Measuring Success in Decades

Last month, Popeye Magazine, a Japanese men’s fashion periodical published by Magazine House under license from King Features, celebrated its 40th anniversary. The milestone serves as a reminder that, despite all the focus these days on short-term collaborations and limited editions, there is still a place for traditional, long-lasting licensing partnerships.

Other examples include:

• Elizabeth Arden’s Elizabeth Taylor line of fragrances, launched in 1987 and celebrating its 30th anniversary next year. Since 1991, when the White Diamonds scent was introduced, the range has generated more than $1 billion in sales, according to the company.
• Bayer’s Flintstones Vitamins, introduced 48 years ago, in 1968. Bayer owns the brand through its 1979 acquisition of original licensee Miles Laboratories.
• Hallmark’s Peanuts greeting cards, which have been going strong for 56 years, since 1960. At the time of Iconix Brand Group’s acquisition of Peanuts in 2010, consumers had purchased more than 1 billion cards, with the property accounting for 20% of all greeting cards sold in Hallmark’s own stores.
• Balmain Hair, a marketer of hair extensions and related care items under license from the House of Balmain designer label for more than 40 years. The products are sold in 50 countries.
• ABC Bakers’ and Little Brownie Bakers’ Girl Scout cookies. ABC has been baking Shortbread under license from Girl Scouts of the USA for 80 years, since 1936—adding top-selling Thin Mints and other varieties over time—while Little Brownie came on board more than 35 years ago.
• Wedgwood’s and Royal Doulton’s Peter Rabbit dinnerware. The two brands, both owned by the Fiskars Group since last year, have been selling products featuring Beatrix Potter’s characters for more than 70 years, since the 1940s.

Of course, even long-term licensing deals do not always last forever. Ingersoll, an early Mickey Mouse licensee with the introduction of watches in 1933, sold more than 2.5 million units in the first two years of the deal and 25 million by 1957; the license ended after 38 years, in 1971. Ingersoll, now owned by Zeon, has created Mickey Mouse watch collections again in recent years, with a nod to the retro styles.

When long-term deals end, the product lines often live on, uninterrupted, with new partners. Last month Mondelez International secured the rights to manufacture and market Cadbury-branded biscuits (cookies) globally, after Burton’s Biscuit Co. had held the license for 30 years. Safilo marketed Gucci eyewear for 25 years, from 1989 to 2014, before Gucci owner Kering decided to bring the line in-house. And Sunkist soda debuted 37 years ago, in 1979, with original licensee General Cinema Corporation. Cadbury Schweppes acquired the Sunkist soda business from General Cinema in 1986; when it spun off its U.S. beverage unit in 2008, it formed current Sunkist licensee Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.