The popularity of location-based escape room games—where several friends are locked in a room for an hour and must solve clues and puzzles in order to free themselves—has been on a steep rise since 2012 in the U.S. and since at least 2010 abroad. (The first such game launched in Japan in 2007.) From 2010 […]
Archive | Character/Entertainment
Girl-Power Properties Proliferate
Girl power continues to be a strong theme among entertainment/character properties for all ages, with new examples still entering the market and a number of ongoing initiatives performing well at retail. The trend takes a number of forms: Properties with casts featuring multiple female lead characters, such as Genius Brands’ SpacePop. Properties with female characters […]
Asian Ascent
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 […]
Online Properties, Offline Products
By Karen Raugust on March 20, 2017 in Character/Entertainment, Digital, Licensing, Publishing, Toys/Games
Original entertainment series distributed on streaming platforms, rather than on traditional television, have quickly gained traction as viable licensing opportunities. The first licensed products for these sorts of IP, which began to emerge in the world of licensing nearly two years ago, tend to be toys and/or books. Some examples: Jim Henson Productions’ Word Party, […]
The Many Facets of 3D Printing
A handful of 3D printing deals forged in 2016 illustrate some of the ways property owners are currently using this technology as part of their licensing strategies: Customization. Activision’s new Skylanders’ iteration, Skylanders Imaginators, allows fans to create personalized Skylanders characters, customizing the appearance and name as well as attributes such as powers, musical themes, […]
The Evolving World of Branded E-Commerce
Licensors and licensees are watching developments in the brand-specific e-commerce space. While recent announcements from Fanatics and Delivery Agent have little in common on the surface, together they reflect the challenges facing property-specific e-commerce due to fast-paced technology changes, quickly evolving consumer shopping patterns, and ever-expanding competition. Service providers either adapt or fail. Fanatics confirmed […]
Ni Hao, China
A number of Western character/entertainment licensors operating global businesses have forged deals to strengthen their relationships with Chinese companies in the past six months. Some are bringing their own IP into China, while others are helping Chinese properties expand locally and globally. The initiatives take many forms: Signing consumer products licensees and licensing agents. CBS […]
Fright Night
If you live in a country that celebrates Halloween, especially the U.S., there will probably be a superhero at your door tonight. The top Halloween costumes each year—whether licensed or DIY—tend to reflect current social and pop culture trends. And according to this year’s crop of consumer surveys focusing on Halloween shopping in the U.S. […]
The Expanding World of Character Collaborations
Collaborations between globally recognized cartoon characters and emerging and established fashion designers have become ubiquitous, with new examples arising weekly. Most of the activity to date has been in the key territories of North America, U.K. and Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and Japan. But the practice is starting to gain a foothold in some […]
Read All About It
When you think of licensed publishing for children, what comes to mind is likely traditional formats such as storybooks, board books, coloring and activity books, and the like. These continue to be the keystones of most licensed kids’ publishing programs, especially when based on entertainment/character properties. But as property owners and publishers look for ways […]