents. These can be downloaded free of charge and used within a classroom or homeschool environment.

 

Diversity Education worksheets

There’s a contact section for all to get in touch with the brand for further educational resources and discussion. The blog section gives Zuma a voice to tell stories as he adventures with his human family. Written in Zuma’s point of view the brand hopes to give Zuma the Dog fans an insight into the Zumaverse in a subtle, humorous way. The site is light and bright with clean, concise easy-to-use functions and not to forget all the new Zuma the Dog merchandise now available to buy. Remaining true to the brands original philosophy the basic product range is kept gender neutral with seperate ranges for traditional customers. Keeping sustainability in mind, the new merchandise works on a make on demand basis, eliminating the need to buy in stock and keep the brand carbon footprint down with direct to customer distribution.

 “We are all very excited about this new website,” said Samantha Bertish, brand creator. “We really feel we can get Zuma the Dog’s story across in a big way and bring Zuma the attention he deserves. Our focus has been to grow our export market and with a website that works for both desktop and mobile shopping with international landing pages and currency options we really feel this can be achieved.” 

Bertish and Company has invited visitors to explore the new website. Paying particular attention to Zuma’s blog for funny and entertaining stories and the shopping page for all the new merchandise. 

 For licensees who want to collaborate with Zuma the Dog on new products for the website shop and concessions, please contact Brand Manager Sarah Camp at sarah@contagiousmediagroup.com

SMALL DOG GROWS BIGGER

 

Second concession shop opens for Zuma the Dog

Brand creator of Zuma the Dog and company director Samantha Bertish made an exciting visit to their second concession store at Pop Up Leatherhead in Surrey last week. Working closely with Mole Valley District Council, the Pop-up Leatherhead initiative is the second in a series of shops oraganised by The Pop-Up Shop Agents that aims to bring small brands into the high street who wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity. With a bright, modern interior, the shop creators bring a luxury feel to their customers shopping experience and, by bringing in exciting new brands it aims to increase footfall to rejuvenate high streets after what has been a devastating blow to many established high street brands over the past years.  

After the success of the Horsham store at the end of 2021 Zuma the Dog will be appearing in the new Leatherhead shop for the next three months, bringing his usual bright and happy products with him. Samantha Bertish spent the day in store to meet the shop managers, check on products and make sure everything in their concession conformed to all company branding. The shopping experience remains the same as Zuma the Dog combines conventional shopping with tech demands and with an exciting new website set to launch in the next month, the brand expects to grow with new licensed on demand products via its online and bricks and mortar shopping experiences.

“This store looks amazing, bright and modern.” Said Bertish. “The High Street location brings a lot of footfall and I can already see people’s interests are peaked by the store front and window display. It was lovely to spend the day with the store managers and other concession licensees, getting to know them and other products in store with Zuma. I’m also proud to be able to be a part of this initiative for a second time. I’m so grateful to The Pop-Up Shop Agents for all their hard work in bringing this project to life. Can’t wait to get stuck in with the next Pop-Up Shop project , wherever that may be.” 

The New Pop-Up Leatherhead shop opened in The Swan Center on the 18^th March, and Zuma the Dog will be available to visit in store over the next 3 months.

For licensees who want to collaborate with Zuma the Dog on new products for the shop and new website, please contact Brand Manager Sarah Ann Camp at sarah@contagiousmediagroup.com

 

Little Dogs Adventure at Big Spring Fair 2022

Tuesday, 8 February saw my human head up to Birmingham’s NEC with The Pop up Shop Agents founder Charley Crocker and two former pop up shop sellers to take to the stage as a guest speaker at Spring Fair.

Spring Fair is a highlight in the annual retail calendar as a vibrant marketplace for wholesale homes, gifts and fashion. As the definitive “shop for shops”, Spring Fair is held across four days, designed around three key buying destinations – Home, Gift and Moda Fashion.

Little me at Spring Fair 

Talking with Karina

Charley, who was invited to attend to speak about The Power of Pop-Ups, took three pop up shop sellers from the Pop Up Horsham store which included Karina Berry Creator of Plane Jane, Kim Billings, Founder of KimmyB@ and my human, author and brand creator Samantha Morgan-Bertish.

The Pop Up Shop Agents provide a wide range of opportunities for small businesses to promote their products and services and Spring Fair, which focuses on inspiration and trends is a great platform for small businesses to meet and showcase their businesses to larger retailers.

Products look lovely on display

It was such a fun day and my human told me, dispite feel very nervous, she enjoyed chatting about her experience running our Zuma the Dog shop remotely from Switerzerland and the success of the customer shopping experience using QR codes to check out directly via our website. This exciting new way of shopping is something we are going to explore more going forward with new similar projects for the high street. Seeing stock selling in real time means we can replenish quickly, see what our best sellers are, gauge trends with customers and work with the season when ordering new stock. 

Getting ready to go onstage.

