Licensing World
The (licensing) times are Publisher John Baulch explores the evolving licensing landscape and looks at what is driving the current increase in sales of licensed toys.
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or the introduction to our previous Hot Properties feature, which appeared in the January issue of Toy World, I wrote about how the pandemic had impacted the licensed merchandise market in 2020. Five months on from writing that article, many of the same challenges and opportunities remain, while a picture is beginning to emerge as to what might lie ahead for the remainder of the year. On the plus side, just as we experienced in 2020, toy sales have continued to be robust in the first quarter of 2021 – year to date, sales are up 7%, while licensed sales have increased by a healthy 16%, accounting for 29% of toy sales, the largest percentage we’ve seen for some time. So, while some licensors are grappling
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with challenging sales through certain retail channels (I can’t imagine the past year has been a vintage one for apparel sales), and while others have had to cope with the loss of revenue via the box office, at least the toy retail market remains strong, delivering healthy numbers for those licensors with properties in the kids’ space. Drilling into the detail gives us a clearer picture of what is currently driving the increase. For example, according to NPD data, licensed toys accounted for £37m of sales in March, 27% of the total UK toy market. Pokémon was the top-performing property, which is no great surprise, based on recent conversations with retailers both here in the UK and across the globe. The launch of the new Shining Fates expansion has exceeded sky-high expectations, as Midco Toys’ Dave Middleton explains in this month’s article on the opening of his new store in Burton: “Pokémon has been phenomenal. I released a video on the Shining Fates expansion, to let consumers know that they could order it by phone on the Friday it launched. The phone did not stop ringing from the minute the shop opened until 7pm that evening. We limited sales to one of each SKU per customer, so they just bought one of everything which added up to around £240. Honestly, it was staggering.” We caught up with Pokémon EMEA licensing director Mathieu Galante to hear more about the company’s plans for 2021, the brand’s 25th anniversary. You can read what he had to say on page 122. Evergreen classics Star Wars and Barbie have also continued to perform exceptionally well during the first quarter of 2021. It’s also worth noting that four of the top 10 properties are either proprietary Lego brands (Friends, City, Star Wars) or brands largely driven by Lego ranges (Harry Potter), while the top 10 gaining properties – with the exception of Barbie and Pokémon – all revolve around the brickbuilding behemoth. As such, it could be reasonably construed
Toy World 101
that the increase in sales of licensed merchandise in the toy space so far in 2021 is being heavily driven by Lego. Great for Lego, great for retailers of Lego and great for those licensors who have licensed ranges being developed by Lego – but what is happening in the rest of the licensing space across the kids’ market? We have yet to see many new movies being launched, and while the cinema release schedule remains fluid and a little lighter than it would be in a traditional year, there are still a number of new films which could make a decent impact as the year progresses. I am excited to see the reaction to Space Jam, Tom & Jerry, Spirit Untamed, Paw Patrol The Movie and several other new movies when they finally reach the big and/or small screen over the coming months.
