Licensors of selected children’s properties are very slowly gaining a foothold in classrooms, largely through deals with manufacturers (or retailers) that focus on supplemental educational products purchased by teachers and home school parents, as well as parents, grandparents, and caregivers who simply want to help support children’s learning.
These licensees sell their products largely through teacher-supply stores, ecommerce sites, and catalogs, although they often have additional distribution in non-educational retail channels as well. Teacher-supply outlets specialize in offering educational toys and games, books and workbooks, software, classroom décor, and art and school supplies to educators and the general public.
Some of the key classroom-products companies that have been involved with licensing over the past several years, to various degrees, include:
- Educational Insights, which makes educational games and interactive learning sets and has recently secured rights to Pete the Cat and Peekaboo Barn.
- Raymond Geddes, which sells school supplies for classrooms, school stores, and educational fundraising. It has a wide portfolio of licenses, including book properties such as Wonder and character/entertainment properties such as Star Wars, Marvel, DC Comics, Frozen, Peanuts, and Rudolph. It has ventured into sports and sports entertainment with the NFL and Monster Jam.
- Oriental Trading, a classroom décor and school supply marketer, which holds agreements for The World of Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss.
- Lakeshore Learning, a chain of teacher-supply stores that sells its own and outside brands and just signed a license with Random House for Tad Hills’ book series Duck & Goose.
- Carson Dellosa, a publisher of workbooks, flash cards, and classroom décor that has dipped into licensing with Guinness, Eric Carle, and Olivia over the years.
The products sold through the teacher-supply channel are typically purchased to supplement a school’s core curriculum or for use as rewards or incentives; not all are educational per se, although all are appropriate for school use. Licensed characters can be beneficial, educators increasingly believe, because they help generate and maintain interest in an academic subject and make learning fun.
For licensors, these deals are attractive because they put their properties in front of a potentially vast market of children and possibly spur additional purchases of licensed products, educational or otherwise, for use at home.
Properties in this market tend to skew heavily toward characters with roots in children’s books and/or educational TV shows that air on PBS, which also provides academic content to schools across the country. These types of IP are embraced, since they already have a place in schools. Overall, however, while there is growing acceptance of licensed products in the classroom, and an increasing number of deals being forged, they remain controversial and relatively rare.
We will not be publishing this Thursday, due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. We’ll be back on Monday, November 28.
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