In a deal announced just this week, Hasbro licensed British company Bamboo Bamboo to create limited-edition children’s bamboo dinnerware featuring Peppa Pig, sold online. Bamboo dinnerware has been available for a long time, and is billed as eco-friendly as well as safe, durable, lightweight, and easy to clean. With the increased attention on sustainability over […]
Archive | Licensing
Dogs Dressing Up
Several recent licensed pet lines have featured people-like clothing and accessories styles, almost making pets into “mini-mes” that mirror the fashion choices of either their owners or the property (e.g., a celebrity) on which the range is based. While pet lines typically capture the sensibility of the underlying property in their look and feel, these […]
Controlling the Narrative
By Karen Raugust on November 21, 2022 in Character/Entertainment, Interactive gaming, Licensing, Toys/Games
For years now, toy companies have been launching or acquiring entertainment and gaming studios, in the hopes that bringing these businesses in-house will strengthen their ability to control their all-important forays into TV, film, and interactive gaming productions based on their proprietary brands. There has been some news on this front since the start of […]
Linking Merchandise and the Metaverse
While there are a number of different potential objectives for marketers to step into the metaverse, one hope is often to use the effort to help drive purchases of traditional physical products. A growing number of brands, especially in the fashion industry, are experimenting with new ways to strengthen the link between digital and physical […]
Collaboration, Not Appropriation
By Karen Raugust on November 14, 2022 in Demographic groups, Design and content themes, Diversity/Inclusion, Fashion, Licensing
Last month, the wife of Mexico’s president alleged that the Ralph Lauren fashion label had plagiarized a number of designs associated with Mexico’s indigenous Contla and Saltillo communities. The brand said it had thought all such goods had been removed from retail stores a few months earlier, when it had first recognized the issue, and […]
Think Pink
By Karen Raugust on November 10, 2022 in Character/Entertainment, Design and content themes, Fashion, Licensing
The current Barbiecore trend is thought to have gotten its start in 2019, fueled by fans on Pinterest and then Tiktok and Etsy. It has only gained steam since then. The brand, launched in 1959, has a midcentury-modern sensibility that is attractive to many consumers, as well as the nostalgic appeal of a favorite childhood […]
Pickleballing in Style
When we last covered pickleball, in 2019, it was just emerging as a licensing opportunity, with a number of leagues, governing bodies, collegiate teams, and sponsors signing their first licensing and endorsement deals. With pickleball continuing as the fastest-growing sport in the U.S., with average annual increases of 11.5% in participants over the past five […]
Prime of Life
The presence of mature women in the licensing and collaboration landscape has been growing over the past several years. While they still account for just a sliver of celebrity licensing activity overall, women of a certain age, who historically were forgotten when it came to product partnerships, are increasingly accepted and embraced by marketers. These […]
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 […]
A Price to Pay
Ye, the musician, designer, and entrepreneur formerly known as Kanye West, is demonstrating the risks for marketers involved with celebrity licensing, as many of his licensing deals and collaborative ventures have fallen apart in the last two weeks in the wake of his antisemitic comments: Adidas was the latest partner to sever ties, ending its […]