Licensing chatter: 10 questions with Start Licensing’s Ian Downes

In these unprecedented times for the global community, it’s nice to keep connected – and for an industry as reliant on peer to peer networking as the licensing business, maintaining those connections with our industry colleagues is paramount. That’ why Licensing.biz is kicking off a new series of interviews to get to know a bit more about the people driving it forward.

In our first Licensing Chatter interview series, we talk with the licensing industry personality and founder of Start Licensing, Ian Downes.

Hello Ian, good to chat. To kick us off, can you tell us how you got into the licensing business, how did this all begin for you?

My path to the licensing industry was via the publishing world. I started my working life in the advertising industry as a TV Time buyer and from there moved into the publishing world. I worked for a company called Marshall Cavendish who published part-work magazines. I was asked to investigate a few TV programmes with a view to Marshall Cavendish licensing them. That was how I first connected with licensing.

Not long afterwards I joined Copyright Promotions to co-manage their publishing business and worked on properties like Star Wars, The X Files, Mr Men, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Deals I did included managing Sonic the Comic, licensing The X Files Book of the Unexplained which became a best seller and managing things like the Star Wars graphic novel programme. I also dressed up as Mr Happy.

We’ll have to get our hands on some of those pictures. So, what have been the biggest changes you’ve seen in the space over that time?

I would say the level of competition. When I started there were far fewer licenses available to buy and far fewer people selling licenses. Over the 28 years I have worked in licensing there hasn’t been a similar growth in licensees so we have a situation where I think supply outstrips demand.

Of course there have been other significant changes including more rights holders managing their own brands – when I started out we represented the likes of Hasbro, Lucasfilm and Universal. There has also been dramatic changes in the TV market and the range of media platforms that are in the market.

I would say there have been other changes not least in the size and shape of retail. Companies like Woolworths have gone by the wayside whilst the likes of Amazon have developed into retail giants.

You’re a name synonymous with the licensing industry, but what has been the proudest moment of your career to date?

I guess for me it was winning the Lifetime Achievement Award at the UK Licensing Awards a few years ago. It was a lovely recognition of my career and contribution to the industry. It was unexpected but very welcome. Of course I have been lucky to work with and for a lot of great people who helped me achieve that recognition.

Licensing is a community and I guess it is lovely to know you have the respect of your industry peers. I am also proud that I have been able to help other people. I have enjoyed mentoring people and it is good to see the next generation of licensing professionals making headway in their careers.

Have you got a favourite licensing deal/partnership on the CV – what makes it stand out for you?

I am always pleased with deals that have started with a cold call. I am a great believer in creating new business opportunities. A recent example is with Shaun the Sheep and Primus. I cold called them a couple of years ago and talked to them about licensing. They hadn’t considered licensing before but 12 months later they were launching a Shaun the Sheep metal garden sculpture at GLEE at the NEC.

It is lovely to see new companies coming on board and finding success. Likewise I am very proud of helping develop a Roy of the Rovers Exhibition at the National Football Museum. It seemed like a fitting venue to celebrate Roy’s life and it was very satisfying to help make this happen.

I loved working with Dr Martens with The Beano as I was a big DMs fan and I also enjoyed working with artists such as Sir Peter Blake and Horace Panter on licensed ranges. Recently it was great to meet street artist Cheo who we are working with on Wallace & Gromit. I am a big fan of street art so I enjoyed meeting Cheo.

The other deal that really stands out for me is The X Files Book of the Unexplained. This was a couple of books tied into The X Files series. The idea behind the books was mine. I found the publisher and helped get the books done. They were both best sellers and it was a great game-changer for me in my career not least as it confirmed that it is sensible to look at creating and generating business through your own original ideas.

What are some of the biggest hurdles the licensing business is facing at the moment?

Obviously we are all in the midst of the coronavirus crisis and I think none of us are really sure what the short, medium and long term impact will be on the licensing business. Putting this to one side for the moment and talking more generally I think there is a real challenge in spreading the word about licensing and highlighting the benefits of licensing to new companies and sectors.

I think if licensing is to survive and thrive we need to engage with new companies more regularly and develop more of an industry credentials’ approach to demonstrate licensing works. I think in some cases the value of good quality IP has been eroded and has become a commodity to trade.

I think we need to remember the value and appeal of good IP and how it can work commercially. Connected to this I think we also need to be a little more circumspect about which properties are being brought to market. I am not sure there is room for all properties and in some cases some properties do not really hold significant potential.  I think we need where we can to think long-term and build proper campaigns for properties with a philosophy of nurturing partnerships.

What conversation do you think the industry needs to be having right now?

There are a lot and, of course, many conversations will be driven by the current situation in the market. I suspect these will be about contractual obligations, scheduling of payments and extending deals. I think we all have to have an open dialogue about things and try to find a compromise that works for all concerned parties.

I would say here it is important to remember that Licensors and Agents are part of the licensing economy and have businesses to run as well. Often companies will have a wider work force beyond the licensing team who in part rely on licensing revenues. It is important that any conversation is one built on the principle of partnership and mutuality.

I also think we need to be thinking about how do we kickstart the licensing economy with new deals, fresh ideas and initiatives. I think it is sensible to be thinking ahead and developing ideas that might be capable of coming to market quickly. I think areas that Licensors and Agents could also be looking at are quicker approvals, slicker administration and marketing support.

Beyond this I think the industry needs to keep thinking about the people working in it and be mindful of developing a career path for people. I think we need to be developing the notion that licensing is a career and has a career path for people. I think companies are a lot better at this side of things these days but we need to work on talent retention and personnel development.

Retail is one of the biggest topics of talk at the moment – what do you think the future relationship between retail and licensing looks like?

I think we will see more cases of retailers, licensees and licensors working together to curate and develop product ranges that have an element of exclusivity about them. A well developed and well established licensed property should be delivering a specific audience and creating a particular connection with consumers.

I think we need to develop that further and in the context of retail use it in a way that helps retailers build store traffic and sales in a way that gives them a competitive advantage. I think this needs to move from just being about price. I think there is scope to engender and develop loyalty through licensing.

I also think there is a lot to be achieved in online retail coupled with pop up retail and some very specific product categories such as personalised products. I also think we should be looking at all aspects of retail including higher end retail. Licensing and licensed brands can work in different parts of the retail market as long as they have an appeal to consumers and that appeal is turned into attractive products or services.

I expect to see licensing playing more of a role in promotions and advertising around retail. Last year Aardman worked with DFS and Joules with Wallace & Gromit on retail promotions. Licensing can add value, deliver a point of difference, and create a competitive edge. I think we shouldn’t short change ourselves.

What would be your dream brand to work with or licensing deal to establish?

Tough question. I love working with the brands we represent already.

However as I mentioned I am great lover of street art so I would love to work with a collection of street artists and develop licensing programmes with them. Ideally I would like to do something like this that is linked to a charity that helps youngsters from inner cities develop their careers and connect with career opportunities.

As someone who grew up in South London it saddens me to see and hear what happens from time to time there these days. I would like to be involved in a licensing programme that might help raise funds for an initiative like this. I am working on a pro bono basis with Stuart Lawrence at the moment. Stuart is a trustee of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and is Stephen’s younger brother. He is doing a lot of great work in schools. I am helping Stuart find publishers and commercial partners. I think we may have found a publisher for a children’s book written by Stuart – I think I will be very satisfied if this happens.

What then Ian, would you say is the best part of your job?

I think it is having the opportunity to think creatively and to see those creative ideas realised in a commercial way. Licensing is an industry that has a set way of working but it is also one that embraces fresh and original thinking. We shouldn’t lose sight that it is an entrepreneurial business as well. You can move quickly and make things happen.

