New licenses signed by major toy companies over the past year illustrate how far the entertainment/character licensing space has transitioned away from its historical reliance on properties with television as a key component of their distribution platform. This is one of the most mainstream of mainstream categories, historically targeting a global market with mass-priced products […]
Archive | Character/Entertainment
Language Learning Through Licensing
By Karen Raugust on January 2, 2025 in Celebrity, Character/Entertainment, Content, Digital, Education
Language-learning apps have been entering into promotional deals with licensed properties for close to a decade, with many of the partnerships having a content component. Properties involved tend to skew toward character/entertainment and celebrity IP, although there are other examples as well. For the language-learning platforms, such pairings spur sampling and potentially new subscriptions, while […]
Bringing Joy to the World
As we approach peak holiday season, here is a look at a few Christmas-themed properties whose focus on the year-round world of the North Pole gives their licensors an opportunity to potentially expand beyond the finite annual selling seasons typical of most holiday properties. While they are in various stages of their life spans, all […]
Read All About It
Read-alouds of licensed books have become key components of the YouTube channels operated by owners of kids’ character and entertainment properties. The read-aloud genre, which consists of video productions depicting children, celebrities, or other narrators reading published books, one per episode, saw a boost during the pandemic lockdowns and has continued to thrive. The experience […]
Uncorking Some Rare Vintages
Wine has started to become a go-to category for lifestyle licensing programs based on fictional TV shows for adults. The trend makes sense given that wine has been one of the most active categories for licensing and collaborations within the alcoholic beverage space since the pandemic began, while TV show-based lifestyle programs have been going […]
K-pop Artists and Their Cartoon Mascots
By Karen Raugust on October 24, 2024 in Celebrity, Character/Entertainment, International, Licensing, Music
Many K-pop acts have created cartoon mascots to promote their group and create merchandise to supplement their ongoing group-wide and individual collaborations in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle categories. While this phenomenon has been ongoing since the early 2010s, it has accelerated in the last couple of years. Typically, the singers in the group help develop […]
Wearing Your Fandom at Your Wedding
By Karen Raugust on September 26, 2024 in Character/Entertainment, Demographic groups, Fashion, Licensing
Earlier this year, a deal between wedding gown maker Lulu Felice and manga artist Ai Yazawa produced a collection of wedding dresses and other wedding-appropriate formal wear tied to two of the artist’s properties, Nana and Neighborhood Story. Some of the pieces—each line features nine dresses and two tuxes—replicate gowns worn by the lead characters […]
Character-Sports Collaborations for the Win
Just over a year ago, we wrote about how tie-ins bringing together sports organizations and entertainment properties, including musicians and characters, were experiencing a cyclical surge, with collaborations between the NBA, My Hero Academia, and Hyperfly; Major League Soccer, Adidas, and Marvel; and Lacrosse Unlimited and Peanuts among the examples at the time. The trend has […]
Strong Characters Lift Protein and Energy Sector
Nutritional products meant to build strength and stamina and/or increase concentration, verve, and vigor in everyday tasks, have been increasingly active as a category for licensing. Properties from sugary food brands to celebrities have lent their names and/or flavor profiles to protein powders, energy drinks, protein bars, and similar offerings. Characters that embody strength, power, or heroism collectively […]
Toy Trend Takeaways from Q2
By Karen Raugust on August 12, 2024 in Business models, Character/Entertainment, Licensing, Toys/Games
Second quarter financial results, released in July and August, of five of the major publicly traded toy and collectibles companies—Mattel, Hasbro, Spin Master, Jakks Pacific, and Funko—all showed declines (of varying degrees) in topline revenues and net sales during the period, compared to the same timeframe in 2023. The lone exception was Funko, which saw […]