Cool Cats
Cool Cats Newsletter: November Recap

Cool Cats Newsletter: November Recap

News

TLDR

Animoca Brands Japan x San FranTokyo x Cool Cats

  • Animoca Brands Japan and San FranTokyo announced a strategic partnership with Cool Cats to expand its IP in Japan and Asia.
  • Key initiatives include creating a Cool Cats manga, acquiring a significant collection for storytelling, and broadening brand presence through various channels in Japan.

Titmouse Animation: “The Milk Chug”

  • “The Milk Chug” is an episodic short series featuring Blue Cat, Chugs, Jo, and Ardi in various adventures, starting with a coffee-making competition.
  • The animation is produced by Titmouse Animation, and features Zeno Robinson, Dan Stevens, and Maggie Lawson as the voices of Blue Cat, Ardi, and Jo respectfully. 
  • BTS footage at Titmouse was just released, and showcases a live peek into the creative process on our YouTube channel. Community members in NYC got an early sneak peek at this footage and episode two.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

  • Cool Cats became the first digitally-native brand with its own balloon in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, reaching over 28.5M TV viewers and 3M in-person attendees.
  • The Parade showcased the journey of Blue Cat’s creator, Clon, from flea markets and galleries to leading a landmark event in NYC, as well as the journey of the Cool Cats community from a group of digital collectible fans to a global brand.

Find Blue Contest 

  • Cool Cats’ global community engaged in a month-long effort to help reunite Blue Cat and Chugs.
  • Community efforts helped gather clues about Blue Cat’s whereabouts, posted “Missing Cat” posters, and took pictures of Blue Cat and Chugs at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
  • Winners of these contests won prizes ranging from Cool Cats plush collectibles to unminted Cool Cats NFTs, and even a $10,000 grand prize.

New Collectibles

  • Cool Cats launches the ‘Color Me Cool‘ contest in partnership with Macy’s, offering 1,000 limited-edition Blue Cat and Chugs figurines, serving as blank canvases for participants to personalize and potentially showcase on a larger scale via NFC technology.
  • New Cool Cats merchandise dropped in our store, featuring cross-body bags, hats, plush, and more.

Animoca Brands Japan x San FranTokyo x Cool Cats

We teamed up with Animoca Brands Japan and San FranTokyo to help bring our IP abroad, into the heart of Japanese culture, and beyond. We’re focused on expanding the Cool Cats brand in Japan by exploring new avenues in merchandising, licensing, and digital content creation.


This partnership allows us to push the boundaries of the Cool Cats ecosystem by doing things like developing a unique Cool Cats manga, and introducing Vtuber content featuring Cool Cats IP. As part of this strategic partnership, Animoca Japan acquired 37 Cool Cats, 15 Shadow Wolves and 15 SideKXs for their treasury. Along with building IP awareness around Cool Cats’ main characters Blue, Chugs, Ardi, and Jo, these new additions ensure any new stories told will honor the original source IP.

We’re incredibly excited about this step towards global brand awareness, and we can’t wait to show off what we’re working on over the coming months.

Titmouse Animation: “The Milk Chug”

Cool Cats is diving into the world of animation with their new episodic short series, “The Milk Chug,” created in collaboration with the renowned animation studio, Titmouse Animation. The series kicks off with Episode 101, where viewers are introduced to Blue Cat, Chugs, Jo, and Ardi, engaging in a lighthearted coffee-making contest at the Milk Chug. This project is an opportunity for us to dive into long-form narrative storytelling with our characters by featuring them in animated escapades.

“The Milk Chug” is the product of Clon’s vision and character design, paired with Titmouse Inc.’s expertise in animation, storytelling, and production. Titmouse Animation, with a portfolio featuring acclaimed shows like “Big Mouth”, “Beavis and Butt-head”, and “The Venture Bros”, brings a level of quality to our story like never before. The Milk Chug also features a stellar voice cast, including award-winning actor Zeno Robinson as the voice of Blue Cat and Chugs (Hawks in “My Hero Academia” and Goh in “Pokémon”), Dan Stevens as the voice of Ardi (Matthew Crawley from “Downton Abbey”), and Maggie Lawson as the voice of Jo (Juliet “Jules” O’Hara from “Psych”).

With a behind-the-scenes look into the animation process available on our official YouTube channel, viewers can get a glimpse of how these characters are brought to life. “The Milk Chug” is just one example of our commitment to expanding our universe and engaging audiences across the world. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes and join in on the animated adventures of Blue Cat and friends on our Youtube channel!

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

The morning of November 23, 2023 marked a historic moment for Cool Cats, as we became the first digitally-native brand to feature our own balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This incredible achievement not only introduced Blue Cat and Chugs to an enormous audience but also marked a new high in mainstream visibility for Cool Cats. With over 28.5 million people tuning in on TV and more than 3 million attendees in New York City, this year’s Parade was the most-watched ever, showcasing Cool Cats to the world on an unprecedented scale.

This experience was a dream come true in more ways than one. Clon’s journey from selling his creations at flea markets and galleries to leading one of his characters through the streets of NYC as larger-than-life balloons, is a testament to over a decade of perseverance and passion. For us, this was not just a celebration of our growing brand and IP, but also living proof of the power of creativity and belief in your vision.

We believe in dreaming big, pushing boundaries, and connecting with audiences across both digital and physical platforms. We would not have gotten here without the efforts and unbelievable support of our community (shout out TastySnackz and TheGoodKnight in particular), nor would this have been anywhere near the success it was without our incredible partner in Macy’s.

Thanks to Macy’s, we were able to not only fly our balloon for free, but we were also able to offer three limited edition collectibles available in Macy’s flagship stores, and presented the parade to our digital fans through the OnCyber Digital Parade. This event is the biggest step so far in our brand’s history, and serves to reinforce our mission to inspire the creator in everyone.

Find Blue Contest

On the note of community efforts, our community spent nearly the entire month of November helping Chugs search for Blue Cat all over the world after they got separated in New York!

After Clon put the call out for help, community members from all across the world went above and beyond to help reunite Blue Cat and Chugs by posting “Missing Cat” posters in their area. We saw these posters appear everywhere from Hong Kong to Mongolia and everywhere in between. Thanks to their help, we were able to piece together clues about Blue Cat’s whereabouts, and three lucky community members were rewarded for their help with an unminted Cool Cat from our vault.

Our biggest contest to date also ran through November, and aimed to reunite Blue Cat and Chugs as well! Once we determined that Blue Cat and Chugs would be reunited at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, we asked viewers and attendees to snap the most creative picture of Blue Cat and Chugs together. Thanks to this picture taken on the streets of New York City, surrounded by Cool Cats holders, community member ScottyB won our $10,000 grand prize.

New Collectibles

Cool Cats has teamed up with Macy’s to launch the ‘Color Me Cool’ contest, inviting our community to unleash their creativity by customizing limited-edition figurines into personalized works of art.

The contest offers 1,000 exclusive Blue Cat and Chugs figurines to holders, which serve as blank canvases, encouraging participants to apply their artistic skills and imagination. Adding a technological twist to the contest, each figurine is equipped with NFC technology, which allows artists to bridge the gap between their real-life creations and the digital realm.

By customizing the figurine and digitizing it, creators can share their unique art with a broader, global audience. For more details on how to participate, read our blog!

Additionally, we’re excited to offer a new lineup of Cool Cats merch, available now in the Cool Cats Store! This merch drop features something for everyone, from crossbody bags depicting your favorite Cool Cats characters, to SideKX plushies, new designs on hats and shirts, and more.