Licensing Link Europe’s Ian Wickham on why licensees and licensors have an opportunity to broaden the depth of their reach and hook in consumers looking for change.
LicensingSource asks some key licensors and licensing agents for what they think will be some of the biggest opportunities for the UK licensing industry in 2022.
Today: Ian Wickham, director, Licensing Link Europe.
“2022 will be a cracking year for major tournament sports licences: the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand, Invictus Games, Commonwealth Games, Women’s Football European Championships, Rugby League World Cup, Women’s Rugby World Cup and FIFA World Cup. Who knows, in 2022 we may even be chanting ‘Football’s Coming Home… for Christmas’ this year.
2022 should see the return of the global music live scene after two years of famine, which will no doubt boost merch sales and a halo effect around music licensing, while some big name movies should swell the coffers of the usual suspects.
Encouragingly, there are a raft of new ‘lockdown-start ups’ that have researched and embraced the world of delivering truly sustainable products to market to a younger audience via their own online windows, as well as via more traditional retail. They are also keen to look at licences to assist them in growing their roll out strategies and offering points of difference.
We are also seeing the advancement of the metaverse which has grown significantly in awareness since Facebook changed its name to Meta. Whether this is something that will have real impact in 2022 will have to be seen, however NFT engagement and development of this space are the starting point of offering a brand new way of licensing out brands, to complement their core business strategies, to a consumer.
What is really interesting to note though, is that consumers are wanting change. They’ve spent two years effectively dealing with the global pandemic and now want products of all categories that deliver something different – whether for their homes, to wear, to accessorise, etc. What they were into two years ago is very much now not necessarily the case. This delivers licensees and licensors opportunity to broaden the depth of their reach, create newness and hook in these consumers looking for that change. This will be a great opportunity for 2022.”
This feature originally appeared in the spring 2022 edition of Licensing Source Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.
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