Each year, the profile of character properties from China, Korea, Malaysia, and other Asian territories grows at Licensing Expo. There are new exhibitors, the booth sizes increase, and more licensors spin off from their respective countries’ group pavilions to oversee individual booths. Some, such as South Korea’s LINE Friends—a set of characters from a text messaging app widely used across Asia, which has long been a top licensed property in Japan and everywhere else in the region—had booths in 2017 that rivaled the Hollywood studios in size and glitz.
A number of reasons are likely behind this expansion in Asian exhibitors. Show organizer UBM has made a concerted effort to court international licensors. IP owners of properties that are successful in Asia (of which there are many) naturally seek to cross borders to widen their fan base, just as licensors in any territory do. Asian governments often strongly support local industries in their efforts to expand internationally and help subsidize the cost of the booth and other expenses. And today’s Asian properties want to emulate those of the past that have had significant success outside their home territory, including in the U.S., although North America remains a challenge for most.
Some of the properties at the Expo, including not only LINE Friends but also Boonie Bears, Ali the Fox, and Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf from China; B. Duck from Hong Kong; RoboCar Poli, Molang, and Pororo from Korea; and Rilakkuma from Japan, have been among the top properties in their home countries and across Asia, but have not made significant inroads into the U.S. market.
This is starting to change. Ali the Fox and Molang both have U.S. agents (Sage Licensing and PlayLife in the case of Ali and Licensing Works! in the case of Molang). The latter is one of the Asian-origin properties to have recently secured U.S. broadcast distribution; another is P. King Duckling, a coproduction between UYoung of China and Little Airplane Productions of the U.S., with Dekel Brands on board as a licensing advisor. Both air on Disney Junior in the U.S.
Of course, a few anime properties, such as Pokémon, and cute kawaii characters, notably Hello Kitty, have certainly made an impact in licensing in the U.S. over the decades. And more Asian properties have been making an effort to cross into the U.S. and other Western markets over the past few years, with some successes, as we have examined previously. The expanding presence of Asian licensors at Licensing Expo serves to underscore this trend.
For further observations from the 2017 edition of Licensing International Expo, with a particular focus on digital distribution and marketing, read our coverage here.
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