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Spin Master posts 41% swell in revenue in first fiscal quarter

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After crossing the US$1-billion mark in sales last year, Toronto, Canada-based toy and entertainment company Spin Master has posted a 41% raise in revenue for the first fiscal quarter ending March 31.

The company’s sales rose to US$227.7 million from US$161.7 million a year ago, despite Easter falling into Q2 2017. Besides, revenue came from Swimways which the company acquired in Q3 2016 for US$85 million in cash. With this, the revenue grew 19.8%.

Other factors contributing to the increase included the ongoing strength of the company’s Remote Control & Interactive Characters and Pre-School and Girls business segments.

The former segment experienced 115.4% growth to US$46.5 million in Q1 gross sales, primarily due to the ongoing success of the Hatchimals collectibles toy property, which offset a decline in Air Hogs.

Gross Q1 product sales for the company’s Pre-School and Girls segment, meanwhile, went up 6.6% to US$84.7 million, driven by PAW Patrol and PowerPuff Girls. Sales were offset by dips in Chubby Puppies and Little Charmers.

For Activities, Games & Puzzles and Fun Furniture, a decline in Kinetic Sand drove sales down 3.5% to US$48 million, after a 46% increase in Q4.

The Q1 decline was offset by new IP including Rube Goldberg and Kinetic Rock, as well as steady growth in Cardinal and Bunchems.

Spin Master is also expecting more success to come from its newly launched Hatchimals Colleggtibles line.

186 exhibitors confirm their participation in Brand Licensing Europe

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With just under five months left for the Brand Licensing Europe to take place, the show’s organisers have announced that 186 exhibitors have already confirmed their participation. The number includes 22 first timers. This year, it will take place from 10-12 October 2017 at Olympia London.

“We’re delighted to welcome all 22 new exhibitors to BLE 2017, especially as they represent such a wide spectrum of industry, from pre-school to visitor attractions, and from top flight sporting brands, to globally-known TV production companies,” commented Anna Knight, Brand Licensing Europe’s brand director.

“The show prides itself on being the definitive event for the licensing industry in Europe, and that means being able to offer our visitors access to a broad and diverse pool of exhibitors and potential business partners. The new website also reflects this ethos well and we’re really looking forward to hearing everyone’s feedback.”

And regarding the floor space, it has been revealed that just 8 per cent of the floor space remains available to companies still hoping to exhibit.

And in a welcome news, the organizers of the show has launched a new event website.

Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) is the largest and most prestigious licensing event in Europe. The show,now in its 19th year, has been organised by UBM and sponsored by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA).

Last year’s BLE was the biggest in the show’s history with more than 280 exhibitors and 7,578 visitors from 76 countries participating.

Out of the 186 exhibitors who have already confirmed their participation are 20th Century Fox, BBC Worldwide Consumer Products, CPLG, Endemol Shine UK, Hasbro, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Mattel, NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, The Pokemon Company, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, Sony Pictures Consumer Products, Turner Broadcasting and Victoria and Albert Museum.

It includes 22 first timers across all three of the show’s zones: 10 in character & entertainment and six in both brands& lifestyle and art, design & image.

Of the 22, 12 companies originate from the UK, eight from mainland Europe and two from the United States.

The show’s new online presence that can be found at www.brandlicensing.eu has been designed to reflect its new branding, which was updated in synchronicity with the other events under UBM’s Global Licensing Group.

The new site is easier for visitors, exhibitors and media to navigate and will feature new promotional opportunities allowing exhibitors to reach thousands of potential business partners.

 

Freaky Friday: By taking licensing as an alternative, one can see his dream come to life on store shelves

The time when Stephen Key started teaching people how to bring their ideas to market without starting a business, he had no idea where it would lead to.

He just saw a need he could meet. At the inventors groups, Key attended, he was surprised to notice that most people were failing.

They had built expensive works-like looks-like prototypes and filed non-provisional patent applications, but their ideas weren’t anywhere near to retail. At that point, Key was licensing his ideas for products and collecting royalties in return for many years.

After reflecting on his success, Key broke his strategy down into ten simple steps and created an educational programme with his business partner Andrew Krauss.

