MGM’s Robert Marick on expanding the Wednesday product category offering, growing the Creed franchise and shifting shopping patterns.
LicensingSource.net takes a temperature check on the global licensing industry, asking licensors and agents based outside the UK to share their highs and lows of 2022, their strategies for a successful 2023, plus the words they’d use to describe business in the year just gone and the new one.
Today, we head to the US, with Robert Marick, evp global consumer products & experiences at MGM.
“Last year provided opportunities, growth and change. Change occurred when MGM became part of Prime Video & Amazon Studios. Having the support and resources that Amazon is able to provide will augment our licensing initiatives across new business categories, e-commerce retail and new ways to market and promote our properties.
MGM will start out strong in 2023 as we expand the Wednesday product category offering; continue to grow the Creed franchise with the release of Creed 3 in March; and celebrate several major anniversaries, including Pink Panther’s 60th.
Retailers continue to face the after-effects of the pandemic, including excess inventory, manufacturing and distribution challenges, while skyrocketing inflation and limited disposable income continue to impact consumers.
Shopping patterns have shifted and with retailers needing to plan as much as one year out, it’s very hard to predict if, how and why a consumer will purchase one popular entertainment licensed brand verses another.
For the past 18 months, we have focused on NFTs and how they might bring early-adopter fans to reimagine how we licence our brands. While NFTs have experienced softness in the marketplace, we believe they’re here to stay.
How would I sum up 2022 and 2023? Change is constant (okay, that’s three words).”
This feature originally appeared in the spring 2023 edition of Licensing Source Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.
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