12 minute read
In Focus: Heritage, Museums & Culture
The heritage sector – from museums and galleries, through to universities, gardens and stately homes – continues to gain momentum when it comes to licensing, with 2022 having seen some high profile product launches and collaborations. LSB catches up with just some of the companies operating in the sector.
Cultural references
Lauren Sizeland, head of licensing and business development, V&A
“This year has seen the continued momentum of growing our brand licensing business. We have activated key strategic developments with some of our long-standing licensing and retail partners in China, Japan and Korea. We are cementing some very interesting new relationships in the UK and Europe, which should provide us with some terrific opportunities for embedding the V&A’s core mission for promoting excellence in design, manufacturing and craftsmanship. 2022 began with the ground-breaking launch of the first V&A and Chow Sang Sang Jewellery stores in K11 Musea, Hong Kong and The Londoner, Macau. Following on from the launch in 2021 of our V&A Beauty brand of skincare and cosmetics with Korean licensee Healer.B, we have added a men’s skincare range and opened two new V&A Beauty concessions in department stores in Seoul, South Korea and Osaka, Japan. Additionally, a two-week pop-up V&A Beauty store opened at 'Hyundai Seoul' in March and another in Lotte Myeongdong, Seoul in June. Three further stores are planned to open in Seoul; two permanent, plus a pop-up for December.
We are underway with some exciting projects with new licensees, whose design and craft credentials are allowing us to explore culturally diverse traditional manufacturing techniques (and digital printing methods) particularly in textiles and wall coverings. Also coming up, Love & Roses womenswear label (owned by Next) is launching its new V&A autumn/winter collection, with the patterns and artworks reflecting the V&A’s collection of centuryspanning floral textiles and natural history prints.
The V&A is probably best known for its incredible exhibitions on fashion themes. It is also guardian of the UK’s national collection of jewellery, holding over 16,000 glittering and exquisite pieces. Despite these plaudits and decades of searching, believe it or not, we do not have a jewellery licensee with UK distribution. It would be a wonderful achievement to identify and appoint a licensee which specialises either in costume or fine jewellery. The doors are open in South Kensington…”
Inset: The Museum continues to make an impact in the fashion space. Below: The V&A’s Lauren Sizeland collecting the Museum’s latest award at the B&LLAs earlier this year.
“We have a brilliant new launch with Joanie, a sustainable online womenswear retailer, which we have been working on for quite a while and are delighted to see this launch.
We have also recently launched our second collection with Dunelm, this time focused on British woodlands, which sees the brand expand into many new categories. We currently have lots of new partnership conversations happening, some of which will come to fruition in 2023, which we are very excited about. I have also appointed a senior licensing manager – Emma Russell - to oversee the UK licensing programme, so that I can concentrate on supporting our new global agent TSBA.
With Emma’s extensive background in toy we are now able to focus on this as a key category, by creating a strong strategy and talking to key partners at BLE. We are really keen to explore this area as we feel there is huge potential for the brand. I am also excited about the launch of our international programme via TSBA. We have various categories and territories as part of our strategy.
For the remainder of 2022 and into 2023, the focus will be on continuing to support our existing licensees as well as hopefully signing some great new toy licensees to join the NHM licensing family. We have a lot of opportunity globally with TSBA so I am very excited to see how conversations move forward and how we can support them. We’ve had lots of interesting conversations happening even before BLE, so I am feeling very positive regarding the next few months.”
Tina Warner, image, media and brand licensing manager, Royal Museums Greenwich
“It’s great to report that we’ve had a busy and positive year so far. Our collaboration with Celestron, which manufactures telescopes, has continued to grow and in June we launched binoculars in partnership with them. Our partnership with Olympia Le Tan continues to flourish with our range of handbags and clutches.
It’s also always wonderful to work with our long-term partner Rampley & Co which makes beautiful silk pocket squares using images from our collection.
We are investigating moving into bespoke alcoholic drinks, in particular, craft beers and spirits. There are obvious links with alcohol and maritime history which we hope to synergise with an aspirational associate.
