Plane Characters and its Let’s Go See brand has been spreading the word on next week’s Progressive Preschool Awards far and wide – literally, thousands of miles.
Creative director of the company – and also a pilot – Robert Johnson has taken the Plane Characters-sponsored ticket on numerous flights over the past couple of weeks.
Starting in London, the ticket has flown to both Antigua and St Kitts, as well as Chicago. It has also been a passenger on a landing into London during Storm Ciaran.
The story of Plane Characters goes back to when Robert’s children were young, and he would read to them every night.
“As they got older they started to realise that I’d been away from home in my role as an airline pilot,” Robert told PreschoolNews.net. “They wanted to know where I’d been, what I’d seen and because they’re boys, what I’d had to eat! So, we started to make up bedtime stories about my travels, created the characters Pilot Ollie and Pilot Polly along with characters named after them (Alfie Engineer and Woody Weatherman).
“Many months later and after a glass of wine or two, I shared my stories with my neighbour Mike who had the crazy idea of starting a company and publishing my stories. Plane Characters was born.
“Knowing absolutely nothing about publishing, the steep learning journey led us to find an illustrator, a printer, register trademarks and create a website. After a couple of years we had published eight books in the series The Amazing Adventures of Pilot Ollie and Pilot Polly, with sales of books and activity maps exceeding 85,000.”
Following the success of the book series, Robert and Mike were inspired to bring the stories to life in an animated series.
Robert explained: “Let’s Go See follows the adventures of Pilot Ollie, Pilot Polly and the Junior Jets (an eclectic mix of children of differing age, ethnicity and ability) as they travel around the world embracing history, culture and our environment. Each curriculum based destination visited gets animations, a fact filled song and two educational Mission Files. In addition, to keep children moving, we have a series of instructional dance videos to learn the Let’s Go See dance.
“Launching on our own YouTube channel, we soon tied up with Little Dot Studios and their channel Wizz. In July we launched our second series and accumulated 1 Million new views in just 90 days.”
Robert continued: “We also work with Binge Networks, a US-based agent who’s app is reinstalled on OST TVa and who has secured multiple distribution deals for us with some of the streaming worlds biggest names like Tubu (Fox networks).”
On the subject of the company’s support for the Progressive Preschool Awards, Robert commented: “Let’s Go See is on a mission to entertain, educate and inspire children about our world. It is written for 3 to 6 years olds and uses elements of both the Early Years and Key Stage One syllabuses. With content overseen by child play and learning experts, Let’s Go See is loved by children, parents and teachers.
“The Progressive Preschool Awards bring together the best suppliers and retailers in the preschool industry who, like us, believe in entertaining, educating and inspiring children. Having previously met a number of these industry leaders, we are proud to support the awards that recognise the amazing work they do for the industry.”
The Progressive Preschool Awards 2023 takes place on Tuesday 14 November at the Royal Lancaster London. You can still secure your ticket online by visiting Max-Tickets.net or by contacting Clare Hollick at Create Events: clare@createvents.co.uk or +44 (0)1183 340085.
Sponsors of the 2023 event include: Acamar, Allison Baby (Joie), Aykroyd & Sons, Azaria PR, BBC Studios, BTHA & Toy Fair, bébélephant, Bulldog Licensing & Sesame Street, Bump PR, Good Play Guide, Grapevine Global Communications, Harrogate International Nursery Fair, Hasbro, Insights Family, Jazwares, Juratoys, Media Snug, Misirli, Moonbug Entertainment, Paramount, Penguin Ventures, Poetic Brands, Plane Characters, Progressive Gifts & Home, Rainbow Designs, Redan Publishing, Toymaster, Trixie, Vista PR, Walker Books, Wildbrain CPLG, Wonder.