The interest from retailers was high and the auditorium was packed with people wanting to know more about our experience and my human was surprised with the amount of questions and interest after the event. 

Certainly an experience not easy to forget and my human would definitely do it again if the opportunity arises 

You can catch the full talk on YouTube here.

Much Love

Zuma XX

Children’s IP Ventures into the Edutainment Sector

 So, I'm updating my blog quickly with this exciting news from the HQ of Zuma the Dog. My PR department have been busy with this press release, so please continue reading. I can't wait to see how the animation develops. Can you?

The creators of children IP Zuma the Dog are excited to announce the incorporation of their new joint venture company, Zuma the Dog and Friends Edutainment Ltd. The partnership combines the talents of Transcendent Media Capital Ltd, venture studio who focuses on driving capital to systemic change through media, technology and advocacy driven ventures and Bertish and Company Ltd, creator and owner of award-winning Children’s character IP Zuma the Dog.

Zuma the Dog and Friends Edutainment Ltd will focus on creating children’s media, technology and education content with character Zuma the Dog at the heart of each project. The new entity will kick off with its own animation series, Zuma the Dog and Friends, which provides children with diversity education, where Zuma, an anti-bullying role model adventures with his friends to overcome social challenges to teach empathy, communication and problem-solving skills.

“This is an exciting step forward for Zuma the Dog as a character brand.” Says Samantha Bertish, IP creator. “The hard work starts now, and I can’t wait to get stuck in and contribute to making a positive impact on our children’s futures.”

Peta Milan, CEO of Transcendent Media Capital commented, “Our research shows us that communities without access to diversity tend to be intolerant of it. Highly diverse communities, more often than not, embrace their diversity, so we are working to provide a solution to the challenge of providing communities, and in particular, our young children with greater access to diversity education.” Peta added, “We are also establishing an advisory board of youth, so it will be a company for kids, driven by kids. This is in line with our mission to apply regenerative principles to our venture building practices”.

Building on the popular brand’s philosophy there are 45 episodes planned to go into production early 2022. The series will include characters from Zuma the Dog’s pre-school books as well as new characters developed specifically for the animation. These include dog characters with special needs and diverse backgrounds, tackling subjects that have not yet been attempted in the children’s entertainment sector to date.

“We’ve also had celebrity interest in the animation project already.” Continues Samantha. “And we’re expecting this to really get this project off to a great start”.

 

For licensees who want to collaborate with Zuma the Dog and Friends, please contact Brand Manager Sarah Ann Camp at sarah@weirdlime.co.uk

Can you believe this exciting news? 

Much Love

Zuma 

xx

Small dog helps to rejuvenate the high street

 Ok! So, can anyone tell me what happened to the summer? It like, whooshed by and poof, we landed in autumn and now there's pumpkins outside blocking my path and Christmas adverts on the telly. How is it possible that each year zooms by so fast? Do they have the zoomies, just like I get when Mummy returns home after a big trip out into the world? (actually she tells me she's only been gone for five minutes, but pretty sure she' fibbing coz it feels like forevaaaaaa).

I know it's been a while since my last post. A lot of nothing has been going on while the world has been recovering from the pandemic, but now, lots of plans are being made and I'm excited to announce our latest project. The launch of our new concession shop in collaboration with Pop-Up Horsham. Working closely with Horsham District Council, the Pop-up Horsham initiative brings small brands into the high street who wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity. With a bright, modern interior, the shop creators will bring a luxury feel to their customers shopping experience and, by introducing exciting new brands it aims to increase footfall to rejuvenate our high streets after what has been a devastating blow to many established high street brands over the past years.

Zuma the Dog will be piloting a new way of shopping by incorporating products and tech. To lower the risk of buying large amount of stock it will provide products through a “make on demand” service. Customers can see, feel, and try on products in store and using QR codes provided in store, purchase their products online. These will be manufactured and shipped direct to their door within 48 hours. Zuma the Dog works closely with sustainable British licensees to ensure products are made to its exacting high stands, incorporating all the Zuma the Dog branding its customers love.

Zuma the Dog logo in store window

“We feel passionate about piloting a new style of shopping in the UK marketplace.” Mummy told me. “By looking to the future and enhancing technology we can work in a more sustainable way. Sourcing manufacturers within Britain, cutting our carbon footprint with shorter delivery distances and cutting out the need to invest in costly amounts of stock, warehouse storage costs and reducing waste. I believe this is the way forward for shopping, to combine bricks and mortar with the online experience. And it would be great to see Pop-up initiatives like this roll out across all major high streets in the UK.”

We're,...... I mean. I am very excited to see Mummy's focus of attention has been brought back to me. This opportunity  allows Zuma the Dog to gain its place on the high street and move forward with the demands of its customers. 

Shop front in Horsham

The New Pop-Up Horsham shop opens at West Street on November 2^nd 2021, Zuma the Dog will be available to visit in store for 6 months and we look forward to welcoming you all there.

