Last week it was announced that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was launching a skincare brand, adding his name to the fast-growing list of skincare lines tied to male actors, musicians, and other celebrities known for their accomplishments outside the beauty and wellness industry. The landscape is varied. Most of the celeb-connected lines, which range from […]
Archive | Licensing
A Double Dose of Sweetness
Two new candy-based soft drinks debuted in the first week of March 2024: Ring Pop soda from Bill’s Olde Fashioned Soda and Stardust Sparkling Ice drinks from Talking Rain. These are just the latest additions to a growing list of collaborations over the past five or so years that have brought some big names in […]
The Devil Is In The Detail
Location-based entertainment has been in the news lately, and not in a good way. Willy’s Chocolate Experience, a live event organized by House of Illuminati and held at Box Hub Warehouse in Glasgow, Scotland, has attracted a lot of attention for its poor execution. The ticketing website promoting the event is full of lush A.I.-generated […]
Hooked on Fast Fashion
Sustainability concerns have taken some of the luster from the fast fashion retail sector. The core business model, after all, is to encourage purchases of inexpensive clothes that are meant to be replaced quickly with trendy new pieces, creating an ongoing cycle of waste. Based on the number of deals being done with fast-fashion retailers, […]
The Peak Celebrity Era
Taylor Swift has had an outsized influence on pop culture and commerce in 2023 and 2024, putting her mark on music sales, NFL ratings, sales of official and unofficial merchandise, and more. While Swift is an anomaly in the breadth and depth of her current dominance, her situation nevertheless makes an interesting case study on […]
Revisions to the Collegiate Licensing Syllabus
The collegiate sports landscape has been undergoing some big changes of late, with potential ramifications for collegiate licensees and other companies partnering with universities and student-athletes on commercial ventures: A spike in popularity of women’s sports. Stars such as Caitlin Clark of Iowa and Angel Reese of LSU are driving interest in women’s NCAA basketball; […]
Licensing at Sea
Boats and yachts, especially of the luxury variety, comprise a business that does not often come to mind as a potential licensing category. But marine manufacturers are regularly involved in licensing partnerships and collaborations. A handful of initiatives that have occurred in recent months illustrate: Frauscher Shipyard paired with Porsche for the 850 Fantom Air, […]
Adding Artistic Flair to the Denim Category
Denim has been experiencing one of its cyclical upswings in popularity in the fashion world of late, and the category has been exhibiting both more creativity in design and increased collaboration activity than in the past. At the same time, artists are partnering for fashion collaborations of all kinds with ever-increasing frequency. So it makes […]
Scrolling Through Webtoon Opportunities
By Karen Raugust on February 8, 2024 in Character/Entertainment, Content, International, Licensing, Publishing
Webtoons, or webcomics, are digital comics designed to be read on a smart phone, with consumers scrolling vertically to progress through the panels. The market got its start in the early 2000s and has exploded in the last few years, both in the medium’s country of origin, South Korea, and in other countries such as […]
Accessorizing with Music
Last month, Fendi announced a deal with Devialet for a portable speaker. This is the latest in a series of speaker pairings between luxury fashion designers and electronics companies that has been ongoing since the mid-2010s and has intensified since 2021. While the configurations vary, the majority, especially recently, are portable and designed as fashion-forward […]