With its suite of brands, including Numskull and TUBBZ, carving out an ever-increasing niche in the licensed merchandise space and gaining traction in the US and beyond, Rubber Road has all its ducks in a row.
LicensingSource.net sits down with head of partnerships and development Liam Taylor to find out more.
Can you tell us about Rubber Road’s strategy and key objectives for 2024 and beyond?
We’ve got the older market ‘locked in’ with the likes of our Horror, 80s movies and Quarter Arcade products, but we need to make sure we hit that younger section of the market, who like to show off the fact that they’ve got the latest and greatest product. We’re signing more anime licences, for example, to help with this as well as asking existing partners for access to their brands that appeal to that demographic.
In terms of territories, cracking the US has been a long piece of work but we’re seeing some really good uptake there in stores. Historically, we haven’t been seen over there as much as we’d have liked, so it’s a really good territory for us right now and very exciting times.
Do you want to talk us through your latest deals and licence renewals?
We’ve just renewed our licensing deals with both Universal and Warner Bros., ahead of expiry, adding new territories and new categories.
Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) and Minecraft are brands we’ve always had our eye on, but we felt like we needed to grow as a business before they’d entertain the idea of working with us. We like to innovate and create really visual products, such as our TUBBZ [rubber duck] ranges, so when we had a fuller lineup and some unique ideas we got in touch, and it went from there. Both these licences immediately take us to that younger audience we were talking about, and with Minecraft celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, it’s a great time to bring out official merch.
Another timely new licence we’ve just acquired, via our partnership with Paramount, is Avatar: The Last Airbender. With the much-anticipated Netflix show now streaming, this is a real coup and we will be releasing some gaming accessories later this year.
Are you able to give any details about the individual products you’ll be producing under the FNAF brand? Presumably we’ll see FNAF TUBBZ?
We’d be crazy not to do that, right? FNAF characters will make awesome TUBBZ! At Nuremberg Toy Fair the positivity around the brand was huge, so saying we’re excited would be an understatement. We’ve got some gaming accessories lined up too, but I can’t give away more than that yet.
With the explosion of content in recent years, fandoms can be niche and fragmented. How do you decide which ones to target, and keep abreast of what fans want?
We have a couple of ways of doing this, and first up is licensor input. We attend all the presentations and updates we can and then slice out what will excite the consumer and us. A good example is Hogwarts Legacy – Warner Bros. gave us some insight on the game and we were on it early, collaborated with retailer Game and got them some exclusive products for the UK.
Secondly, we’re fans ourselves, and we always have our ears to the ground. We’ve got to be excited by a brand to work on it and develop products we’d like to buy. When it comes to TUBBZ characters, our design team really do hit the right notes, ensuring they capture specific details and character traits. Just look at our new Stanley Kubrick range of TUBBZ – they’re top end designs which ticked all the right boxes with fans.
Social media is key. We don’t just look at numbers of views a brand has, we look at interactions and comments in order to see what’s trending, what fans want to see, and so on. We’ve worked with brands in the past with huge numbers of people playing and watching, which should have been huge hits, but numbers alone aren’t enough to drive sales.
There are also some great pop culture websites out there, which are valuable research tools that spark lots of ideas. It’s around then that I turn into Mulder from The X-Files and work on convincing Scully (aka the rest of the business) to believe the truth is out there and that we should get behind it.
In terms of our own marketing, we’ve made a conscious decision recently to do more on TikTok, setting up an official TUBBZ channel and so on, and it’s starting to pay off. We’re getting thousands on views on certain posts and our subscriber numbers are going through the roof.
Are there any trends or developments in the licensed collectables space that you’re excited about?
Plush is big – just go into your local HMV to see how impactful it can be. We are committed to growing the TUBBZ brand and our design teams had a look at how TUBBZ could work as plush, and bingo. We were able to bring these to the market quickly as we already had the TUBBZ characters signed, sealed and delivered. TUBBZ Plushies complement the collection perfectly and there are many more in the pipeline this year.
Scented products are amazing when they work – our whisky-scented Lemmy was a triumph! However, not all of them make the cut; just ask Paramount about our attempts to make a pizza scent for Mutant Ninja Turtles TUBBZ… Some things are best left alone!
Limited editions create hype and we’ve been successful with our First Editions TUBBZ and XL TUBBZ Limited Editions, including the shark from JAWS, Balrog from The Lord of the Rings and Stay-Puft from Ghostbusters. Fans see these as an investment if they become rare and collectable.
A recent game changer has been the response to our new Mini TUBBZ; they are half the size of the standard TUBBZ but with all the detail and a cheaper price point. These are definitely here to stay, with retailers reordering when they sold out very quickly.
What makes for a successful licensing partnership? And what do you think Rubber Road offers its partners?
Always communicating is key in partnerships and we do that well. It’s important to us that our partners understand that we push the boundaries of the style guides that bit harder – without going completely crazy – in order to create stand-out designs that have not been seen before.
What are some of the major challenges facing your business right now? And conversely, where do you see opportunities?
The stats and news don’t lie – consumer spend is being squeezed right now. The key to seizing opportunities is to get the brands, trends and designs right and ensure we are relevant. For example, we look at movie, gaming and streaming launches that are in the works and upcoming big anniversaries where there will be natural noise about these franchises, and make sure we are there, with the right officially licensed merch at the right time. Limited Edition TUBBZ and statues provide the FOMO factor, too. If we are relevant with good design, fans will find the money to satisfy their passions and then we succeed.
Finally, what’s the best thing about working at Rubber Road?
There are plenty of hardcore gamers and movie buffs in our team and we are a very passionate bunch. We’re enthusiastic without being over the top, we work with ideas across the whole business and when the ideas finally launch, the excitement is like Christmas Eve.
