Start Licensing’s Ian Downes checks out some super hero moves at retail this week.
Judging by the postings on social media last week, most of the UK licensee community was in Leicester Square at the premiere of Batman v Superman – it is clearly a big film in licensing and for licensing. A real event movie. The film hasn’t met with universal approval from critics, but box office results seem to show that the film has found its audience and is making its mark.
Media reports that in the UK show the film opened with £14.62m in takings over the three-day weekend, with Easter Monday pushing the four-day total to £17.96m.
As the attendance at the opening night show suggest, the film has galvanised the licensing market. An event movie like this engages licensees, retailers and consumers providing a great platform to launch licensed products from, but importantly also to focus on existing ranges of products including ones that are already in the market.
A good example of this focused approach was an end cap in Sainsbury’s apparel department that I spotted this week. There was literally a wall of Superman product including a mix of designs and products for different consumer audiences including babywear using Superbaby and dress up from Rubie’s. It looked impressive and was impactful in store.
The film and the licensing are working in harness – this Sainsbury’s activity is a good example of how a focused approach to licensing can pay dividends.
Clearly a film needs to ‘deliver’ to help drive sales, but in this case Warner seem to have hedged their bets and have used the film to promote the existing franchises and products, as well as looking at new products. This level of retail coordination and delivery is a positive endorsement of licensing and it’s commercial potential.
I think this is a good shop window for Licensing PLC in general terms, but it is also a further example of how licensing is changing with a greater emphasis on licensee, retailer and licensor working together and a commitment to longer term planning.
A further example of how retailers are using licensing in a positive way that I saw this week was in card and gift retailer Cards Galore.
In their Strand branch the window displays were almost 100% licensed products. Properties featured included Paddington, Mr Men and Little Miss and Happy Jackson. Given the location of the shop in an area where office workers ‘meet’ tourists, the retailer has chosen wisely with Paddington ticking the box for tourists and the other characters appealing to office workers looking for fun and topical gifts.
This window is a really good example of how licensed products can be used to ‘sell’ at retail but also their pulling power: visually the characters and products work well for the retailer. Again another solid endorsement of the relevance of licensing to retailers.
As well as a good time for film openings, Easter also marks the time a lot of visitor attractions open for business again. It is clearly a busy time for them with school’s being on holiday so the family audience is particularly important. There is a long history of licensed properties being used by visitor attractions to create permanent, semi-permanent or temporary attractions.
Some 20 years ago I was visiting Chessington World of Adventures to inspect Beanoland (an inspection that generally involved the chance to ‘try’ the rides), however more recently it seems attractions have recognised that a character or licensed property can be an asset to them at busy times and are using characters to create ‘events’ and to steal a march on competitors particularly in the fight for the family pound.
I noticed that The Shard in London have linked with Where’s Wally to create a Where’s Wally hunt at the attraction over the Easter holidays. This is being promoted in London with media such as Tube posters. The attraction is seeking to add value and create another reason to visit.
I am guessing there was a similar motivation when the Emirates Cable Car used The Snowman over Christmas and shopping centre groups like Intu using properties like The Beano during holiday periods. Consumers are looking for more value from their visit, a better experience and to use their time more effectively.
Licensed properties bring an audience, equity and can also be leveraged to create great marketing stories. Plus in the age of social media sharing a recognisable character can create some fantastic opportunities to ‘share’.
I think visitor attractions offer licensing great potential for growth – theme parks like Drusilla’s Park who use Thomas the Tank Engine and the Fat Controller have shown that a well chosen character can help put you on the map and add marketing weight in a competitive space.
As an aside I would thoroughly recommend the View from The Shard – it is a great way of seeing London and you could expense your visit as ‘Visitor Attraction Research’…
Ian Downes runs Start Licensing, an independent brand licensing agency. His Twitter handle is @startlicensing – he would welcome your suggestions for what to look out for.
