China’s Winter Olympic brands

By Charles Sun, Licensing Team China Toy & Juvenile Products Association

Contact: charles_sun@ tjpa-china.org

CHINA’S BRAND LICENSING INDUSTRY Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics

In 2021, China’s GDP increased by 8.1% from a year ago, ranking it among the world’s major economies in terms of economic growth. China’s brand licensing industry as an emerging business model for crossover integration is on the rise and continues to maintain its rapid development.

According to the China Licensing Industry Report 2022 by the CTJPA Brand Licensing Council, the total retail sales of licensed consumer products reached RMB 137.4 billion in 2021 in China, an increase of 24.2% year-on-year. The annual royalty revenue totaled RMB 5.32 billion, up 28.2% from 2020.

In China, the brand licensing industry is created, derived, realized, protected and facilitated by IPs to form an ecosystem. Changes in each link of licensors, licensees, related service providers and consumers will have an impact on the licensing industry as a whole, and form development trends and opportunities in the future.

The market environment provides opportunities for the licensing industry.

From the perspective of the IP industry, consumers pursuing novelties will further promote co-branding and integration among IP contents. IPs of different types and styles will explore the co-branding cooperation to bring new concepts and ideas to respective brand cultures and design styles, thus complementing each other and becoming increasingly popular.

From the perspective of the licensee industry, the integration between children, two-dimensional world and life necessity categories and IPs will be more promising.

The combination of toys, clothes and science and education products in the children’s category, as well as IPs will make the maternal, infant and children’s consumer market more attractive. Trendy toys and derivatives closely associated with animation, gaming and two-dimensional IPs will continue to maintain their strong growth momentum. Besides life necessities, which cover a wide range of products such as clothes, food, beauty products and consumer electronics, will achieve the emotional communication with ordinary consumers through the integration with IPs. In addition to merchandising and LBE licensing, more and more retail distributors and platforms can directly obtain IP licensing, instead of just serving as sales channels for licensed products. This means that the direct-to-retail (DTR) licensing model is becoming increasingly important. A growing number of channel forms such as franchise stores and collection shops as well as e-commerce platforms have all found ways to attract young consumers through IP cooperation, and empowered their proprietary products through IP licensing.

From the perspective of the entire licensing ecosystem, the emergence of new digital technologies will promote innovation in the way of presenting IPs and experiences and selling products. In December 2021, China’s National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center issued released the top 10 cyber slang phrases of the year, among which “metaverse” ranked the fifth place. As an emerging concept, it will significantly change the way of presenting IP entertainment experiences and selling goods in the future. In 2021, a few cultural and entertainment companies achieved the digital presentation of IPs with blockchain technology.

Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics presents the demonstration effect to China’s brand licensing industry

The popularity of Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon has played a positive role in China’s brand licensing industry, which was reflected in industry, publicity, copyright protection and other aspects.

In terms of industry, it is reported that the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games has developed almost 5,000 franchised products, covering non-metallic products such as badges and key rings, precious metal products, apparel and accessories, silk products, ceramic products, stationery, stuffed

Below: LinaBell, launched by Shanghai Disney resort in September 2021, has become famous.Picture from the official Disney website

toys and toys made of various materials, handicrafts, jewelry, electronics and accessories, intelligent wearable devices, home textiles, bags and suitcases, ice and snow sporting goods, commemorative stamps and philatelic items, commemorative coins (notes), and other categories.

The hot sales of products have driven the production chain and retail. According to the official website of the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics, there were 29 franchised manufacturers, 58 franchised retailers and 164 retail stores for franchised products during the games, including Anta Sports, Yuanlong Yato, Harbin Cultural Industry Investment Group, Wangfujing, Beijing Caishikou Department Store Co., Ltd., China Sports Industry Group and other prestigious companies.

Yuanlong Yato released financial results, showing that revenue from souvenirs of the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics exceeded RMB 59 million in 2020, and revenue from franchised souvenirs and precious metals of the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics reached RMB 226 million in 2021. According to the financial result forecast for the first quarter of 2022, the company expected its profits to reach RMB 90-100 million in Q1, an increase of 217.82253.13% year-on-year.

In terms of IP brand licensing/co-branding, according to the official website of the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics, there were 11 official partners and 11 official sponsors who have all used Winter Olympics elements and mascots. Through their co-branding with the

Winter Olympics elements and mascots, they launched a number of marketing activities that have raised their brand awareness and boosted sales.

In terms of copyright protection, the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics showed a high degree of IP protection, and strengthened the copyright publicity. On the morning of February 14, 2022, a special press conference was held strengthening the IPR protection for the Winter Olympics at the 2022 Beijing Media Center. To successfully host the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics, the Chinese government has positively strengthened the IPR protection, and has obtained good results, according to Zhang Zhicheng, a spokesperson of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, who spoke at the conference. Besides, many media publicized copyright protection topics associated with the Winter Olympics were announced to the public. the hot sales of Bing Dwen Dwen, professional concepts such as IP derivatives and IP licensing have become increasingly popular, and attracted the attention of all the people. This will play a positive role in developing and expanding licensed product consumers.

The positive role that the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics have played in China’s brand licensing industry involves not only boosting derivative sales and exploring joint marketing modes, but also attracting more attention to licensing from the public and raising people’s awareness of copyright protection, thus providing new impetus for China’s brand licensing industry.

From September 15 to 17 this year, licensors of animation, films, museums, art and other categories gathered again at the 15th session of the China Licensing Expo (CLE) at Chengdu, Sichuan Provence, to promote the continued development of the licensing business. After 15 years of development, China Licensing Expo is widely recognized as the most effective channel to understand the licensing market, promote brands, and expand the licensing business in China and Asia.