Licensing initiatives targeting the millennial market frequently highlight styles and themes from the 1990s. The strategy makes sense when you consider that millennials, born from 1981 to 1996 and currently between 22 and 37 years old, spent their childhood and/or teen years in that decade and often have fond memories. It follows that marketers’ inclination […]
Tag Archives | Mattel
Characters and Clothing Meet in Poland
Collaborations between classic characters and contemporary fashion labels are a global phenomenon. A recent case in point is Poland, where three high-profile examples involving global entertainment properties and local designers or fashion retailers have attracted attention this summer and fall: Two retail chains, Reserved and Sinsay, created clothing collections featuring the Pink Panther, in a […]
Child’s Play in China
By Karen Raugust on October 8, 2018 in Character/Entertainment, International, Licensing, Toys/Games
The escalating trade war with China is creating uncertainty for the global toy industry, with tariffs on toys, if they are implemented, potentially affecting the profitability of manufactured-in-China playthings in the U.S. market. But that isn’t stopping Western entertainment and toy companies from continuing to make inroads into the Chinese market by forging distribution, co-production, […]
Rainbow Connection
Rainbow-themed girls’ entertainment is in, if this year’s Licensing Expo is any indication. Among the rainbow-centric properties prominently displayed at the show this year are: True and the Rainbow Kingdom. This Netflix Original is produced by Guru Studio and licensed by Brand Central, with Toy State on board as the licensee for playthings. The show […]
Honing In On The Hispanic Market
Licensors and licensees continue to develop product initiatives meant to appeal to U.S. Hispanic consumers: In April, Masked Republic introduced a website, LuchaCentral.com, with Asteri Networks as a hub for news and content about Mexican masked wrestling. In addition to curated and original news, an event calendar, profiles of the luchadors (wrestlers), and a social […]
Cultivating New Concepts
Licensors, licensees, and retailers have been launching incubator, accelerator, and crowdfunding-based innovation programs in an effort to find new ideas for properties and products that could succeed at retail and that they might not find through traditional means. The programs vary from one another in many ways. They begin at different stages of a property’s […]
Taking a Stake
The incidence of property owners taking an ownership stake in a manufacturer’s company as part of a licensing agreement—while not unheard of in the past—has been on the rise over the past couple of years. This activity has been particularly notable of late in the sports licensing sector. Back in 2015, the NHL took an […]
Online Properties, Offline Products
By Karen Raugust on March 20, 2017 in Character/Entertainment, Digital, Licensing, Publishing, Toys/Games
Original entertainment series distributed on streaming platforms, rather than on traditional television, have quickly gained traction as viable licensing opportunities. The first licensed products for these sorts of IP, which began to emerge in the world of licensing nearly two years ago, tend to be toys and/or books. Some examples: Jim Henson Productions’ Word Party, […]
Blind Bag Bonanza
When the NPD Group released its estimates for U.S. toy industry growth for the first nine months of this year, it called out the collectibles category as a particularly strong segment, with sales up 64% year-to-date. Blind bags—impulse-priced foil or plastic bags with a surprise mini collectible toy inside—represent a bright spot even within collectibles, […]
Ni Hao, China
A number of Western character/entertainment licensors operating global businesses have forged deals to strengthen their relationships with Chinese companies in the past six months. Some are bringing their own IP into China, while others are helping Chinese properties expand locally and globally. The initiatives take many forms: Signing consumer products licensees and licensing agents. CBS […]