Jon Gibson

World Screen Weekly, August 22, 2008

Event Manager

Brand Licensing Europe

Ten years old this year, Brand Licensing Europe is positioning itself as the region’s premier showcase for new and established properties across a range of categories. “At the very beginning, the show was dominated by character and entertainment [categories],” notes Jon Gibson, Brand Licensing Europe’s event manager. “Now the show is truly reflective of the growth across all property categories and represents the full breadth of the licensing industry. Visitors can see the hottest properties across character and entertainment, brands, sports and lifestyle, heritage, as well as art, design and image.”

The support of the Hollywood studios has validated the growth of the event—taking place October 1 and 2 in London—over the last few years. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros. Consumer Products, DreamWorks and Marvel Entertainment are among the more than 200 exhibitors slated to participate this year. It was the presence of the studios that prompted, in 2006, the launch of the Screening Suite: Where Films Become Brands. “It’s a fully working cinema that runs alongside the exhibition and allows the major studios to show previews, teasers and trailers of forthcoming releases,” Gibson says.

The event has also seen shifts in the demographics of its attendees, with an increase in registered participants from outside of the U.K., prompting the name change last year from Brand Licensing to Brand Licensing Europe. “Last year, Brand Licensing Europe received visitors from 72 countries, which is amazing when you reflect on the first show in 1999 when there were just 39 exhibitors showing to a few hundred predominantly U.K.-based visitors,” Gibson says. “The growth over the last few years has been particularly from Central and Eastern Europe—in fact, last year saw more than a 600-percent increase in visitors from Poland alone. As this territory emerges economically, we are seeing the fastest growths in pay-TV viewing figures and the consumer demand for spin-off merchandise is hot on its heels. It is very interesting to see the profile of attendees from outside of Western Europe being dominated by licensees, much as Brand Licensing was ten years ago. Once the C&EE market starts to mature, we will, I’m sure, see increasing numbers of retailers visit Brand Licensing Europe, just like the attendee profile from Western Europe.”

Gibson is excited to see the slate of new properties being showcased at Brand Licensing Europe this year, among them Ludorum’s Chuggington, Chorion’s Olivia and TV-Loonland’s The Owl. He is also thrilled about the keynote speaker lineup, which includes LazyTown creator and star Magnus Scheving. Other highlights include The Advice Center, launched in 2005. Located on the show floor and sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, it is “designed specifically to guide those visitors who are relatively new to licensing.”

New attendees are being driven to the event by major shifts in the licensing industry, Gibson notes. “We are witnessing the start of a move away from relying so heavily on the traditional routes of film and television licensing opportunities and a move towards multiplatform brands. Movies and TV shows are not the only media [kids] are immersed in. These days, the TV screen doubles up as a monitor for video game consoles, and kids spend an increasing amount of time absorbing content on mobile phones. But perhaps the biggest predator making a play on children’s free time is social networking. Licensors and licensees are increasingly getting this and the onslaught to take advantage of this trend has begun.”

—By Mansha Daswani