The Smiley Company

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Smiley Company
Company typePrivate
IndustryBrand licensing, Marketing
Founded1971; 53 years ago (1971) in France
Headquarters
London
,
England
Area served
Global
Key people
Franklin Loufrani (Founder & President)
Nicolas Loufrani (CEO)
Revenue$ 538 million (2020)[1]
Number of employees
40 (2016)[2]
SubsidiariesSmileyWorld
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata

The Smiley Company is a brand licensing company, based in London, United Kingdom. It claims to hold the rights to the smiley face in over 100 countries.[3][4][5] The company creates products including textiles, puzzles, party goods, stationery, automobile accessories, and toys for licensed brand partners and retailers.[6][7]

History[edit]

Franklin Loufrani, founder of the Smiley Company

Franklin Loufrani worked as a journalist in France during the 1960s and 70s. While working for the newspaper France-Soir, he was tasked with creating a new segment in the paper, focused on good news.[8][9][10] Loufrani decided that the segment should focus on good news stories, but also needed a design to draw readers attention to the new section.[11] The concept he came up with was a smiling face, to be used as part of the logo, replacing the "o" in France-Soir.[12] The logo with the new smiley and subsequent good news segment were first used in the newspaper on January 1, 1972, and was accompanied with the slogan, "Take The Time To Smile."[13] According to recent publications from France-Soir, the new "good news" section was a huge success and caused other European-based newspapers to follow the trend.[12]

While the Loufrani-designed smiley first appeared in print in 1972, he had foreseen its potential and taken the design to the French trademark office in October 1971 and begun the process of trademarking the design in France.[14] While licensing in the United States was becoming an increasingly popular commercial venture, in Europe it was still quite rare to see companies specialise in nothing but licensing.[15] After Loufrani's trademark was copyrighted, he quit his job as a journalist and began to look into options of how to commercialise the trademark. France at the time was dealing with the aftermath of numerous civil movements, including May 68 which began with student protests. Loufrani used this as an opportunity to increase awareness of the smiley and gave away stickers to French university students initially. The stickers became an overnight cultural success, appearing all over the country on lampposts and car bumpers. It spread from university students to the general public, with Loufrani giving away 10 million in total.

Its success meant brands were more interested in working with the smiley as part of one-off campaigns. In the mid-1970s, came Loufrani's first major deal. The forerunner to M&M's in Europe were known as Bonitos, with Loufrani agreeing a deal for smiley's to be printed on the front of the chocolates.[15] Other large corporations began to deal with Loufrani, including Levi's who were the first fashion brand to use a smiley on its jeans in the 1970s.[15]

While other smiling faces had been used in marketing and advertising elsewhere globally,[16] many of them used terms such as "happy face" and "smiling face." Loufrani was not the first documented person to use the term "smiley."[17][18][19][8] By the 1990s, Franklin and his son Nicolas Loufrani held trademarks for the symbol in around 70 countries and had licensed the smiley to brands including Levi Strauss & Co.[11] In 1996, the Loufranis founded the Smiley Company in London, England, built around the Smiley brand.[14] In 1997, Nicolas created hundreds of emoticons, including a 3D smiley logo.[20][21][22][23][24] His images, registered with the United States Copyright Office in 1997, were first published as GIF files on the internet in 1998, making them the first graphical emoticons used in technology.[25][26] He launched the SmileyWorld brand shortly thereafter.[27][28] In the early 2000s, the company licensed the rights to their emoticons to telecom companies, including Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, amongst others.[29] Nicolas Loufrani compiled his graphical emoticons, along with other existing images used for communication, into an online dictionary[30] which was divided into categories,[31] and by 2002, the dictionary included over 3,000 images.[32]

In 1997, The Smiley Company filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In 2001, Walmart opposed the registration, citing potential confusion between their design and Loufrani's.[33] Nine years later, the USPTO initially sided with Walmart, before another federal court case was brought forward by Smiley in 2009.[34] In 2011, the companies settled out of court.[35]

In 2005, the company announced the creation of the Smiley World Association, later renamed Smiley Fund and now Smiley Movement, as a charitable arm of the company, to which it donates 10 percent of its profits.[36][37] In 2017, the company was responsible for 210 million products, that were sold under partnership and licensing agreements.[38]

In 2018, Loufrani announced the creation of a new non-profit organisation, The Smiley Movement. It operates Smiley News, which produces positive news stories. Journalists have recently commented on the growing trend in the west of people avoiding the news entirely. 36% in the UK said they sometimes or often actively try to avoid the news in 2024.[39] In interviews, Loufrani has spoken about the need for positive press to improve the mood of readers.[39]

License Global magazine listed the company as one of the most influential brands of the 2010s in its December 2020 summary of the brands of the decade list.[1] In early 2021, it was announced that The Smiley Company had produced a short film about the history of the Smiley in the run-up to the 50th anniversary since it was created by Franklin Loufrani.[40]

Nicolas Loufrani, CEO of The Smiley Company

Fashion[edit]

In 2007, The Smiley Company set up a design studio in London. The company worked with a number of fashion houses from 2007 onwards, including the Moschino campaign, “Smiley for Moschino.”[41] In 2017, Smiley partnered with Crocs to create Smiley Jibbitz, charms which could be worn on Crocs.[42] They partnered again in 2021 with a smiley designed croc shoe.[43]

By 2022, the fashion division of Smiley Company generated €200 million in sales annually.[41]

Business model[edit]

