Carole Postal celebrates 25 Years

Carole Postal Celebrates 25 Years as head of her own licensing agency before women were doing that!

Spotlight Licensing, helmed by Carole Postal, is celebrating an incredible 25 years in the business. We caught up with Carole and her team to discover some of the ‘secret sauce’ that has led to the successes of the last quarter of a century in business...

Back in June 1997, when entertainment entities and licensing agencies were almost all headed up by men, Carole Orgel Postal founded CopCorp, (Carole Orgel Postal, aka COP) one of the first ever licensing agencies headed by a woman. In the quarter century since, Carole has enjoyed licensing success with non-media properties such as Jim Benton’s It’s Happy Bunny™ (a fivetime LIMA Award winner – including a 2008 Special Merit Award for Licensing Creativity) and also with entertainment properties such as Downton Abbey (2015 LIMA Award winner for Best Film, Television, or Entertainment Live-Action licensing program), Outlander, and Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, as well as social media celebrity Boo, the World’s Cutest Dog™, comic book series Usagi Yojimbo, and other well-known brands such as Little House on the Prairie, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Precious Moments among others. Carole is proud of being one of the first women to launch her own licensing agency and the leader of a team – including Senior Vice President Jodi Gottlieb and Director of Marketing Ken Wong – which has now been together more than 20+ years: since shortly after the founding of her agency. The company has since evolved into Spotlight Licensing and Brand Management (launched in 2017 following the passing of CopCorp co-founder Bob Postal, Carole’s husband and a licensing pioneer in his own right). Carole comments: “I can look back over 35+ years in the industry! I was one of the first women to open her first licensing agency - back in a very different time, time when emails were just starting!” Prior to starting out on her own, Carole was in the area of entertainment licensing for nearly 20 years, with Ripley’s BELIEVE IT OR NOT, Turner Home Entertainment (now Warner Bros/Discovery) and Sesame Street. “I didn’t start my company with OPM (other people’s money) and with any clients… it was just me, with a little assist from Mr. Postal, – I must say, people kind of scoffed. It’s hard to believe now, but there weren’t many women doing it on their own 25 years ago.” Together, this team has built a reputation for finding, championing, and strategically positioning lesser-known, niche, or specialty properties for licensing success. Their work has become a testament to how new and innovative approaches to licensing – including the emergence of “trend” licensing for non-media properties - can help smaller, lesser-known properties successfully co-exist and compete with mega-corporate brands in the world of licensing. “Carole and the team at Spotlight Licensing have been a dream to work with for the past 25 years. Carole has a keen eye for discovering talent and properties while they are still incubating and has the vision and know how to bring them to their full potential. I always credit Carole for seeing the potential of Hot Topic back in the early years when it was a small little alternative retailer, she opened doors for us in licensing that led to immense success and it being leader in the li-

“I can look back over 35 years in the industry! I was one of the first women to open her first licensing agency...”

cense industry still today,” says Cindy Levitt, Senior Vice President Licensing of Mad Engine, and former SVP and GMM at Hot Topic . Jodi comments: ‘Working at a licensing agency with such a diverse brand portfolio means staying on top of trends; talking to many different types of manufacturers, retailers, and intellectual property owners; as well as handling a wide range of responsibilities. The excitement of putting that all together to create great products is what keeps us going!” Carole says: ‘Jodi and Ken have been with me for well over 20 years each – we are known as a team, and we have the stability of being a team. We get more done! We learned the business from grassroots. We three have a profound experience – we are not just ‘Carole Postal started 25 years ago’ – we are the team, which makes the company.’ Ken comments: “Thinking of things that have changed over the years like technology, the team has not!” “The licensing industry is so relationship focused,’ Carole adds. ‘The live events, such as Licensing Expo and Brand Licensing, are so important, as many of us have been colleagues for decades, seeing each other through the highs and lows of this business. It has been very difficult not to see and hug people over the last few years, so to be able to come together again – this time in London this September, this is enormous! We can do business again the old-fashioned way.” One of the most successful brands Carole and the team have worked on is Downton Abbey. Carole comments: “Being a licensing agent is partly being a soothsayer! You need to look at things going on in the industry and predict the future. That is something that comes with experience.” She first came across Downton Abbey on a visit to the UK ten years ago – when colleagues were raving about a fantastic period drama that the country was obsessed with. “It was live-action, set in the Edwardian era, with a relatively unknown cast – all things that do not go together to make the perfect licensing cocktail!” However, as Carole puts it, she ‘had to have it’. Again, there were a few raised eyebrows in the industry. That was, of course until the first deal happened (calendars), and the deals did not stop. At one point, Downton had 45 licensees. Carole attributes part of this success to the unique talent that she and the team have for the touch of bringing British properties to America. For example, some of the interesting deals made were a range of roses named after the characters; an entire tableware and homeware line, gardening tools; and even a custom copyrighted lace. Every product has to go through the personal eyes of Jodi Gottlieb. Her sense of product allows clients to feel extra relief that every single product, regardless of size and cost, will be excellent! Gareth Neame, CEO, Carnival Films and the Executive Producer of Downton Abbey, congratulates Carole and her team on her 25 years running the successful agency: “Carnival Films has had the pleasure of working with Carole and the Spotlight team for over ten years now, creating inspired licensing opportunities for Downton Abbey. The success of our partnership is, in large, due to Spotlight’s meticulous attention to detail, their dedication to their clients new and old, and their exceptional passion for the brands they work with. “I am so pleased that Spotlight are commemorating their 25th year in service, and I look forward to working together for many years to come.” The team also add this magic touch to shows such as Outlander, Poldark and Victoria, all Masterpiece Theater, period piece, historical dramas. Not the norm for licensing success for sure! Carole strongly believes licensing is an industry which brings a little bit of the magic of entertainment into homes and brings smiles and happiness to people of all ages, depending on the focus of a particular property. She is also a champion of the idea that those lucky enough to be in the business of licensing – an industry made up of “stuff” – and have an opportunity and responsibility to share with those less fortunate, so in addition to her work as an agent, Carole’s career has also included much charitable work. She currently serves on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of Delivering Good (formerly Fashion Delivers/Kids In Distressed Situations), a Licensing International charity of choice dedicated to getting new product donations to those in need. Delivering Good’s annual Women of Inspiration Luncheon, which Carole has co-chaired for more than a decade, honors outstanding women who have distinguished themselves in the worlds of licensing, fashion, entertainment, real estate, and philanthropy. Carole was formerly on the Board of Directors of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Carole also served on the initial Advisory Board to what evolved into the Brand Licensing Show, as a LIMA officer from 1989-94, and as a member of LIMA’s Executive Board from 1994-98.