9 minute read
World in motion – an international
While different territories are grappling with different levels of restrictions due to the pandemic, there are some universal challenges which unite us all. LSB catches up with some licensors and agents outside of the UK to find out how the first half of 2021 has been in their respective territories.
World in motion
While our travel wanderlust hasn’t been able to be sated over the last 18 months, the global nature of the licensing business – and the proliferation of Zoom and Teams – has meant that we’ve been able to touch base with our peers, colleagues and partners outside of the UK on a regular basis. There isn’t a territory which has been left untouched by the impact of the pandemic, however – like in the UK – companies adapted their ways of doing business in the ‘new normal’ and there seem to be numerous green shoots across the world. For Jeremy Zag, founder and ceo of ZAG, the company behind Miraculous Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, the past 12 months has seen the company sign with over 80 licensees in the US. Highlights include a tie up with Swatch subsidiary Flik Flak on a range of watches which will be available in over 100 countries on five continents, as well as strong success with its Miraculous role-play game for Roblox, which is the first game based on a TV series to be developed on the platform. “The past year hasn't been difficult for us from a retail perspective,” Jeremy tells LSB. “We increased our business on ecommerce, which is why we established a new ZAG Global ecommerce division which manages all of our ecommerce efforts on a day-to-
Left and above: In the past 12 months, ZAG has signed with 80+ licensees in the US including Swatch subsidiary Flik Flak, says Jeremy.
The view from Japan
“Japan has suffered at retail like elsewhere around the world, but there haven’t been the compulsory lockdowns like I’ve seen in other countries that prevent consumers from going out to spend money,” Roger Berman, founder of ZenWorks, tells LSB.. “Many large retailers, shopping centres and other non-essential retail did cooperate early on with voluntary shutdowns to dissuade people from congregating. Various levels of state of emergency provisions have seen shops close by 7pm and restaurants shut by 8pm. This has dampened spending but Uber Eats and similar services have been on a roll. E-commerce, DIY superstores, home electronics and other ‘stay-at-home’ lifestyle categories have done well.” Roger continues: “I think consumer product manufacturers in Japan are now looking beyond just surviving and are now planning for an uptick in trading next year. Hopefully that is the reason we have received increased interest in the brands we represent compared to the first half of 2021. I would like to submit a larger number of deal memos to our licensor clients as a result.”
day basis alongside our major partners, licensees and retailers. We can see that in some countries our business increased exponentially, for example by 266% in Mexico over the previous year.” Success has also come from the new toy line from Playmates Toys and ZAG Labs, while the company is now building towards its $100m theatrical release of Ladybug & Cat Noir: Awakening in the autumn, which it believes will further diversify its audience.
New projects
“The first months of the year have been still challenging of course, due to the strong restrictions, especially at retail that have been relaxed only starting from May,” says Antonella
Ceraso, director of consumer products at Planeta
Junior, which has offices in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Eastern Europe. “Even so, and considering the experience learnt during the last year, Planeta Junior continued to work on new projects, ensuring new partnerships and diversifying the business, to be able to offer the best in class properties, products and services on a European base.” One of the main issues, says Antonella, was existing stock at retail in numerous categories, reducing available shelf space for new projects and launches. “On the other side, the big push to digital has brought new opportunities. Online business has become more relevant and offers a new space and new ways to reach the final consumer. The powerful combination between physical and digital has showed to be the key to meet the ‘new’ consumer exigencies.” Antonella continues: “Facing the last months of the year, we are already planning new activities that, combining presence with virtual, will give back to retail its social function. In fact, malls and big retail are not only places where to buy, but also an important meeting point we all want to recoup as fast as possible.”
Inset: Planeta Junior has recently signed up to represent 9 Story’s Karma’s World property in Spain, Portugal and Italy.
Inset: Animaccord is looking to continue momentum for Masha and the Bear.