Of course I also love the people in the industry. I have made lifelong friends in the industry and not too many enemies. I think it is a friendly business and one that I am glad that I found all those years ago.

Finally, what advice would you give to anyone starting out their career in licensing?

I think the key thing is to be yourself. Develop your own style and approach to doing business but remain honest at all times. I think people appreciate openness and honesty coupled with consistency. I think you should feel able to explain your decisions and choices if you need to.

It is also important to share things with colleagues and friends. Don’t fester on something. It has probably happened before and there is always a resolution. Don’t be afraid of stepping forward and suggesting ideas.

Also in today’s world still place a value in getting out: go to meet people, visit shops, look at products from other sectors, visit trade fairs and research your category. I am always happy to chat to people and I know that is the same for other people. Get yourself involved in the industry and build a network of industry friends.

White Paper – Kids Industries explores: Children and COVID-19

The following research and White Paper has been conducted and written by Kids Industries, a research, strategy, and creative agency for the children’s and family market in the UK. Kids Industries researcher, Aleksandra Szczerba offers up her insight into the developing COVID-19 situation, and how children are managing in these uncertain times.

Children and COVID-19: how are they dealing with it?

 

As more and more countries take increasingly serious measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, more and more people are pointing out how this is likely to be one of the most important events that Gens X, Y, Z and Alpha will ever have to deal with.

People are having to isolate inside their homes and shop shelves are hauntingly empty. Events are being cancelled, schools are being closed down, and across the world planes are being grounded as countries are closing their land and sea borders. The coronavirus is now very much a global crisis that affects all of us – including children.

At Kids Industries, children are at the core of the work that we do. It therefore comes as no surprise that we wanted to know more about how the virus is affecting children’s lives, what they know about it, and how they are dealing with it. As such, at short notice we approached our junior board and interviewed a number of children this weekend to find out their views firsthand.

In addition, we scoured the internet for information on how young people across the globe were responding to this crisis. We have combined our findings with our expertise in children’s development to give you an overview of how young people are dealing with the situation at hand, and what you can do to support them, both as individuals and brands.

First of all: what does children’s development tell us about children’s fears and worries?

Before the age of six, children struggle with separating fantasy and reality, and their limited cognitive abilities mean they struggle to tell themselves that something is not real – monsters under the bed may still exist. However, as children reach the age of six and seven, begin “big school”, experience the world beyond their family household, and become better readers and more attentive viewers, they become exposed to the big bad world around them and the many unpleasant things within it.

Consequently, concrete threats they might see in the media, like burglars, earthquakes and even pedophiles, become huge concerns for them. The world is big and scary, and children aged six to 10 are only progressively learning to deal with these fears. Exposure to scary news coverage can cause them a lot of anxiety and the stories can stay with them for a long time.

As children enter their tween years (and later their teens), their abstract reasoning gradually develops, and so does their ability to comprehend issues like climate change, political issues and military conflict. These now become sources of children’s anxiety. This progression makes sense, considering older children are less self-centred and have the ability to think about consequences on a larger scale. Although they understand a greater number of threats, their emotional control is better than that of younger children, and although they may worry, they think about issues more realistically and rationally. This was reflected in the research we carried out.

Children today are informed and level headed about the situation

The children we spoke to all knew the key factual information about the virus. Even our seven year old could tell us that it is a disease that spreads quickly. Children correctly identified symptoms which are akin to the flu, and some knew about the virus’ origins and the lack of a vaccine or a cure. When asked about what steps should be taken, all children regardless of age could tell us what the main preventative measures were, including washing your hands for 20 seconds and self-isolating when feeling unwell.

The older children thought a bit more deeply about some recommendations and behaviours, weighing pros and cons and critiquing bad ideas. The recommended “elbow greeting” instead of a handshake was identified as something that was probably just popular online and not the real world, they considered how closing schools might do more harm than good, and one of the girls was critical of people stockpiling:

“People should not panic buy, it just means that if we do go into lockdown or whatever, some people will have loads of stuff and some will have none” – Tween girl

Also in the context of what measures should be taken, one of the girls mentioned the government’s response and expressed a degree of distrust:

“They said it’s fine, but I mean….I don’t really think any of them knows what climate change is or anything like that, so…” – Tween girl

Children weren’t just able to recall information and guidance – they also approached it critically.

We also asked children if they were scared of the virus – and we found that across the board they weren’t scared of it in relation to themselves, recognising that it is unlikely to affect young, healthy people. Instead, they showed concern for others, expressing that they were worried about how it would affect the sick and elderly, both in the general population and their own family members.

“To me personally, kind of, but not particularly. I think…actually as a whole, the effect of it on other people around you, yes it’s fairly scary. The scariness of it isn’t necessarily in relation to, like, me personally, it’s the effect on other people.” – Teenage boy

Overall, children’s responses showed that they are aware of key facts about the coronavirus. They all considered how the virus affects other people and many of them carefully thought about potential measures. This goes to show that even children at the younger end of our age range engaged with the subject in a grounded, knowledgeable way, and understood the severity of the illness in relation to at-risk groups. The degree to which children evaluated the effects on society as a whole varied slightly with age, but no child possessed information that was wrong or expressed any irrational anxiety about the situation.

Media and politicians are addressing children directly – because children want information

As children of all ages are clearly showing an interest in and understanding of the subject of the coronavirus, it’s not surprising that in some countries politicians are trying to communicate with children directly and listening to their concerns.

On Friday the 13th of March, Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen held a short press conference in which she answered questions about the coronavirus sent in by children. On Monday, Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg followed suit, also holding a special press conference in collaboration with children’s media outlets, with adult press banned from attending. Both leaders faced questions from children aged six to 13 which covered issues such as school closures, activities children can and cannot take part in, holidays, concerns about senior family members, vaccine development, and how to best take care of your own health and helping your friends and loved ones.

Children want to know what is going on, they want to know what they can and should do, and they care about the people around them.

Similarly, also in Norway, the children’s newspaper Aftenposten Junior has been focusing their content on providing accurate and easy to understand news about the coronavirus. The newspaper, being an offshoot of the biggest newspaper in the country, is currently available free of charge, as the publishers understand the importance of providing children with factual content about the virus, stressing the importance of accurate information in the era of “fake news”.

That’s not to say the Scandinavians are alone in wanting to keep children informed; CBBC’s Newsround webpage includes multiple stories about the virus, including an FAQ page, an article about social distancing, and even instructions on how to disinfect your phone or play Pokemon Go in isolation!

Teenagers cope with everything through humour and social media

When we look at how older children have been coping with the coronavirus pandemic, the biggest thing for them is humour on social media. Teenagers use memes to process both personal and social problems, including some serious issues. Although to an outsider the use of humorous memes may seem poorly-timed or in poor taste, they are an important way to place a challenge into a social context and to foster discussion and a sense of community.

Instagram is full of memes about mental health, sexuality and gender identity, climate change, politics, and more. Hashtags such as #anxietymemes or #lgbtmemes bring up hundreds of thousands of results – the vast majority posted by teenagers. However, in 2020 another platform is being used by Generation Z to talk about world events and cope with sociopolitical issues: TikTok.

This isn’t the first time that teens have taken to TikTok in response to a major world event. In the past they have used the platform to share their opinions on Brexit, urge people to register to vote, air their frustrations with world leaders’ responses to climate change, and more.

Now coronavirus is the “it” trend on the short video platform, as teens make stockpiling videos and come up with quarantine ideas. All of this is set to trending coronavirus-themed songs (because of course these exist!) One of the main trending songs stems from a viral Vietnamese PSA about the virus. A Vietnamese dancer created a dance routine based on WHO’s recommendations on how to wash one’s hands to the song, and this hand wash dance challenge (#ghencovychallenge) has been picked up by teens across the world, and now media outlets in Asia and the west.

