The war in Ukraine has disrupted the flow of licensed products across the world, especially for companies doing significant business with or in Russia, a growing licensing market before the war started. But, as the pictures in the news everyday can attest, no one in the licensing community has been more affected than those in […]
Archive | Licensing
Wrestling Groups Pin Down New Deals
Last week WWE announced a multifaceted partnership with Fanatics. This is just the latest in a string of initiatives that have surfaced in the past year or so involving wrestling-related IP. Properties and brands at the forefront include: WWE. Its long-term, global deal with Fanatics encompasses e-commerce (including a reintroduction of the WWE Shop); licensed […]
A Good Game for Beauty Brands
By Karen Raugust on April 4, 2022 in Character/Entertainment, Health/beauty, Interactive gaming, Licensing
Beauty companies have been among the most active of corporate marketers when it comes to entering the virtual worlds of gaming and the metaverse. Many have been creating promotions and/or offering digital palettes to be used within the games, for example. Conversely, owners of video game properties have increasingly been dipping their toes into physical […]
The Next Stage of Plant-Based Growth
Most of the licensing and collaboration activity in the growing plant-based food sector to date has involved celebrity-connected vegan meal kits and extensions of existing partnerships into the vegan and vegetarian space (e.g. Breyers adding an almond milk ice cream to its licensed Oreo line). As the plant-based food industry grows, the role of licensing […]
Slam-Dunk Combinations
The major athletic footwear/sportswear companies involved in pro sports-related licensing are increasingly pairing individuals from their portfolios of U.S. pro athlete-endorsers—especially NBA players—with properties from outside the realm of sports. The examples have been piling up slowly since 2019 (a few were released even before that), with the pace of new products picking up in […]
A High-Flying News Channel
Last month Stellar Partners announced the launch of Buzzfeed-branded airport newsstands, with the first two outlets located in New York LaGuardia’s Terminal C. Buzzfeed is the just the latest in a long string of media brands that have lent their names to airport news and convenience stores over the years. In fact, since the early […]
Flower Power
The fresh cut flower category, while still a relatively niche opportunity, has seen an increase in licensing activity over the years, with fashion and lifestyle designers among the property types that are most active in the space. Logically, most of those doing deals are either known for integrating floral patterns into their apparel and home […]
NIL Service Providers in the News
A lot has happened since collegiate athletes and other students gained the right to commercially exploit their own names, images, and likenesses (NIL) nine months ago, on July 1, 2021. For one thing, a variety of services and platforms—marketplaces, group licensing and marketing agencies, educational and back-end resource providers, and the like—have been formed to […]
Male Celebrities Prioritize Skin Care
The men’s and gender-neutral sectors of the beauty industry have both been growing fast over the past decade, especially since 2019, with the expansion expected to continue and even intensify in the foreseeable future. In addition, since at least 2020, the industry has been focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in both product offerings and […]
Just the Ticket
Rail stations, train lines, and railway museums are logical venues for certain experiential initiatives. Not surprisingly, a large percentage—although not all—of these ventures involve licensed entertainment properties that feature trains as characters, themes, or critical elements of their fictional universe. Four examples from 2021 and 2022 illustrate: Warner Bros. France paired with railroad company SNCF […]