Licensees looking to go multiplatform
New buzzword
June 20, 2006
"Multiplatform" is the buzzword this week for licensing mavens and retail executives converging in New York for the Licensing 2006 International trade show.
Licensees and retailers are no longer anxious to place bets on movie properties that might not be able to sustain product on store shelves for much more than a six- to eight-week window.
Instead, they are turning to television, video games and original online and wireless content to find properties for the kinds of entertainment licensing deals that were once largely the province of Hollywood feature films.
While even blockbusters aren't assured the kind of audiences that used to be a given, there is a select group of mainstream properties that remain highly sought after: among them, Sony Pictures Entertainment's "Spider-Man 3," DreamWorks' "Shrek the Third," 20th Century Fox's "The Simpsons Movie," Buena Vista's planned 2007 release "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and Warner Bros. Pictures' "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
"People are investing their licensing dollars in established franchises or properties that have the potential to be established franchises," said Chris Byrne, editor at large at Royalties Magazine. "People are losing money on movies that are one-shot deals. They are looking at what they can get on the shelf and keep on the shelf. There are so many properties out there now that movies don't have the same level of urgency that they used to."
Retailers attending the show, running today through Thursday at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, are looking for safer bets, such hit TV programs as FremantleMedia's "American Idol" on Fox, Endemol game show "Deal or No Deal" on NBC, Disney's breakout tween hit "High School Musical," Fox's "Family Guy" and "24," Cartoon Network's "Ben 10" and upcoming new animated "Star Wars" and "Fantastic Four" series are expected to make a strong showing this year.
Licensees and retailers are expected to seek out multiplatform properties at the show with the expectation that the more platforms a property appears on -- i.e., film, television, online, wireless, video games -- the greater the demand for licensed product.
"The push is for multiplatform," said Joyceann Cooney, editor in chief of License Magazine. "That is the way so many companies are approaching their licensing programs these days. Retailers are concerned about those platforms because they want the marketing buzz on a property in order for it to sell in-store, and licensees also need that marketing component."
Children's program distributor 4Kids Entertainment is looking to take advantage of the multiplatforming strategy with a new kids' show titled "Viva Pinata" that will premiere in September on 4Kids' Saturday morning Fox Box programming block. 4Kids partnered with Microsoft's Xbox to produce the show, based on Xbox's new video game of the same name -- scheduled for release in November.
"The multiplatform brand launch is a new trend," 4Kids CEO Al Kahn said.
"I think it's very important in terms of what the future of licensing is going to hold," Kahn added. "I think you need all these simultaneous touch points to reach kids so the whole ('Viva Pinata') property is designed with this in mind."
In another sign of the growing importance of new entertainment platforms, show organizers and exhibitors said they expect a significant increase in the amount of wireless and digital licensing activity at this year's event. On Monday, several hundred people from entertainment, Internet and wireless content companies were expected to attend a preshow digital and mobile licensing summit held at the Javits Center.
"The largest trend I see taking place in the industry right now is technology," said Tim Rothwell, president of Marvel Entertainment's worldwide consumer products media group, which recorded $5 billion in worldwide retail sales of licensed product last year. "Interactive games and wireless are becoming a huge, important part of licensing."
In the Internet space, AOL will have its own booth for the first time at Licensing Show for its KOL kids' brand and its Red teen brand. It will be seeking licensing partners for KOL's new preschool online cartoon "Pilar's Adventures" as well as KOL cartoon shorts "Kung Fu Academy," "Skwod" and "Princess Natasha," which also aired on Cartoon Network in February.
Malcolm Bird, senior vp and general manager of AOL Kids and Teens, said that because of its enormous success, "Natasha" was the first animated children's property "to go from online to TV to a fully licensed property."
AOL hopes to repeat the licensing success of "Natasha" with its other cartoon shorts, including its Red brand title "Chubby Butter." "The online platform is becoming as important as the TV platform in developing content and getting those shows out to an audience," Bird said, noting that about 2 million kids watch and interact with "Natasha" every month.
