A Peanuts t-shirt offered in conjunction with the American Red Cross was recently in the news for successfully encouraging young-adult fans of the property to give blood. This is the latest in a fairly regular stream of promotions over the past five years or so in which character and entertainment properties are used to attract […]
Archive | Experiential licensing
Ice Pop(-Up)s
A growing—but still unusual—type of experiential opportunity in the licensing business involves properties and brands lending their names to hotels, bars, and other outdoor structures made entirely of ice. While collaborations in this space have been relatively few and far between to date, more ice structures in general are being built for recreational purposes in […]
Hoteliers Look to Licensing
Branded hotels had been an up-and-coming form of experiential licensing for at least five years prior to the start of the pandemic, and they are back, if the number of new deals and openings announced in the last year or so is any indication: Lagardère Group’s ELLE magazine brand opened its first hotel, in Paris, […]
Walks on the Wild Side
By Karen Raugust on September 15, 2022 in Character/Entertainment, Experiential licensing, Licensing, Publishing
Nature trails have become a popular form of experiential licensing for children’s book and entertainment properties, especially in the U.K. Here are some examples from the past few years: Among Penguin Ventures’ many experiential activities for Peter Rabbit are winter activity trails in 90 locations managed by the U.K.’s National Trust. The trails launched in […]
Orchestras Score with Gamers
By Karen Raugust on August 8, 2022 in Cultural, Experiential licensing, Interactive gaming, Licensing, Music
In its July 2022 listing of the 20 best video game soundtracks of all time, British classical music radio station Classic FM said, “Video game music is one of the most exciting areas of contemporary music, with composers like Austin Wintory, Jessica Curry, and Nobuo Uematsu winning fans the world over with their game soundtracks.” […]
A High-Flying News Channel
Last month Stellar Partners announced the launch of Buzzfeed-branded airport newsstands, with the first two outlets located in New York LaGuardia’s Terminal C. Buzzfeed is the just the latest in a long string of media brands that have lent their names to airport news and convenience stores over the years. In fact, since the early […]
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 […]
Tea Time
By Karen Raugust on July 22, 2021 in Character/Entertainment, Experiential licensing, Food/Beverage, Licensing
Traditional English-style afternoon teas tied to characters (and sometimes other properties) have represented a growing piece of the experiential-licensing landscape since the mid-2010s, at least in some parts of the world, with a particularly notable burst of activity beginning in 2019. Even during the pandemic, at least between lockdowns, a few licensed afternoon teas were […]
FMX 2021: Insights on AR, VR, and LBE
By Karen Raugust on May 17, 2021 in Digital, Experiential licensing, Innovation, Interactive gaming, Licensing
FMX 2021, a conference focusing on animation, visual effects, games, and immersive media, was held May 4-6, 2021. The digital event featured three case studies of interest to the licensing community: the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park land; Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix-Up, an app-centric augmented-reality, multiuser, multimedia experience with a live community […]
Basic Training
A number of property owners have announced the launch this fall of branded educational courses, online at the moment, mostly through partnerships with education providers. All are focused on professional training. The timing makes sense given the high number of furloughs and layoffs that have occurred since the start of the pandemic. Many adults want […]