Sonic can be ‘the next Hello Kitty’

Merchandising deals can make Sonic the Hedgehog as iconic as Hello Kitty.

Sega is knuckling down on its four major IPs as part of its recent restructure, with priorities to push into digital and licensing.

For Sonic, the latter means signing up more third parties to make associated toys, clothing and other gear.

And the famous company mascot could be as ubiquitous as Sanrio’s cute cat, explained Jurgen Post, COO of Sega Europe.

Sonic is a well-known character, but we’ve got a lot of room to grow in merchandising,” he told MCV.

We dream of Hello Kitty. We’re still far off from that but we can see that our profits are growing year on year in the US and Europe [on merchandising].

We’ve got a licensing team on the ground in the UK who are focusing on that and that team will expand. We’ve got a team in the US and which will also expand. We used to run it all out of Sega of Japan, but having people on the ground is making a big difference.

We will always do the computer game but the merchandising is a very important aspect to Sonic.”