Three U.K. greeting card brands have recently taken steps to expand their presence in the market by forging representation agreements with licensing agents to help them facilitate their move into additional product categories or regions: Brilliantly Brave, a new greeting card publisher whose mission is to promote good mental health, both through its messaging and […]
Archive | Agencies
Former Executives Flying Solo
Almost a half dozen new licensing agencies have formed in the last few months, many headed by big names in the licensing business who have recently left corporate positions with major property owners. Each claims a distinct positioning within the market: Last week, Robert Marick, most recently head of consumer products at MGM Studios, a […]
A Flurry of Food-Brand Agency Agreements
Food and beverage brands have represented one of the most active sectors in licensing for quite some time, and the trend shows no sign of waning. As one illustration, in the 15 weeks since January 1, 2024, more than a half dozen food and beverage brands have retained new licensing agents to expand their outbound […]
NIL Service Providers in the News
A lot has happened since collegiate athletes and other students gained the right to commercially exploit their own names, images, and likenesses (NIL) nine months ago, on July 1, 2021. For one thing, a variety of services and platforms—marketplaces, group licensing and marketing agencies, educational and back-end resource providers, and the like—have been formed to […]
Culture Club
A number of cultural institutions—the bulk of which have traditionally handled their licensing and product development activities (if any) internally—have signed licensing agents in the past year, with most of the announcements coming since the beginning of the COVID era: The Metropolitan Museum of Art launched a global licensing program, announced in July, with Beanstalk […]
Going to the Dogs
The famed cats and dogs of the Internet can generate significant retail sales of licensed and collaborative merchandise. As a result, more and more “petfluencers” are signing with agents and/or launching licensing efforts. Dogs have been in the spotlight of late, with at least three notable examples having signed with agents to expand their merchandise […]
Agency Evolution
The licensing and retail landscape has evolved over the past several years to one that, in many sectors of the business, is more about collaborations and capsules than long-term merchandise lines, more about targeted initiatives than mainstream programs, and as much about experiences as products. Licensing agencies have been gradually reacting to this transformation by […]
Collegiate Consolidation
The collegiate licensing business is about to undergo some profound changes, thanks to two recently announced deals involving major players in the collegiate market. Last week, Fanatics said it had purchased the collegiate licensing operations of Fermata Partners, an agency founded in 2012 and owned by CAA since 2015. Fermata execs Derek Eiler and Chris […]
Agents of Change
Three leading licensing agencies, all handling a variety of property types but best known for their corporate trademark licensing activities, have debuted new consulting businesses this year: Seltzer Licensing Group added a proprietary suite of services—brand analytics and valuation, brand strategy assessment and development, market and retail entry strategy, and strategic alliance growth plans—under The […]
Athletes Helping Athletes
Professional athletes have been taking more control of their consumer products and other commercial ventures over the past several years. They are increasingly stepping outside the bounds of their players’ associations to extend their own brands, and they are playing a more central role in designing, managing, and financing their products and promotions, often in […]