By Allison Watkinson
TLL Reporter
ZAG has promoted their LATAM consumer products executive, Angela Cortez, to oversee the company’s Canadian consumer products business.
Angela Cortez has more than 30 years of experience in the licensing and retail industries. She initially joined ZAG in Spring 2021 as Vice President for the LatAm region. Since then, Cortez has restructured and integrated the entire Zag LatAm team.
“Since joining the company in March last year, Angela has done an incredible job growing our brands across the Latin America region,” said founder and CEO, Jeremy Zag.
“We have incredible content that is loved by families across the globe, and Angela’s enthusiasm, relationships, and creative approach to developing strong promotions and retail events has ensured that fans have multiple ways to experience our brands.”
In her new position as VP of Licensing & Retail for Latin America and Canada, Cortez will grow ZAG’s consumer products presence in the Canadian market in addition to her previously assigned duties for the LatAm region.
Cortez will focus on generating brand visibility and maximizing product revenue in the region using a 360° marketing strategy. She will be responsible for partnering with broadcasters, licensees, and retailers across Canada to build the company’s brands for both English and French-language consumers.
Cortez will work with ZAG’s master toy partner, Playmates, in addition to other current licensees who hold Canadian consumer products’ rights. She will also work toward signing new local licensing partners for product categories such as publishing, apparel, food, beauty, and more. Cortez reports to Julian Zag, the company’s EVP of Global Operations and Head of Consumer Products.
“With strong demand across Canada for flagship brand Miraculous, there is great potential for us to grow our brands across the country,” said Cortez.
“With an exceptional broadcast platform reaching our target audiences, now is the ideal time to ramp up our efforts in this vast market—in fact Canada is the 9th largest economy in the world —with a global strategy, that is, we will support our global partners, and sign local Canadian partners to grow our presence and engage our fans.”
The initial focus for the animation studio’s Canadian expansion will be on Miraculous – Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and the recently released Ghostforce series.
ZAG already has strong placement for its CGI-animated entertainment content across the region. Miraculous is currently available on Family Channel, the French-language network Tele-Quebec, and through the Netflix streaming platform. The Ghostforce series is currently available on Disney XD and Tele-Quebec.