Much Love

Zuma XX

P.S. Do you like my Halloween costume?

For licensees who want to collaborate with Zuma the Dog on new products for the shop, please contact Brand Manager Sarah Ann Camp at sarah@weirdlime.co.uk

Little Stuffed Zuma Goes Sledging

Winter is over and we had such a blast. Best season ever! 

The one thing we were allowed to do during lockdown was ski, snowboard and sledge. Mummy Zuma the Dog spent at least one day a week on the mountain. She told me it was good for her mentawelf.........or.......something like that anyway. Dunno what an elf would have to do with sking? I'm sure most elves are ramping up for the new season of toy making in Lap Land by now. 

So, one day she decided to take me (little stuffed version of me) along for a ride. I've been feeling a little caged in at our teeny cabin in the woods, so I wanted to see at first paw what the fuss was about. 

Switzerland has what we (my family) call "Big Sky". It always looks big, wide, clean and clear, even on cloudy days. We took the gondola up the mountain. Luckily it was a clear day, just a few fluffy white candy floss clouds in the sky. I could see snow as far as the eye could see. Lots of people milling around, crying out with joy as they clip on their skis or strap on their snow boards and speed off down the piste.

It's so high up. I couldn't help be in awe of the view as the swinging box danging from the small wire swayed in the breeze as it ascended to the top. People looked ant like from that height. formed in great black lines as they swoosh swoosh through the powder. I'm sure I would look even smaller, but it was fun to imagine myself this size against ickle biddy teeny hoomans. Like Godzilla.........Ha! No! Dogzilla........ No, Zumazilla, gobbling them up one by one and roaring as I stomp through the snow drifts. 

Anyway, just at the top of the gondola is a short tail wiggle to the magic carpet. A hop up onto the magic carpet took me on another ride where I took in more views of children laughing and playing in the snow. Thankfully I was protected by the clear plastic tunnel, but it didn't stop my naughty brother Zuma the Dog throwing little ice balls at his friends narrowly missing me as we made our way further up to the tippy top.  

We grabbed hold of the sledge we took with us with both paws, then. WHOOSH! The wind blew through my fur, flapping my ears and folding them into all sorts of strange shapes as we slip-slided down the piste on the moulded piece of polished plastic. I held on for dear life and took in a large gulp of clean air as my jowls were pinned back, forcing an expression somewhere between a smile and fear as we sped off  gaining speed as we soared down the slope narrowly missing other thrill seekers on the way.

And just like that, we were at the bottom. The excitement was exhilarating and as I bounced around in circles I indicated to Mummy Zuma the Dog I wanted to go again, again. AGAIN!

So......If this is what we do to help with our mentawelf, bring it on.  

What are your techniques for maintaining a good mentawelf? Seems to me it's not difficult to maintain if you continue to have fun, right? Comment below and share with us how you stay in good health. 

Much Love

Zuma 

XX

If you want to take Little Stuffed Zuma on an adventure find him on my website link below. 

Life after Lockdown

 

Letting loose after lockdown. What will you do? Where will you go?

There’s hope on the horizon for all of us now the Rona vaccine is being rolled out everywhere. Lockdown has come to an end and we are all feeling positive for the summer as we start to appear out of hiding, sigh with relief and reboot our lives. The zombie apocalypse is almost done and kudos to everyone who safely got through this unprecedented time. It's been a doozy!

Shopping in Zurich

While we still have a long way to go, we can allow ourselves a glimpse of our post pandemic future. Dream of what we will do? Where we’ll go? Who will we visit first? Family, loved ones, friends, colleagues perhaps?

I am dreaming of heading home to the UK. It’s been a long time since we all saw our family and relatives and all I want is a big hug with Grandad Zuma the Dog and Auntie Zuma the Dog.

Helping out in Pisa

This means more traveling for me and as many of you know I like to travel and if I can’t make it personally, I send my ambassador, Little Stuffed Zuma.

Little stuffed Zuma has visited many places in the world. Some dog friendly some not so. His favourite was the leaning tower of Pisa and the ride through the rain forest of Brazil. He loved seeing the wild animals living in their natural habitat and cute fluffy monkeys swinging in the trees. Some so tiny they would fit in the palm of your hand. With all those wonderful memories of far-flung place Little Stuffed Zuma has many more places he wants to visit, and you can help him do that.

This is the time of year we think about our holidays. Where will you visit? What will you do? Whatever you choose, little stuffed Zuma wants to go with you as your post pandemic / lockdown puppy. He wants to add more landmarks to his world trip photo album and only you can help him do it.

Adopt a Little Stuffed Zuma online today via www.zumathedog.com and take me (him) with you on your post pandemic summer holiday. Photograph him at a famous landmarks and email it, like a postcard to zuma@zumathedog.com or share on social media with #ZumaTheDogOnHoliday. We'll share as many as we can.

I can’t wait to see where I go! This is soo exciting!

 

Much Love

 

Zuma xx