Beauty companies have been among the most active of corporate marketers when it comes to entering the virtual worlds of gaming and the metaverse. Many have been creating promotions and/or offering digital palettes to be used within the games, for example. Conversely, owners of video game properties have increasingly been dipping their toes into physical […]
Archive | Character/Entertainment
Slam-Dunk Combinations
The major athletic footwear/sportswear companies involved in pro sports-related licensing are increasingly pairing individuals from their portfolios of U.S. pro athlete-endorsers—especially NBA players—with properties from outside the realm of sports. The examples have been piling up slowly since 2019 (a few were released even before that), with the pace of new products picking up in […]
Just the Ticket
Rail stations, train lines, and railway museums are logical venues for certain experiential initiatives. Not surprisingly, a large percentage—although not all—of these ventures involve licensed entertainment properties that feature trains as characters, themes, or critical elements of their fictional universe. Four examples from 2021 and 2022 illustrate: Warner Bros. France paired with railroad company SNCF […]
Flipping the Script
Film and TV properties, like other forms of IP, have been getting into the NFT space in a big way. Now a handful of new deals have turned things around by taking NFT-origin properties and developing them for traditional TV or films: Actress Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine, partnered with the NFT collective World […]
A Sense of Direction
Last month, the Stanley Kubrick Film Archives and its global licensing agent Caroline Mickler announced that Surge Licensing would represent six of the director’s films for consumer products activities in North America. The movies include A Clockwork Orange, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Eyes […]
Black Characters Star On Screen and On Shelf
By Karen Raugust on February 28, 2022 in Character/Entertainment, Content, Diversity/Inclusion, Licensing
As is the case every February, many product, promotional, and content announcements and launches involving licensed properties have been timed to Black History Month in 2022. The initiatives have cut across all property types and product categories. One particularly active space this year has been children’s entertainment and media, with new projects expanding representation for […]
Classics Changing Hands
Over the last couple of days, news has come to light about the oversight of three significant entertainment franchises changing or expected to change hands. The three situations, each of which is unique in its specifics, involve merchandising as well as other rights, and the goal, at least in part, is to refresh and rejuvenate […]
Tigers Burning Bright
Last year around this time, as the start of the Lunar New Year ushered in the Year of the Ox, we considered how some cartoon characters represent a good fit with the signs of the Chinese Zodiac. As such, they are ripe for fashion collaborations when their turn comes around every 12 years. We noted […]
Binge-worthy Spin-offs
Streaming platforms are becoming increasingly active in the licensing and merchandising arena. Leading players are launching outbound licensing programs for properties in which they have an ownership stake, as well as, in some cases, those they represent on behalf of the IP owners whose content they stream: Netflix, credited as the first streamer to have […]
Food for Fans
While entertainment/character-based products for adults represent a relatively small part of the world of licensed food and beverages, several recent initiatives show that this type of pairing is alive and well in today’s licensing environment: In honor of the 50th anniversary of The Godfather, ViacomCBS Consumer Products partnered with Corleone Fine Italian Foods. Products under […]