Jewel Branding & Licensing’s Ilana Wilensky on how cause-related brands will offer big opportunities this year.
LicensingSource.net chats to a selection of licensors and agents based outside of the UK to find out their takeaways from 2020, what the biggest challenges and opportunities are for licensing moving forward, their main aims for 2021 and what word they would use to describe business in both last year and this year.
Today, we head to the US to get the views of Ilana Wilensky, president, Jewel Branding & Licensing.
“There were definitely many months of stress and uncertainty [in 2020]. The royalties from sales in the second quarter were down significantly which was to be expected given lockdowns and store closures. But we were pleased that the following quarter was considerably better. We definitely needed to adapt quickly and shift our focus, but we are optimistic that the worst is behind us and are hoping for greater stability in 2021.
Some of the biggest opportunities we see include cause-related brands – we’re excited to announce that Rachael Hale has joined forces with the Humane Society to develop a co-branded collaboration.
We also launched Showcase, a new virtual show on February 16-17, that brought the art licensing community together. I also think 2021 will be a year that spotlights diversity.
Words of the year – 2020, ‘turbulent’; 2021, ‘recovery’.”
This feature originally appeared in the spring 2021 edition of Licensing Source Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.
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