Latina singers have been in high demand for makeup collaborations of late, with at least three deals signed this year after several introductions in 2018 and 2019. These celebrities have an advantage in that they tend to attract a mainstream audience that includes ethnically and racially diverse consumers, something that increasingly appeals to cosmetics marketers […]
Contemplating Kombucha
Brands of kombucha, a fermented, sweetened black or green tea, have been increasingly active as partners for collaboration, with a focus on limited-edition products, over the past three years. A pairing of the River Cottage cooking brand and Equinox Kombucha, announced in July, is one of the most recent examples. Alliances to date have featured […]
A Sporting Chance
One of the main topics of conversation in licensing, almost since the pandemic began, has been whether and how contracts could be renegotiated to better share risk between licensors and licensees. The sports industry is one sector in which a number of contracts are currently being questioned, reconfigured, or discontinued in the wake of the […]
Taking the Tiger by the Tail
Early in the pandemic, the Netflix documentary series The Tiger King became an immediate viral hit, spurring demand for plush, t-shirts, and other products with tiger themes—all unrelated to the show itself—on both traditional e-commerce and print-on-demand sites. The phenomenon led some in the licensing and consumer products business to predict that tigers would become […]
Sitting Pretty in the Pandemic
Almost since the beginning of the lockdown, pundits have been saying that demand for cosmetics would likely decline, as most of consumers’ time has been spent at home and, even as society re-opens to a degree, mask-wearing hides much of the face. This prediction has come true in many cases, as a large number of […]
Approaching the Starting Line
Organizing bodies overseeing global sports events are starting to look forward to when they can again host their tournaments and games—some as soon as 2021, they hope—and are jumpstarting their licensing efforts in preparation for that day. Here are some recent developments involving high-profile upcoming sports competitions: Rugby League World Cup 2021 is planning to […]
Calm in the Storm
Meditation and mindfulness apps saw a spike in usage after the global pandemic hit. In the seven days beginning March 29, two weeks after the start of the lockdown in the U.S., downloads for such apps were up 25% from the weekly average in January and February, reaching 750,000 downloads, according to App Annie figures […]
Hail to the Chefs
Cooking as a theme for animation is nothing new, but the phenomenon seems to be on the rise this year. New animated productions are increasingly featuring fictional chefs; established animated chefs are being taken in new directions; and classic animated characters of all kinds are being turned into guides to cooking and baking in spin-off […]
All The Buzz On Bees
A number of marketers have recently focused their attention on products and promotions to raise awareness and funding for the protection of bees, the most important pollinators of food crops globally: Two Australian luxury labels, fashion design brand KitX and jewelry marketer Heart of Bone, paired for the Tiny Bee Stud, with 10% of all […]
Clothing for the COVID Era
Populations around the world are slowly starting to test a post-COVID daily routine that involves some form of work, school, shopping, and leisure. But the reopening of society has shown that the coronavirus is still a threat, as illustrated by the recent spikes in the number of cases in the U.S. and some other countries. […]