MANILA, Philippines - Line, the world’s leading life platform with 170 million monthly active users globally, has announced that its original character brand, Line Friends, has won two of the most prestigious licensing awards in Hong Kong, the Lima Asian Licensing Awards and Asian Licensing Awards, setting a firm foothold to become the most representative character brand in Asia.
Line Friends is the character brand of mobile messenger Line, which includes the series of its original characters – Brown, Cony, Sally, Leonard, James, Jessica, Boss and Edward. First started as stickers used in Line messenger, Line Friends was reborn as character merchandise with over 3,300 items, such as clothing, stationery and household products, which are loved by many Line fans globally.
The Lima Asian Licensing Awards, first started in 2014, was established to honor outstanding creativity and performance in licensing industry. Last Jan. 12, 2015, Line Friends was announced as the winner of the “Best Asian Property Of The Year,” the award of highest honor, against other competitive contenders.
Line Friends was noted for offering a unique experience to the character lovers around the world, which thrived and became a global character brand at an astonishing speed during the past year.
Line Friends won another accolade from Asian Licensing Awards (ALA), winning the “Best Asian Property” award, proving itself to be the leader in the licensing industry. ALA, hosted by Hong Kong Trade Development Council, acknowledges the licensing brands with the most prominent achievement over the past year.
Stephan Kang, senior manager of the business development division of Line Plus Corporation in the Philippines, shared, “Winning both LIMA and ALA is such a great honor as they are considered as the Oscar Awards of the character business. To return the love we have received from our fans, we will continue to offer more variety of Line Friends products in many more places around the world.”