Licenses Take a Bow

Add a license to punch up a product, and it can carry a hefty blow—or not. That’s what can make licensing such a risky business.

But as the adage goes: no risk, no reward!

And the rewards can be huge. There is about $173 billion out there up for grabs in the licensing biz, which draws its breadth from myriad sources these days—music, books, sports, movies, television, hardgoods, softgoods, you name it. There is something for everyone. It’s no wonder the toy industry looks to carve out a niche for itself in this thriving market.

Odds are these days, that if a TV or film character becomes, or even promises to become, a hit, it will “hit” toy shelves, too. In fact, television and motion pictures are two of the most powerful mediums for telling a story or selling a product.

For example, the National Football League’s annual Super Bowl charges something like $1.5 million for a 30-second ad spot. Why? There’s a large captive audience waiting for the pitch.

The same goes for movies. A great movie—ongoing classic Star Wars; a ground-breaking, innovative film like Toy Story, or the making of a classic character like Spider-Man into a movie—can lead to enormous audiences and huge box offices. Along with the big screen flick come the products that appear in the films and the demand created at retail.

And the licensing business is at the same time, trendy, classic and evergreen.

One popular trend is retro-licensing, where things that are old are new again. For example: The classic arcade games that are now ubiquitous in plug-and-play units. Additionally, throwback jerseys in all the major sports leagues are hot; and classic, fondly thought of iconic marks like Coca-Cola and John Deere send consumers back to a time when life was a little, less complicated.

Classics of television and film (no surprise there!) are back for adults, who want to feel the nostalgia of the lazy days of youth or their favorite cartoon characters brought to life—well, toy life.

Classics stretching all the way back to the 1940s, like Archie Comics are back in apparel, book and figure form. Marvel, New York, is also producing a retro line of collectibles, even bedding for department stores based on old panel art from 50s, 60s and 70s characters like Thor, X-Men, Spider-Man and Captain America to name a few. Indeed, retro product based on television or film characters will continue to drive sales as long as there are classics out there. And the savvy retailer will find a good balance of product to pull in all age demographics.

Following are some of the opportunities.

In the infant category, Disney Consumer Procucts (DCP) will expand the Baby Mickey & Friends property and Baby Einstein franchises.

Baby Mickey & Friends will develop a consumer program for cross-category application at mass retail. The property’s theme will present Baby Mickey & Friends in a new graphic style with softened grey tones instead of black, and will focus on baby themes and baby’s first experiences, such as: Bathtime Fun and My First Christmas. 

Plans for the Baby Einstein brand include evolving the product line into apparel and bath toys, and establishing a presence in more than 30 countries by the end of this year offering, products in more than 25 languages.

Mickey’s Club House, a new animated series aimed at pre-schoolers is launching in Spring ’06 on Disney Channel. The daily series will invite kids ages 2-5 to join Mickey in a play-date filled with learning activities, imaginary play and storytelling that invite kid participation. The show will offer opportunities across lines of business and a breadth of categories at mass retail.

For the boys’ category, DCP will introduce new properties tied to Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe; the next chapter of Power Rangers Mystic Force; feature film release of Disney/Pixar’s Cars; the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean in summer ’06. Narnia and Pirates of the Caribbean are long-term opportunities for DCP with multiple years of entertainment planned for both, while Cars is projected by Disney to be a tremendous event opportunity, on par with Finding Nemo and the Incredibles. There is also a scheduled re-release of Toy Story 1 and 2 in 2005, which will lead anticipation of the theatrical release of Toy Story 3—currently slated for 2008.

Leading the girls’ category is the next Disney Princess program, driven by the platinum DVD release of Little Mermaid in fall 2006, and an expansion of content, product, and retail for the TV show That’s So Raven. DCP will introduce Little Mermaid Reflections on DVD in fall 2006.

Look for the Fisher-Price and babygear brands to appear on a wide variety of children’s products in categories including apparel, accessories, and CD’s and bikes, building the brand for children 0–6 years old.

Fisher-Price will also continue to develop its Little People property as an entertainment brand. Going forward, the focus for the Little People licensing program will be on building off the success of the music CDs (from Somerset), DVDs and videos (both from Artisan) and an extensive publishing program to elevate the Little People brand.

There will be a number of new items coming from 4Kids Entertainment, New York, one of which includes the Yu-Gi-Oh property: The Yu-Gi-Oh! Power of Chaos online game in spring 2005 and a national QSR premium promotion that will debut in fall 2005.

A Winx Club mall tour is scheduled for summer 2005.

4Kids is bringing a bunch of Japanese properties to the United States in the form of television series to air on 4Kids TV and/or Nicktoons in 2005. New properties include: One Piece, Magical DoReMi, Mew Mew Power and Kappa Mickey. Licensed merchandising will begin to appear in 2005, with full-scale programs expected for 2006.

The Cabbage Patch Kid product line expanded this spring with Corn Silk Kids, Ponies and accessories, with CPK “babies” premiering August ’05. More licensed product will be hitting the shelves this fall, with a Mega Bloks line of CPK construction activity sets, party goods and social expressions by American Greetings, wooden furniture by Toy Vault, and more. The CPK program will be supported by a one-of-a-kind mall tour hitting the United States in July ’05.

In addition to the Dragon Booster trading card game from Score Entertainment, which launched earlier this year, toys from Jakks Pacific, video games from Konami, DVD’s from Funimation and publishing will begin rolling out later this year and into early 2006, followed by apparel in spring ’06 from Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis. Also, products will be launched in several international markets, including the U.K., France, Spain, Mexico and Australia later this year.

