Saturday is the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. In the days and weeks leading up to the milestone, licensors, retailers, and licensees have been announcing space-themed content, promotions, and products, especially in the realms of entertainment, toys, and fashion. The initiatives, most of which incorporate […]
Archive | Licensing
Building A Well-Fitting Wardrobe by the Month
A growing number of fashion designers and celebrity-backed fashion labels have been doing deals in the plus- and extended-size market in the past year and a half, many of them for the first time. One popular strategy is to partner with a subscription box marketer specializing in this segment: Betsy Johnson entered the plus-size market […]
In-World Meets High-Tech
In-world products, which take a fictional item from a film, TV show, or videogame and make it real, represent the ultimate way to differentiate entertainment/character-licensed goods from their competitors. In-world merchandise can assume a variety of forms, from Barco Uniforms’ Grey’s Anatomy scrubs, to Schwinn’s Stranger Things bikes, to Cubicall’s Bill & Ted phone booths, […]
Full of Beans
Three deals announced in the space of one week last month provide a handy illustration of the ways coffee-related brands have become active players in all types of licensing and collaboration: Brand extension. Costa Coffee, the U.K.-headquartered chain, became the latest example of coffee and coffee shop brands entering adjacent categories, especially ready-to-drink coffees. In […]
Good Grooming
A handful of licensors in the past three months have announced deals for a single functional grooming product or targeted collection. The somewhat unexpected pairings, involving properties ranging from designers to celebrities to gaming brands, have generated significant media coverage and social media discussion, some of it tongue-in-cheek and much of it positive: In June, […]
Real Characters
Celebrities have been making appearances, in cartoon form, across key storytelling and communications platforms. The initiatives are mostly for children, but there is sometimes appeal for adults as well, depending on the project. They involve a variety of media configurations: Animated TV shows and films. In June, Ellen DeGeneres’ Ellen Digital Ventures and Warner Bros. […]
Seeing the Bigger Picture
The number of artists and art agents exhibiting at Licensing Expo continues to shrink, with the smallest contingent in recent memory represented at the 2019 edition earlier this month. In part, this decline is due to the nature of the Expo. It faces competition from art-only events, such as Surtex and Blueprint, which attract more […]
Creators as Brands
A handful of celebrity- and estate-licensing programs exhibiting this year at Licensing Expo, held last week in Las Vegas, were centered not on actors or musicians, but on creators of entertainment properties. For example: Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment was founded by the late comic book creator to manage and license newly created IP not owned […]
Moonlighting Beyond Late Night
The hosts of several of the leading late-night talk shows in the U.S. have been moonlighting in other areas of the content business. They are becoming involved in side projects, sometimes spin-offs of their main gig and sometimes ventures entirely unrelated to their primary series. These initiatives occasionally lend themselves to licensed products. For example: […]
A Tumultuous Month for Meal Kits
A lot has happened in the constantly changing meal kit space in the last month or so, with some developments positive and some challenging. Taken together, these recent news items provide a snapshot of the current status of the meal kit business. This remains a category of interest to many licensors, especially in the celebrity, […]