We delve into the licensing life of Penguin Ventures’ head of licensing and consumer products.
Susan Bolsover,
Head of Licensing and Consumer Products, Penguin Ventures
My route into the licensing industry went something like this…
Via a very round-about route. I worked freelance at BBC Worldwide just to get my foot in the door after having been a bookseller (the celeb stories I can tell from my time in the book department at Harrods) and then having gone to work for a business and legal publisher, which was quite frankly dull. BBC Worldwide had a Global Brand Development Team at the time and I was a minion (not literally) working in a room of hot shots (and by that I mean Mike Dee now director of content at coolabi and Rob Wijeratna now joint md at Rocket Licensing). I then went to work for DeAgostini and was the licensee working with the likes of Lucas Films and New Line Cinema which was very exciting until one day I was asked to go for an interview for a brand manager role at CPLG. We couldn’t agree on salary at the time, but I was called back some months later for a category manager role. I was interviewed on Tuesday, offered the job on Wednesday, resigned my old job on Thursday and signed my contract on Friday.
How many years in the industry?
In one way or another almost 17 – that makes me feel very old! Although not as old as Andrew Carley from eOne, who was my first line manager at CPLG, and who very recently told me he had been referred to as a ‘veteran’ of the industry.
When I was growing up, I had no idea licensing was an industry so I wanted to be…
Actually I didn’t know the licensing industry had a name, but I was an advocate from an early age. I found a picture of me the other week when I was about 6 and I was very clearly wearing a Brum t-shirt. I’m also old enough to remember Star Wars being released in 1977 and I totally had some of the toys. But most of all I wanted to be a writer and a journalist and then oddly a pathologist – I clearly saw too many episodes of Quincy.
The deal I am most proud of is…
Handling the big multi-licensee open pitches have always been the most rewarding in a lot of ways because often they are about being a diplomat more than a sales person. In which case something like the deal I brokered for DreamWorks in having both Harper Collins and Penguin (who I now work for) work as collaborative partners on one of their movie franchises was a real coup. They did joint advertising and joint point of sale which was unheard of. But then again I’ve loved the quirky deals too – who else thought it was a good idea to get Haynes to do two Star Trek ship manuals and then issue a press release just in Klingon…
My most interesting experience in licensing has been…
It’s probably cheesy, but actually seeing the product on-shelf and someone actually buy it. Only then does what you do become real. Before then it’s all deal memos, commercial terms and product development and if your clients are based in LA – which a lot of mine were for a very long time – trying to still remain professional on 10pm conference calls when all you want to do is go to bed.
The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is…
Don’t always pick the company who is number one to work with – number two will try harder.
If I wasn’t in licensing, I would be…
A pathologist, although I am totally squeamish if I cut my own finger, I would be more than capable of coping with someone else bleeding to death.
Who do you admire most in the industry (and why)?
We have a rule in the Penguin Ventures team to only work with people we like and who are ‘nice’ because life is too short not to. So with that in mind, I’d say I admire people such as David Scott, Ian Downes and Anthony Temple because in all the dealings I’ve had with them they have shown real integrity.
In a film of your life, which licensed character would play you?
Well anybody in a Ladybird book I should think. As our Ladybird Books for grown-ups have shown there’s something in there for everyone.
If I could change anything about the industry, it would be…
To bring more companies into licensing as a whole and to innovate as much as possible.
