Kid's entertainment ? the next-gen licensing
Kid's entertainment ? the next-gen licensing

What is the current scenario in licensing industry in India?

Licensing is in its early embryonic stage in India and can be valued at not more than 450 million $s at retail across all forms of licensing. Local Indian content stayed on top with Chotta Bheem continuing to be the biggest kid’s entertainment property.  While India started out as a traditional entertainment licensing economy, the past few years have been interesting with new genres like Sport, Digital, Celebrity licensing emerging and making its presence felt in the market.

Sports Licensing has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors within the industry. This year has seen a flurry of new foreign properties like FIFA 2014, Real Madrid CF, AC Milan and Arsenal enter licensing in India in addition to earlier brands like Manchester United and others.  

However, organized retail growth is still limited and not servicing the fans! E-commerce, this year has been a significant catalyst to licensing growth and fuelled by private equity money: it is bound to grow further.

 

What trends do you see in this industry in 2015?

While entertainment licensing remains the mainstay, one of the growing trends in Licensing is content/characters emanating from digital games and applications. With mobile phone growing at a staggering rate and India leading the way, the innovative game has a distribution platform to capture the imagination of fans.

A host of new digital property merchandise will be entering India in 2015 as new brands like Candy Crush and Talking Tom take root in India’s popular culture as well.

 

How do you analyse the year 2015 for Indian Licensing market?

From a 2015 perspective, the kids market, which continues to be a major part of the licensing business, will continue to grow. Indian animation will be a big draw, as we have seen with the success of Chotta Bheem. We are also witnessing a big comeback of the Japanese properties, proved Japanese Classics never die out they come back and find appeal with a new audience.

The launch of Pokémon with Disney Hungama was one of the most significant launches and successes. ! In conclusion, while the above genres will continue to grow in 2015, 2014 has set the ball rolling for newer genres of licensing, building blocks of which are being put in place. Fashion, Lifestyle, Publishing licensing will be 2015 news makers and with the best to come in Retail and E-commerce, Licensing will be one of the most watched and exciting sectors of 2015.

 

Out of different types of licensing, which is most suitable for Indian market?

Entertainment is all the great brands that have been built on platforms of TV, movies and digital. We are an entertainment economy and this form of licensing is most popular and we continue to build in this vertical and are very hopeful on sports and lifestyle space.  

 

Over time you have focused on creating own brand along with representing other brands. Which of these has more potential in long run?

It's "apples and oranges". The brands we represent are iconic and built over years of laser focused effort. We have our in-house brand Beebop and now we have Joshua tree. Creating own brands definitely has the potential but has to be backed up with a lot of conviction. While the brands that we represent already are present out there with being exposed to a huge amount of audience, it makes a lot of difference when you sell the brand.

 

You have acquired rights to licenses for Candy Crush, Angry Birds and Talking Tom app. What retail sales are you targeting with these three digital properties?

We look at targeting 150 crores of retail sales with these three prominent digital brands. As mentioned, content/character licensing emanating from digital games and application is another upcoming trend. Starting with Angry Birds, we have continued our faith in digital by tieing up with Talking Tom and friends from Outfit 7. We will be focused on the kids segment with Talking Tom and friends and will launch apparel, sleepwear, inner wear, back to school supplies, stationery. 

With Candy crush saga we intend to launch apparel, accessories and footwear. We will also work with a confectionary partner to launch Candy Crush candy like has been done in other parts of the world.

 

How profitable is the film licensing?

Known to be one of the most prolific film industries and producing more than 2,000 films per year, Bollywood represents a licensing goldmine. Movies like Krissh, Dhoom, Ra.One, Dabbang and Bang Bang have already jumped on the bandwagon, giving the regular Hollywood merchandise fare a run for their money. Moreover, with the religious fan following of Bollywood celebrities, many of them are taking the smart turn of developing licensed merchandise.  Deepika Padukone, Salman Khan, Bipasha Basu and Hrithik Roshan are a few names that are leading the pack, and come 2015, the rest are sure to follow.

 

We heard that you are planning an association with top designers. How true is that?

Candy Crush Saga being one of the brands that we represent it has been an inspiration for some fashion designers and we look at tieing up with a prominent Indian based designer to have him/her interpret Candy Crush in their inimitable style. Nothing is confirmed yet, but the talks are on.

 

What are your operation strategies for this year and what new areas are you targeting for licensing?

The key mantra for this year is execution. It's been a privilege to have the faith of the best brands in the world and we have to pay back by growing and honing their business. 

 

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