Food-to-food licensing, in which food and restaurant brands extend into non-core food and beverage sectors that represent a good fit with their flavor profile or positioning, continues to proliferate. Taking a look at some of the deals announced within the last year and a half shows the wide variety of food and beverage categories impacted: […]
Archive | Licensing
The Expanding World of Character Collaborations
Collaborations between globally recognized cartoon characters and emerging and established fashion designers have become ubiquitous, with new examples arising weekly. Most of the activity to date has been in the key territories of North America, U.K. and Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and Japan. But the practice is starting to gain a foothold in some […]
An Ear for Music
Key players in the headphone industry have been experiencing some upheaval in the past few months, thanks to bankruptcies, mergers, and lawsuits: SMS Audio, rapper 50 Cent’s company, filed for bankruptcy in April and shut down in August. Its licensed and signature products included gear for Reebok; Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars; and 50 Cent. […]
Sponsorship, Storytelling, and Self-Expression
Two trends have emerged on the emoji-related licensing front. First, IP owners with sponsored emoji sets are starting to launch outbound licensing programs based on their unique designs. Second, emoji-based properties are extending into children’s publishing as they try to build story and characterization to supplement their inherent value as symbols of self-expression. Sponsored emojis […]
Big-and-Tall: Plus-Size for Men
One of the fastest-growing areas for licensing in the women’s apparel industry over the past two years has been the so-called “plus-size” market, which has attracted designers such as Isabel Toledo, a raft of celebrities from Jessica Simpson to Melissa McCarthy, and TV properties such as Empire. The men’s equivalent, the “big-and-tall” market, keeps a […]
Regional Ties
Several recent collaborations have given rise to limited-edition products inspired primarily by the common regional roots of the two partners. In the craft beer industry, where local and limited are key tenets, Naragansett Beer teamed with Bananagrams in August for a banana-and-clove-infused Hefeweizen as part of its “Hi Neighbor” series of brews. Both companies are […]
Read All About It
When you think of licensed publishing for children, what comes to mind is likely traditional formats such as storybooks, board books, coloring and activity books, and the like. These continue to be the keystones of most licensed kids’ publishing programs, especially when based on entertainment/character properties. But as property owners and publishers look for ways […]
Delectable Destinations
Experiential licensing deals continue to accumulate, with branded cafés one of the most common examples of late. Properties announcing deals in the past six months to launch new ventures, or expand existing café chains, illustrate both the variety of properties active in this sector and the global reach of the trend: Characters. Moomin will inaugurate […]
Share and Share Alike
One way to keep a licensing program alive over time is to regularly release new characters, storylines, or art styles that licensees can use to freshen their product assortment. Increasingly, licensors are enlisting their licensees in this effort by facilitating the sharing of licensee-developed assets for new merchandise collections in other categories. NBCUniversal partnered with […]
Creative Thinking
Fashion designers are increasingly stepping outside of their traditional realms of apparel, accessories, footwear, beauty, fragrance, dinnerware, bed and bath, and home décor. Many have been testing categories such as pet products and electronic-device cases, for example. Some ventures are virtually one of a kind, as is the case with these unconventional limited editions: Karl […]