Licensing International Expo, which took place last week in Las Vegas, highlighted once again how much the DIY/Maker Movement has permeated licensing, especially on the character and celebrity sides of things, over the past few years.
Some of the properties that can be seen as expressions of this trend—each in its own way—include:
- Lauren Riihimaki, a lifestyle blogger and social media influencer better known as LaurDIY, who specializes in DIY crafting. She is represented by Brand Liaison, which intends to secure licensees for products both designed and inspired by Riihimaki’s work. Plans include DIY projects, fashion, tech accessories, room décor, stationery, and back-to-school items.
- StikBots, a physical-and-digital toy line represented by The Joester-Loria Group, which combines articulated and suction-cupped figures, a stop-motion animation app, and aspirational content. The core of the property is to inspire and encourage kids to create and share their own short films.
- The book property Pete the Cat, licensed by Merrymakers, which features a “can-do” attitude that lends itself to crafting and DIY categories. Marcus Fabrics is a recent licensee for fabrics and fabric craft kits.
- American Greetings’ Netflix-distributed stop-motion action-humor series for teens and tweens, Buddy Thunderstruck, which captures a DIY sensibility by featuring felted characters of the sort you would see at a craft fair. Funko is the property’s first licensee.
- A number of reality shows focused on DIY, including Property Brothers (Scott Living), MasterChef (Endemol Shine), and The Great British Baking Show (Spotlight Licensing).
- Quirky, the online matchmaking site that pairs inventors with commercial brands. It is licensing its name for use on products resulting from relationships forged through the platform; some items will be Quirky-branded and others “powered by Quirky.”
Meanwhile, deals for DIY-related product lines, tied to a variety of property types, also continue to rise. Quarto’s Walter Foster Jr. imprint recently signed on as a licensee for Hello Lucky, a letterpress art studio represented by Moxie & Co., for a tween craft book called Happy Mail that is meant to encourage a passion for letter writing. And the fabric and fabric craft kit category has been active of late. Riley Blake recently added The Little Prince and Kewpie to a roster of licensees that also encompasses Jeep, Crayola, Tootsie Roll, Tetris, Girl Scouts, and Gumby, while Marcus holds the rights to Grumpy Cat, in addition to the already-mentioned Pete.
We will be posting a broader overview of the trends noted at the 2017 edition of Licensing International Expo in Las Vegas tomorrow (Friday, June 2). We will include a link in Monday’s RaugustReports coverage.
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