Brands are also getting involved – Dettol India released a special filter and started their own TikTok challenge. Even though the user engagement here is not as organic or spontaneous as in the case of other trends, the associated tag #handwashchallenge is racking up billions of views anyway.

The Vietnamese hand wash challenge tag has accumulated 15.8M views on the app, whereas the trending user-created “It’s Corona Time” song has been used in over 800,000 videos.

Although much of the Gen Z humour regarding the coronavirus can be considered quite nihilistic or absurd, it’s in line with how teens have dealt with all other issues in recent history. Absurdist moments of levity set against the backdrop of hopeless situations is a formula that has come to define this generation of internet users, and its prevalence shows just how engaged with the news cycle and concerned about global issues teenagers are.

The social nature of these platforms, the speed at which content spreads to millions of users, and the mass engagement in “challenges” and trends, all allow teenagers to feel a sense of togetherness and understanding as they deal with global crises. Even though the situation might feel hopeless – at least they know they’re not dealing with it alone.

To conclude, it cannot be denied that children and young people understand the situation unfolding around them. Unsurprisingly older children’s reasoning about the coronavirus and its effects is more sophisticated, but even young children are concerned for others.

They’re not panicking – instead they are seeking out information on how to help, taking an interest in how politicians are responding to the crisis, and in the case of teenagers – looking towards social media and humour for support. The coronavirus pandemic will definitely leave a lasting impact on children as they are forced to adjust to a reality in which they cannot go to school and where their friendships are moved to the digital space. Many of them are faced with an emotionally challenging situation where they think about and worry about the disease’s consequences on their close ones and the world around them. So far they appear to be dealing with it all well, but time will tell how all of this unfolds over a longer period of time.

So what can you do under these circumstances as a children’s brand or content creator? If you do choose to talk about the coronavirus, remember to share information that is up to date and factual, in a way that is easy to understand. Acknowledge the severity of the situation, but don’t induce panic. Don’t be scared to inject a small dose of humour to uplift spirits. Also think about how your platform or product can help children during this time, as they will be seeking things to occupy and distract them. Could you perhaps make some of your content free of charge, or offer extended free trials? If you happen to have a digital game, is there a way in which you can facilitate gameplay and add joy to it?  Museums are offering virtual tours, theatres are posting videos of their plays, whereas musicians are holding mini concerts on live video – so what can your brand do to make this period easier and more pleasant for children?

Kids Industries is the leading Insight, Strategy and Creative agency for brands that wish to connect with families. KI uses digital technologies to undertake qualitative research online to get actionable insights. Established in 2002 and are proud to include Universal, Disney, Royal Caribbean, BBC and Kellogg amongst their client list.

Sponsored post – Aardvark Swift: The influencer marketing landscape is changing

Influencing shopping habits and purchasing decisions is the core of what retail marketing is all about. Over the last few years, there has been more focus on the role of influencers within marketing strategies.  Whether that be through unboxing videos, reviews or boosted brand visibility across social platforms; the influencer has reigned supreme across the entire spectrum of businesses within the toys and licensing industry.

Knowing what is in vogue is something influencer marketing is good at.

“You need to keep on top of [trends] to know what’s trending,” says Laura Seaton, founder of BlogOn! and a professional marketing consultant.

As someone who coordinates and coaches businesses and bloggers daily, she has seen a definite change of how marketing and influencer culture works together.

“People are going back to more traditional TV advertising. The focus is moving back to the product, which is a sensible way to go. No one needs to pay thousands and thousands of pounds for a video campaign,” she says.

The cost, and return on investment, are the primary drivers for this change. Influencer marketing budgets are beginning to be on par with more traditional, tried and tested, approaches; and companies are taking notice.

Laura Seaton, BlogOn

“[Influencers] was where everyone’s marketing budget went last year, and the year before that. Now companies are starting to realise they could go with smaller influencers, and support that with more traditional marketing and PR.”

Flipping the paradigm on its head seems to be the solution to a number of problems currently being considered by the industry. Both the licensing and toys sector have begun focusing more on traditional PR, which is then supplemented by niche influencer marketing, rather than the other way around.

“I’ve been in the industry for 25 years. You’ve got to be sold yourself to be able to sell,” explains Tim Juckes, a specialist consultant with years of experience at Saban Brands. “We have to keep moving. Those that aren’t adaptable and are doing the same thing as before, well there lies madness, doesn’t it?”

The idea of being ‘sold’ is an interesting one and brings a potential issue to bear when it comes to influencers.

“They don’t really care what product they’re getting, so they could work with your competitors the next day. There’s no brand loyalty.”

There’s another problem.

“People are starting to worry that [some influencers] have bought their followers. Some have 100,000 followers, but only get 1000 interactions,” states Seaton.

Not having an engaged audience is a huge issue, especially when considering buy-in and click-through. It becomes like shouting into a void, with no one being receptive to the message being put out, and the money put into the campaign is effectively wasted. Those that do have an active following run into a different issue.

“The same kids end up watching the same videos, so it isn’t necessarily reaching a new market,” she adds.

The move to a more niche influencer model has been instigated for a number of reasons, not just for ROI purposes.

“Although the major influencers offer huge market access, consumers have become increasingly aware that they are offering a paid service, and many of them have lost editorial credibility. This loss of integrity carries with it a significant loss in the value of the association,” considers Rob Corney, a licensing industry professional and director of Bulldog Licensing.

“Micro-targeting through individuals with a lower reach but, arguably, higher credibility” is definitely a positive shift in the market.

It isn’t all doom and gloom. Influencer marketing has allowed the expansion of key markets over the last few years, such as the collectable market.

The unboxing phenomenon could only have come about through influencer channels and has given brands the opportunity to showcase themselves directly in the hands of their core audience. Licensing and retail absolutely recognise the value of a strong digital programme.

There’s definitely work to be done within the industry to agree a new norm of trust. As the public consumes online content with increasing scepticism, there needs to be further “clarity over advertorial versus editorial content,” agrees Corney. We’ve already begun to see this as platforms, such as YouTube, crack down on paid-for advertising, making ads more transparent.

Influencer marketing doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. If anything, more targeted campaigns will run in tandem with other strategies which should, given time, allow them to have a better conversion.

It seems that trust and credibility are vital factors in consumer spending habits, which shouldn’t be news to anyone, and it’s nurturing that relationship in an active audience that will make the difference.

Jordan Hennell
Toys and Licensing Recruiter
jordan.h@aswift.com | +44 (0)1709 834777
Aardvark Swift | aswift.com

How Step Inside Productions is breaking new ground in the experiential licensing market

Having made a name for itself amid the Escape Room explosion of the past half a decade or so, Theseus, and moreover its live experiential division, Step Inside Productions is about to embark on a project that makes use of one of the newest formats within experiential licensing at the moment.

Nine years into its business venture of developing the Escape Hunt franchise, Theseus recently unveiled its plans to develop a touring CBeebies-themed interactive pop-up experience for children and parents; a concept that will feature some of the channel’s most popular IP, including Hey Duggee, Something Special, and Sarah & Duck.

Called CBeebies Rainbow Adventure, the concept – one that is already scheduled for regional locations across the UK for the first six months of 2021, but has plans in place that cover at least the next five years – is what the team of IP experts at Theseus has billed as somewhat of a boundary-pushing strand of content consumption for modern audiences.

Just as this is team of experts who have built careers on pioneering in emerging content platforms, including the first VOD deal struck for Warner Bros back in 2003, or the establishment of BT Television and subsequent launch of BT Sport, Theseus and Step Inside Productions is a meeting of talents from across the space, with the aim of innovating in the relatively nascent experiential market.

