Children's Songs from Africa
A beloved African songbook, ready to become a retail brand.
About Beautiful Creatures
Songs children love.
Characters they want to take home.
Created by South African songwriters Ed Jordan and Alan Glass and licensed to Gallo Records, Beautiful Creatures has taught children about Africa's wildlife through original songs and African rhythms for over two decades. In 2025 the brand relaunched with a vibrant new look: a cast of joyful, newly animated 3D style creatures, a refreshed catalogue of eight albums, an an award winning live stage show and a growing merchandise line.
Who buys, and who decides
A family brand with three buyers in every household.
Beautiful Creatures is built for parents and children to enjoy together. That shared trust is exactly what turns a song into a lunchbox, a backpack, a bedtime tee, and a repeat purchase.
Children 2 to 12
The core fans. They know the songs, the characters and the catchphrases, and they ask for the merch by name: "the happy hippo in sunglasses."
Parents & gift-givers
The decision-makers and the wallet. They trust the brand's values, safety, conservation, belonging, and pay for quality content that respects the whole family.
Tourists & collectors
Visitors who want a distinctly African keepsake, and grandparents and educators drawn to the music's heart. A proudly local story they happily carry home.
The opportunity
A large, loyal home market, with two bigger horizons beyond it.
13M+
children under 12 in South Africa, the core consumer base
R12bn+
estimated annual South African toys, games & kids' merchandise retail
8.5M+
international visitors a year, the lodge, airport & souvenir channel
$340bn
global licensed-character merchandise retail, the prize Asia unlocks
Launch core
South Africa
Retail shelves and e-commerce, anchored by an established brand, a live show and a multi-generational fan base.
Tourism corridor
Broader Africa
Game lodges, airports and curio retail, where a high-margin, authentically African character range travels exceptionally well.
Growth route
Asia
A market with a deep, established character-merch culture, and a pipeline of Asian creatures (a panda, a red panda, a fox) built to fit it.
Illustrative market estimates, modelled from public population, tourism and licensing data. Figures are directional and to be validated jointly with the partner.
Why partner with Beautiful Creatures
You bring the retail engine. We bring a brand kids already love.
A ready-made, beloved IP
Not a concept that needs building. Two decades of songs, a relaunched look and a cast with instant child appeal, demand that already exists.
Distinctly, proudly African
A character world rooted in African wildlife and rhythm. Differentiated on shelf and irresistible to the tourism and export channels.
Premium without the premium risk
"We don't compromise on production values simply because it's children's content." Quality art and a values-led story parents trust.
A built-in marketing flywheel
Albums, streaming, a live stage show and the Arena Holdings media network keep the characters in front of families all year.
A growth pipeline, not a one-off
New creatures, new albums and new territories. A range that extends season after season rather than a single drop.
Added value · the marketing channel
A media network most brands pay millions to reach.
Beautiful Creatures is licensed to Gallo Music, whose partner network plugs the brand into the The Music Arena media network, anchored by Arena Holdings, one of Africa's leading English-language news publishers. For a retail partner, that means awareness, demand and in-aisle pull-through a merch licence alone could never buy.
Premier Press
Sunday Times, South Africa's leading weekend newspaper, plus Business Day, Financial Mail, Sowetan, The Herald and Daily Dispatch.
Mass Digital
TimesLIVE, SowetanLIVE, BusinessLIVE and the wider network, 18M+ monthly readers, parents and gift-givers at scale.
Broadcast TV
DStv channels Business Day TV, Ignition and The Home Channel for campaign bursts around launches and the live show.
Magazine Portfolio
A broad B2B and B2C magazine stable for lifestyle, family and trade placement of a new retail range.
Events & Experiential
The group's events division for live activations and character experiences that drive sampling and sell-through.
Co-branded Campaigns
Joint retailer campaigns across the network, your stores and our characters, in one coordinated media push.
Arena media network access is via The Music Arena's partner network. Inventory shown is indicative; specific channels, reach and rates to be confirmed per campaign. Readership per The Music Arena group materials, 2025.
The merch range
Already designed. Already on product.
Apparel, drinkware, bags and school gear, each built around the cast and the official wordmark. Ready to scale into a full retail collection.
Imvubu apparel
Drinkware
School bags
Totes
Mafutha apparel
Stationery
Cups & collectibles
Lucas apparelAll artwork is supplied, character-locked and print-ready. The collection above is a starting point, not the ceiling.
The partnership
A royalty-based
partnership.
No upfront licence fee. We grant the exclusive licence to the merchandise opportunity, and earn together on what sells. You build a category-defining kids' range with a brand families already adore.
What we grant you
Exclusive licence to the merch opportunity
- Exclusive rights to manufacture the Beautiful Creatures range
- Distribution and retail of the collection
- Supplied, print-ready character and wordmark art
- Marketing pull-through via the brand and Arena network
What you bring
The retail engine
- Manufacturing, sourcing and quality at scale
- Distribution footprint and retail shelf
- Channel reach across stores and e-commerce
- A royalty share on the range you sell
The percentages, term and territory are the conversation. Let's talk.
Let's put these characters on shelves.
Speak to
Antos StellaThe Music Arena
Call
Hear the music
Beautiful Creatures · Children's Songs of Africa · created by Ed Jordan & Alan Glass · licensed to Gallo Records, a division of The Music Arena (TMA), with marketing support via the Arena media network. Market figures are illustrative estimates for discussion.