by Graham Speak, Speak Consulting
Whether you run an attraction, are a landlord, design for the sector, or supply the industry, you’ve probably seen IP licensing being used in your area of the market. It’s not a new concept to partner with IP holders to bring to life well-known brands, characters and worlds. However, the trend has exploded in recent years as more IP holders look to develop experiential touchpoints for their franchises, and new ways to bring IPs to life are being created.
As an introduction, you may find some of my past blooloop articles interesting. These cover related topics like ‘Is IP licensing right for your attraction?’ and ‘5 ways to maximise IP licensing partnerships’.
In this article, I’m going to talk about five common myths or misconceptions about IP licensing that may help you as you think about its role in your business.
Myth 1: Licensing is expensive & it won’t pay back
Yes, partnering with an IP can be expensive. But not always. Licensing executions can range from anything from meet and greets and storytelling shows to fully immersive multi-attraction worlds. It’s important to first understand your objectives and align them with the right partner and activation – ensuring the scale (and associated costs) are appropriate.
Often licensing can just be seen as a cost to the P&L. But it’s critical to understand how a project will affect your total P&L. Is the intent that it will drive attendance, a premium in ticket pricing or other top-line revenue metrics? Will it allow you to increase retail and F&B sales and profitability? Can you reduce your marketing spend by leveraging the assets and popularity of your IP partner?
Finally, finding the right partner and understanding where the value is for everyone may help reduce some costs. For instance, royalty fees and minimum guarantees. Licensors are often interested in driving retail sales, for example, which helps them generate royalties through other licensees. Working collaboratively can help identify value for both parties and offset some top-line costs of licensing.
Myth 2: Slapping on a character will fix my issues
One tactic I wouldn’t recommend considering to reduce costs is to ‘badge slap’. Putting a character or brand image on a bad experience won’t magically make it good. But authentically integrating a great, well-loved brand or story into a great experience can make it exceptional.
Visitors and fans of IP will choose to spend money to see, touch, smell, hear and feel their favourite characters and worlds. They want to be immersed and to leave having had an experience they can go and talk to others about and remember forever. And the best bit is, if they have a great time, they’ll spend money on merchandise to remember it, F&B to taste it, and VIP options to get an even better experience.
And they’ll come back, meaning your investment will be more likely to be sustainable.
IP holders can be notoriously challenging when it comes to approving concepts and developments. This is because they’ve generally spent millions, if not billions of dollars creating stories, characters and brands that people love. They want any real-life experience to be supportive and reflective of that world. It’s important to remember, this is what you want too. It’s the reason you want to partner in the first place.
All this said, building a real partnership with an IP holder is critical. They won’t always understand your world and the realities of building, making, and designing. So, having a good open dialogue and understanding together how to capture the essence of the IP is the route to success.
Myth 3: It’s easier just to develop my own characters and stories
There are some fabulous examples in the market of businesses that have created their own characters and stories. Bringing in a known IP is not always the only, or best, solution.
BeWILDerwood has imagined magical lands dedicated to Boggles, Twiggles and their other characters. You can hear their stories being told at the attractions, and even buy books to take home. Europa-Park in Germany has long since brought together known IPs like Arthur, with home-developed stories like Snorri, who calls the island of Rulantica home. These are all well-developed, imaginative stories that have been expertly developed to meet their objectives.
However, developing your own stories and worlds also comes at a cost (and skill to drive the right target audience outcomes). You need experts who can bring them to life, and develop out brand ecosystems that engage guests through their journey. To be truly engaging, ‘badge slapping’ doesn’t work with your own IP either. In addition, you have to spend a lot of money to drive awareness, engagement, and appeal to match some of the licensed IP options available.
It’s important to establish, weigh up and properly compare the costs (and hidden costs) of developing your own, versus partnering with another brand.
Myth 4: If I can’t work with the big licensing players, what’s the point?
It’s true. The big IP holders generally have super universal, well-known franchises. These come with lots of noise, content, and activation across multiple touchpoints. There are reasons people travel over to Orlando to get a slice of Disney and Universal.
It’s important to establish – what do you really need? Are you trying to bring guests in from other countries? Or, are you trying to get your existing catchment to visit more often, or spend a little more?
Getting the scale of partner and execution is crucial to avoid wastage. Don’t pay for something you don’t need.
There are thousands of IPs in the market now, and most want to create experiential touchpoints for their fans. Often some of the smaller IP holders can be more flexible over requirements and how they monetise.
Myth 5: Licensing isn’t right for my business
Maybe not. It’s not right for every business or objective. That said, brand partnerships can often help in some of the most unexpected places!
It’s common to think about IP licensing as all about movie characters and kids, found only in family-oriented theme parks and play centres. Yet that isn’t always the case. A trip to BLE or the Las Vegas Licensing Show will show you the vast diversity of brands licensing out their IP, from sports to music, to history, to attractions themselves. Licensing doesn’t have to be brash and child-focused. It’s all about identifying your objectives and the right partner.
In other examples, unlikely partnerships can help deliver surprising outcomes. I love the recent collaboration between the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands and Pokemon. Without alienating their core visitor base, they have managed to get whole new audiences interested in the museum and drive awareness. Yes, it’s a pretty disruptive partnership. But it is also authentic in its approach and execution, delivering clear benefits for both parties (including some crazy merchandise sales opportunities).
Getting it right is the culmination of many factors
You may have seen examples of IP licensing that haven’t worked in the past (there have been plenty!). But, I would caution you not to jump to the conclusion that it means it isn’t right for that business, sector or brand. Many factors can lead to a successful outcome, be that IP choice, authentic concept development, operation and delivery, partnership strength and flexibility, commercial and creative alignment…the list is endless.
IP partnerships can create wonderful, imaginative, differentiated outcomes. Start with clear objectives and make sure you don’t fall into the trap of accepting the licensing myths along the way!