“If I could do this with absolutely no formal training and few skills to speak of, so could anyone, Key reasoned with Krauss seconding.

One of their students was Tim Ferriss, who later went on to write the bestselling 4-Hour Workweek  and inspired an entire generation to conceive of their lives differently.

At the outset, Ferriss was fascinated by Key’s methods because he had essentially hacked a system. Key had broken the mold and had found a way to bring his ideas to market without starting a business, building perfect prototypes or filing costly patents.

It was by making simple improvements to existing products and showing those improvements to companies that manufactured similar goods.

Now, Key wanted to get the reaction from the students about his ideas.

People in the market will always vouch that the companies one buys products from are eager to know about ideas the people have of them  in mind. Open innovation is thriving globally across a lot of industries because it makes good business sense.

In fact nearly all of the companies Key interviewed at the Toy Fair in New York City and the International Home + Housewares show in Chicago this year had agreed to his thinkings.

The time and effort it takes to sort through outside submissions from everyday people and product developers who don’t work for them is worth it, because that is where their next great idea might come from.

In these days, modern technologies have made licensing ideas easier than in older times. Today, Key thinks that product licensing is actually the ultimate sides hustle.

It is because licensing is ones ticket of playing the biggest game in the world and all without the financial risk of starting a business, but the same rush of adrenaline, excitement and uncertainty that accompany launching any new product.

Is Key sounding a little biased? Yes. Consumer products always captivated him. The same goes for the concept of passive income. But how can one argue with the following facts?

One doesn’t have to quit his day job to succeed at it, at least not at the very beginning anyway. One has to think if he is satisfied working for someone else from 9 to 5?

If one has dreams and aspirations that are not being met and loves being creative, he should consider licensing as a business model because it enables one to leverage the power of large companies to get to market very quickly.

Essentially, it means that one is getting large companies working for him. Though this may sound overblown, but it’s true.

If ones licensees are using their marketing, administration, manufacturing and sales people to sell a product and pay royalties, they in fact want to work for you.

It emphasises speed to market. In these days, speed to market is more important than ever. It’s really one of the only ways to head off copycats at the pass. If you associate with a large company that has a great distribution, retailers won’t stock me-too products that compete with the licensor.

As a strategy, licensing is all about opening up a dialogue and getting the critical feedback one needs to refine his concept into the most marketable product possible.

If one has to innovate alone in a vacuum, he could find himself wasting years on an idea that ultimately goes nowhere. These kind of things keep on happening always.

For a licensor, it requires little to no financial risk. One can license a simple idea using a sell sheet and perceived ownership.

In others words, you don’t need to raise a lot of money to get started, let alone mortgage your home. Benefits are what motivate companies to license an idea but not prototypes, not patents.

For this, one can work whenever he wants to. Most people want more flexibility out of the work week. With licensing, that’s possible. One can study a market, stimulate ones creativity, communicate with freelancers from around the world and contact companies during any time of the day via LinkedIn.

On the topic of royalty, Key met one of his past student David Fedewa who recently received a hefty royalty cheque for one of his licensed products. He asked Fedewa  as to why he was so passionate about the licensing lifestyle.

It was because money was flowing in swiftly. Typically, royalties are paid on a quarterly basis, but as per his agreement, Fedewa received an annual cheque for his product.

According to Fedewa, the more time one spends on his products, the more money he makes. In other words, there’s a direct relationship between time and money.

Key is of the thinking that as far as licensing is concerned, it’s just not the case. If one is smart, has a decent idea and can consistently execute, the ratio between the time he puts in and what he gets is not in balance.

Undoubtedly, it takes time to learn how to do all this. But once one knows how to get his product to the right people in the right way, it won’t take much time at all,” Fedewa said. It’s actually best to do this when you have a day job, and not as a full-time business, he emphasised.

Not everyone has the money, skill, time or even the desire to start a business. In that case, licensing is a fantastic alternative. With licensing as the alternative, one can rejoice at the joy of seeing his dream come to life on store shelves.

 

Moose Toys gets on board several new licensing partners

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Moose Toys has associated with several new licensing partners to develop new merchandise and events based on the Shopkins toy brand.