The company’s new pre-school series Lunar Jim, is slated to begin broadcasting in early 2006 in several international territories, followed by a fall toy launch. Additional key licensees will be announced later this year. Previously announced broadcasters include CBC (Canada), BBC (U.K.), ZDF (Germany), KIKA (Germany), ABC (Australia), BBC Kids (Canada), SRC (Canada), and Discovery Kids (Pan Latin America).

Big Tent Entertainment, New York, is unveiling several new property developments and will showcase the first wave of licensed Koala Brothers products hitting mass retail this fall. This will include items from Fisher-Price, Mattel Games and Puzzles, Random House Children’s Books, Lion’s Gate Home Video, Children’s Apparel Network, and Thermos, among others.

Big Tent Entertainment will unveil details of a deal with Sulake Corporation to manage the North American marketing, promotional and licensing initiatives for Habbo Hotel.

Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, has signed a licensing agreement with International Playthings (IPI), Parsippany, N.J., for one of America’s best-selling author’s, David Macaulay. IPI is launching a game based on Macaulay’s book, The Way Things Work. Bliss House, Longmeadow, Mass. has been given worldwide responsibility for licensing and has targeted several categories including electronic games, a series of construction activity kits, videos, DVDs, book promotions and commercials.

Licensing opportunities for the Emily brand—based on the best-selling picture books—are being offered by Bordeaux Partners, L.P., Dallas. The books and the brand are generally aimed at a target audience between the ages of three and seven. 2005 will see the release of two new board books called Emily Works Out and Emily’s Manners.

The North American Bear Company is launching both a line of plush Emily dolls and soft gift accessories for fall 2005, and Small Miracles will create glamorous Emily-inspired outfits and frilly accessories. Also look for Emily tea sets, totes, pillows and more.

Brand Castle, Cleveland, will be launching a new line of licensed Crayola Crafty Cooking Kits that will hit stores this spring. The initial product lineup includes: Fun & Hot Pretzel Shop, Create & Eat Brownie Treats, Inside-Out S’mores & More, Dinomite Donut Party, Creative Cookie Studio, and Funny Fave Crispy Rice Treats. Each Crafty Cooking Kit is set to retail between $4 and $6. New formats will be introduced to the lineup in a second seasonal rotation.

HIT Entertainment, Allen, Texas, is releasing a new series, Bob the Builder—Project: Build It, on PBS Kids. The series introduces new characters, including an all-new machine, Scrambler. To introduce the new TV series, HIT is releasing the full-length home video prequel, Bob’s Big Plan. Coinciding with the launch of Bob the Builder—Project: Build It on PBS Kids, followers of the series will be able to watch-along and build-along with new construction toy lines from RC2’s Learning Curve and Lego.

HIT Entertainment is looking to expand Fraggle Rock’s licensing program to continue to provide the legions of new and old Fraggle fans with what they want. Licensing and promotional opportunities are now available from HIT Entertainment across all categories including toys, apparel, accessories, interactive games, home furnishings, health and beauty aids, food and beverages, gifts, stationery products and wireless communication devices and accessories.

Tyco R/C, El Segundo, Calif., a division of Mattel, is planning to launch a new line of remote control cars called “Drift Kings.” The line is based on the new motorsport trend known as drifting. The Drift Kings (SRP $69.99) assortment includes two ready-to-run large scale vehicles: the Mazda RX7 and the Nissan Silvia S15. Each vehicle features four-wheel drive, speed control and two sets of tires (drift tires and street tires) that can be swapped for custom traction action.

With the launch of the vehicles, Tyco R/C will be partnering with Formula Drift—the only professional drift circuit outside of Japan. Tyco R/C will demo the Drift Kings assortment at Formula Drift events, where attendees will have the opportunity to participate in contests to win Drift Kings cars and race against a Formula Drift driver.

Nelvana, Toronto, is set to unveil its newest action brand,—action-adventure series targeting kids ages 6 to 11—Di-Gata Defenders. Nelvana is currently in discussions with several master toy partners. Di-Gata Defenders will have its global premiere in 2006 on Teletoon, Canada’s first and only 24-hour animation network, followed by a worldwide broadcast, licensing and promotional launch.

Nelvana has finalized a direct-to-retail agreement for The Fairly OddParents with Santiago, Chile-based department store chain, Johnson’s. The Fairly OddParents range will include plush and novelty toys from licensees Nancy Sales Company and Jakks Pacific.

PorchLight Entertainment, Los Angeles, appointed MAX Entertainment (MAX) as its new representative in Middle and Southeast Asia. Under the agreement, MAX will exclusively handle licensing and merchandising rights for PorchLight’s pre-school brand Jay Jay The Jet Plane throughout Malaysia, Singapore, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. MAX and PorchLight will work together to build the brand in Asia through television, licensing and promotional activities. Sponsorships will also be a key factor in adding value to the brand.

Scholastic Entertainment plans to highlight favorites including I Spy and other properties in its offerings. A relationship with Mead continues with all-new introductions of school supplies in the works. Scholastic brand initiatives also include the Scholastic Video Collection and a new product launch “Read with Me.”

The “Maya & Miguel Double Dare Sport-tacular” will 'kick’ off this summer with the help a partnership with Major League Soccer. The promotion includes mentions on the show of select MLS players and teams, as well as an extensive program through “Futbolito.”

It also plans to celebrate its Clifford the Big Red Dog brand with a yearlong marketing campaign.

SmileMakers, Inc., of Spartanburg, S.C., is the newest company to join the “ToddWorld” merchandise program. The company will be producing and distributing stickers to be sold in the US and Canada. The first products will be launched in the SmileMakers 2005 Holiday Catalog.

The ToddWorld soft play children’s products, created by licensee Action Products International, Inc., will release in Fall 2005.