Home-grown IPs galore at the 2nd India Licensing Expo

In its 2^nd edition, India Licensing Expo – country’s largest B2B brand licensing show witnessed the galore of home grown IPs either already into licensing, or rolling out plans to foray into brand licensing. Supported by International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA), the show boasted of a two day exposition, awards night, knowledge forum and character parade.

The sponsoring partners of the show were Viacom 18, Femina FLAUNT, Shemaroo Entertainment, Little Singham by Reliance Entertainment, Spaces by Welspun, and Fashion TV and the knowledge partner was Bradford License India. While brands such as Viacom18, JCB, Bandai Namco, WWE, Toki Doki, Green Gold Animation, Dream Theatre, Purple Turtle, Badford License India, Kuber, Toon Mart,  etc continued to be a part of expo, brands such as We love Characters, Celebrities Entertainment, Cartoon Network, Rovio marked their India debut at the expo.

Further Indian IPs including Femina Flaunt, Miss Diva, Miss India, Filmfare, ChuChu TV, Adlabs Entertainment, DQ Entertainment, Fashion TV were exhibiting at IL’18 along with brands like Spykar, Madame, SPACES by Welspun, Animantz, Reliance Animations who rolled out their licensing program at the show. In words of Gaurav Marya, Chairman, License India, “Brand licensing in India is getting to a point where we will start seeing some maturity in the way it operates.

Licensing requires strong pillars, the first one being the IPs and the brand owners who are excited to foray in India, courtesy LIMA. I am very excited about the Indian brands building up their brand licensing program including Femina by BCCL are recognizing the potential of unlocking their brand value through licensing. And that is where the real potential lies." "India should see opportunities of bringing a lot of global IPs to the market but we should not ignore the great IPs that we’ve build over the years. The third pillar is the growing maturity of our licensee partners – the retailers, manufacturers and eRetailers which is a positive sign,” added Marya.

Lauding the Indian licensing and merchandising markets, Maura J. Regan, President, LIMA said, “Licensing in India is coming off ages and the difference between this year and last year is demonstrating that. India is among the top 25 global markets for licensing and merchandising. Pegged at $ 1,476 million, India really matches the global markets in terms of the ongoing trends with fashion as their marquee category. Walk around the expo and you will see the strength of Indian licensing industry.” Speaker Conference was concluded by sessions from prominent leaders like Dan Frugtniet, VP – Licensing & Business Development, Nickelodeon Viacom Consumer Products; Maura Regan- Executive Vice President, LIMA; Sanjeet Mehta, Executive Director & Head - Consumer Products, Disney India; Sandeep Dahiya, Director & Business Head – Brand Extensions, BCCL; Gisela Abrams - SVP Global Partnerships, LIMA; Simo Hämäläinen, SVP - Brand Licensing, Rovio; Jamil Abu-Wardeh, Vice President - Brand Licensing, Partnerships & Innovation, Eastman Kodak Company, Yannick Colaco, Managing Director at NBA India; Sundar Raman, CEO – Sports, Reliance Industries, Suparn Verma, Co-founder, Katha Pictures among others.

Launches and announcements Acting as a perfect launch pad, the 2^nd edition of ILE also witnessed some major launches and announcements. Femina FLAUNT, the retail brand by Femina (owned by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.), launched their range of fragrances at the India Licensing Expo (ILE) 2018. The fragrance line follows Femina FLAUNT’s successful foray into the consumer products space with Shoppers Stop across core fashion categories – Apparel, Footwear, Bags and Accessories. Speaking about the range, Sandeep Dahiya, Director & Business Head – Brand Extension, BCCL, said, “Fragrances is today an ‘essential’ category for the Femina FLAUNT woman and is an expression of her personality and mood. We’re confident of the Femina FLAUNT fragrance range resonating well with the consumers, given its unique packaging, competitive price point and long-lasting fragrances.” New X Beverages Pvt. Ltd. Along with Viacom18 officially launched MTV UP! Energy Drink in India.

Dan Frugtniet, VP – Licensing & Business Development, Nickelodeon Viacom Consumer Products said, “About two and a half years ago we decided to enter the energy drinks space with MTV and created a sub-brand MTV UP. We identified the gap in the market for a gender neutral product that was all about fun, friendship, lifestyle and party. MTV UP perfectly fitsthe gap for millennial target demographics. MTV UP has been launched in 23 territories. We have launched the energy drink in China this year and are now launching in India.” Nitesh Khatter, CEO, NX Beverages said, “This product serves the space that has been empty for quite a long time in the world.

It is now that the market has curated for it and is ready for it. With MTV’s collaboration, we have been able to offer a brilliant product to the market which has raised the bar of energy drinks with a lot of good taste and flavors." Leveraging strong brand equity & reach, Reliance Animation launched ‘Little Singham’ in consumer space through it’s licensing & merchandising program. Making the announcement, Tejonidhi Bhandare, COO, Reliance Animation asserted, “Going beyond the mythological characters, we thought of coming up with a character that could relate with kids and finally zeroed upon Singham which is an inspiration from live action Bollywood movie by Rohit Shetty. As of now we are doing 156 episodes and five features for this content and are building this in a bigger way. We are looking to unfold the brand into consumer product space and roll out an extensive merchandise range for the same.” With Character & Fashion brands leading the licensing space, Bollywood was no less in monetizing the brand equity.One of the leading Indian content power houses of India,Shemaroo Entertainment made a debut at the show with its Bollywood Licensing and Merchandising brand Yedaz.

In words of Smita Maroo, Sr.VP – Licensing & Merchandising, Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd, “The licensing and merchandising industry in India is poised to grow at a fast pace. There is a sudden increase in the market for young adults who are interested in possessing official branded merchandise. Shemaroo Entertainment’s brand Yedaz – Bollywood Madness is the official Bollywood licensing and merchandising platform and has a wide range of interesting products under the banner.”