“The Shopkins brand has always been known for innovation and we look for the same characteristics in our licensed partners,” says Paul Solomon, co-chief executive officer, Moose Toys. “These partnerships enable us to take the brand to the next level and provide our fans with what they want; their favorite brand combined with their favorite products!”

New partnerships for the brand include Skechers and Build-A-Bear Workshop. These two will respectively offer a range of branded shoes and themed plush toys and accessories.

Going ahead, in September, licensee Koba will make its entry into a live theatre production. Additionally, for the first time in theaters, fans will be able experience the Shopkins and Shoppies characters come to life.

In fall 2017, Moose Toys will find itself deeper into the world of Happyville with a host of Happy Places licensed homewares and soft goods. These will be available throughout the U.S. market.

The new partnerships will also add to the brand’s existing portfolio that boasts of licensees like Crayola, Scholastic and Thermos, among many others.

PepsiCo joins forces with Alibaba in China

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To further enhance its portfolio of brands in China, PepsiCo has joined forces with the Alibaba Group .

By way of the agreement, PepsiCo will leverage Alibaba’s data to introduce new marketing initiatives, customized products and integrated omni-channel solutions.

Other that this, PepsiCo is planning to expand its reach in rural China by leveraging the distribution channels through Alibaba’s Rural Taobao programme.

The partnership is also built upon the existing success between PepsiCo and Alibaba in their e-commerce partnership.

“Developing our e-commerce business is one of PepsiCo’s strategic priorities,” says Mike Spanos, president and chief executive officer, PepsiCo GCR.

“Through this collaboration, we will fully take advantage of Alibaba’s platform and data to carry out more innovative experiments, perfect PepsiCo’s products and services and enhance online consumer experiences. Our joint effort with Alibaba will help us lead the ever-changing consumer trend and better serve Chinese consumers,” he continued.

Ever since it launched its flagship store on Alibaba’s Tmall in 2012, PepsiCo has introduced a number of online marketing initiatives  including its 2016 Super Brand Day, Quaker’s co-branded campaign with Tmall during Alibaba’s 11.11 global shopping festival and a Kumamon-branded Lay’s gift campaign during the Chinese New Year.

tinyBuild Games appoints Evolution to develop and manage a worldwide licensing and merchandising programme

Indie game publisher tinyBuild Games has appointed global licensing and brand management agency Evolution to develop and manage a worldwide licensing and merchandising program for its highly anticipated video game franchise Hello Neighbor.

The announcement was made by Luke Burtis, Managing Partner, tinyBuild Games and Travis J. Rutherford, Partner / Chief Revenue Officer, Evolution.

The game has garnered over 600 million combined views on YouTube with pre-alpha game builds alone prior to its summer 2017 launch.

Hello Neighbor is a PC stealth horror game with Artificial Intelligence as an opponent.  In the game, a player moves into a brand new suburban neighborhood and fears his neighbor might be hiding something sinister in his basement.

The only logical thing to do is break into his house and figure out what horror he may be hiding, but he needs stealth and cunning to escape his neighbor’s fury.  With adaptive AI that learns from the player’s choices, the neighbor develops counter-actions and traps creating an atmosphere of tension and menace and making each subsequent attempt to break in more challenging.

“When we first saw Hello Neighbor from Dynamic Pixels and tinyBuild Games, we knew this was going to be a massive commercial success,” commented Rutherford.

“With Pixar-style visuals, and tense game play, demand for the game is already evident from its YouTube hits and will appeal to a broad demographic audience of males and females.  The full game will release on multiple platforms beginning summer 2017, and we already have industry leading licensees and major retailers clamoring for rights and products based on the eccentric Hello Neighbor characters,” he added.

Key product licensing categories for the brand will include toys, apparel, accessories, back-to-school and novelty.

 

BrandComply.com introduces Brand Compliance scoring system

BrandComply.com, the industry’s only truly integrated contract to consumer enterprise licensing software solution, has introduced the first Brand Compliance scoring system designed to help brand owners benchmark their licensing programmes in relation to others in the industry.

