“The picture definitely looks better than a year ago, but we must be careful as we’re not out of the woods yet.”

For Nickelodeon Consumer Products, the last 12 months have been both exciting and challenging, Jean-Philippe Randisi, SVP & MD, International, tells Licensing.biz. “Challenging because many markets became more volatile and difficult to predict,” he begins. “Exciting because in spite of difficult conditions in several major territories, we have continued to build our business with some major successes.”

These included the tenth anniversary of Spongebob Squarepants; the launch of the consumer products programme for iCarly internationally; pushing into new markets with pre-school evergreen Dora the Explorer; the launch of its first locally-produced Japanese property, Usavich; the first phase of The Last Airbender licensing push; and the roll out of the MTV brand programme, including a partnership with High Street retailer Zara.
On top of this, Nickelodeon added classic franchise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to its portfolio, acquiring it from 4Kids and Mirage in October 2009, promising new CG animated content and a feature film in the near future.

Randisi and his international team have also continued to expand major properties into territories outside of the US. For example, Spongebob Squarepants is currently on fire in Spain, he says, while Dora the Explorer is making moves into second tier markets like Poland, China and Spain.

However, as his opening remark shows, Randisi is reluctant to say the wider industry is completely recovered from the impact of the recession.
“The industry did recover in the second half of last year, but it is still extremely fragile. We’re also starting to see the impact of debt levels with governments starting to enforce tighter spending policies, which will inevitably impact consumer demand again. But the mood has evolved from panic to cautiousness.”

Randisi also believes that a number of existing trends are becoming more prevalent. “Price sensitivity has increased,” he says. “There is ongoing consolidation at retail and retailers are tending to commit and order later and later, putting more pressure on manufacturers.”

Employment worries and currency fluctuations will also continue to provide challenges for the wider licensing industry. However, Randisi is confident Nickelodeon is well placed to overcome these for a number of reasons. “Nickelodeon has three big strengths,” he says. “Its global imprint, which enables us to mitigate risk in some markets with others; plus a constant flow of first class properties, targeting different segments, with some hits made ex-US, meaning we have a well balanced and diversified portfolio covering all demos from pre-school to adults.

“Finally, we are an organisation that is now turning into an incredibly powerful marketing machine focused on growing its brand on a 360-degree basis.”

The biggest challenge going forward will, therefore, be for the mid-league players, Randisi concludes. “I see the future being polarised even further between the big, worldwide licensors and leftfield creative units. Growth will naturally come from evolution of certain product categories developing their digital side, and from diversifying revenue across new categories as licensed brands become culturally more mainstream and ubiquitous.”