A number of museums have recently worked with licensees or collaborators on products that feature a work of art’s color palette as the core design element. This is in contrast to incorporating a full representation of the original work or a pattern or element inspired by it, which is the traditional route taken by most […]
Digital Cooking Brands Turn Up the Heat
Digital-native cooking brands have been expanding their licensing activities in the last year. The properties tend to appeal to a young-adult demographic that needs accessible information and inspiration to prepare healthy and good-tasting meals. They have large and active fan bases across YouTube, Instagram, and other social channels, as well as on their own websites […]
Beauty Competition
The beauty segment has been one of the most active for inbound licensing and especially collaboration deals over the past several years, with the pace picking up during the pandemic. The category is seen as a prime opportunity for celebrities, classic characters, films and TV series, museums, corporate brands, and IP from virtually every other […]
The Many Facets of Diamond Painting
Modern diamond painting—a craft in which the user applies tiny colored resin “diamonds” to a canvas in a process sometimes described as a hybrid of paint by number and cross stitch—is a relatively new hobby, introduced in 2015 in Asia and brought to the U.S. in 2017. Its fast pace of growth has quickly turned […]
Eco-Friendly Fungus
On this Earth Day 2021, it seems like a good time to take a look at the rising popularity of mushrooms as a focal point of sustainability initiatives. Mushrooms and mycelium, the vegetative branching filaments (akin to a root system) of a fungus, are viable not only as eco-friendly food ingredients but as materials to […]
Competitive Advantage
Thanks at least in part to the rise in board games’ popularity during the pandemic, corporate and fashion marketers have gravitated to this category. Several have recently created limited-edition board game releases as a means to promote their brands: Vivetta Ponti, an emerging Italian designer, paired with Mattel’s new collaborations platform, Mattel Creations, for a […]
Anime Goes Luxe
By Karen Raugust on April 15, 2021 in Character/Entertainment, Design and content themes, Fashion, International, Licensing
Anime and kawaii properties have become perennially popular on licensed products worldwide. For the past year, they have had a particularly high profile in the global fashion industry, with a large number of collaborations involving labels ranging from streetwear and sportswear to, most notably, luxury brands: Undercover, the label of designer Jun Takahashi, created a […]
Eating Out, At Home
The challenges faced by restaurants during COVID-19, especially those that do not have strong take-out, curbside, or delivery infrastructures in place, have been well-documented. Perhaps that is why there has been a flurry of announcements about new retail brand extensions—most often in the form of licensing deals—into the food and beverage category in the past […]
Beyond the Nail
Last month we wrote about the diverse landscape of nail color collaborations, driven in part by the enjoyment many young adults get from creating nail art and sharing it on social media. This has led to ongoing demand for new colors, finishes, and combinations thereof. Some of those amateur nail artists, along with professional salon […]
April Fool’s Day: PR or Peril?
Many consumer products marketers and IP owners were back with April Fool’s Day pranks in 2021, after a break last year due to the pandemic still being in its early weeks. Some examples of the trickery on April 1 last week were tied to current events, as when Wildbrain’s Teletubbies announced their own NFT, the […]