The BBC plans to turn the world’s most popular Blue Heeler, Bluey, into an all-encompassing “lifestyle brand” for all ages after the success of her bite-sized adventures.
Bluey has already driven a record £2.16 billion in sales from commercial operations last year through brand deals for everything from headphones to baked beans.
Now, BBC Studios' head of global consumer products, Suzy Raia, says the company plans to make Bluey a lifestyle brand for both children and adults.
“We’re just at the beginning of something that I hope will be a generation-defining brand for children and then families today,” Raia told the Guardian.
“From a retail sales standpoint, we are generating about $3.6 billion (£2.7 billion) in global retail sales across our entire portfolio and Bluey is a really, really big chunk of that.”
Due to the BBC’s ability to exploit digital channels like YouTube and TikTok, executives determined that Bluey could appeal to parents and young adults.
Bluey’s official YouTube channel now has 21 million subscribers and 13 billion lifetime views. The TikTok account also has almost 5 million followers.
“Within seven months, we had a million TikTok subscribers,” Raia said.
“That was a moment where we were really able to find the fans that are not purely preschool – young adult audiences and teens really started to get this exposure.
The series has already taken the world by storm, becoming the world’s most-watched show in the U.S. across all genres in 2024 and maintaining that spot through the first half of this year.
Music from the series has also been streamed over 1 billion times.
The Blue Heeler has already spawned many product deals and has made theme park appearances, becoming the first non-Disney children’s brand to feature in Disney Parks.
Bluey will also migrate to the big screen with a film announced for 2027.
The BBC currently owns the global merchandising and distribution rights to the series and revealed in its annual report that its record commercial revenues were driven by “the licensing of the Bluey brand in particular”.
