The lovable Lancashire twosome's quirky ways and madcap adventures have been immortalised in a series of short and feature-length films. But last week they hit the national newspaper headlines with not one but two major deals.
Npower claimed a first by having them make their TV ad debut on 30 March. Much was made of Wallace being caught naked when the shower breaks down. True to form trusty side-kick Gromit is able to help him out by calling Npower's home team. The plan is to run a series of commercials and forms part of a two year deal between Npower and Aardman.
Just two days earlier the £2m Wallace & Gromit themed-exhibition, A World of Cracking Ideas, opened at the Science Museum, again in a wave of publicity. The exhibition is a mock-up of the characters' home and is the result of a partnership between the Science Museum, Aardman Animation and the Intellectual Property Office.
It aims to inspire innovation, while educating visitors on how to protect their own intellectual property through patents, trademarks, designs and copyright as well as encouraging design creativity in children.
The flurry of activity can be traced back to a revamp of the Aardman Productions marketing, licensing and international television division into one single entity, Aardman Rights last September. Under the move, Sean Clarke, who previously headed up the marketing and licensing teams at the company was given the newly created role of head of Aardman Rights.
Clarke, a former Disney consumer products marketer, has been busy. As well as the Npower and Science Museum deals Wallace and Gromit have also been teamed up with Kingsmill and Pyrex for the bakery-themed feature film 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' which premiered at Christmas and was last week released on DVD.
For Pyrex, it provides the bakeware brand with the chance to offer a limited edition range of accessories such as a jug, mixing bowl and even cotton shopper bags.
Pyrex UK marketing manager, Frannie Santos-Mawdsley, says: 'For Pyrex the main priority is to continue to encourage more consumers to bake, especially from a younger age, which the links with Wallace & Gromit has allowed us to do perfectly.'
Kingsmill, meanwhile, launched an on-pack promotion offering a range of collectables.
David Goudge, managing director at Brand Development, says Wallace and Gromit's popularity stemmed from the fact that they have 'general appeal' across the ages.
'It's not that brands who use them are short of ideas, it's that that they are short of exciting stuff to talk about,' he says.
'But the danger is for Aardman is that they will spread themselves too thinly and their impact will become diluted as a result,' Goudge warned.
However given that Aardman announced plans to make 35 positions redundant at its Bristol headquarters earlier this year due to the downturn, it is likely that the tie-ups will continue apace to provide a much-needed boost to its revenues.