Pro sports leagues from around the world, along with their players associations, have been among the most active property types to date in the world of NFTs. And many tend to think big, signing long-term deals for marketplaces rather than focusing on individual collections of NFTs, although they do that too. This year, and especially […]
Archive | Licensing
Down to a Fine Art
The concept of “artist series,” consisting of in-and-out collections featuring the imagery of a variety of artists, has been with us for decades. But the strategy is certainly experiencing a surge in recent years. Apparel, accessories, and footwear are the most frequent sectors where artist series take place; however, marketers in a growing number of […]
Picking Up the Pace
The governing bodies that oversee professional racing across a variety of vehicles and types, along with other racing-related properties, have been active on the consumer products front since the beginning of 2022. Many have signed new licensing deals (especially in gaming, toys, and collectibles), extended existing agreements, launched new product lines, retained new agents, and/or […]
An Appetite for Regional Restaurants
Restaurant properties have been among the most active in the corporate licensing space of late, as they partner for brand extensions, lifestyle collaborations, and novelty items for fans. For the most part, these are national (or international) chains with multiple locations and a high profile among mainstream consumers. Occasionally over the years, however, local or […]
Copyright Has Its Day in Court
Most consumer products licensing programs are centered on trademarked intellectual property, but copyrighted IP is often involved as well. So it is interesting to look at a number of recent cases involving copyright infringement across a variety of creative industries. These types of situations occur regularly each year, but the frequency seems to be on […]
Keeping Cool
Last week the news came out that Lifetime Brands would be launching a licensed home goods program based on its BUILT brand of insulated lunch bags, soft coolers, hydration bottles and tumblers, food storage products, and travel accessories, with agency The Brand Liaison assisting it in that effort. Target categories include kitchen textiles, outdoor and […]
Are NFTs The Cat’s Meow?
By Karen Raugust on June 6, 2022 in Collectibles, Content, Design and content themes, Digital, Licensing
In the early days of social media memes and YouTube, cat videos were one of the first categories of content to go mainstream. The same phenomenon seems to be happening to a certain extent with NFTs, as the number of cat-related NFT collections is large and expanding, and several have broken through as success stories. […]
On-Screen Representation
Children’s entertainment properties, particularly television series, are increasingly including characters with visible disabilities—that is, they use wheelchairs, leg braces, or crutches—as part of the main friend group portrayed on screen. They are shown living their everyday lives and participating fully in the group’s activities, modeling inclusion and normalizing disabilities for young viewers. Some examples: MixMups […]
Breaking Out of the Metaverse
New deals are revealed almost every day to bring licensed IP into the metaverse, with the partners creating branded virtual goods, storefronts, events, or other implementations, especially in popular gaming worlds such as Roblox. Conversely, several games that originated in Roblox have lately started to break out as licensed properties in their own right. They […]
Homegrown Hits
Individual teams that are members of the leading U.S.-based pro sports leagues have increasingly been pairing with local fashion labels—mostly of the streetwear genre—for clothing collaborations available only in their home markets. Clubs in all five of the major leagues have served as examples of this phenomenon: National Football League. The Cincinnati Bengals paired with […]