This month, Start Licensing’s Ian Downes highlights the Brand and Lifestyle Awards (B&LLAs) as well as the role brand licensing plays as part of the licensing mix.
“The recently announced nominations for the Brand and Lifestyle Awards (B&LLAs) provided some valuable insights into trends and developments in the licensed gift market, both in terms of the type of brands coming to the fore and product development within the sector. In general, it is fair to say that brand licensing is an increasingly significant part of the licensing mix with brands from categories such as heritage, FMCG and art gaining more traction with licensees and retailers.
Art and illustration based licensed products featured prominently in the nominations, with well known names and brands such as Keith Haring, Emma Bridgewater and Morris & Co. Emma Bridgewater is a licensing success story. The brand has successfully blended licensing with its own developments well and also mixed in a number of well chosen brand partnerships along the way. In the latter category are examples such as partnerships with the National Garden Scheme and the Bowelbabe Fund. These sort of partnerships create new connections for a brand and, of course, show that the brand cares. I think consumers like to support brands that show a ‘caring’ side and interact with worthwhile causes.
Emma Bridgewater is an example of a design-led brand that has used licensing strategically and built up long-term licensing partnerships with the likes of Woodmansterne for greetings cards. It is very easy as a rights owner to chop and change partners but increasingly, it looks like the right play in licensing is to nurture relationships over the long term. This approach brings benefits in lots of ways but particularly with regards to incentivising licensees to invest in new product development and design. It is easy to undervalue the contribution that licensees can make to the design development of a licensed brand and, of course, they have a lot of category expertise to deploy in regards to new product development.
Another feature of the B&LLAs nominations was the strong presence for heritage brands with the likes of The Ashmolean Museum, the V & A and the Natural History Museum all receiving a range of nominations. Museums and galleries are engaging with the licensing model market more readily these days, as they see licensing as a source of revenue but also a platform for them to reach consumers. Licensing has the ability to help a brand extend its reach into new market sectors.
Brand owners in heritage have also got better at developing design options derived from their collections. As licensing has matured, there has also been a need for more sophisticated designs. It is no longer a case of simply reproducing a piece of art or an artefact on a licensed product; it is more about being ‘inspired by’ a collection. Further to this there is also a shift towards products being more authentic in their design and purpose.
Another aspect of this is how museums can support their community. With my work with The Ashmolean Museum we have proactively worked with a number of firms that are located close to the Museum. These include Atlantic Mats who have been nominated for their Curious Collection of mats in the Sustainability Licensed Product category. In this regard a licensed brand owner can help support local businesses and creators. In turn this can open up retail opportunities with local and regional retail partners.
The B&LLAs are a great showcase for brand licensing but also a great way of measuring the development in this sector of licensing. Since the B&LLAs started, the marketplace has matured with a wider range of licensees and rights holders now operating in it; but perhaps, even more importantly, there has been a significant improvements in the quality of products being developed with an industrywide commitment to on brand developments built on authenticity.
The B&LLAs suggest it is the right time to take a look at brand and lifestyle licensing – it is a category of licensing that offers fresh opportunity for retailers and manufacturers alike.”
Ian Downes
Start Licensing
07776 228454 | twitter.com/StartLicensing
Top: Ian Downes runs Start Licensing, an independent brand licensing agency.
