Much of the initial interest in the wearable-technology category, when it comes to licensing, has been focused on fitness bands. But smart watches and smart accessories (e.g., smart bands and smart bracelets) have caught up quickly as an area of activity. Like fitness bands, these devices often monitor exercise accomplishments, calories expended and taken in, […]
No Rest for Mattress Licensors
Mattress brands are increasingly establishing or expanding outbound licensing programs and signing agents to assist them in those ventures. These properties collectively represent a growing niche within the corporate and trademark brand-extension sector. Just within the last year: Serta signed Delta Children for a line of nursery cribs, mattresses, and furniture. Simmons, which already has […]
Marketers Seek Artistry in Promotion
A number of artists recently have raised their profiles by participating in promotions that support consumer products and entertainment ventures. For marketers—which have initiated most of these partnerships—bringing in an outside artist or artists is an opportunity to give fans a fresh perspective on their brand or property and generate buzz in the media. For […]
The Rise of Social Shopping
Licensors and licensees are starting to experiment with social commerce—which fuses online shopping and social media—as a new opportunity for merchandise sales: HarperCollins is currently working with Twitter Commerce on a 35%-off promotion for the hardcover movie tie-in edition of Insurgent. The publisher and Twitter are both tweeting about the offer, targeting users who are […]
Fake Languages, Real Licensed Content
By Karen Raugust on March 19, 2015 in Character/Entertainment, Content, Education, Licensing, Publishing
A handful of entertainment properties, especially in the sci fi and fantasy genres, feature well-developed languages used by characters from alien planets or fictional cultures. These languages sometimes make their way into content-based licensed products such as books and language-learning courses. A recent example occurred when HBO partnered with Living Languages last summer for Living […]
Safety in Numbers
Retail buyers in the fashion category are offering their consumers something brand new—while at the same time alleviating their risk a bit—by creating limited-edition collections tied to groups of emerging designers or celebrities. The fact that the names are lesser known gives early-adopting consumers an opportunity to be the first to support a potential future […]
Feeling Good About Emojis
Not surprisingly, the emojis and emoticons that are so ubiquitous in social media, texting, and email are making their way into the physical world as a theme for a variety of consumer products. In the toy industry, Jakks introduced Emoji Bears, a line of plush bears that allow children to express their emotions by placing […]
Something’s Fishy
Fresh and frozen fish may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about licensing. But there have been several deals in this category over the years. Most recently, FremantleMedia Enterprises licensed the rights to The Deadliest Catch, a reality series airing on the Discovery Channel, to ShopHQ (now rebranded as […]
Wearables: Think Content, Not Just Devices
Most of the emphasis in the growing fitness tracker category, when it comes to licensing, has been on branding the devices. Fashion-related labels (such as Tory Burch and Swarovski) have brought a dash of design to the technology, while athletic brands (such as Skechers and Bally Total Fitness) have lent an element of performance, to […]
Embracing Offbeat Opportunities
When licensing executives walked the aisles of Toy Fair years ago, they would see products based on the top entertainment and character licenses at the booths of exhibitor after exhibitor across the show floor. Today, licensing activity in the toy category, even for the hottest licenses, tends to be consolidated with the master licensee and […]