Legacy newspaper and magazine brands have been struggling financially for years, in part because of increased competition from digital news and information sites. More recently, however, the latter have been facing equally steep challenges, as consumers rely less on—and often mistrust—official news organizations and turn instead to independent, often opinion-driven sources they follow on social […]
Tag Archives | Nestle
Counting Down the Days to Christmas
Advent calendars are getting more sophisticated each year, featuring increasingly elaborate packaging, daily surprises of higher value, and a growing range of themes and categories, from jerky, healing crystals, and nail polish to cat food, instant noodles, and wine. Licensors across property types have gotten into the game, typically either through in-house-produced examples or with […]
Taking Cereal in a New Direction
Since about 2018, cereal companies have been frequently forging inbound licensing deals or other forms of partnership with marketers of sweet snacks, from candy to cookies to ice cream. The result has been a proliferation of breakfast foods such as Nestlé Drumstick cereal from General Mills, Peeps cereal from Kellogg’s, and Hostess Twinkies cereal from […]
Where’s the Beef?
Plant-based meat alternatives that serve as substitutes for hamburgers or chicken have hit the mainstream in a big way in the last month or two, with the Impossible and Beyond brands being at the forefront. These are plant-based alternatives to meat, which emulate the taste and feel of the real thing, as opposed to the […]
Building a Case for Blockchain
Blockchain is a decentralized ledger—essentially a database—for securely tracking and storing a string of sequential information. It offers the ability to create a transparent, tamper-proof, and trustworthy record of ownership, value, chain of custody, authenticity, and other attributes of an individual product over time, from raw materials through sale and resale. Pilots based on blockchain […]
A Second Helping of Food-to-Food Licensing
When we last looked into the food-to-food licensing arena about three months ago, we outlined the large number of new deals involving food and restaurant brands that had come to fruition in the grocery industry in the previous year and a half. And we noted that, despite the crowded landscape, licensing still represents a tiny […]