This is what will work in licensing industry

WGSN, the global trend authority for fashion and the creative industries with more than 6,000 clients across the world has dived further into the South Asia with increased local content, credits to the collaboration between WGSN and Technopak. During an interaction with License India, Paul Coxhill, Global Chief Marketing Officer at WGSN shared an insight about the brand licensing industry and the latest trends.

Top trends in brand licensing industry - globally and in India Feelings, Emotions and self-expression Emotion-led characters and products developed with the intention of exploring moods. Example: Hana Zuki. As well as the upcoming Emojimovie film, the 35th anniversary of Carebear (The Year of the Hug) and the Smiley Company's 20th anniversary.

Focus on education: Brands that create content inspired by regional educational learning bodies will gain trust and confidence from parents. In order to combat the negativity surrounding excessive screen time, games are taking a playful, educational stance, for example The angry birds translation game.

1990’s: SEGA releases a new Sonic the Hedgehog game, while Playstation celebrates its 1990s heritage through games such as Lemmings and Powerpuff Girls, with plans to release an innovative collection of merchandise across EMEA in 2017. Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products have tapped three new licensees for merchandise based on the MTV brand.

India specific: Peppa Pig are looking to expand specifically into India. Categories to look for if brand is chalking out licensing strategies Food and lifestyle: There’s a move towards more x-generational appeal. As well as food themes trending, this appears to be a growth category for licensing. For instance - Shopkins, Gudetama and Erin Carle.

Emerging categories and genres for licensing Live experience: Brands are looking to connect with their consumer audiences via live experience. From the openings of huge studio theme parks in Asia, through to smaller pop-up cafes or limited-edition events, brands want to give fans a 360-degree experience to take away with them as well as product. Examples include, Shanghai Disney, Moomins theme park in Japan, Cartoon network zone in Dubai, Aardman corporate away days.

A focus on Asia: The hottest topic of conversation at the show was without doubt China, with UBM, trade show organiser and parent company of BLE announcing two important deals at the event. A brand new Licensing Expo will take place in Shanghai (July 18-20 2017), alongside CBME, while LIMA and Alifish (the licensing and entertainment business unit of Alibaba) will join forces, working together to support the development of China's licensing industry. Also on our radar for 2017 is UBM's launch of Licensing Expo Japan, set to take place April 26-28 2017 at Tokyo Big Sight. These partnerships, alongside the Wanda Group's recent alliances, are set to open up and mutually influence future tastes and accessibility to global licensing.