The view from Russia
For Animaccord – the company behind the successful preschool brand, Masha and the Bear – 2021 began with optimistic reports, bringing a series of new significant global deals in both the media and consumer products market. For example, in the CP space, Animaccord secured deals with key fashion brands including Crocs and Havaianas. The company also reached a milestone in its global distribution of Masha and the Bear, introducing the brand to Japan with the first ever content release on a local TV channel, as well as signing a number of new CP deals for the market. This included one with leading Japanese publishing house, Kodansha, for licensed picture books featuring the original stories. Animaccord is looking to continue the momentum through the second half of the year, too. There are plans for its first ever mini movie with the special content featuring Masha and 12 new additional characters. “The studio will also continue creating new seasons of the original show, as well as a new educational musical spin-off for toddlers in 4K: Masha and the Bear: Nursery Rhymes,” comments an Animaccord spokesperson. “The company also dives deeper into the hospitality business, launching its first fully branded Masha and the Bear restaurant and playground at the end of Q3 2021 in Jumeirah Beach, Dubai, UAE.”
“I don’t think anyone can discount the impact of the global pandemic, but this isn’t going to define One Animation and it certainly isn’t something we would hide behind,” offers Rob
Spindley, svp commercial development US &
EMEA at One Animation, which has its headquarters in Singapore. “We’ve been nimble, proactive and pivoted extremely quickly to ensure our content creation,
Right and below: Cyber Group Studios has continued to expand Gigantosaurus around the world during the pandemic, says Bruno Danzel D’Aumont, international licensing and marketing vp
omni-channel approach and future product developments have been maintained against our roll-out plan throughout the last 18 months. The challenges in shipping products internationally and the increased cost of meeting delivery schedules has probably been on every business’ radar of late, but again, planning, preparation and partnerships have enabled us to deliver on all of our retailer promises.” With different territories having different restrictions, there is no single answer to the current global climate, says Rob, so One Animation – which is the owner of the Oddbods brand among others - has been focused on working with its retailers and licensees to build out retail opportunities that are “innovative and meet the wants and needs of consumers”. “The enforced retail closures internationally have seen us focus on our online offerings and omnichannel solutions, and we’re now looking to replicate our success with Amazon in the US across Europe, as we’ve just launched with Amazon in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands,” Rob continues. Rob acknowledges that One Animation has been fortunate to continue growing through adversity, and that it has been key to support its retailers and licensees. “The path to rebuilding the ‘new’ retail environment is not cast in stone – we have an opportunity to shape the future and I expect we’ll see the brands who choose to work on delivering this new vision end up thriving. The rule book and game plan went out the window 18 months ago, so we’re very happy to explore the art of the possible and start building the future across retail, ecommerce and experiential.”
A source of new opportunities
For Paris-based Cyber Group Studios, the expansion of its Gigantosaurus brand has been continuing around the world. The first series has now been launched across the majority of markets on free to air (including Spain, Japan and Australia), while series two is airing on Disney Jr in the US with the rest of the world following this summer. “We have all been very creative and such a crisis reinforces our agility in the business,” Bruno
Danzel D’Aumont, international licensing and
marketing vice president, explains to LSB. “One of the main issues has been the cancellation of the major physical markets and events during the first six months of the year, as well as the meetings in person with our business partners. The richness of our key property Gigantosaurus, as well as a great collaboration with our agents representing us over the world, allowed us to enhance our presence on the market. As everybody, we had to reinvent and adapt our model which is also a source of new opportunities.” Bruno also mentions shelf space as an issue due to the pandemic, but he is optimistic for the second half of the year: “First, we hope that we will get more visibility at retail and in the business overall. We are also looking forward to meeting our licensees and agents in person, as well as attending the major licensing and category shows. We are continuing to develop our licensing business thanks to great content which expands year on year and also thanks to all our business partners, namely our agents and licensees.”
Right: Rob Spindley, svp commercial development US & EMEA, One Animation. Below: Oddbods: Busy Bodies is the latest iteration of the hit One Animation brand and utilises a live action/animation hybrid format.
