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Arriving At The Winners
The Judging Process Inset and below left: The entries were put on display on two levels of the Gallery Hall of the BDC. Left: At the entrance to the judging room. (Left-right) LSB’s Ian Hyder and Jakki Brown with Tracy Winchester and Darren Brechin, both of BLE, headline sponsor of the awards this year. Below centre: (left-right) Asda’s Sian Guest, Ruth Golightly and Sarah Crennell in judging mode.
A strong awards programme is anchored by a number of key elements – a raft of strong entries, knowledgeable judges and a credible judging process. The Licensing Awards 2015 ticks all of these boxes. Approaching 5,000 licensed products from hundreds of different companies were entered; almost 100 top retail buyers made up the product judging panel; a strong roster of licensed property and marketing campaign submissions and were made; respected industry stalwarts formed validation panels – and the whole licensing industry gave its support, to arrive at the winners and finalists. LSB explains the process of arriving at the winners and finalists of The Licensing Awards 2015. About The Awards
Below: Gemma Cowley of Poundland was among the 100 judges who participated.
The Licensing Awards, (launched by The Licensing Source Book nine years ago) is the UK’s only dedicated licensing industry annual awards programme. The award categories recognise and reward excellence in product development, retailing execution, licensed property management and marketing promotions. The judging process for each of the four categories of awards (ie product, retailing, property and marketing communication) is different, duly tailored to arrive at the most credible finalists and winners.
The Product Award Categories Who Entered?
Licensees and licensors were invited to enter product ranges that had been launched into UK retail (or significantly modified) in year June 1 2014 to May 31 2015. All entries had to be licence-specific (ie based on one licensed property) and each entry was for a range, rather than a specific item. The only exception to this was the Innovation Award, which could be for a specific item. LICENSING AWARDS 2015
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