This summer has brought an abundance of news on the streaming front, with implications for owners of entertainment, sports, celebrity, and other property types looking for ways to get their IPs in front of TV viewers: Revenue growth. Several leading entertainment companies called out the revenue increases for their streaming businesses in their recent financial […]
Tag Archives | Netflix
Soju Raises Spirits Beyond South Korea
Soju, the national drink of South Korea, is growing in popularity outside of its home country, including in North America, as key brands gain wider distribution and the product becomes available more broadly at liquor stores and restaurants around the world. A light, refreshing, somewhat sweet, fermented and distilled spirit, soju ranges from about 10% […]
Language Learning Through Licensing
Language-learning apps have been entering into promotional deals with licensed properties for close to a decade, with many of the partnerships having a content component. Properties involved tend to skew toward character/entertainment and celebrity IP, although there are other examples as well. For the language-learning platforms, such pairings spur sampling and potentially new subscriptions, while […]
Make-at-Home Margaritas and Martinis
Limited-edition cocktail kits have been bubbling up as a tool for promoting alcohol brands and their partner properties—ranging from entertainment IPs, celebrities, and sports events to food and beverage brands outside the spirits sector—as well as for engaging fans. With these products, consumers can experience the fun of opening the box and discovering what’s inside, […]
Hooked on Fast Fashion
Sustainability concerns have taken some of the luster from the fast fashion retail sector. The core business model, after all, is to encourage purchases of inexpensive clothes that are meant to be replaced quickly with trendy new pieces, creating an ongoing cycle of waste. Based on the number of deals being done with fast-fashion retailers, […]
Fun with Footwear
When it comes to adult-skewing lifestyle collaborations with entertainment properties, footwear is a frequent area of focus. Recently, a very small but high-profile handful of in-world footwear initiatives have taken this phenomenon to the next level, attracting significant attention among fans and the media: Red Wing Shoes paired with Nintendo for a real-life version of […]
Copyright Has Its Day in Court
Most consumer products licensing programs are centered on trademarked intellectual property, but copyrighted IP is often involved as well. So it is interesting to look at a number of recent cases involving copyright infringement across a variety of creative industries. These types of situations occur regularly each year, but the frequency seems to be on […]
Classics Changing Hands
Over the last couple of days, news has come to light about the oversight of three significant entertainment franchises changing or expected to change hands. The three situations, each of which is unique in its specifics, involve merchandising as well as other rights, and the goal, at least in part, is to refresh and rejuvenate […]
State of the Art
Museums, from the V&A in London to MoMA in New York, have been involved in both inbound and outbound licensing for a long time, and several players have been entering and expanding their licensing activities at a fast pace over the last two years. Institutions including The Met, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Oxford University’s […]
Binge-worthy Spin-offs
Streaming platforms are becoming increasingly active in the licensing and merchandising arena. Leading players are launching outbound licensing programs for properties in which they have an ownership stake, as well as, in some cases, those they represent on behalf of the IP owners whose content they stream: Netflix, credited as the first streamer to have […]