Start Licensing’s Ian Downes takes a look at the role that licensing plays in the cultural sector this week.
Start Licensing received some good news last week. We received a nomination in the Association of Cultural Enterprises (ACE) awards – we were nominated in the Sector Support Partnership category for our work with the Ashmolean. This is welcome recognition for us, of course, but also reinforces the fact that licensing is an increasingly important discipline in the heritage sector.
ACE is a very proactive membership organisation that supports the cultural sector with members drawn from across the sector including the likes of the Ashmolean, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Armouries. It has around 500 members now. Its remit is wide ranging, but one focal point is revenue generation and retailing. It promotes initiatives like Museum Shop Sunday to encourage consumer visits to museum shops and runs educational programmes around topics like retailing.
The awards acknowledge a range of categories including licensing – nominations in this category include Ocean Mats for its Ashmolean mats range.
Inspired by our ACE nomination, I used a recent visit to London’s South Bank to visit three shops from the sector. It gave me the chance to take a break from a very chilly mudlark.
My first stop was the shop at Shakespeare’s Globe. The Globe attracts over a million visitors a year – it is a hybrid location that brings in theatre goers, school parties on educational visits and tourists keen to soak up the atmosphere of this unique building (I believe it is the only building in central London allowed to have a thatched roof – a future Light Fund quiz question there).
It is also a retail destination for Londoners and visitors to London seeking out Shakespeare related products. The shop successfully blends its own products with carefully selected products sourced from third parties. This is a point worth noting with shops connected to cultural institutions – they are often destination stores which offer product in depth associated with a specific subject. Shakespeare’s Globe also has licensing partners such as Flametree for calendars. Like a lot of other shops in the sector, it also seems to nurture relationships with smaller suppliers and creators often giving them an entry point into retail.
I also visited the National Theatre shop on my cultural retail tour. A key observation I made here was the breadth of books the shop had on sale. Naturally the books covered theatre, the performing arts and related subjects. There was a mix of children’s titles, educational books and more general books covering the subject. Rather like The Globe, one can imagine that consumers looking for books in this subject category would consider shopping at the National Theatre shop. I haven’t checked into myself, but I imagine there is an online shipping option for those not able to visit the shop in person.
A number of the books on sale had a licensing element to them such as some V&A endorsed titles including one on Patchwork & Quilting which took its creative inspiration from the V&A collection. This is a reminder that heritage brands have rich collections that can inspire a range of licensing developments.
My final South Bank shop was the one located at the British Film Institute (BFI). Again this is a multi purpose building with cinemas, a research library, cafes and bars. It is a hub for film and a destination for film buffs. In relative terms the BFI shop is a small one, but it makes the most of the space it has available. A key product feature is an extensive range of DVDs which encompass a range of genres from anime through to sci-fi. Shops like this one work well for core fans, but also come into their own for consumers looking for gift purchases for fans in their friendship and family circle.
The BFI shop also supports books, greetings cards, wall art and stationery. Licensed products featured with products like a Beetlejuice pin badge collection and a set of high-end books featuring Studio Ghibli films. Interestingly shops like the BFI one can support a range of price points including higher ones, but given the fact that tourists and schoolchildren often make up part of their visitor cohort they also include lower priced products ideally suited for pick up purchases. The retail shop buyers are also aware that customers are seeking out souvenir type products and stock product accordingly.
I did manage to venture beyond my comfort zone of SE1 and visited The Postal Museum in Clerkenwell. I might be biased as the son of a postman, but I think The Postal Museum is a hidden gem not least as you can take a ride on the Mail Rail – the Museum has preserved part of an underground rail network that transported post around London.
The Museum shop here is, as you might expect, tilted towards products connected with postal history but it also taps into the London tourist market and its appeal to families by stocking a range of Paddington products. Plush toys are sold alongside a Paddington Post book. Museum shops are good at picking products like books that suit their profile – another book on sale is Mr Tickle’s Post. Seemingly shops that embrace their institution’s theme in a focused way seem to perform better. The shop also stocks a range of die-cast post-related vehicles from Oxford Die Cast.
It was also interesting to see a bespoke product range from supplier Flotsam Flo which has created a range of bags made from upcycled Royal Mail trolley sleeves. There is a definite trend in upcycling from materials like this. Organisations like the RNLI and the London Fire Brigade also support initiatives like this giving a second life to obsolete equipment and uniforms.
Licensing definitely has a role to play in the cultural sector, both in terms of licensing out but also in the context of retailing. Culturally connected shops may not drive the volume that some other retail channels do, but they provide a great environment for consumers to shop in and create a focused outlet for well curated product selections.
I always enjoy exiting via the gift shop!
Ian Downes runs Start Licensing, an independent brand licensing agency. His X handle is @startlicensing and on Instagram he is @iandownesphotos – he would welcome your suggestions for what to look out for.