A partnership with Inside the Box games will see the launch of astronomical, Ecliptic board game later in 2022, with more details to come on that one soon. The upcoming 350th anniversary of the Royal Observatory Greenwich will also be one of our core focuses for 2023. ROG is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian of the world.”
Above: The Museum will be looking to grow globally, with TSBA Group on board. Left: Maxine Lister, head of licensing, Natural History Museum.
Judith Mather, b2b and brand licensing director, National Gallery
“The highlight from the gallery would be our collaboration with Dr Martens. We created four products as part of this collaboration – two shoes with Seurat Bathers and Monet The Water-Lily Pond, a traditional Van Gogh Sunflowers boot and a multi artwork back bag.
Apparel has also proven quite strong this year - we continue our work with Blackstone Designs, Poetic Brands and Pull and Bear. Our presence in North and South America went from strength to strength this year; we have see exponential growth in the appetite for artrelated merchandise.
Currently, we are searching for new UK and international partnerships and licensees within home products, and in particular bedding and ceramics.
We are launching some exciting collaborations with Canned Wine and are in our sixth year with the Delicious Art brand in Boots. We are also exploring experiential pop-ups to coincide with our 200th anniversary in 2024.”
Left : Make-up products from Jejo via the museum’s agent in China have proved a success
Marijn Veraart, head of global partnerships & licensing, Van Gogh Museum
“Partnerships in the form of licensed products and sponsorships allowed us to inspire people all over the world, even when the Museum was closed [due to the pandemic].
In spring, Italian olive oil brand Monini partnered with us for the exhibition Van Gogh and the Olive Groves celebrating Van Gogh’s fascination with the olive tree. Monini made it possible to bring Van Gogh’s art and love for nature into homes and on the tables all over the world with a special edition of Monini extra virgin olive oil dedicated to Vincent van Gogh.
Winning a B&LLA in the Best Brand Licensed Health & Beauty Product or Range category for the perfume Sunflower Pop with the sustainable British fragrance brand Floral Street this April was definitely a highlight. We continued our collaboration with the introduction of two home fragrance collections in July, bringing to life two of Van Gogh’s most famous masterpieces: Sunflowers (1889) and Almond Blossom (1890).
The museum’s collection and knowledge of the art of Van Gogh and his contemporaries offer partners an unparalleled insight into the artist’s life and work in the context of his time. For now, we are working hard with Floral Street Fragrances on the roll out of the incredible Home Fragrance range and
Blueprint Collections
on their third phase range as success in the stationery category continues to build. For 2022 and 2023, the year we will celebrate the Van Gogh Museum’s 50th jubilee together with the public and our partners, we continue to look for brands that naturally link to Vincent van Gogh, in what drives them or their consumers.
We are in the enviable position where we can work with the assets we own with a view to bringing to market beautifully created and delivered product. To be able to do that, the companies we collaborate with and licence these assets out to also need to be able to deliver that creativity. That means we are always on the lookout for new partners that offer a different creative angle across finished product, as well as innovative ways of bringing this to market that focus on better working practices and ethically sourced raw materials.”
Right and below: Floral Street Fragrances is a great example of a collaboration where there is total synergy between licensor and licensee, says Marijn.
Tracey Smith, commercial manager, Eden Project International
“This year has been very exciting for us so far. We were very proud to receive the award for the most sustainable product at the B&LLAs in April for our compostable coffee pods with our partners Fresh Coffee Shop. Lifestyle Garden and LSA were also in the shortlist for this award, highlighting our sustainability credentials across our portfolio. This was closely followed by success with a Gold medal at RHS Chelsea Flower Show for our peatland display, showing gardeners how to protect landscapes by switching to peatfree composts. Eden’s licensing programme is built on a foundation of long-term, purposeful partnerships that provide sustainable, often unique, products and services. It is a growing Above and below: Eden Project has a growing programme that leads the way in licensing programme that leads the way in sustainable licensing. It’s about being joyful, creating the unexpected and using the Eden Project brand to tell sustainable licensing, says Tracey. engaging stories about amazing projects and products. Focusing on a low carbon, circular model, Eden’s licensing recognises that our future well-being depends on working with nature, understanding that resources are finite and that waste is not an option. We have also pledged to go beyond net zero, becoming a climate positive organisation by 2030. Our main focus this year will be continuing to grow our existing programme. We are looking to refresh some of our ranges including our seed range with Franchi, Seeds of Italy and our coffee pods as we are now really pleased that we are home compostable certified. We will also have some exciting new collaborations to announce.”
