The biggest entertainment/character licensors and their licensees are enhancing fans’ sense of belonging and engagement with a bit of team spirit. Initiatives take different forms:
- Choosing sides. Several of Disney/Lucafilm’s licensed Star Wars products, from NVidia’s computer graphics processing units (GPUs) to Ample Hills’ ice cream, give consumers two alternatives from which to select, the Dark Side and the Light Side. Similarly, some of Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter products, such as spatulas from Williams-Sonoma, give fans a choice between the four Hogwarts’ houses, Gyffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Fans are able to opt for one side or group over the others, mirroring the storylines featured in the respective film franchises.
- Pairing heroes and villains. Funko’s Disney Heroes vs. Villains Mystery Minis were two-packs that included a Disney protagonist and its antagonist together, such as Ariel and Ursula from The Little Mermaid or Simba and Scar from The Lion King, with some pairs available exclusively at Hot Topic. Meanwhile, Scholastic has published a variety of Star Wars tie-ins, such as Star Wars: Clone Wars Head to Head and Lego Star Wars: Face-Off, that posed the question: Who would win in diverse match-ups of favorite characters, vehicles, and creatures? Not only did these products offer superfans a new and unique SKU to add to their collections, but they provided an additional dimension of play value as fans could imagine or reenact a contest between the two characters
- Forming a team. With this strategy, which has been ongoing for some time, heroes or villains from disparate properties come together into a single franchise, sometimes creating a super team of sorts. Recent examples range from DC Super Hero Girls to Marvel’s The Avengers. Consumers can show their allegiance to the whole team or to a particular character, depending on their interests and loyalties.
These team-building initiatives to date have been more or less limited to the biggest licensors, which have a wide range of characters and properties to pair up in novel configurations, as well as a variety of properties for which these strategies make organic sense from a storytelling standpoint. That said, these types of programs are indicative of how entertainment licensors of all sizes are looking for innovative ways to present a fresh perspective, offer an original product design, and engage fans in new ways.
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