HP-2020-000016 - [2025] EWHC 1451 (Ch)

Cabo planned to launch Worldeez in late May and early June 2017. Mr Michaelson took the lead on marketing. He engaged a marketing agency, Evolution PR, which produced an initial marketing plan. Cabo eventually moved to using Weird Lime for their marketing, but the original marketing plan remained largely the same.

Nickelodeon, which was then the most popular children’s television channel in the UK, was approached to provide television marketing. Nickelodeon proposed a revenue-sharing partnership in return for advertising airtime. Cabo engaged Diaframma, an Italian production company specialising in children’s television, to produce its advert.

As part of the contract negotiations with Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon requested financial projections from Cabo. An initial set of projections over a three-year period (i.e. 2017 to 2019) was prepared by Mr Avrom Bishop, Singleton’s Finance Director. He emailed those projections to Mr Cohen on 1 March 2017. Mr Cohen replied later on the same date with amended projections, which included increasing the predicted sales for 2019. In cross-examination, Mr Cohen said that he had done so because he expected Worldeez sales to grow year-on-year. The amended projections were sent to Nickelodeon, and a draft contract was subsequently drawn up.

Cabo’s digital marketing plan centred on the unboxing influencer Tiana. Her Worldeez unboxing videos proved to be popular, with the first, which launched on 19 May 2017, reaching around 500,000 views within a few days. Cabo also marketed on the children’s social media platform Popjam. The Cabo founders and Singleton did not, however, agree a specific launch marketing budget. Again, this became a point of disagreement between them.