Total Licensing Winter 2007 - (Page 110)

Warning : session_start : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : session_start : Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 10 TOTAL LICENSING 7-minute 26-episode 3D series that began broadcasting on Kids Station in January 2005. Two tie-in books have already been published by Shogakukan. In addition, OLC are co-producing Popetstown with Decode and are now looking to take all their series into international markets. A major announcement made at the show was a multi-faceted creative partnership between Nickelodeon and Sanrio to develop Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues in Japan. The co-licensing deal will see the two companies bring together Blue’s Clues and Hello Kitty in a specially designed product line created for tweens and young adults with initial product debuting at retail in Japan this Spring. “As a huge fan of Hello Kitty, it’s exciting to forge a creative partnership to co-develop and manage Blue’s Clues”, commented Leigh Anne Brodsky, President, Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products. Akito Sasaki, General Manager Licensing at Sanrio agreed. “With the marketing efforts planned for the Hello Kitty and Blue’s Clues product line, we are well poised to establish Blue as one of the most beloved characters here in Japan”. Of course, American brands have a large part to play in the Japanese licensing arena. Beyond characters, Michelin is one of the biggest brand licenses in Japan with a program coordinated by TLC’s Tokyo office. More than 300 products are now in the Japanese market, a factor which Kaori Kurobe of TLC in Japan attributes to the Japanese perception of Michelin more as Restaurant excellence ratings rather than a tire company – hence the successful license for a Michelin Chef’s outfit. On the UK side, the British Embassy took a booth promoting properties and products from a number of UK companies. Over and above these, apparel brand Plain Lazy took a booth and were pleasantly surprised by the results. As Nick Cropp of Plain Lazy explained, “The Show was extremely organized and as an exhibitor we valued the fact that every visitor was associated to licensing in some way. The Japanese have a very mature understanding of licensing and, whilst there were not many western exhibitors or visitors, those that were present were well supported by LIMA and in our case the British Embassy”. Oxford University, too, believed that the show was “a fantastic start to introducing our brand into the Japanese marketplace”. According to Kathryn Smith, Marketing and Development Manager of Oxford Ltd, “We expected the show to be largely character driven and while this made up the largest proportion of the exhibitors, there were lots of other non-character properties represented including many British brands. We had a lot of interest in Oxford and some very productive discussions with key representatives from some of the biggest retailers and manufacturers in Japan. This actually exceeded our expectations but we were very impressed with the quality of the visitors. Category enquiries included fashion apparel, mobile technology, stationery, golf, gardening and a huge interest in educational toys, especially our current range of licensed science kits. This is in line with what we have been told many times about the power of the ‘Grey Yen’ where Grandparents have a huge interest in investing in their grandchild’s education and future. We are in discussions now with a number of serious partners and we will almost definitely be returning next year”. As in previous years, the show was supported by a series of seminars with keynote speakers including Charles Riotto and Kelvyn Gardner from LIMA and Elie Dekel from 20th Century Fox Licensing. In addition, seminars covered a wide variety of topics including Animation, Retail, Sports Brands, Promotions and a Basics of Licensing Seminar. 110  Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Total Licensing Winter 2007

Total Licensing Winter 2007

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