Insight
GAMING LICENSING LIMA Interview
demographics means that it’s all the more easy for brands of any particular kind to appeal to the demographics spread in the gaming sector.”
We currently have a generation of people in the Generation X demographic that’s perfectly attuned to licensing and brands in a way that’s quite alien to the previous Baby-Boomers generation. It’s about an increase not just in recognition of the brands, but in the spending-power of a generation of consumers that was raised on the marketing of both international and national brands.
PROPERTY PRICES ON THE RISE Branding has established itself in all kinds of sectors,
from fashion to jewellery and perfumes; people understand the power of brands and their emotional pull. Licensing has become a way of using brands in a different type of commercial construct, but which still brings that fan/passion to products that are not necessarily related to the core IP.
It’s against this backdrop that licensing is enjoying such success and more and more brand owners are beginning to understand that licensing is something that they can utilise both as a revenue earner and as a means to cement the values of the brand. “Not every brand owner rushes to get into licensing,” outlines Kelvyn. “One of the reasons they don’t is because they aren’t aware there’s an established industry with a well-managed structure that they can slot themselves into, and it’s our job at LIMA to ensure we’re understood by industry that this is not the Wild
West; you will be managed, you will still retain control and there’s lots of gains for the IP holder.”
Virtually everything that is a brand now has some level of awareness and affection with the public that’s up for grabs. Agencies are constantly seeking out brand opportunities, but the way licensing has always worked is through a push and pull mechanism. Agencies want to push a brand’s potential, but equally, manufacturers both old and new are looking to capitalise on increasing brand opportunities and public awareness or their brands.
“I often make the analogy to newcomers to licensing that selling intellectual property is like selling brick and mortar properties, whereby we’re the estate agents looking to sell and we’re taking enquiries from potential property buyers,” explains Kelvyn. “As an industry body we only research the top line figures for the industry as a whole, but what we know is that certain categories of IP can work up to certain levels of potential.”
Te headline IP money-spinners are the ones most often quoted, such as the UK brand Pepper Pig, which a few years back breached $US200m in merchandise licensing per year (now up to around US$1bn), which was a big breakthrough number. “What happens is that Pepper Pig is a pre-school animation, and so people in the field of pre-school animation aspire to become the next Pepper Pig - as they now know the size of the prize,” states Kelyvn. “Tere are examples of headline figures if you achieve sufficient traction,
LIMA Licensing Report 2016 A new report released by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA) shows that global retail sales of licensed merchandise grew at a rate of 4.2 per cent to US$251.7bn in 2015, with Europe accounting for just under one quarter of the global licensing market. The UK, which is second only to the US, accounting for five per cent of the market, saw entertainment and characters dominate, accounting for 74 per cent of total retail sales. This was followed by Corporate and Brand (9 per cent), Fashion (7) and Sports (5). Looking at product categories in the UK, Toys accounted for 22 per cent of global retail sales, followed by Apparel (15) and Accessories and Fashion (7).
NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
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