Licensing.biz takes the chance to catch up with Victoria Molony, director of business affairs at Step Inside Productions to talk about the future of experiential licensing, and how its CBeebies partnership is setting a new precedent in the market.

Hi Victoria, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Let’s start then, by exploring what Theseus and the Step Inside Productions division is…

Theseus was set up back in 2011 by Dan Marks. We have worked together over the years, originally when I was at Warner Bros, then at Universal, then we worked together at BT for a long time, and we have consulted on a variety of different IP brands since then.

Theseus came out of the last bit of work we were doing which was in the Escape Room world for a business called Escape Hunt. From setting up BT Vision and the launch of BT Sport, we have been at the forefront of new ways of exploiting content over the years, looking at and helping IP owners with the latest new route to market.

Dan was part of the team that devised The Wizarding World as the way in which to link Harry Potter with Fantastic Beasts from JK Rowling. I was on the legal side, and we were working for a business called Blair Partnership who owned Pottermore.

Through our work with Escape Hunt, we brokered a deal with BBC Studios for Doctor Who, and that kickstarted an ongoing conversation with the team there.

Aha, and from there, it wasn’t long until Step Inside Productions was born, and you looked at tapping into the rise of the live experience market?

Yes, we felt that the market place is moving and brands are looking for more innovative ways of reaching the consumer. There’s a push back against simply consuming content digitally with brand owners looking to find a more physical connection with their consumers; coupled with the fact that we have reached peak ‘stuff’, and people are looking to spend their disposable income more on experiences rather than on more things.

You also have this situation on the high street where people are rarely going into shops, and the retail landlords are really looking for ways to drive footfall into their shopping centres; you have town council improvement schemes looking for ways to bring people into town.

It takes that holy trinity of things – the wish for physical expression, the wish for people to spend money on things they are connecting with, and the wish for town centres and shopping centres to drive footfall – through which you have this fantastic opportunity to create experiential concepts that draws all of those things together.

So what does your portfolio look like now?

At the moment, we are very focused on the CBeebies partnership, which will be touring the UK for the next six months certainly, and we have the 2021 schedule complete. We plan on having that on the road for up to the next five years. 

We have been really pleased with the interest and demand that some of the regional venues have driven. I think people in the smallest towns and cities around the country aren’t used to getting really high quality entertainment like this. It usually all goes to Manchester or Birmingham, but not so much Hull or Ipswich.

We have other clients in the advisory stage, who are just at the beginnings of their foray into the experiential, and a number at the start of their concept. What we would really like to do is use this as an entertainment format in the same way that TV shows are created, then you use them as vehicles to present content.

Oh, that’s an interesting concept… could you expand on this idea?

Well, we will be looking to find other IP owners as partners to take a similar sort of touring concept on. We believe that live experiences have become a new strand of content consumption for audiences.

We took our cues from the theme parks who do experiential extremely well, such as Disney, Universal, and Merlin. But we wanted to do something that was much more attainable for the majority of brand owners; something that wouldn’t drive all of their budget as a theme park would, but something that ticks that hour or two activity box for families. So, it’s a morning activity, it’s not a day out. It’s something more attune to going to the theatre or an exhibition.

Meanwhile, if you look at the Escape Room concept, you have six or eight people maximum in a group, and most of those sites only have six escape rooms, so you have somewhere between 50 and 70 people per hour attending an escape room. We wanted to do something that is more in the 150 to 200 people an hour, which enables you to be driving revenue to allow yourselves to create something that is a bit more of an in-depth immersive experience.

In the context of CBeebies, it’s such an iconic brand that at its heart has educational entertainment enjoyed by children and parents, and has so much to offer the experiential. Coupled with the fact that you have a consumer market place that is available seven days a week, all year round – we leapt at the chance to work with them.

We wanted, and the BBC wanted, something that would showcase the CBeebies channel, as well as the programming on the channel; so we see the experience we have created as the manifestation of the CBeebies channel, with five different brand experiences within it. We came up with the idea of creating a touring showroom, and the BBC loved it because it fits so well with their public service commitment.

The more ways that you can really connect people with your brand, the stronger the link is, and there is no better way to form a connection with anything than to do it face to face and in person.

How have you seen the experiential market evolve or how is it currently evolving and what changes are being brought about?

The experiential market itself is in a very nascent state really. Theme parks have been around a long time; while the escape room sector has gone from nothing to an enormous number of players across the world in a relatively short period of time. It is probably close to reaching – it maybe too strong to say saturation – but probably looking at some consolidation around the big players refining their offering.

I do think the market place for revenue generating experiential activity is relatively nascent. It’s been popular from a marketing activation standpoint for brands, but not so much as a means of generating revenue. We like to see ourselves as being at the forefront of leading some of the content creation around that, in that middle market of course.

What does the future hold for the experiential market, and its ongoing relationship with licensing in that case?

This is something that all of the major IP owners are looking at. Anecdotally, experience sits within the consumer products arm with many of the Hollywood studios, and they are looking at rebranding and recreating those divisions to really drive experiential, alongside their historic merchandise operations.

I think there will be a trend to consolidate with people pulling together the new formats that we are looking at in the way that escape rooms came out of nowhere. There will be new formats that come in all of the time, and we see our touring model as being one of those.

Funko, the pop culture lifestyle, and why 2020 is going to be a game changer for its European business

It’s likely the fact that Funko – in one form or another – can be found in most toy shops on the high street or otherwise today, that the firm’s insistence that ‘it is not a toy company,’ takes some time to comprehend.

As the pop culture explosion that Funko found itself at the centre of mid-way through the last decade continues to surge across the UK, it stands to reason that the purveyor of Pop! has found itself an almost omnipresent figurehead of the trend.

It wouldn’t have escaped many people’s attention that year on year, the Funko brand has been gaining shelf space inch by inch across the retail landscape; most recently it compounded its growth within the toy space with the launch of its ‘revolutionary’ Paka Paka platform into The Entertainer’s boundary-pushing Westfield store – a concept that went on to launch in Forbidden Planet’s Glasgow store, and will be followed with launches in Primark and Smyths Toys.

Nevertheless, Funko’s mantra remains. This is more than a toy company, and for the past number of years it has been actively positioning itself as a lifestyle brand, with a portfolio that spans all manner of categories from its vinyl figures, to softlines, bags, purses, wallets and homewares, developed in conjunction with its Loungefly brand.

There aren’t many toy companies, after all, that can lay claim to presence in such a diverse line-up of retailers; and it’s this, diversification, that has just helped Funko’s EMEA operation to one of its better financial years to date.

“We grew significantly in EMEA, it was the strongest growing of the regions internationally,” Andy Oddie, Funko’s managing director of EMEA, tells Licensing.biz. “And it is being a lifestyle company with the lifestyle businesses that we have got, that has helped us in the face of the challenges in the industry.

Funko EMEA managing director, Andy Oddie, says 2020 will be a game changing year

“We are in a broader channel, and that’s allowed us to tap into many different opportunities at retail and through e-commerce. One of the biggest initiatives for us at the moment is with Primark.

“But with our multi-channel and multi-category approach we can attack in certain areas and defend in other areas, and be in a multitude of places that others would maybe fail to reach.”

It came as a surprise to many in the business when Funko’s US division detailed an eight per cent dip in its Q4 2019 results last month, finishing up at $214 million compared to the $233 million the year prior. It was the challenging retail environment of the US that contributed to the majority of the dip.

The story for Funko’s EMEA operations, however, offers a stark contrast. 

“All categories grew and all markets within EMEA – that’s nearly all 116 markets in the EMEA region – grew, and all those sub-markets that look after and feed into them grew,” continues Oddie. 

“In fact, we grew the workforce by 25 per cent and we have opened a new distribution centre in Coventry, which is state of the art with logistics systems and hardware meaning that we can be even quicker to market with our product.

