Each year, the barometer* of the favorite entertainment brands of European children aged 0 to 14 is published. It is no surprise that in the 2021 ranking, we find the behemoths Lego, Disney, Barbie and Marvel, which confirm their power every year at the European level.
However, the children's licensing market has experienced an interesting dynamic in recent years with the rise of digital. New players have become infatuated with this phenomenon. And the possibilities have increased in universes popular with this target: manga, gaming, streaming...
Licensing takes on the game of new uses
These exclusive partnerships often work as exclusivity or perennial partnerships in the video game universe. For example, Fortnite x Marvel or recently Ubisoft's Rabbids have partnered with the Sandbox, a metaverse platform that allows users to create their own games and experiences using NFTs, which are similar to a crypto currency.
Many of these collaborations are taking place in this universe, where brands see a clear opportunity to capture a trend driven by Gen Z and reach their targets in their new uses. The acceleration of the metaverse offers great prospects for licenses, provided they know how to handle the codes.
At Com' des Enfants, we have been supporting our client Burger King since 2020 in its licensing strategy for the King Junior and King Junior + menus. Our work consists in carrying out an increased analysis of the market and its trends in order to select the most promising licenses that will be included in the children's menus through a premium, toy, game or book. This requires regular monitoring of new products in the children's sector, anticipating negotiations with rights holders several months in advance and, above all, having a visionary eye in order to detect which franchises will be successful or not. Once this stage is completed, we think about the types of premiums that can be associated with the universe of each license.
Licensing, a new way to get a message across to the younger generation
Beyond purely commercial objectives, some brands use these strategic collaborations to raise awareness among the younger generation. This is the case of the Yves Rocher foundation, which joined forces with Microsoft France at the end of 2021 through an event organized on MineCraft. For two companies evolving in different universes, what is the link, you may ask? It is however this antagonism that allowed the initiative to be born: Minecraft#PlantForLife. The idea was to mix the virtual with the real, the nature by imagining a virtual forest within the platform that was translated to the real with real planted trees. With 126 million daily users on Minecraft, the two partners can thus boast of having ensured a "big stroke of genius".
There is no doubt that collaborations with licenses are a marketing issue for many brands in all universes. The trend has accelerated even more to seduce the younger generations with the arrival of the metaverse, which gives brands a wide range of possibilities in terms of creation, but also opens the way to carry out awareness actions and thus improve their image with this ultra committed target.
* BrandTrends and Kidz Global 2021 Barometer
In France, if the entertainment licensing is leading the ranking, no less than 4 sports brands are in the top 10 (Killian M'Bappé, PSG) including 2 on the podium: Nike and Adidas. A new dynamic after the entertainment licenses that have been successful in 2020 during the confinement.
How do you explain the success of the licenses with children under 14 years old?
We often think, wrongly, that licenses come to life mainly through children's merchandise and toys. However, this is a small weight compared to the textile or hygiene-beauty sectors, which are mainly involved in licensing.
However, the children's licensing market has experienced an interesting dynamic in recent years with the rise of digital. New players have become infatuated with this phenomenon. And the possibilities have increased in universes popular with this target: manga, gaming, streaming...
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Licensing takes on the game of new uses
These exclusive partnerships often work as exclusivity or perennial partnerships in the video game universe. For example, Fortnite x Marvel or recently Ubisoft's Rabbids have partnered with the Sandbox, a metaverse platform that allows users to create their own games and experiences using NFTs, which are similar to a crypto currency.
Many of these collaborations are taking place in this universe, where brands see a clear opportunity to capture a trend driven by Gen Z and reach their targets in their new uses. The acceleration of the metaverse offers great prospects for licenses, provided they know how to handle the codes.
At Com' des Enfants, we have been supporting our client Burger King since 2020 in its licensing strategy for the King Junior and King Junior + menus. Our work consists in carrying out an increased analysis of the market and its trends in order to select the most promising licenses that will be included in the children's menus through a premium, toy, game or book. This requires regular monitoring of new products in the children's sector, anticipating negotiations with rights holders several months in advance and, above all, having a visionary eye in order to detect which franchises will be successful or not. Once this stage is completed, we think about the types of premiums that can be associated with the universe of each license.
Licensing, a new way to get a message across to the younger generation
Beyond purely commercial objectives, some brands use these strategic collaborations to raise awareness among the younger generation. This is the case of the Yves Rocher foundation, which joined forces with Microsoft France at the end of 2021 through an event organized on MineCraft. For two companies evolving in different universes, what is the link, you may ask? It is however this antagonism that allowed the initiative to be born: Minecraft#PlantForLife. The idea was to mix the virtual with the real, the nature by imagining a virtual forest within the platform that was translated to the real with real planted trees. With 126 million daily users on Minecraft, the two partners can thus boast of having ensured a "big stroke of genius".
There is no doubt that collaborations with licenses are a marketing issue for many brands in all universes. The trend has accelerated even more to seduce the younger generations with the arrival of the metaverse, which gives brands a wide range of possibilities in terms of creation, but also opens the way to carry out awareness actions and thus improve their image with this ultra committed target.
* BrandTrends and Kidz Global 2021 Barometer