Jenny Smyth, licensing manager, Historic Royal Palaces
“We kicked off the year with a new coin from The Royal Mint - a partnership which has been hugely successful for HRP - with two collections inspired by the Tower of London. The third collection celebrates ten Royal Beasts chosen by King Henry VIII to line the Moat Bridge of Hampton Court Palace. The Lion of England coin launched in February and is to be followed by another in September, with the series running into 2026.
We also celebrated HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with Superbloom at the Tower of London.
The licensing team were busy developing product to celebrate this momentous event, including a new bespoke tea blend with Harney & Sons and a new jewellery collection with Clogau. The floral theme continued to inspire a Lily of Valley jewellery range.
We are undergoing some exciting developments internally to really help grow the business and target our key categories - fashion, homewares, food and drink, toys and games, health and beauty, jewellery, stationery, gifting and collectables, kitchenware and tabletop.”
Ian Downes, licensing agent for The Ashmolean
“I am pleased to say we have added a number of new licensees, consolidated things with existing licensees - many of these are growing their ranges - and we have a number of new conversations in development which are looking promising.
We have added a range of new licensees including Hook Norton Brewery (Ashmolean IPA); Welbeck Publishing (Around the World in 80 Pots); Ramsey (silk squares and jacket linings); Team Tea (Ashmolean tea blend); and we have also been part of Blu Goblin’s programme of limited edition collectables, plus have an ongoing partnership with Conway Stewart (pens, inks and gift sets). Park Agencies have also achieved success with their apparel programme gaining retail listings.
All these licensees join existing partners such as Woodmansterne, Flametree, The Oxford Artisan Distillery and Surface View.
We are keen to develop a stationery programme and, likewise, we are building momentum in the food and drink category. We would like to expand on this into food gifting and working with established food brands one partnerships. The Ashmolean also has a strong connection with gardening and garden history through the Tradescant family. They were plant hunters and explorers and much of the original collection at the Ashmolean was gifted by them. We also hope to build on developments in the home furnishings and décor markets.” You have to focus on what makes your heritage brand unique and dial this up. We have done this with the Ashmolean and it is Left and above: The Ashmolean’s working. I think there is also collection has great potential room for heritage licensing to for licensing, grow into new categories and believes Ian. market sectors.”
Len Dunne, ceo, Fitzwilliam Museum Enterprises
“The Cambridge team has continued to develop and deepen agent partnerships which in turn has generated apparel deals to establish the Cambridge brand in international territories. This is demonstrated by several retail firsts for us in 2022 - a pan-European fashion deal managed by Plus Licens; a collab with Mackintosh just launched in Japan via Ingram; a capsule collection of collegiate inspired designs with Korean brand HAZZYS through our agent Infiniss; as well as apparel launches in Latin America supported by our agent Big Hands, and North America through Bradford.
FME’s product development team successfully launched a gift range inspired by the striking black and white animal illustrations of Cambridge zoology professor, Hugh Cott who wrote the definitive book on camouflage in nature and advised on its military use in WWII.
Establishing the apparel category across multiple territories is well under way, and our agents are now looking at back to school, toiletries and stationery. In addition to University branded athleisure ranges, we are also looking at technical sportswear inspired by Cambridge’s rich sporting history combined with the increasing emphasis and importance of sport for well-being.
We would also like to increase the focus on content from the museum collections.”
Above and left: Len says that the Hugh Cott illustrations are being added to the museum collections portfolio in time for BLE.
