46-47 LSB 2020 John McInnerny_muk.qxp_NEW LSB 2008 GRID 06/07/2020 11:57 Page 47
IN CONVERSATION WITH… JOHN MCINNERNY
to fight Meanwhile, John cynicism as also highlights you get deals with James older. My Winchester, which suggestion is produced the to treat figurines for the others as you London would like to CowParade in be treated 2002 in the UK, yourself as Ireland, Holland this is a small and GAS – “they business and sold so many Inset: JJ Vaillant is a long serving Inset: Sam Jones and Brian Inset: Blue Sky Designs placed the cows” – and Blue figurine/statue licensee. Blessed show off the Big Chief Hamsta brand into Primark helping if you do not Studios’ Flash Gordon figurines. to raise awareness. follow this rule Sky Designs, it might come back to bite you.” which sold Hamsta to Primark, “it was an important While John’s immediate plans may have had to be placement for a brand which is continuing to grow put on hold due to the pandemic, he’s hopeful he will with a new series coming”. retain his connections with the “More recently have been deals licensing business, while he has also to tie-in with the 40th anniversary of become a trustee for a UK charity the Flash Gordon Movie which which works on sanitation projects, comes up later this year,” John adds. sex education and makes hand wash There have been many changes for use in schools in Kenya (where he across the years of course, but the used to live as a boy). one mantra which John believes So, where does he see the future of licensing agents should bear in mind the rights business? He concludes: above all others has remained “The big boys have become ever constant. “Be professional at all bigger in the last few years and this times,” he says. “You are Above: The CowParade was the first art display may continue, but I hope there will still representing brands on behalf of to take to city streets in 2002. be a place for independent agents. principals and this responsibility is They bring something different to the mix - they not something you should take on lightly. This have to have talents across the industry and do not attitude will help you build the brand in your territory.” always get the respect they deserve. I have lots of And when it comes to advice for those just starting friends in this sector and have been proud to fly the out in the business, John has this to say: “When I was banner over so many years.” a young man in business an older gentleman told me
“It was either licensing or auditing forever” John joined a chartered accountants firm when he left school and one of the partners, Dennis Silverton, also ran an agency called Universum Press selling comic strips, Mills and Boon love stories and transparencies for front covers in the former Yugoslavia for a client. “It sold cartoon strips/album material from Dargaud Editeur, Dupuis, King Features and Lombard,” John explains. “We did our first and only licensing deal for Asterix sweets. A few years in at the accountants he asked me whether I would be interested in getting involved and attending the Frankfurt Book Fair and the rest, as they say, is history. It was either that or auditing forever.” As well as the Frankfurt and Bologna book fairs, John would also go on selling trips to Belgrade, Zagreb and Novi Sad within Yugoslavia. John joined The Yaffa Newspaper Service in 1982, which took advantage of an active market for features, whether magazine articles, cartoons, puzzles or comic strips – the company had cartoons such as Hagar the Horrible in The Sun for many years and Tintin in the Funday Times section of The Sunday Times. It graduated to licensing in 1986, initially on an exclusive basis for King Features. John adds: “My wife, Collette and I actually appeared on a front cover of one of the Yugoslav Mills & Boon editions with a wedding day shot. It sold 32,000 copies. We are still married as this goes to press.”
Above: John and his wife Collette were the cover stars of a Yugoslav Mills & Boon edition.. LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2020
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