Personal watercraft (PWCs) are not on many property owners’ licensee lists. But those licensors that are active in the category are a surprisingly diverse group, encompassing luxury brands, athletes and musicians, fashion labels, and even entertainment IPs: This week, Bombadier Recreational Products’ Sea-Doo announced that it was partnering with the late Formula 1 driver Ayrton […]
K-pop and Characters Unite
K-pop artists have long created cartoon-style characters as a way to promote their music and brands, with the creations appearing in music videos, marketing materials, and sometimes merchandise. Recently, K-pop soloists and groups alike have been pairing with existing characters — often from the Sanrio family — to create fashion and other products featuring themselves […]
Playing Around with Piano Partnerships
Collaborations and licensing deals involving musical instruments mostly fall into the realms of guitars, amps, and accessories, as well as drum kits and related products. Pianos and digital keyboards are not as common as a focus of collaboration deals. But these types of agreements do pop up from time to time, typically yielding very limited […]
Get Ready to Be Horrified this Halloween
With the ongoing strength of both licensed experiences and the horror genre, it makes sense that collaborative haunted houses have become a popular form of location-based entertainment in the past few years. Not surprisingly, the partnerships most often involve properties associated with horror or other dark themes, including several examples just announced for fans making […]
Holding All the Cards
Interest in trading card collecting — which, like many hobbies, was rejuvenated during the pandemic lockdowns — is still going strong, with consumer sales of cards on both the primary and secondary markets on the rise. As a result, sports and entertainment properties continue to actively forge agreements in the category. Following are some of […]
Influencing Home Décor Choices
Influencers who have built their fame mostly through social channels have amassed targeted and loyal followings that are attractive to marketers of consumer goods. As a result, these digital-origin celebrities have become ubiquitous as collaborators in their specific areas of expertise, whether that be fashion, beauty, or cooking. A case in point: the home furnishings […]
Squeezing Out the Licensing Potential of Squishies
Squishy toys have spiked in popularity this year. These playthings have a number of characteristics that are appealing to Gen Alpha consumers and beyond, including their stress-relief properties, their Asian-influenced look-and-feel, and their collectibility. Circana credited squishies, in part, with propelling the 13% increase in dollar sales in the U.S. toy industry in the first […]
A Passion for Romance Novels
The strength of the romance category in the publishing industry has led to several outbound licensing programs of late (as we have covered here and here). These include examples that have crossed into mainstream distribution, such as Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series, as well as many more specialist programs targeting bookish readers mostly through e-commerce and […]
The Return of Licensed Home 3D Printers?
Sales of 3D printers have been spiking, especially entry-level consumer models, according to a report from Context. It found that Q1 2026 revenues for global 3D printers grew 32%, fueled by the entry-level segment (machines priced at $2,500 or less) with growth of 54%. In fact, entry-level machines have become the largest market segment, at […]
Bringing in the Heavy Hitters
Pairings of sports entities and character/entertainment properties — for merchandise, experiences, content, and/or promotions — have traditionally featured entertainment properties with all-ages followings or properties that skew toward the teen-and-older demographic. The former include the likes of Hello Kitty and the other Sanrio characters, the Disney/Lucasfilm/Marvel family, the Minions, and the Looney Tunes, while the […]