As Hanukkah began last evening (December 18, 2022), it seems like a logical time to look at the increased focus on Hanukkah products at retail this year, with expanded merchandise arrays at retailers from Target to Michaels. The trend includes a number of collaborations—although these remain relatively rare overall—often involving designers: Judaica Standard Time, a […]
Archive | Holiday
Horrific Hops
Limited-edition Halloween-themed craft beer collaborations have been on the rise over the past few years, with 2022 as active as ever in terms of the number of examples. Entertainment properties of the horror genre, candy brands used for trick-or-treating, and musical acts whose stage presence, lyrics, and/or graphics are Halloween-appropriate, are well represented: Entertainment. This […]
Heart Beat
Since today is Valentine’s Day, it seems like a good time to note the importance of the holiday as a launch date for new licensed and collaborative products, as well as an occasion for holiday-specific limited editions, collaborations, and promotions involving licensed IP. This is especially true for initiatives involving products that traditionally serve as […]
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 […]
A Home for the Holidays
Gingerbread kits are a perennial category for the holidays each year. Most of the products feature pre-baked cookie pieces in the proper sizes and shapes, as well as frosting, candies for decoration, accessories such as paper character figures, and everything else needed to make a finished gingerbread house or other structure for display. A variety […]
Counting Down the Days to Christmas
Advent calendars are getting more sophisticated each year, featuring increasingly elaborate packaging, daily surprises of higher value, and a growing range of themes and categories, from jerky, healing crystals, and nail polish to cat food, instant noodles, and wine. Licensors across property types have gotten into the game, typically either through in-house-produced examples or with […]
Talking Turkey
The U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving is one of the few celebration days throughout the year with relatively little licensing activity tied to it. It is a holiday centered on gratitude, food, and family, and not on extensive gift giving, costumes, decorating, or other more commercial endeavors. That said, there are a few opportunities tied to […]
Museums Mark Mid-Autumn
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration of the Harvest Moon that takes place in China and other parts of Asia, this year on September 21. In the lead-up to this big holiday, designers and fashion labels, chefs, hotels, corporate brands, characters, and video game properties have increasingly partnered for gift sets containing mooncakes, a delicacy […]
April Fool’s Day: PR or Peril?
Many consumer products marketers and IP owners were back with April Fool’s Day pranks in 2021, after a break last year due to the pandemic still being in its early weeks. Some examples of the trickery on April 1 last week were tied to current events, as when Wildbrain’s Teletubbies announced their own NFT, the […]
Seeing Green
St. Patrick’s Day has become an increasingly important occasion for collaborations and promotions, as licensors and licensees consider holidays throughout the year as potential reasons to debut new products or highlight existing ones. While nowhere near as big as more high-profile milestones such as Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Earth Day, and the like, St. Patrick’s Day […]