He said the attitude toward online content among licensees and retailers has "completely changed" this year compared to previous years.
"It's a new world with millions of people online. It's taken a while for the licensing industry to get that," Bird said.
With all the buzz about new-media platforms, studio consumer products executives acknowledged that it is getting increasingly difficult to license new film properties because of risk-averse retailers and this fierce competition from other media.
"The traditional film merchandise play is becoming more and more challenging and the mediums are changing so quickly that people are looking to figure out how to connect with kids beyond a movie or a TV show," Walt Disney Co. senior vp franchise management Vince Klaseus said.
"Retailers have gotten very sophisticated and in my view overly conservative, just betting on safe properties," Warner Bros. Consumer Products president Brad Globe said.
Despite the growing challenges in new film licensing, TV, franchise and multiplatform properties appear to be making up for any shortfalls. According to the Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Assn., sponsors of Licensing 2006 International, entertainment licensing retail sales and royalties grew about 2.4% last year. Royalties from the sale of entertainment licensed product rose from $2.565 billion in 2004 to $2.626 billion, while retail sales increased from $46.2 billion to $47.3 billion, LIMA said.
Advanstar Communications, producers and owners of Licensing Show, said preregistration was running 10% above last year, when about 23,000 people attended the show. Advanstar said about 500 companies representing nearly 6,000 brands and properties in 60 countries will be exhibiting at the show, with about 25% of those representing entertainment companies.
With the trend in licensing moving toward younger ages, preschool properties also are expected to attract a great deal of interest at the show. Nickelodeon will focus on its hit preschool programs "The Backyardigans," "Wonder Pets" and "Go, Diego, Go!" Disney will be seeking licensing partners for "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," "My Friends Tigger & Pooh" and "Little Einsteins." Amity Entertainment will bring the popular preschool series "The Big Comfy Couch" to the Licensing Show for the first time.
Fox and Lucasfilm are expected to make a splash at the Licensing Show by returning to the Javits Center for the first time in years. Lucasfilm hasn't been to the Javits Center in 10 years, while Fox, after an absence of many years, will have a small presence at the show as well as a larger presence at a photo studio across the street.
Fox will be focusing its licensing efforts on "Simpsons," "Alien vs. Predator 2" and "Die Hard 4," as well as "Family Guy," "24" and "My Name Is Earl" -- the NBC comedy produced by 20th Century Fox Television -- as it targets what Fox Licensing and Merchandising executive vp Elie Dekel calls "generation Fox," or 13- to 34-year-olds.
In addition to "Simpsons Movie," set for release in July 2007, there also will be a new "Simpsons" video game from Electronic Arts out late next year and major marketing campaigns surrounding the 400th episode of the hit TV show in May.
"There will be big tentpole initiatives supported across News Corp., Fox and their partners that will bring the world of 'The Simpsons' to a heightened awareness and a heightened relevance that I truly believe will be on an unprecedented scale for the property," Dekel said.
Lucas Licensing, which had its strongest year ever last year for "Star Wars" consumer products with about $3 billion in worldwide retail sales, said it will be discussing its upcoming entertainment and marketing initiatives for the franchise with some of its 500 worldwide licensees at the show.
Among those initiatives are the first CG-animated "Star Wars" TV series slated for 2008, a live-action "Star Wars" series in preproduction, a new video game from LucasArts tied to the 30th anniversary of "Star Wars" that will be released in fall 2007, the release of the original versions of the first three "Star Wars" films on DVD singles in the fall and a new Lego "Star Wars" video game based on the original trilogy, also scheduled for fall.
Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, said the Lucasfilm division also will be looking for licensing partners for the summer 2007 release of a new "Indiana Jones" video game from LucasArts and the summer 2008 release of a new "Indiana Jones" movie.