“We are famously quick to develop items, but we have been criticised in the past for being poor operationally. I think this will be a game-changer for us, our operational capabilities will be massively upgraded with this facility.”

The new facility sees Funko move its current operations unit out of Essex and into its new Coventry address, from where it will service the majority of its key customers. A portion will continue to be serviced from the Netherlands distribution centre it opened in 2018. Oddie summarises the past year and a half at Funko making preparations for 2020 to be a game-changing year for the firm.

“Suddenly we are not only going to be quick to the market with product, but able to fulfil it and get it to the customer quicker than before as well,” he says.

“We have got growth, growth, growth, and we have got the new distribution centre – so that all sounds fantastic.”

But Funko isn’t totally immune to the susceptibility that hounds the toy, entertainment, or licensing industry. It’s US business already placed blame for its Q4 dip at the door of a weaker movie slate through 2019 compared to the year prior, while many have already lamented a softer line up still for the year ahead.

“The Disney slate is lighter than it has been previously,” states Oddie. “Warner has a good film out with Birds of Prey, but net – we are in a weaker environment in terms of properties for 2020. I think fortunately we are in the multichannel and with multi-categories.

“We are somewhat guarded from the difficulties of a soft movie slate, simply because we have such a broad product slate which is tapping into every imaginable piece of IP and opportunity, but at some point or another you can’t directly replace something as large as Marvel End Game… you need a lot of bits to replace End Game or Fortnite.

“But we do have all of the armoury available to defend from any lack of content, and, by the way, the 2021 IP slate looks awesome.”

Funko EMEA’s new state of the art logistics centre in Coventry

Visitors to this year’s New York Toy Fair were offered a glimpse at that armoury that not only spanned the diversity of its lifestyle portfolio, but also witnesses Funko make a concerted step into the toy space with the launch of Snapsies: a toy line developed for the younger market that features snap and match technology that allows kids to collect a diverse line-up of characters.

In a move to offer a fully-branded experience, Funko has even launched the line with content created by its in-house team at Funko Animation Studios.

Funko’s lifestyle division Loungefly gives Disney’s Mulan the Funko feel

On top of this, of course, is Funko Games, the tabletop gaming arm to Funko’s pop culture-spanning entity, that brings the brand roaring into the ever growing market for IP-driven board games with a collection that includes the Back to the Future: Back in Time tabletop game, Godzilla: Tokyo Clash, and a left field title that uses the Pan Am license.

With this now all falling under the Funko brand name, it’s increasingly obvious as to how the pop culture specialist is gaining those inches at retail, while the larger – grand plan if you will – for Funko appears to shift into view.

“We will always say that we want more space,” says Oddie. “Space gives us the ability to trade on a linear basis, and we have the product to achieve that. If we have three bays in retailer X, we say if you give us six bays, we will always achieve double what we did in three bays due to the items we have in strength and breadth.

“What we are looking to do is create Funko dedicated experiences and experiential retail execution that is interesting to fans, people spend time looking at it, perhaps there is a TV screen in there and some Funko branding in there, which really supports a much more interesting kind of experience for the customer – which is what everyone is looking for right now.

“The customer needs to be kept in store and needs to be excited about what’s in store. They need to see something new every week, and we can give that. Very few others can put their hand on their heart and say that they are delivering on all of that,” Oddie concludes.

Publishing, licensing, and the rule-breakers that have shaped its success

A particularly enjoyable piece of trivia is that there is very real evidence to suggest Agatha Christie was one of the first Britons to learn to surf standing up. Added detail that she did so off the shores of Honolulu and Cape Town at the height of the roaring ’20s, only adds to the image of vivacity of the author known for pioneering new grounds in British literature through the creation of two her best loved characters, Hercule Poirot and Ms Marple.

Both, believe it or not, have been the subject of successful licensing endeavours in the past and present, that have taken the characters and their worlds into the physical and digital gaming space, consumer products, and, of course, countless television and film adaptations – many of which will be broadcasting on any given channel right now, as you read this.

History has long been written – but often overlooked – by the women holding the pen, while it’s arguable that the licensing industry has long been influenced by the creations that emerged from their pages. Tove Jansson, the Swedish-speaking Finnish author, as we all know, was the mind behind Moomins, Beatrix Potter brought us the world of Peter Rabbit (et al), Rowling handed us Harry Potter, Mary Shelley gave us Frankenstein’s monster (yes, that totally counts), and actually the list goes on.

In doing so, however, each had to break the rules of their era, help set new precedents, and pioneer in a space heavily enveloped in patriarchy. Licensing, by extension, has always managed to champion those rule-breakers and help create a legacy around their works. Recently though, Timbuktu Labs – the owners of the Rebel Girls IP – has striven to take this one step further.

It’s well recognised that the publishing sector has long been a favoured pitch of the licensing industry, seen by many as a fertile ground for some of the most impactful and longstanding licenses and licensing programmes in the space today. Only this week has Dr Seuss Enterprises detailed this year’s plans with Random House Children’s to celebrate the author’s 116th birthday, while the Roald Dahl Story Company has seemingly written a new future for the world’s number one children’s storyteller through its boundary-pushing partnership with Netflix.

When it comes to licensing, classic book properties really do know how to go the distance. But with such a deep well of classic children’s literature to draw from, and up against some of the most iconic characters and brands to emerge from them, it’s no small undertaking to launch modern day book properties to the same effect.

David Walliams has largely been credited with revitalising the children’s book scene in recent years, with licensing success beginning to emanate from some of his most popular titles, including the likes of the Billionaire Boy stage show, or the Gangsta Granny board game, among various other partnerships in place, or on the way. Since his embarkation on a journey into children’s books, Walliams has – to date – sold 25 million copies across his portfolio of some 16 titles, proving that no matter how popular the classic IP remains, there’s still plenty of room to reach contemporary audiences, with a spin on the contemporary messages.

And what are contemporary audiences asking for more and more? Well, better representation of the women of history that have helped shape society today is always a good start.

The Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls is a book series well aware of the demand for a contemporary shake-up among the book cases today. In a few short years, the series has sold over 4.5 million copies and has been translated in nearly 50 languages, taking its stories and accounts of just some of history’s best known -and the not so well known – trailblazing and pioneering women to audiences worldwide.

Its success in fact, has sparked the foundation of the Rebel Girls lifestyle brand, one that unites publishing, podcasts, digital content, and consumer product licensing, through which the values to educate and empower girls through storytelling are shared. Its global success to date is reflective of shifting audiences not only in the publishing space, but the wider market, for stories, and brands, that empower and speak out in a new way.

“The brand reaches beyond the hugely successful book series to connect Rebel Girls across multiple platforms,” Louisa Skevington, licensing executive a Rocket Licensing, the team responsible for Rebel Girls’ UK licensing programme, tells Licensing.biz.

“The Rebel Girls podcast has achieved over three million downloads between two seasons, and its digital presence is steadily growing, establishing Rebel Girls as a distinctive lifestyle brand beyond its core publishing. Rebel Girls is keeping ahead in this competitive market.”

Rocket Licensing recently detailed the first UK licensees for the Rebel Girls brand in Gibsons Games – who has developed a contemporary puzzle range based on the look and message of the brand, with a card game to follow this summer – and Portico Designs, which will be launching an extensive range of products, including back to school stationery, gift items and lunch ware.

Of course, the launch of the brand in this way, and the messaging behind it couldn’t be more timely.

“With the rise of the #metoo movement, and the increasing awareness around the importance of equality and representation, Rebel Girls is filling a space in the market that continues to grow,” added Skevington. “And Rebel Girls has a clear mission that translates into product strategy. The brand looks to identify products in need of refreshing and inspiring updates, considering impact on education, gender and environment.

