The Licensing International Page

By Martin Brochstein SVP Industry Relations and Information Licensing International www.licensinginternational. org

Questions for 2021

What will 2021 bring? As this is written, as the pandemic ebbs and flows depending on where in the world you are, the introduction of vaccines puts the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel within sight.

For Licensing International, 2021 is a year of continuing to provide up-to-date information, tools and perspectives to help you build your business.

The shape of the licensing industry will depend in large part (the course of the pandemic aside) on answers to these questions: It’s unclear whether this is simply a stop-gap measure to get through the pandemic or a fundamental, permanent shift in the distribution model.

Either way, the 2021 Model (as we’re calling it, temporarily at least) will have a huge impact on licensees in particular. Especially since it’s unclear whether the amount and cadence of promotional activity around streaming releases will match that which has traditionally accompanied theatrical debuts.

What’s the “holiday season”?

Is there an impending experience explosion? Might history be a guide? The end of WWI and the Spanish flu pandemic ushered in the Roaring Twenties…

What role will ecommerce play?

Has the holiday retail calendar been permanently changed?

Last year, Amazon once again shifted the retail landscape, this time with its decision to push Prime Day to October. As dozens of other retailers jumped on the bandwagon to host their own competing sales, the result

?was an expanded holiday shopping window, kicking off more than a month before the traditional start – Black Friday. There are broad implications for supply chain, promotional calendars, and other aspects of getting goods to market. 2020 was a banner year for e-commerce, with major retailers opportunity or a permanent part of fashion wardrobes. reporting huge bumps in their online Yet since July, with the promise of a businesses, and many online specialists vaccine on the horizon and consumers thriving. having already purchased baskets full A lot of this was based on the shutdown on physical retail. What shoppers will do once they have a of masks, sales have been declining. So will they be a staple, or were they just a temporary supernova? choice again? To put things in context, How will licensing ecommerce’s share of the retail sales agreements shift as business pie averaged around 17.3% in 2020. “normalizes”? One indicator: Brand owners, Is there an impending After a year like no other, with manufacturers, agents and others from experience explosion? businesses shutting down, shipping around the world who responded to delays and retail malaise, newly revised Licensing International’s annual end- After nearly a year mostly without licensing contracts will come into play of-year flash survey say they expect masses of people gathering for this year. the percentage of business they do via sporting events, concerts, live shows, eCommerce will increase this year to cinemas and theme parks, they’re In 2020, some contracts were an average of 36.9% of their sales from chomping at the bit to get back out in rewritten to reduce minimum 30.5% in 2020. the world. Whether and when they’ll guarantees and extend terms to allow feel safe enough to do so is another licensees to recoup their losses. And What will film and question. And those events drive while several licensors initially resisted entertainment distribution product sales. changing contract terms at the start look like once cinemas of the pandemic, those once iron-reopen? Might history be a guide? The end of clad agreements proved malleable as In December, Warner Bros. and Disney both announced that they would release large chunks of their content slate for streaming and in theater simultaneously. WWI and the Spanish flu pandemic ushered in the Roaring Twenties… How important will the mask category continue to be? companies were forced to adapt to the new normal. Whether that spirit of cooperation and collegiality will continue, will be something to watch as the year advances. When face masks burst on the scene last spring, it wasn’t clear whether they would be a short-term sales