"We're looking at the game as the equivalent of a film launch," Roffman said. "It will be a major event."
Licensees and retailers are no longer anxious to place bets on movie properties that might not be able to sustain product on store shelves for much more than a six- to eight-week window.
Instead, they are turning to television, video games and original online and wireless content to find properties for the kinds of entertainment licensing deals that were once largely the province of Hollywood feature films.
While even blockbusters aren't assured the kind of audiences that used to be a given, there is a select group of mainstream properties that remain highly sought after: among them, Sony Pictures Entertainment's "Spider-Man 3," DreamWorks' "Shrek the Third," 20th Century Fox's "The Simpsons Movie," Buena Vista's planned 2007 release "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and Warner Bros. Pictures' "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
"People are investing their licensing dollars in established franchises or properties that have the potential to be established franchises," said Chris Byrne, editor at large at Royalties Magazine. "People are losing money on movies that are one-shot deals. They are looking at what they can get on the shelf and keep on the shelf. There are so many properties out there now that movies don't have the same level of urgency that they used to."
Retailers attending the show, running today through Thursday at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, are looking for safer bets, such hit TV programs as FremantleMedia's "American Idol" on Fox, Endemol game show "Deal or No Deal" on NBC, Disney's breakout tween hit "High School Musical," Fox's "Family Guy" and "24," Cartoon Network's "Ben 10" and upcoming new animated "Star Wars" and "Fantastic Four" series are expected to make a strong showing this year.
Licensees and retailers are expected to seek out multiplatform properties at the show with the expectation that the more platforms a property appears on -- i.e., film, television, online, wireless, video games -- the greater the demand for licensed product.
"The push is for multiplatform," said Joyceann Cooney, editor in chief of License Magazine. "That is the way so many companies are approaching their licensing programs these days. Retailers are concerned about those platforms because they want the marketing buzz on a property in order for it to sell in-store, and licensees also need that marketing component."
Children's program distributor 4Kids Entertainment is looking to take advantage of the multiplatforming strategy with a new kids' show titled "Viva Pinata" that will premiere in September on 4Kids' Saturday morning Fox Box programming block. 4Kids partnered with Microsoft's Xbox to produce the show, based on Xbox's new video game of the same name -- scheduled for release in November.
"The multiplatform brand launch is a new trend," 4Kids CEO Al Kahn said.
"I think it's very important in terms of what the future of licensing is going to hold," Kahn added. "I think you need all these simultaneous touch points to reach kids so the whole ('Viva Pinata') property is designed with this in mind."
In another sign of the growing importance of new entertainment platforms, show organizers and exhibitors said they expect a significant increase in the amount of wireless and digital licensing activity at this year's event. On Monday, several hundred people from entertainment, Internet and wireless content companies were expected to attend a preshow digital and mobile licensing summit held at the Javits Center.
"The largest trend I see taking place in the industry right now is technology," said Tim Rothwell, president of Marvel Entertainment's worldwide consumer products media group, which recorded $5 billion in worldwide retail sales of licensed product last year. "Interactive games and wireless are becoming a huge, important part of licensing."
In the Internet space, AOL will have its own booth for the first time at Licensing Show for its KOL kids' brand and its Red teen brand. It will be seeking licensing partners for KOL's new preschool online cartoon "Pilar's Adventures" as well as KOL cartoon shorts "Kung Fu Academy," "Skwod" and "Princess Natasha," which also aired on Cartoon Network in February.
Malcolm Bird, senior vp and general manager of AOL Kids and Teens, said that because of its enormous success, "Natasha" was the first animated children's property "to go from online to TV to a fully licensed property."
AOL hopes to repeat the licensing success of "Natasha" with its other cartoon shorts, including its Red brand title "Chubby Butter." "The online platform is becoming as important as the TV platform in developing content and getting those shows out to an audience," Bird said, noting that about 2 million kids watch and interact with "Natasha" every month.