“The product, like the brand, aims to be forward facing in its ideas and approach. The universal message of Rebel Girls spans a wider demographic than many publishing titles.”

From here, and working closely with the Rebel Girls US based brand owner Timbuktu Labs, Rocket Licensing is already eyeing its next move, and, with a style guide currently being finalised, we won’t be waiting too long to see what happens next.

“We are currently targeting product categories such as nightwear, daywear, social stationery, accessories, and health and beauty, while developments in licensing are supported by the ongoing growth of the brand itself, which continues to expand upon its core collection – just recently it launched two new chapter books: Junko Tabei Masters of the Mountain and Dr Wangari Maathai Plants A Forest,” continues Skevington.

“This summer it will release a fifth chapter book: Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage, while autumn will mark the release of its third anthology, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 immigrant Women who Changed the World.”

 

After Tasty, BuzzFeed has its sights on Wellness, DIY, and Travel markets

In its first full calendar year of sales back in 2018, BuzzFeed’s licensing division totalled $135 million in licensed products. By the end of 2019, it had almost doubled that with $260 million. It’s according the media platform’s SVP of global brand licensing, Eric Karp that the company is now on track to surpass $400 million by the end of 2020.

It’s fair to say, that BuzzFeed has so far made quite the success story out of its move into the licensing arena; but really, things are only just starting to get underway. It’s off the back of the media company’s latest move with Haven Global to take its Tasty culinary brand into the international space that the company details its overarching growth plans to Licensing.biz.

Its plans don’t end with the food and beverage sector. BuzzFeed has its sights firmly on the emerging Wellness market, as well as the already popular DIY space, too.

“Our aim is to build a category-leading global licensed consumer products for our culinary brand Tasty, expand and scale our wellness vertical Goodful, and initiate similar programs with our DIY vertical Nifty and our travel vertical Bring Me,” Karp tells us.

We sit down with BuzzFeed’s global brand licensing SVP to learn more about these plans.

So, BuzzFeed – a game changing name and platform in the media space – what is it you guys are looking to achieve in the licensing sector?

Our licensing division started in August of 2017. The full calendar year of 2018 we sold $135M worth of licensed products, in 2019 we sold $260M, and we are on track to surpass $400M in 2020.

Our aim is to build a category-leading global licensed consumer products for our culinary brand Tasty, expand and scale our wellness vertical Goodful, and initiate similar programs with our DIY vertical Nifty and our travel vertical Bring Me.

How do you begin to position yourself in the licensing and consumer products space – What does BuzzFeed bring to the table here?

Two things. Firstly, our positioning: we are a lifestyle brands publisher 3.0 – our content is distributed across the web, primarily the social webs. Lifestyle brands publishers 1.0 (eg Conde Nast, Hearst) use print magazines as their platform, and broadcast/cable TV could be considered 2.0.

That we distribute our content to communities online gives us the ability to communicate with them dynamically and persistently, and to inform them about our product offerings. This is a huge point of differentiation and a major strength.

Looking at Tasty in particular, what do you think this brand brings to the food and beverage licensing sector? How will you position yourselves within this sector?

We don’t enter a major category or a product subcategory without first getting hard validation from our data science team that Tasty can win in that space, ie, that our audience uses those products and has a high intent to purchase.

We then speak openly with retail buyers and divisional leads about the white spaces and pain points in their modulars and how Tasty (and our manufacturing partners) can be of service to their needs. We will not slap the Tasty name on just any food product; we are designing our program to solve the needs of the retailers and ultimately the shopper.

Why is now the right time to be bringing the Tasty brand into licensing? Likewise the BuzzFeed name itself? How has the evolution of media and content consumption allowed you guys to make this move?

Tasty has the largest engaged audience of any culinary brand worldwide. Having already sold 1M cookbooks and 5 million kitchenware units, we’ve already proven that the timing is right to expand into consumer products.

With the BuzzFeed master brand our aspirations are much more tactical: publishing, gifts, etc, but no cohesive programme with a major retail statement – currently.

What audience, products categories, and of course retailers are you looking at tapping into with your licensing programme?

It’s of critical importance to identify key product categories and retail destination before setting sail.

For a culinary brand like Tasty, the focus is on publishing, housewares and food and beverage. We will consider other categories but not allow ourselves to be distracted. Retail destination is really no surprise – we are looking primarily at the supermarket/hypermarket/grocery channels.

Retail is in a state of evolution right now, how are you guys positioning yourselves within this changing landscape? How can licensing maintain its place within the current retail scene?

Retail is evolving and as many stores falter and fail, others are changing their games and becoming more dynamic, more engaged in e-commerce, and more active in creating the experiential. When regional chains started to supplant mom-and-pops, retail didn’t die, it simply evolved and those who evolved along flourished.

When big box retailers started to supplant the regional chains, the same evolution occurred with those who then flourished. The big names in e-commerce are having a similar effect on current retail and the survivors/winners will be those who adapt.

BuzzFeed intends to be of service to all retailers who intend to evolve!

What’s next for both BuzzFeed and Tasty?

We have three more lifestyle brands beyond Tasty that we are developing for their respective markets: Goodful (mindfulness and wellness) transitioning from department store to major e-commerce platform, Nifty (DIY and home improvement), and Bring Me (travel and experience) coming to market soon.

To the victor: Warhammer and it’s march upon the global hobby, retail, and licensing scene

Games Workshop’s Warhammer is massively successful. Seriously. Over the past three years – since the onset of Brexit fell upon us – Warhammer has doubled the size of its business. Last year, it ended £81million in profit. Robert Hutchins talks to senior licensing manager, Zoe Smith about how the franchise is building on this success for 2020

If ever there was a Great British success story, Games Workshop is it. A company that can’t seem to keep out of the press year in year out, the Nottingham-based unit has truly bucked the trend of the UK’s retail narrative over the last few years.

At the end of 2019, Games Workshop – yes, the retailer-come-licensor of the world spanning and vastly popular Warhammer franchise – broke all of its own records when it closed the year by announcing its £257 million in sales, marking an £81 million profit for the organisation that has built its business on fantasy miniatures and orc warfare. And they tell you playing games won’t get you anywhere…

In fact, Zoe Smith, senior licensing manager at Warhammer Licensing, the consumer product licensing unit of the Games Workshop enterprise, tells ToyNews that its business has doubled
in the last three years.

Let’s put that into some context – that’s a business that has seen continual growth and profit since the on-set of Brexit. Perhaps there really is more than a hint of magic to the fantastical franchise that has the world so gripped.

ToyNews catches up with Zoe Smith to talk about the ongoing success of the retailer, its brand portfolio, and its franchise model.

Hi Zoe, so wow, not a bad few years for you. What’s business been like for Games Workshop and Warhammer over the year?

We had a really, really successful 2019 for Games Workshop, in fact it was a record breaking year. Year on year we have been seeing record-breaking results and really strong growth. Our full year results for 2019 came in at £257m in sales, marking an £81m profit. Our business has doubled in just three years, which is amazing, especially in a climate where retail is particularly challenging at the moment.

We are currently one of the top five best performing investments on the London stock exchange over the last decade (+2630 per cent).

It’s also been our biggest ever year for Warhammer Licensed products with Retail Sales of £104m. We signed 21 new partners bringing our number of licensees to 94.

A big part of our business at the moment is video gaming, from a licensed product point of view, but there is a massive focus from us – from since I started in May last year – on growing our presence at retail. We are really focusing on our retail relationships, meeting with lots of them, to get that face to face relationship.

We had some really exciting announcements, including that we are in development with a live action TV series. Then we secured our partnership with Marvel for Warhammer Comics, which will be coming later this year. Talking about Marvel and Warhammer in the same sentence is really cool, and I think – talking to retailers – it’s a great hook and breaks a few barriers.