Mike Dunn, co-President and Chief Brand Officer, Octane5 International observed, “We are excited to be able to utilize our decades of brand licensing experience along with the insight we have garnered partnering with world-class licensing programs to offer this much-needed diagnostic tool to the industry.”

Having pioneered licensing best practices standards and solutions with our partners for years, we are pleased to offer an efficient and effective way for other programs to gain an objective, detailed look into how their programs measure up, areas of risk and specific ways to improve.

The Brand Compliance Score or BCS is a proprietary diagnostic tool offering an analysis of an overall licensing programme.

Designed to offer insights into potential unmitigated risk as well as process improvements, the BCS system measures a licensing programme across multiple data points using a combination of best practice standards and benchmark data from other gold standard programmes.

The BCS provides a licensor with a road map to focus programme improvement efforts.  Our team of licensing experts will help the brand owner interpret their score and will recommend proven best practices that the brand owner can implement in areas such as risk mitigation, improved department efficiencies, and overall program profitability.

Initial evaluation is garnered from a short quiz that can be taken during Licensing Expo at the BrandComply booth C134.

 

 

ICICI joins hand with Arka Mediaworks to introduce customized Bahubali debit cards

Betting big on the shoulder of the magnum opus Baahubali, the ICICI bank has joined hands with the Arka Mediaworks to introduce customized Baahubali debit cards for the ardent admirers of the film.

As part of the ‘Expressions debit cards’, the collection includes eight samples including the scenes from movie as well as design elements.

The news was shared at social media platform by the official social media handle of the bank.

The post reads, “Love #Baahubali 2? Choose your favourite #Baahubali design & personalise it on your ICICI Bank Expressions Debit card.”

However, this is not the first time that ICICI has initiated such a marketing strategy. In the past, the bank has collaborated with brand owners like Disney India for Jungle Book, Captain America: Civil War, Star Wars and Beauty and the Beast, Yash Raj Films for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Green Gold Animations for Chhota Bheem.

While the film that hit theatres after two years in the making, it became a phenomenon, while Mumbai based licensing agency Black White Orange created a full-fledged licensing program for the Baahubali franchise.

 

One Animation signs slew of broadcasting agreements for season one of Oddbods

After the second season of its long-form animated TV series Oddbods went into production, One Animation has inked a slew of new broadcasting agreements for season one.

The second season, that was given a go ahead earlier this year, has already been snapped up by Turner for its Cartoon Network and Boomerang kids channels in Latin America and Boomerang across EMEA.

Additional broadcasters that have acquired the season one of Oddbods include Nickelodeon (Benelux), SVT (Sweden) and Carousel (Russia). The first season also airs on Disney (Asia), Canal+ (France and Africa), ITV (UK) and Boing (Italy).

The series featuring the playful pranks of seven colorful characters also began rolling out on Netflix last month in the US, Australia and New Zealand, with other regions coming later in the year. Netflix picked up the series for North America, Latin America, EMEA, Australia and New Zealand.)

The SVOD is expected to bow season two later this summer.

To date, the Oddbods original first season of one- and five-minute shorts have garnered nearly two billion views across social media.

Condé Nast ties up with IMG to extend its food lifestyle brand Bon Appétit

Condé Nast has entered into a partnership with IMG to extend its award-winning food lifestyle brand Bon Appétit.

Bon Appétit covers food through the lens of cooking, fashion, travel, technology, design and home, lending itself to a variety of licensing categories including cookware, kitchen tools and appliances. Founded in 1956, the brand has built a solid fan base with its mantra of blending food and culture.

“Bon Appétit continues to inspire audiences with its innovative approach to food lifestyle content,” said Craig Kostelic, Chief Business Officer, Condé Nast’s Food Innovation Group.

“This exciting partnership with IMG will allow us to push the boundaries, elevate the brand to new heights, and engage new consumers along the way,” he added.

The multi-year representation agreement will see IMG license Bon Appétit across the United States and Canada. It will also target a range of distribution channels including department, specialty and grocery stores.

IMG’s licensing program will be inspired by Bon Appétit’s aim to provide its readers with the tools needed to bring menus to life.