The one constant since the COVID pandemic struck in March has been change, and the licensing industry has been no exception to this.

For licensees, while most categories have suffered, a few areas are doing well, such as e-commerce, digital entertainment, toys and games, sports equipment and food. Entertainment licensors will inevitably suffer from live action TV and movie productions being postponed, though productions on animations and games is continuing remotely.

The way that the brand licensing industry operates has changed too. Licensing Expo in Las Vegas was replaced by Virtual Licensing Week, it was a brave effort to create a virtual conference but it suffered from technical glitches, limited attendance from the larger licensees and brand owners and a distinctly dated look. Given the huge expense of exhibiting at and attending a global licensing event, there is a real opportunity for a strong annual virtual event to complement physical events in the future.

Julia Redman writes in Licensing Source that we should ‘Focus on Innovation, creativity and flexibility’.

With this in mind, I’ve teamed up with two ex-colleagues, Tessa Moore and Val Taylor. We have a wealth of global brand licensing experience, and provide nimble solutions to marketing, PR and creative challenges in brand licensing.

Tessa is a brand strategist and hands-on creative marketer with global brand leadership experience gained at Disney and FremantleMedia. Val creates compelling and creative PR strategies that generate coverage and deliver ROI across broadcast, licensing and consumer products. And I provided creative development for licensing brands including Danger Mouse, Baywatch and The X Factor while at FremantleMedia, and have since continued to work for entertainment clients, including Warner Bros, Entertainment One and All3Media.

We have a network of collaborators who we can call upon for larger or specialist projects, and were working on remote team projects long before lockdowns began.

Like the Thunderbirds, we can swing into action on our own if needed but are even more effective when we combine forces! If you have a challenge that you’d like to discuss then please get in touch or book in a virtual coffee.