He said the attitude toward online content among licensees and retailers has "completely changed" this year compared to previous years.
"It's a new world with millions of people online. It's taken a while for the licensing industry to get that," Bird said.
With all the buzz about new-media platforms, studio consumer products executives acknowledged that it is getting increasingly difficult to license new film properties because of risk-averse retailers and this fierce competition from other media.
"The traditional film merchandise play is becoming more and more challenging and the mediums are changing so quickly that people are looking to figure out how to connect with kids beyond a movie or a TV show," Walt Disney Co. senior vp franchise management Vince Klaseus said.
"Retailers have gotten very sophisticated and in my view overly conservative, just betting on safe properties," Warner Bros. Consumer Products president Brad Globe said.
Despite the growing challenges in new film licensing, TV, franchise and multiplatform properties appear to be making up for any shortfalls. According to the Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Assn., sponsors of Licensing 2006 International, entertainment licensing retail sales and royalties grew about 2.4% last year. Royalties from the sale of entertainment licensed product rose from $2.565 billion in 2004 to $2.626 billion, while retail sales increased from $46.2 billion to $47.3 billion, LIMA said.
Advanstar Communications, producers and owners of Licensing Show, said preregistration was running 10% above last year, when about 23,000 people attended the show. Advanstar said about 500 companies representing nearly 6,000 brands and properties in 60 countries will be exhibiting at the show, with about 25% of those representing entertainment companies.
With the trend in licensing moving toward younger ages, preschool properties also are expected to attract a great deal of interest at the show. Nickelodeon will focus on its hit preschool programs "The Backyardigans," "Wonder Pets" and "Go, Diego, Go!" Disney will be seeking licensing partners for "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," "My Friends Tigger & Pooh" and "Little Einsteins." Amity Entertainment will bring the popular preschool series "The Big Comfy Couch" to the Licensing Show for the first time.
Fox and Lucasfilm are expected to make a splash at the Licensing Show by returning to the Javits Center for the first time in years. Lucasfilm hasn't been to the Javits Center in 10 years, while Fox, after an absence of many years, will have a small presence at the show as well as a larger presence at a photo studio across the street.
Fox will be focusing its licensing efforts on "Simpsons," "Alien vs. Predator 2" and "Die Hard 4," as well as "Family Guy," "24" and "My Name Is Earl" -- the NBC comedy produced by 20th Century Fox Television -- as it targets what Fox Licensing and Merchandising executive vp Elie Dekel calls "generation Fox," or 13- to 34-year-olds.
In addition to "Simpsons Movie," set for release in July 2007, there also will be a new "Simpsons" video game from Electronic Arts out late next year and major marketing campaigns surrounding the 400th episode of the hit TV show in May.
"There will be big tentpole initiatives supported across News Corp., Fox and their partners that will bring the world of 'The Simpsons' to a heightened awareness and a heightened relevance that I truly believe will be on an unprecedented scale for the property," Dekel said.
Lucas Licensing, which had its strongest year ever last year for "Star Wars" consumer products with about $3 billion in worldwide retail sales, said it will be discussing its upcoming entertainment and marketing initiatives for the franchise with some of its 500 worldwide licensees at the show.
Among those initiatives are the first CG-animated "Star Wars" TV series slated for 2008, a live-action "Star Wars" series in preproduction, a new video game from LucasArts tied to the 30th anniversary of "Star Wars" that will be released in fall 2007, the release of the original versions of the first three "Star Wars" films on DVD singles in the fall and a new Lego "Star Wars" video game based on the original trilogy, also scheduled for fall.
Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, said the Lucasfilm division also will be looking for licensing partners for the summer 2007 release of a new "Indiana Jones" video game from LucasArts and the summer 2008 release of a new "Indiana Jones" movie.
"We're looking at the game as the equivalent of a film launch," Roffman said. "It will be a major event."
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