If Telemundo executives have their way, soon the network’s own produced telenovelas will not only generate cash through their sale in far away places like Albania or Iran, but also by peddling the clothes and jewelry featured on the nightly dramas. The NBC-owned network, which earlier this year unveiled the creation of www.TelemundoJewelry.com, has launched a new telenovela-inspired collection, designed by Udi Behr, the creator behind the jewels and accessories featured on shows including The L-Word, True Blood and Dexter.
The new collection, Todo por un beso made its debut this month at a showcase in the NBC Experience store in Manhattan. Behr, a native of Israel, was brought in by Richline Group Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, which produces fine jewelry and is the U.S.’s largest importer of gold jewelry. A joint marketing program is underway by Richline, Telemundo and licensing firm Big Tent to push the products not only online but through major retailers, including Macy’s, Bloomingdales and TV shopping channel QVC.
Behr tells Portada he was not really a telenovela fan before (he doesn’t even speak Spanish) but that it didn’t take long to realize what would become the center piece of his Telemundo collection: “I love women’s lips; and the lips and the kissing were such an important part of the [Telemundo’s] dramas,” he says.
The Todo por un beso collection follows the introduction earlier this year of the Telemundo jewelry line, based on several of the network’s telenovelas, including El Clon, Dónde está Elisa, Alguien te Mira and the upcoming La Reina del Sur. And jewelry is only the first of several products the network wants to launch as part of its recently created licensing and consumer products unit. “We decided to launch with jewelry because it plays a very important role in our novelas,” Susan Solano, Telemundo’s evp of marketing told Portada. “But we will be launching other items very soon.”
According to Ann Marie Pollock, of Richline Group, the pieces of the Telemundo collection range from $49 to $900. Currently available on www.telemundojewelry.com the pieces are expected to hit major retailers.
