Reflected Glory

Three recent hot-markets scenarios in the entertainment/character segment arose after a licensed property or product made an appearance in an unaffiliated TV show or film:

• Netflix’s Stranger Things, which takes place in the 1980s, featured a Halloween costume incorporating a hand-made Ghostbusters logo on a pair of Reebok sneakers from the era. The cameo led Reebok to forge a collaboration with both Sony and Netflix for a pair of limited-edition sneakers, sold exclusively through retailer BAIT, that replicate those in the show. The launch coincided with the premier of Season 2. Other items that appear in the show have generated demand as well, such as a long off-the-market Brontosaurus sweatshirt from the Science Museum of Minnesota, which plans to reintroduce the design.
• Cartoon Network’s Rick & Morty highlighted McDonald’s 1998 Mulan Szechuan sauce, licensed by Disney as part of a short-term movie promotion, in a recurring gag. As a result, fans used social media to demand that McDonald’s bring the product back, which it ultimately did in October, for just one day. Very limited quantities per store sold out almost immediately, generating a fan backlash that illustrates the potentially double-edged sword of viral marketing. Vintage packets of the sauce have been priced in the hundreds of dollars on eBay, thanks to its appearance on the show.
• This year’s Sony film Baby Driver included a joke in which a robber is supposed to buy masks portraying the character Michael Myers from the Halloween movies, but mistakenly purchases masks of Austin Powers (portrayed by actor Mike Myers) instead. The latter became a sought-after Halloween costume this year but were hard to find since they were available only on the secondary market. E-commerce sites ranging from Fright Props, which sells props and costumes for Halloween attractions, and Ward’s 5&10, a mom-and-pop variety store in New Jersey, listed the masks but posted out-of-stock notices well before Halloween. (Halloween Express holds a license from Warner Bros. for Austin Powers costumes, but its selection encompasses apparel, wigs, and glasses, not masks.)

These sorts of unexpected situations can come up fairly often these days, as illustrated by these three examples occurring in quick succession. When they do materialize, the question becomes how (or whether) a licensor or licensee can capitalize within a very short window of opportunity. A lot depends on the age of the property, the status of IP rights, and the timing of the viral sensation, not to mention the involved companies’ ability to be nimble.