The Smiley Company's business model has been compared to Peter Drucker's theory that corporations could operate with a small team of senior management, with partnerships and outsourcing a major component when bringing products to market. In the book The Michelangelo Project: Making It in the Digital Century Workforce, author Isabel Wu explained that The Smiley Company deployed a real-world example of Drucker's business theory. Its vast library of images, designs and concepts are then used by other companies to develop and manufacture products.[38]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "The Top Brands of the Decade". License magazine. December 2020.
  2. ^ Hervez, Marc (9 May 2016). "Qui a Inventé le Smiley? Son Histoire va Vous Surprendre". Le Parisien.
  3. ^ Loignon, Stéphane (3 August 2009). "Ses Petits Smiley Lui Rapportent de Plus en Plus Gros". Capital.
  4. ^ "Wal-Mart Seeks Smiley Face Rights". BBC News. 8 May 2006.
  5. ^ Owen, Jeremy (29 March 2016). "Profile: Smiley World". Transform Magazine.
  6. ^ Yvernault, Veronique (30 April 2014). "Smiley, Souriez, c'est Français!". LSA.
  7. ^ Pani, Priyanka (20 January 2014). "Smiley Bets Big on Merchandise Market". The Hindu BusinessLine. Archived from the original on 26 June 2014.
  8. ^ a b Stamp, Jimmy (13 March 2013). Who really invented the Smiley face. Washington DC: Smithsonian. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  9. ^ Honan, William H. (14 April 2001). "H. R. Ball, 79, Ad Executive Credited With happy Face". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 August 2009.
  10. ^ Adams, Cecil (23 April 1993). "Who invented the smiley face?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  11. ^ a b Collomp, Florentin (5 January 2010). "Smiley ou l'histoire d'une OPA sur un sourire". Le Figaro.
  12. ^ a b "Il y a 50 ans, le smiley faisait son apparition chez France-Soir" (in French). France-Soir. March 13, 2022.
  13. ^ "Behind the HYPE: The Surprising Beginnings of the Smiley Face Design". Hype Beast. 5 May 2020.
  14. ^ a b Crampton, Thomas (5 July 2006). "Smiley Face is Serious to Company". The New York Times.
  15. ^ a b c Crockett, Zachary (July 8, 2022). "The $500m smiley face business". The Hustle.
  16. ^ "Focus on Deejay Scene". Billboard. 15 December 1962. p. 34.
  17. ^ Dr. Esther Morse (1934-12-20). "THE STORY OF ONE CHINESE FAMILY". The Stuart Advocate. Stuart, Nebraska. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-12-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Forecast: Bright and smiley faces when you serve this double treat". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Fort Worth, Texas. 1954-07-18. p. 107. Retrieved 2023-12-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Mr. C. C. Reece". New Berne Weekly Journal. New Bern, North Carolina. 1909-01-19. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "With the smiley, "we get to relax everybody"". Europe 1. 4 February 2016.
  21. ^ Dear, Brian (19 September 2012). "PLATO Emoticons, revisited". www.platohistory.org. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  22. ^ "The History of Smiley Marks". Staff.aist.go.jp. Archived from the original on 3 December 2012. Retrieved 2013-03-14.
  23. ^ Yasumoto-Nicolson, Ken (2007-09-19). "The History of Smiley Marks (English)". Whatjapanthinks.com. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  24. ^ "Jargon file, version 2.6.1, February 12, 1991". Retrieved 2013-03-14.
  25. ^ Rene Mahfood. "Emoji Users Are Shaping The Future Of Messaging". The Light Magazine.
  26. ^ "Niclas Loufrani in the Interview: "My father has invented the smiley face."". inter/VIEW. 23 June 2014.
  27. ^ Symbols: A Universal Language. Michael O'Mara Books. 25 October 2013. ISBN 978-1782430735.
  28. ^ Loveday, Samantha (22 May 2015). "The Big Interview: Nicolas Loufrani, CEO, Smiley". Licensing.biz.
  29. ^ Burke, Jade (7 March 2016). "SmileyWorld's CEO Nicolas Loufrani on Plagiarism, the School Market and a Push for More Toys". Licensing.biz.
  30. ^ Das, Souvik (4 August 2016). "Emoting Out Loud: The Origin of Emojis". di9it.
  31. ^ Jack Quann (17 July 2015). "A picture paints a thousand words: Today is World Emoji Day". News Talk.
  32. ^ Marc Hervez (9 May 2016). "Who invented the Smiley? Its history will surprise you…". Le Parisien.
  33. ^ Olson, Parmy (8 May 2006). "Scott's Wal-Mart in Trademark Clash Over Smiley Face". Forbes.
  34. ^ Smith, Aaron (3 June 2016). "Walmart's Smiley is back after 10 years and a lawsuit". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2017-07-16.
  35. ^ Law, Natasha (September 2019). "From Nirvana and Marc Jacobs to the Smiley Co. and Walmart, the Enduring Fight for the Smiley Face". TheFashionLaw.
  36. ^ "Van Es Shows Off Home Textile Range for Smiley". License Global. 11 January 2010.
  37. ^ Wiseman, Eva (2 July 2006). "A Smiley Face Goes a Long Way". The Guardian.
  38. ^ a b Wu, Isabel. The Michelangelo Project: Making It in the Digital Century Workforce. p. 120.
  39. ^ a b Kelly, Laura (March 18, 2024). "How the Smiley evolved from newspaper icon to movement for a better world". The Big Issue.
  40. ^ "Tracing 50 years of the iconic Smiley, a symbol of defiant optimism". Dazed. January 6, 2021.
  41. ^ a b "The Smiley Company's Evolution From Licensor to a €350m Lifestyle Brand". Business of Fashion. March 15, 2022.
  42. ^ Halliday, Sandra (April 25, 2017). "Smiley and Walton Brown in Asia licensing deal, also links with Crocs". Fashion Network.
  43. ^ "Crocs Give Its Classic Clog a Vibrant Smiley Makeover". Hype Beast. May 17, 2021.

External links[edit]

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