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Trends
RUSSIA
Russian licensing market is steadily growing despite pandemic By Eugene Gerden The Russian licensing market is steadily growing despite the pandemic and associated with it negative consequences, according to recent statements, made by representatives of some local licensees’ holders and domestic media reports. According to Elena Berezhkova, head of the licensing department of Melnitsa licensing agency, one of Russia’s leading licensing agencies, the pandemic has led to a significant increase in sales of products under domestic brands although led to the decline of share international brands in the local market. The economic crisis in Russia has also resulted in consolidation of the local licensing market. Lyudmila Tsoi, Commercial Director of the CTB Film Company, one of Russia’s leading film companies said strong, famous brands, which are widely represented on the largest TV channels (particular children TV-channels, such as Karusel, Mult, and some others) currently occupy leading positions in the Russian market.
Lyudmila Tsoi comments: “If you look at the crises of 2008 and 2014 in Russia, you can see that amid the times of turbulence, licensees choose the most popular brands, minimizing the risks that arise when choosing new projects.” According to Tsoi and other interviewed analysts, of all the brands presented in Russia (more than 270 at present), only the strongest licenses with a powerful marketing resource will continue to make profits at least in the short-term. The pandemic has also resulted in the change of structure of the Russian licensing market and the growth of certain categories, such as licenses based on computer games. There has been also a growth of sales of goods that help keep children busy at home - games, coloring
Elena Berezhkova
books etc. Most of leading local players believe the Russian market has big potential for a further growth. This is reflected to a stable interest from some foreign investors. For example, a couple of weeks ago the Japanese advertising and communication holding Dentsu Inc together with its Russian partners announced a project for the distribution of licensed anime in Russia. The volume of investments in the project will amount to $ 5 million in the next three years and will be used for the purchase of rights, localization and content marketing, The new company has already acquired the rights to a package of six anime titles (240 episodes), localized them and sold them to the local online cinemas ivi, Okko and More.tv. In the meantime, the development of the domestic licensing market in recent years has also become a priority for the Russian government. This is also reflected by the latest state decision to ease customs procedures for licensed goods in Russia. As part of this the information about the license issued by the government, issued in electronic form is automatically displayed in the information system of the customs authorities. This means that license holders will no longer need to submit to the authorized body reports on the implementation of licenses and certificates on their implementation.
