More than 320 exhibitors gathered in Hong Kong to showcase over 550 brands and IP at the three-day Hong Kong International Licensing Show (19-21 April).
At the same time, the concurrent Asian Licensing Conference brought together some 30 experts in the field from across the world to discuss topics including opportunities and strategies in global licensing, market trends, consumer patterns in the post pandemic era and key factors which drive market development.
“The Hong Kong-Mainland China border reopening facilitates business flow and provides strong support to the city’s export growth and economic recovery,” commented Dr Patrick Lau, HKTDC deputy executive director. “We are pleased to see that Hong Kong continues to play a key role in linking the mainland and abroad in the licensing field, demonstrating the substantial potential of the global licensing industry.”
The show looked to broaden its scope for this year’s outing, highlighting different areas of licensing businesses, as well as sectors including art, culture, design, entertainment, well-being and more.
Numerous local creative designs and products also aimed to expand their business to Asian and overseas markets through HKILS.
Chiu Siu Yin Lovinia, chairman of Medialink Group, was one of the exhibitors focusing on IP and brand licensing management services: “We are pleased to be part of the physical event, where we had a chance to interact directly with clients from Southeast Asia, Australia and even India.”
Kong Lun, deputy director general of the Department of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, People’s Republic of China, commented at the launch of the Mainland China Pavilion: “The Ministry of Culture and Tourism attaches great importance to the integrated development of culture and related industries.
“In recent years, we have been actively developing the brand licensing industry, strengthening the development and transformation of IPs with Chinese characteristics, empowering the physical economy with brand licensing, boosting domestic consumption and enhancing the cultural values, creativity and added values of related industries. I believe that the Chinese licensing industry will see even greater development opportunities in the near future.”
Meanwhile, at the ALC, Miki Yamamoto, svp licensing at IMG in Asia, elaborated on the agency’s marketing strategies and outlined insightful cases, such as the crossover between the Van Gogh Museum and FILA with Converse, as well as that between Jimmy Choo and Sailor Moon. “The simplest way for small enterprises to take off is to collaborate with well-known brands,” she said when offering some tips to the audience.
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