Matthieu Battini, EMEA account and business development director at Informa Markets, shares the lowdown on the upcoming France Licensing Day.
France Licensing Day launched last year – how was it?
It did, and the first France Licensing Day was a big success. We were very happy with how it went – there were over 500 hours of meetings and 84% of our attendees said they thought it was excellent – so we are pleased to return to Paris this year for the second edition. It takes place on 27 June at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris and – even better – day passes are free.
What are the advantages for professionals of exhibiting or visiting the FLD?
There are several things that come together to make France Licensing Day unique for brands, retailers and manufacturers:
The simplicity of its format – it’s one-day with two main parts. The first part is the day is dedicated to meetings between brand owners, licensing agents, licensees and distributors, who are all on the lookout for new partnerships. The evening is the Licensing International France Awards; a fantastic, fun way to end a busy day of meetings and a chance to celebrate the best collaborations of 2023. Tickets for the awards are just €64 (€56 for Licensing International members).
The diversity of the participants, whether that’s the exhibiting brands or the visitors who come to meet with them and find out more and partner with them (this educational element is crucial).
The timing – it is the perfect opportunity before the summer break for brands, retailers and manufacturers to strengthen and develop their networks within the France licensing community. This is also the perfect time to discuss 2025 projects and partnerships.
Our partnership with Licensing International France, represented by Florence Ayem and Laurent Taieb, who do a lot to support the industry alongside many other experts. We have partnered successfully over the past 40 years on other events including, of course, Brand Licensing Europe and Licensing Expo.
What’s new in this second edition of the FLD? Who are the new exhibitors and what does this tell us about market trends?
The first confirmed exhibitors (35 so far) have just been revealed with a great diversity of brands, including sports brands (including FFF, Tour de France and 24 Hours of Le Mans), corporate brands (including Bel, Brigitte Bardot and Le Moulin Rouge), anime and gaming brands (Crunchyroll, TOEI Animation, Bandai Namco), entertainment brands (including Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros.), as well as agents (including TF1 Licensing, Mediatoon or StudioCanal).
First time exhibitors this year include Fédération Française de Handball, Hari International, Marubeni, Moulin Rouge, SAS Toei Animation Europe, Sanrio, Banijay Kids & Family, L’Équipe, Nerd Agency, Richard Orlinksi and ASO/Tour de France.
We are seeing lots of new partnerships / trends from visitors but also, from looking at the awards nominations, more licensees and brand owners involved including corporate brands, more cross-collaboration and capsule collections created, the growing interest for gaming and anime brands, the interest from sport brands to actually invest in looking at brand licensing as a new business model.
Want to read more news like this? Simply sign up to our daily digest by clicking here. You can also follow @LicensingSource on Twitter and @licensing_source on Instagram.
