Start Licensing’s Ian Downes finds examples of how licensing can fire up consumer interest.
One trend in licensing that my weekly ‘comp shopping’ has confirmed to me, is that the industry is getting better at recognising ‘new’ seasonal or event opportunities to sell licensed product and nurturing them by the application of well targeted and bespoke designs. I guess as an industry we are more aware of the retail calendar and developments.
A very good example of this in retail at the moment are a number of licensed ranges developed for Father’s Day. Retailers have, of course, also recognised that events such as Father’s Day and Mother’s Day offer good sales opportunities and the ability to upsell to consumers.
As referenced in previous columns, licensing companies have adapted their approach to design to offer or allow more custom design work to service these unique occasions. Design in licensing has blossomed over recent years to be more ‘on trend’, more varied and generally less rigid in its approach.
One influencer here has been the growth in partnerships between brands and fashion designers to create ‘capsule collections’ – these collections generally take a new design slant on a property. A legacy of this is that brand owners are more open to custom design and ‘playing’ with their brand in design terms.
In Tesco I spotted a few good examples of product design developed for Father’s Day. In apparel there was a clever piece of design on a Marvel t-shirt spelling out Awesome Dad using lettering featuring a composite design of Marvel characters. The same retailer was also featuring a Darth Vader ‘father’ themed t-shirt. You can probably guess the strapline. I think there were a couple of other character-based design in their Father’s Day t-shirt offering, but I felt I had outstayed my comp shopper welcome in my local branch!
One never knows if these designs are the result of retailer request, licensor innovation or licensee creativity. Maybe it doesn’t matter whose idea it was – the key point is that it happened and the licensing partnership delivered a well targeted product that can capitalise on a retail event.
This approach was not just confined to apparel in Tesco, as I saw some Father’s Day licensed products in the gift aisles on mugs, mug with sock gift sets and mugs with keyring sets. These included Batman – My Dad is a Billionaire Crime Fighter; a couple of Mr Men offerings featuring Mr Grumpy – My Dad is Grumpy but Great and Mr Strong – My Dad is the Strongest in the World; and not forgetting Grandads, there was a Peppa Pig Mug and Keyring set for the World’s Best Grandpa.
It is encouraging to see licensed products playing such a big part in Tesco’s Father’s Day offering and it is a sign that bespoke design can pay off. Brand owners need to be aware of these kind of opportunities and adapt their design model accordingly. A flexible and fast moving approach to design and approvals is a real plus point to a licensing programme these days. I expect to see more bespoke work being made available for events such as Fathers Day and Mother’s Day.
Interestingly there were gift ranges positioned as ‘thank you’ for teachers in store as well – this may be another theme that licensing could tackle. I believe there are some licensed cards in the Thank You Teacher ranges, but there may be more potential for licensing in this ‘retail event’.
I literally bumped into a reminder that licensing isn’t always about physical products this week when I went through the ticket barriers at Wimbledon train station. The barrier advertising was for Jackie the Musical.
This is a touring theatre show based on DC Thomson’s Jackie Magazine. The production started in Scotland, where it was road tested and proved to be very popular, and it is now on a national tour. Wimbledon Theatre have invested in local advertising to promote its appearance there.
The advertising that is committed to licensed theatre productions is a real bonus for brand owners. In the case of Jackie the Musical one of the triggers for the production company to develop the musical was the success of the Jackie Music CD compilations.
These had cemented the connection between Jackie and music in consumers’ minds and the stage musical builds on that and develops it further. It has become a virtuous circle. The production company and theatres have also recognised that they need to build awareness of the production through advertising and PR – they have understood that they have to harness the ‘power’ of the brand in a proactive way.
This is a really good example of how licensing has helped keep a brand alive and how a carefully chosen licence can literally create an identity for a product or production that may well struggle without it. Before the success of Jackie the Musical there had been other jukebox style musicals featuring 60s and 70s music, but none of them had a creative hook to match Jackie and access to a brand that could be used to create really strong PR particularly on social media platforms. It is easy to think of licensing in physical product terms, but often some of the best examples of the commercial value of licensing can be found in areas such as theatre, live events and visitor attractions.
I saw another reminder of the importance of attention to detail and investment in display this week. I would definitely say licensing and licensees in particular are getting better at displaying and selling their products in store.
The example I saw this week was a range of Angry Birds The Movie Car Air Fresheners. These were being sold via a purpose built FSDU in a supermarket environment – car air fresheners seem to be a growth area for licensing. I am guessing that licensing allows the manufacturers to break out of the traditional sales channels for car air fresheners such as petrol forecourts and retailers such as Halfords.
Developing and investing in a dedicated FSDU creates new space for them, and for a retailer the FSDU gives them the opportunity to sell through a non-essential product quickly. In this case the FSDU featured a range of different designs and was very eyecatching, encouraging impulse purchase. It made great use of the bold and bright graphics associated with the Angry Birds. A topical licence really helps in this context. I would imagine the product wouldn’t perform as well if it just sat on shelf in regular space and on a flat fixture. Investing and designing bespoke FSDUs makes great sense for licensed products – I think this is an area that merits attention in licensing. Investment into this kind of activity can be very worthwhile and allows all parties to maximise the potential that a licence can offer.
As an industry we are more retail savvy than ever before – in busy and competitive retail stores licensed products can really make an impact. This is maybe a quality we undersell as an industry. The visual impact licensing can make in store. There will always be a debate about who pays to display, but hopefully retailers will recognise the ability that licensing has to fire up consumer interest and be prepared to do their bit to shout about it in-store.
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.
