Character licensing is here to stay

In the digital era, comic characters have stepped out of the pages and taken the licensing route to cater to the millennial youth. Retailer media interviewed Nitin Kalra, Director, AI Licensing India Pvt Ltd, to know his viewpoint about the potential of comic licensing and the market acceptance.

What potential does the market of India hold for licensing and merchandising of comics?

The licensing market in India is fast exploding with several character brands wanting to get an entry in the marketplace. Comics have always allured kids and teenagers alike and continue to be a popular source of merchandising in India.

With the emergence of the millennial youth in India who has grown up with technology, their love for comic characters is being leveraged by the licensing brands on products like apparel, accessories and more Of late, retail companies and licensees have shown tremendous growth in character inspired merchandise and that’s only the start of a long term trend that will stay in here.

Which characters are more popular - Indian or international?

Well, since we are not a publishing company, I clearly cannot comment on the market size for comics in India. But character merchandise based on comics is surely a growing business – since we represent two of the greatest comic brands in the world – Archie Comics & Garfield, I can surely say the market is only growing.

IP for which particular age bracket lure more licensing business and what factors derive the business?

Comics are largely read by kids above the age of 10-12 years and definitely the attraction for comic inspired merchandise is more amongst the age group of 10-16 years. Today, we see comic inspired apparels, footwear, accessories, digital applications, games and much more getting licensed.

What all deals have you made in recent times and how have they fared in the market?

A couple of years ago we did a deal for Archie Comics with MAC Cosmetics for a range of Betty and Veronica cosmetics and it was a super success! Our Garfield range of gift and novelty items do fantastically well at Archies stores across India and we have recently signed a deal with Myntra.Com to launch an exclusive range of Archie Comic inspired t-shirts.

Is the digital market overpowering the traditional merchandise or is it vice-versa?

Digital is definitely the new age of shopping and the future of merchandise selling in India as well. However, at the moment considering that a majority of the country still doesn’t have access to basic Internet, we still cannot ignore traditional retail.

What growth has been witnessed after the advent of e-stores? Are e-stores helping revive the comics market?

Online stores are certainly adding value to all industries and comics are not beyond them. The Internet has only made comics more easily available and accessible to people and this is only adding to the popularity. Again as an example, over 50 per cent of www.archiecomics.com traffic comes from Indian cities and that’s only a sign of times to come that as more and more people are getting hooked on to the Internet, the reach of comics is growing!