Total Licensing Winter 2007 - (Page 68)

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 Licensing within the Nordic region is licensing in five different territories. On the following pages, we talk to two major licensing agents in the region – Alicom Licensing and Kidz Entertainment – to see how they perceive their marketplace and discover trends that they see emerging in the territories. The Nordic region may be easily perceived as a quite homogenous region due to the shared history, culture and similarities in language between the countries. However, according to Martin Aberg, Brand Manager at Alicom Licensing, this is pretty far from reality. “The region consists of five individual countries with distinguishing features that set each apart from the others. For instance all countries have different languages and, even though they are similar, English is often used as business language. Furthermore Denmark, Norway and Sweden are monarchies while Iceland and Finland are republics. As a whole the population approaches 25 million with Sweden as the biggest with 9 million, Denmark 5.4 million, Finland 5.3 million and Iceland 300.000. The sheer population size can, however, be misleading when evaluating the market for a license as the retail structure varies between countries and key partners might have very different approaches”. Aberg believes that to achieve successful results with licensing in the Nordic region one crucial factor is that of gaining a forceful impact at retail. “If a property gains thorough exposure in-store it is likely to become successful. This reaction is very clear when it comes to brands such as Bratz, Snoopy, Disney Princess, Spiderman, The Simpsons and other mass-market U.S. properties. The exposure, along with licensees making quality products, generates strong brands. One should note that the media exposure for these properties is very different with some appearing on all media while others have almost no back-up. Aberg cites The Simpsons as an interesting case study. “After having aired on television for more than a decade and having had a significant merchandising program mainly targeted at tweens and young adults, the show is skewing more and more towards younger children. This is documented in a report from the Swedish Media Council, a department of the Ministry for Education and Culture, that posed the open question: “What TV-shows do you watch regularly? List three television shows that you follow.” to children aged 9 to 16. The Simpsons topped the list. One of the key factors in this transition is the decision of key partners to start making products aimed at a younger target group. The main point here is that some might argue that this is because of the property hitting the big screen this summer, but this new development was underway long before the movie was announced.” There is also a trend towards properties with a long heritage and local origin. Many of these are based on books such as Pippi Longstocking, Moomins, Rasmus Bear etc. This is closely tied to the tradition of reading - both magazines and books - which is very strong in the Nordic region. In addition, there are many new properties entering the marketplace – particularly those based on design-driven elements. One such example is Emma Megitt’s Pee&Poo concept that is taking the market by storm. According to Aberg, the fashion industry has been experiencing similar trends as Nordic designers have started to strive towards launching their own brands. Filippa K, Acne, Whyred and J. Lindeberg are all Swedish brands that are gaining a position in the international market. As Aberg explains, “Part of their success is clearly due to their ability to keep their Nordic heritage as well as being in tune with the bigger picture. Of course we, as a licensing agency, gain inspiration from these companies and do keep a door open for local properties. After all who knows when the next Astrid Lindgren or Tove Jansson will appear!” An example is the considerable amount of talented companies working with online, mobile and interactive content in the region. “Habbo Hotel and Stardoll are both online communities that have been amazingly successful selling virtual products”, continues Aberg.“Kids’ behaviour at these venues show that the products them- 68  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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