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DOWNES & OUT
Lessons from the the past Brand owners, licensees, retailers and agents have all had to adapt their business models to reflect changes in the consumer market over the years, but some tactics from the past still ring true today, as Start Licensing’s Ian Downes explores.
I
n recent years I have taken to walking around London in-between meetings, meaning I stumble past streets and buildings that provoke memories of licensing times past. One such street is Percy Street in London's Fitzrovia which was the home of Copyright Promotions when I worked there in the 1990s. We were housed in a 1960s office block called Metropolis House which was quite non-descript and grey. Anyway, today Metropolis House has been refreshed and had a modern make over. It looks very different and the changes set my mind racing. It was emblematic of changes in the licensing industry over the same period. In the 1990s Copyright Promotions was one of the market leading licensing agencies and I think the first agency to have a Pan European network. CPL's representation roster was almost entirely made up of entertainment properties at the time. To be fair to CPL, it recognised early on that the make up of the
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LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2019
Inset: Agency representation of licences has changed and broadened over the years, says Ian. Below (centre): Tango confectionery licensee Rose developed a range with TJ Morris recently.
portfolio would need to change to reflect new opportunities and changes in the media market. I helped set up Sports and Brand Licensing divisions during my time there. Properties that sat in these divisions included the England & Wales Cricket Board, Discovery Channel, M&Ms and the NSPCC. This sort of representation was quite novel then but is now the norm. Indeed shuttle forward to 2019 and my own portfolio shows how representation has changed - we represent Britvic Soft Drinks for brands such as Tango, the media personality Nadiya Hussain and the US artist Kendra Dandy. We have had to adapt our business model to reflect changes in the consumer market, but also recognising that we need to find brands that will engage with a new cohort of licensees and retailers. Another example of this shift in rights is the growth in success of heritage brands. Back in my CPL days, retail and retailing were as hot a topic as they are now. We recognised it was