Interest in chess has been on the rise for the past five years, but it has really been experiencing a pop-culture moment this year, especially since the pandemic began. Some of the indications: Chess as esport. All told, viewers on Twitch, the video game-centric streaming service, have watched more than 43 million hours of chess […]
Archive | Design and content themes
Getting Out the Vote
By Karen Raugust on October 19, 2020 in Design and content themes, Licensing, Politics/social movements
Every four years as the U.S. Presidential election comes around, licensors, licensees, and retailers create products and promotional initiatives highlighting themes tied to voting. Historically, these have been mostly focused on merchandise featuring vote-related graphics, primarily as a way to offer some fresh and timely designs. This year, however, marketers (many with ties to the […]
Merchandise To Support Mental Health
The consumer products community’s embrace of mental health as a theme for licensed products and promotions, which we last covered in February, continues through the pandemic. This is not surprising given COVID-fueled stresses such as working and learning at home, experiencing financial suffering, and dealing with a lack of in-person connection, along with the feeling […]
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 […]
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 […]
Potty Time
By Karen Raugust on June 25, 2020 in Character/Entertainment, Demographic groups, Design and content themes, Licensing
Among the new Daniel Tiger products announced earlier this month by Fred Rogers Productions and 9 Story Brands was a 3-in-1 potty-training aid from Fisher-Price. The product is a potty chair featuring a removable seat that fits on a full-sized toilet and a fold-down lid that becomes a step stool, along with activated sound effects […]
Everyday Heroes
Toys and collectibles depicting police officers have taken a hit since the protests against police brutality began almost a month ago with the killing of George Floyd. Lego temporarily stopped marketing its police-centric building kits (but did not stop selling them), while Paw Patrol has come under scrutiny in some quarters for portraying the police […]
Tokens of Gratitude
By Karen Raugust on May 21, 2020 in Branding/marketing, COVID-19, Design and content themes, Licensing
In the last few weeks, a handful of licensors and licensees have launched marketing campaigns and/or product lines built around thanking the medical professionals and other essential workers who have been risking their health to care for the sick or fill the population’s basic needs during the COVID-19 crisis. While a number of companies involved […]
Brands Practice Self-Distancing
By Karen Raugust on March 26, 2020 in Branding/marketing, Corporate brands, Design and content themes, Licensing
A number of brands—many of which are involved in licensing in some way—have gotten creative with their logos as a means of stressing the critical importance of self-distancing to curb the spread of COVID-19. These tweaks simultaneously engage the brands’ fans and boost awareness during a difficult time for most businesses. Examples include: Mercado Libre. […]