Carte Blanche Greetings’ Talia Tester talks maintaining constant contact with partners and the strength of an evergreen brand such as Me to You.
From switching licensee presentations and workshops to Zoom, through to creating special content featuring their characters to help parents suddenly needing to home-school as well as work, licensors and IP owners have stepped up during the crisis.
Today, Source chats to Talia Tester, licensing manager at Carte Blanche Greetings, about maintaining constant contact with partners, progressing conversations for SS21 and why evergreen brands are more important than ever.
“Maintaining constant contact with partners has been key. As we have a presence in multiple territories it has been vital for us to check-in daily with our key partners on the ground to understand the situation as it evolves in each market. For me, it has really reinforced the sense of partnership within our company and the wider industry and the mentality that whatever we face, we are all in this together.
We pride ourselves on our partnerships so we were very keen to support and strategise together, staying reactive to the ever-changing situation. While we were all (rightly) cautious at the start of lockdown, it definitely feels that there has been an optimistic shift and people are now looking ahead. The market is starting to settle and conversations regarding SS21 are progressing.
We are very fortunate that due to the seasonal nature of our core brand, Me to You, we have been able to proceed with planned cross-category events around key moments and continue to progress deals with new licensees.
With the growth of online business we have also been able to focus on promotions with our print on demand retailers and see the immediate benefits of this. Me to You is relied upon by retailers and consumers alike, it’s a safe, evergreen brand which brings people together, something which is even more important right now.”
This feature originally appeared in the summer 2020 edition of Licensing Source Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.
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