What have been some of the biggest successes for the brand in the licensing space?

We had some great launches with our first range of Warhammer Funko Pops, which actually went on to win the Community Choice Award at the International Licensing Awards in Las Vegas, and we launched our first ever action figure from Bandai, which sold out in just 48 hours. It goes to show that when we get the product right, and it’s something that the customers want, they really invest. We are looking at how we can now broaden this out for the future.

We also had our first ever nomination in the Licensing Awards for Best Licensed Gaming property, up against some very tough competition like Fortnite or Minecraft. The nomination went to demonstrate how we are engaging with the licensing industry now more than ever.

We continue to develop stronger relationships at retail. Barnes & Noble are a good example where we have seen strong success, having launched three boardgames with them. Very soon after, these games appeared in their best sellers list for that category. For the following season B&N increased their buy significantly and we have been able to recognise their support of the brand by directing our fans to B&N via our marketing channels.

We saw reports at the end of the year of another successful run for Games Workshop – why do you think it is resonating so well with audiences at the moment – be that through its retail operations, Warhammer gaming, or overall licensing business?

One of the great things behind our success is that the core business is still a vertically integrated business, meaning that everything still happens here in our Nottingham HQ. We manage every stage apart from the actual printing of the packaging.

Over the past three years we have established incredibly strong marketing channels including a Warhammer Community site. We have an extremely dedicated fan base and they are highly engaged via these channels. We see much engagement and response from our fans. We are not just about sales, we host videos on how to paint your miniatures, gaming demonstration videos; it’s a real community that focuses on the hobby.

We are not driven by the next big film or TV series release, but we are driven by our own product release cycle and therefore our customers keep coming back for the products they want and love. It means that we can be an evergreen brand, and our customers are never restricted – there’s always something new for them to sink their teeth into.

Even though the gaming space is getting crowded with a lot of successful gaming properties, there is still nothing quite like Warhammer. People love the uniqueness of this franchise, and look at it, it is unique.

We are now seeing growth coming from international markets, with America being our biggest single market, while Japan and China are our two fastest-growing territories with still lots of untapped potential out there for us.

Warhammer caters for different types of audience with our core pillars of collect, build, paint, play. We also have an extremely successful publishing division (the Black Library) where we have over 2000 individual titles including multiple NY Times Best sellers, an extensive video game portfolio and various other consumer products such as board games, card games and so on. The thing is, however you like to indulge in the hobby of Warhammer, there is something for everyone.

The IP has a real strength and depth and it is all so cohesive, so whether you are playing the video games or reading one of the books, it is all connected.

How does Games Workshop tap into a current consumer demand for hobby gaming and pop culture?

We have really benefited from the growth in gaming and pop culture globally, which is a really growing trend at the moment. As a brand with more than 40 years in the gaming space, we are seeing fans introduce their children and grandchildren to Warhammer.

We have managed to remain really relevant, and we are seeing new generations getting into Warhammer now – this is a brand that still resonates as something cool, edgy, and timeless with audiences.

How has the success of the last year set you up for 2020? What will be some of the biggest moves to come from you guys this year?

A big thing for us will be to keep building on the successful partnerships that we
have in place, those with Funko, Bandai, the upcoming Marvel partnership that will introduce Marvel Warhammer comics in Q4 this year.

At the same time, we will continue to develop and release all new examples of the finest plastic model kits in the world and the accessories used to build/paint and play games with them.

With all of this behind us, we hope that 2020 will see us doing even more with retailers. We have had some really good conversations with retail at various shows, and I would like to see some of that coming through this year and increasing our presence within retail for the brand.

How are you adapting to the changing demands of the licensing space today, and how is this helping you maintain your position as leaders in the field?

We are one of the most prolific video game licensors at the moment, and you will definitely see us building on the success of some of the recent AAA releases such as Warhammer Total War 2 and Vermintide 2 with some more big budget, high quality titles on the way in the next couple of years.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned, Warhammer fans are driven by quality rather than price. This applies across the whole licensing space. As we’ve already mentioned Funko, Bandai, Marvel, we will be focussing on working with best in class category leaders across a broad range of consumer products.

Flossy and Jim: “The digital revolution is lifting barriers and letting in a lot of new ideas”

Living by the sea in Devon’s picturesque Brixham, it’s little wonder why Lynette and James Dare, otherwise known as Flossy and Jim, the artistic duo behind the popular design brand of the same name, are awash with creative energy.

It’s a deep portfolio of design-driven, illustrative IP that the pair has to its name, spanning not only the world of Flossy and Jim itself, but an anthropomorphic universe of Horace (the Hamster) & Co, both of which have been developed to help support young people today.

Together, their’s is a mission to help today’s youth feel positive, a statement not only issued thought their use of bright and bold on-trend designs and the innate humour of both Flossy and Jim, and Horace & Co, but also through the way in which Lynette and James embody the brands themselves. 

Together, they both regularly present workshops n schools, talk to pupils about their personal journeys, and encourage them to believe in themselves. It’s good news, then, that the message of Flossy and Jim is beginning to travel far and wide thanks to a licensing programme that is gathering momentum under the watch of Edutainment Licensing.

Licensing.biz has a chat with Lynette and James Dare about Flossy and Jim, Horace & Co, and the latest developments for the portfolio.

It’s been a busy past few months for you guys – what do you think has fuelled or help drive the success of the brand on an international scale? How has this set you up for 2020… what are your expectations for the year ahead?

Working with young people in schools has really helped as we have been able to identify upcoming trends, find out more about our target audience and to develop our style guide. We have been able to create designs that are relatable to young people and help them feel more positive. Working with our agent at Edutainment licensing has been crucial to develop strategies and to secure deals, and attending BLE has really helped us to launch our brand in the UK and internationally.

Our expectations for 2020 is to keep working with young people, keep creating and to build our brand awareness even further.

Can you tell us a bit about Flossy and Jim and what you guys are bringing to the licensing space? How did it all begin for you, and did you foresee the kind of international recognition you have been picking up?

When we began creating the ‘Flossy and Jim’ designs in 2013, we were working part time in schools to deliver workshops to build confidence and self-esteem, by doing this we were meeting with our target audience and learning about what matters to them which helped us really understand our audience.

It became clear that a lot of these children and young adults were suffering with mental health issues and it was then that we realised that we wanted to create designs that would help, and shift the balance of negative content on social media. We never imagined that the brand would grow internationally, it has been amazing.

You guys seem to be coming from a unique angle with the more design led Flossy and Jim, combined with your approach to the publishing space through Horace & Co. How did this approach come about?

How will you now build on the recent success – what developments in licensing will you be looking towards for the year ahead?

At Flossy and Jim we create bold and bright designs that are relatable and help young people feel good. Kids love the ‘on-trend’ art style and can engage with the brands look and humour. Flossy and Jim is design led so we are able to provide new illustrations quickly and efficiently in an ever-evolving trend driven world.

The Horace and Co books were a personal project for about ten years. My son was diagnosed with autism at the age of three and we found daily activities like going to the doctor or going to the shop incredibly difficult. We discovered that drawing little stories really helped to prepare him for the next activity of the day. I looked for social stories like this to buy but could not find any so I decided to create my own.

The Horace & Co. books have been created to help children to relate to every day scenarios and understand how the world around them works. They’ll find out that everyone has qualities that are different, but those unique traits make them who they are, and loved. The titles have now been published with Signature Gifts as personalised books so the child is placed as the centre of the story.

We are currently in discussions for a really exciting publishing project that we hope to be able to share in the coming months.

It’s great to see you guys tap into the AR/XR sector. What inspired this move? How important will new and emerging technology be for the licensing space in driving innovation?

