Welcome to America would have made an appropriate slogan for this year’s annual Licensing Show at New York’s Javits Center. The 27th edition proved to be bigger, badder and more overwhelming than the last: complete with a free thong giveaway, real live penguins and Disney characters galore, exhibitors went to extremes to get their brand out there. Highlights were a cotton candy machine – courtesy of Sony’s up and coming animated adaptation of the Judi Barrett’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs–and free samples of a new energy drink called “Deep Throat”. “We’re in publishing, sort of–we do porn books!” said the brand’s representatives, referring to Linda Lovelace’s porn-industry memoir Ordeal.
Less explicit literary highlights included Bonnie Bryant’s Saddle Club series published by Random House, which Big Tent promises to turn into a “fashionable lifestyle brand in apparel, accessories, and décor.” The series has been on Discovery Kids for 3 years on weekdays, and will now take over PBS on weekends. Little white rabbits Miffy and Friends also make their public TV debut starting July 9th, and are set to win over the preschool crowd. Another emerging trend was “grouchy cute”–products like UglyDolls, Emily Strange and Jim Benton’s Happy Bunny images combine adorable designs with dry, ironic captions in post cards, books, apparel and more.
Animation, pornography and all, Javits had something for every age group. Brands traditionally associated with toddler and preschool aged children are looking to broaden their appeal and often with characters from books. Andy Mooney, Disney’s Chair of Consumer Products, pointed out that his company’s Fairies brand has a 90% awareness with girls aged 9-11, and was kicked off with the publication of Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine in 2005. Miffy, as well as Chorion’s Mister Men and Little Miss franchises (based on the books by Roger Hargreaves) now occupy the golden ad space on the t-shirts and accessories of tween girls. UK-based Chorion is also in charge of licensing Olivia, the pink pig published by S&S who will soon have her own stationery sets, plush dolls and pillows, and Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar whose line will feature puzzles, alphabet cards and classroom materials.
Incidentally, the International Licensing Merchandiser’s Association (LIMA) just released its latest research results courtesy of Yale and Harvard’s business schools. Turns out the licensing industry showed an overall growth of 1.5 % from last year, mostly due to Entertainment/Character licensing which accounts for a whopping 44% of revenue. The publishing industry was one of the only property types which showed no growth at all from the $41 million it was worth in 2005 (compare this to the $2,680 million that character licenses bring in)––but note that many major licensed characters could be found in books long before they were hits on screen. “The results of the study confirm that our industry continues to grow, even in this challenging business environment,” stated Charles Riotto, President of LIMA, in the company’s press release – not too shabby considering the quickly falling value of the dollar. But on second thought, maybe the book business could use some advice from the Deep Throat guys to boost license sales: Rizzoli on the Rocks? Penguin Cola? Anyone?
