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DOWNES & OUT
Right: The Roald Dahl, Natural History Museum and M&S collaboration fuses the strengths of all three.
selling from licensee's websites or campaigns linked with ecommerce retailers. This sort of cooperative approach and outreach programme seems to have worked in challenging times, so there is no reason it shouldn't flourish in better times. But it will need management from the rights owner side, but also licensees will have to play their part to make the most of it. There is a new generation of licensees that are more savvy and agile when it comes to digital marketing. A great example is Moonpig - we have worked with it and Aardman on a number of campaigns and also adapted product offering to reflect current trading conditions. More traditional licensees have started to adapt as well. Licensee Primus, which develops garden statues of Shaun, Timmy and Gromit, worked with a garden centre that remained open online to develop a promotional campaign around the Aardman products during lockdown which resulted in good sell through. Primus has learnt a lot from this activation and it is a skillset that it can move forward with - arguably a year ago it wouldn't have been looking to broker this kind of retail promotion. Another area that I think has a lot of potential for licensing to develop further success with is the area of 'collabs'. At the moment I think a lot of these partnerships tend to start and end in apparel. Some of them seem quite fleeting and to me are about grabbing some headlines. However the principle of working in partnership is a good one and in the 'modern' licensing world there may be a value in nurturing long-term licensing partnerships. Here a good example of this seemingly working is the partnership between Roald Dahl, the Natural History Museum and Marks & Spencer. Together they have created a children's apparel range which
fuses their strengths and delivers a range that seems to be thriving. It is easy to dismiss partnerships on the grounds you are 'giving up' income, but maybe the time has come to look at them as a way of 'adding value'. But to do this there has to be a gear change in how partnerships are created and managed. One key thing is looking long-term and working to each other’s strengths. Times are without question tough and challenging, but there will be new opportunities to pursue. I think to succeed in pursuing these we all have to adjust our thinking, be open-minded and be prepared to work in new ways. It is not a time to be complacent or stick to tradition. I would also say it is a time to think of our colleagues who find themselves out of work. Licensing is a great business to be in when you are in it. Sadly a few people are not currently 'in it' - if you can, reach out and support those people. As well as a time for fresh thinking, it is a time for kindness and consideration. Above: Moonpig has worked with Aardman on a number of campaigns. Right: Artist Julie Dodsworth has developed a new floral alphabet which can be used for personalisation.
Design of the times I also think we could and should make more effort on design in licensing. During lockdown we have been working with our clients to develop some new design themes and to revisit assets that we think can work for us going forward. A key point here is thinking about design in the context of product development, but also retail placement coupled with consumer appeal. It sounds simple but it is a good moment to think about where product will be sold and who will buy it. Focused and inspirational design can help sell licensed products. With Aardman, we have revisited some artwork developed a few years ago for a Visit England campaign and have adapted it to use in licensing focusing naturally on tourist and gift outlets. An immediate win is a new licence with Dean's of Huntly, a biscuit firm which has great distribution in the gift market and which was looking for new designs to spread its net. Another one of our clients, artist Julie Dodsworth has used lockdown to develop more artwork with an eye on the end user licensee, retailer and consumer. For example she has developed a new floral alphabet that we can then target to personalised product companies particularly those which sell and market online. LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2020
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