We LOVE augmented reality and we are inspired by how far technology is developing. When we got the opportunity to bring Horace the Hamster and his friends to life, how could we say no? We are very excited to work more in the AR sector and bring more designs to life.

We recently joined the government coalition ‘Future.Now’ headed by the Lord Mayor of London and we pledged that we would do what we could to ensure no young person is left behind in the digital revolution. We feel that alongside our work in schools, AR is a fantastic way to inspire children into the world of technology while they are learning and having fun.

One of the biggest changes we have seen is the challenge of being able to work with the high street retailers – this has resulted in us partnering with online retailers which has been great.

What is the health of the design space at the moment? is enough being done to encourage creativity here in the UK,

The creative sector remains one of the UK’s leading industries and from our experience of working in schools, we feel the arts should become a greater priority in the national curriculum, especially in the midst of the digital revolution.

Aside from this, it has recently been discovered that young people are on the brink of the worst ever mental health crisis. The importance of children’s self-expression as a means to a healthy and happy mind, is an essential part of their education.

A common fear amongst young people we teach is that ‘robots will take away all of their future jobs’. We always say ‘they cannot take away your imagination and creativity!’

Do you think the licensing sector is encouraging enough for creativity?

The licensing sector for us has been very encouraging. We love watching our designs go from an idea, into a product and then to market…it’s addictive actually!

What role does creativity have to play in rejuvenating the UK’s retail landscape?

Retailers are going to have to get more creative and innovative in their ideas to capture their audience in a highly saturated market. It’s going to be interesting to see how the development of technology alongside the efforts to be more ethical and sustainable will drive creativity to a whole new level.

As illustrators watching the digital revolution unfold, we can see barriers being lifted and with that comes new ideas. It’s a very exciting time.

From wellbeing to rock ‘n’ roll: How jigsaw puzzling has reinvented its own image

It’s indisputable that jigsaw puzzles today aren’t what they used to be. And we can all breathe a sigh of relief for that, because if there was ever a sector in need of a real shot in the arm, it was one such as this.

A sector formerly soaked in cliché, it’s only really over the course of the last decade that jigsaw puzzling has managed to shake off the stereotype of its appearance of being all rather twee. Today, and thanks to an injection of fresh blood and a reconfigured way of looking at the sector, jigsaw puzzling really has become the new rock ‘n’ roll.

Just look at what the likes of Gibsons, Jumbo, Wrebbit, or Kidicraft have achieved in the space in the last few years, bringing in innovation and a wealth of accessible, popular, and ultimately powerful licenses, combined with innovative new slants on the puzzling hobby – be that 3D puzzling, or mystery images – that has brought the sector roaring into a new lease of life.

If further proof was needed, observe the partnership that Gibsons itself embarked upon when it partnered with the electro- pop band Metronomy in October last year to supply a licensed puzzle range as part of the group’s merchandise offering. Puzzling has learned how to be cool, and we’ve suddenly got an audience of youths keen on tapping their contactless cards on a sector that is now doing all it can to offer them what they want.

Even the old school rockers have been getting in on the act. 2019, afterall, witnessed the music merchandise specialists Plastic Head launch into the heavy metal album cover puzzle space under its Rocksaws arm, bringing artwork from the likes of Iron Maiden (among plenty others) into the category.

Yes, 2019 was the year in which jigsaw puzzling finally became appealing. So what can the sector achieve in 2020? Well, with its rise in popularity, so too has come an increase in research into the positive effects that the hobby can have on the individuals most partial to piecing them together. And it turns out, there’s a great deal more depth to the adult puzzling market than bringing in a few of those more off-the-wall licenses.

The UK independent puzzle company, Gibsons – now in its 101st year of business in the games and puzzles space – suggests that with the recent wave of young adults looking for a ‘digital detox’ and respite from their constant encounter with digital devices today, puzzling has been highlighted as an ‘excellent way to relieve stress and focus on the present moment.’

On top of this, research is now showing the assessable benefits of puzzling for adults, and studies have shown that keeping the mind active with jigsaw puzzles can lead to a better quality of life and reduce the chances of developing certain types of mental illnesses, including memory loss and dementia.

According to Professor Zoe Wyrko of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, a consultant geriatrician, and a member of the expert team on Channel 4’s award winning TV show, Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, it is the stimulation of multiple points of the brain that jigsaw puzzling engages that enhance an individual’s ability to focus.

“Jigsaw puzzles are an activity that can be enjoyed by all ages,” she states. “They give a person something to focus and concentrate on, both of which can improve wellbeing.

“Jigsaws provoke memories in different ways – the sound of pieces rattling in a box, the smell of a newly opened puzzle, and remembering the act of doing jigsaws with friends or family when younger. The pictures can spark conversations, reminding people of topics that may be long forgotten.”

The mental benefits of jigsaw puzzling is no new revelation, of course. Not really. There’s a reason that puzzling features so heavily among the play diet of children, for its encouragement and development of motor skills and co-ordination. But it is perhaps because of the surge in popularity of puzzling among adult audiences that it has been thrown back into the light today.

Research from 2017, carried out by the health and wellbeing platform Dr Newton, has detailed much of the science behind it, suggesting that ‘successfully placing a puzzle piece to create the wider picture encourages the production of dopamine – the neurotransmitter that regulates mood and affects concentration, motivation, memory, and motor control.’

Meanwhile, it’s an inescapable truth that approximately one in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year, and in England, one in six people report experiencing a common mental health problem in any given week.

It’s a subject that Gibsons has been active in addressing, not only through a partnership with the charity MIND that saw the firm donate a portion of £10,000 to the organisation last year, but in the development and marketing of a new range of puzzles in its portfolio.

Kim Garrod, product development manager at Gibsons, tells ToyNews: “Our classic jigsaws are some of the best on the market and are loved by all traditional puzzlers. However, we’re well aware of the importance of mindfulness among a younger age group and wanted to launch a range of striking, design-led puzzles that don’t conform to jigsaw puzzle traditions.

“So, we’ve also focused on creating innovative puzzle boxes that stand out on shelf and jigsaw designs created by up-and- coming artists.”

The range is Gibsons’ White Logo Collection, a wave of 13 puzzles each featuring alternative imagery for the modern day puzzler, with seven new designs launched this year, including Punimals, a new launch illustrated by the celebrated artist, Katie Abey.

But Gibsons’ movement in the field of mental wellness doesn’t end there. In fact its new The Piecing Together Collection was created to provide those living with dementia, limited fine motor skills, or visual impairments with “a fun activity that can be enjoyed with a loved one,” tapping into the research that puzzling can aid cognitive dexterity in those suffering memory loss.

The launch was orchestrated following the recent statistic that some 850,000 people are estimated to be living with dementia in the UK.

Gibsons’ Garrod, adds: “The large, easy to handle pieces and beautiful images have been carefully designed to be age- appropriate for adults, yet accessible for all. There are ten designs available ranging from 12-24 pieces, and the puzzles can be completed inside the box, which provides a frame to work within.

“Gibsons’ goal was to create a puzzle that brings people together during these difficult times. We undertook the research to design this collection. This included care home visits, liaising with Age UK Centres and teaming up with Dr Zoe Wyrko.”

If Gibsons is now operating on two ends of the same scale – providing the youth of today with the mindfulness of puzzling with alternative launches by way of digital detox, as well as those living with dementia with specially curated images and puzzle pieces to evoke memories, then it is the entire spectrum that jigsaw puzzling as a hobby now spans.

From heavyweight licenses – such as the vibrant new DC Comics lines from Kidicraft, or the staggering design of the Harry Potter Wrebbit 3D puzzle range from Coiledspring – to launches from the elite
of rock music’s Hall of Fame, the puzzles sector is certainly in a state of evolution, and it looks like 2020 will be delivering some big innovation for its future, too.