Air miles, rackin' em up! (Volcano allowing)

The Licensing Show in Las Vegas is fast approaching, and we can't believe it's come around again so quickly. It's been quite a year for the industry, and the show will undoubtedly reflect the positives the we're seeing.
Here at Total Licensing our feet have barely touched the ground. No sooner have we returned from the Surtex show in New York, put the finishing touches to our Summer issue, than we will be off again.
It's great, really. Volcanic ash or no volcanic ash, most of the licensing industry will converge in a couple of weeks and we very much look forward to seeing you there.
On a completely different note, you may note from our Summer issue that TL has an office puppy - Oliver, who is a black flat coated retriever, but does more bounding and chomping than retrieving. This will also give us an excuse to get out into the sunshine for lunchtime walks, of which there are many pretty ones near our East Sussex office.
And it's sunny - so sunny it almost feels like Summer, just in time for the latest issue of our mag, which has a Licensing Show preview alongside maps, exhibitor details, etc, territory updates on Latin America, Iberia and South Korea, and features on Automotive, Museum, and Celebrity Licensing. Now if that pesky ash cloud would only clear out of the sky permanently, it should give you something to read on the plane!

Total Art Licensing Summer is now live

Total Art Summer Licensing is now live, an important read in the run up to Surtex and Licensing Show

Total Art Licensing Summer

Vive la France

Over the next ten days, we'll be at Kazachok in Paris and MIPTV in Cannes, hopefully sipping cocktails in the sunshine on a yacht (it's a hard life). The two shows are set to be interesting and busy, so we'll keep you posted with our impressions of them and as usual, all news and information.
Don't forget as well, we are currently working on Total Art Licensing Summer issue, and the Summer issue of Total Licensing, which includes, among many other features, an in-depth Licensing Show preview, has an editorial deadline of 20 April.
Au revoir!

Spring issue now live!

Check out our Spring Issue which includes Total Licensing Australia, Toy Fair Reviews, territory spotlights in France, Italy and the Nordics, a feature on Children's publishing, a look at Latin America's stationery market, regular news, columns, and updates, and much, much more.

Australian Toy Hobby and Nursery Fair

The 45th Australian Toy, Hobby and Nursery Fair opened today, Thursday 11th March, with the presentation of the Product of the Year Awards.
Lego was a winner this year with Awards for best preschool product for their Lego Duplo Play with Numbers together with an Award for best game.
On the girls’ side, prehaps predictably, Zhu Zhu Pets New Generation from Hunter Products won the Award and the boys’ toy of the year went to Paper Jamz Guitar, again from Hunter. Paper Jamz, in fact, won overall Toy of the Year for 2010 which appeared to be a popular choice amongst the attending audience.
On the licensing side, the Australian Toy Association, organisers of the fair and the awards, have three specific licensing awards – boys, girls and preschool. Licensed boys toy of the year went to Lego for their Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle whilst Disney Fairies Super Studio picked up the girls’ award. The preschool award went to RC2’s Wooden Thomas set – which was also named overall Licensed Product of the Year.
Walking the aisles of the fair it became fairly clear that not only were dress-up costumes (particularly those for girls in pink and glitter) popular categories but remote controlled vehicles in all shapes and forms from basic small cars to the super-techno helicopters and gunboats – presumably aimed more at fathers than their small sons.
Wooden toys, too, have a strong presence at the fair as well as games – more so than electronics. And outdoor toys were in abundance, from bikes and trikes to garden trampolines and other activity products.

It's Toy Time... and Total Licensing Australia is now live!

Toy Fair season has been in full swing, and we are preparing our in-depth Toy Fair reviews for the Spring issue, which is due for publication in the middle of March.
Total Licensing has just returned from New York Toy Fair, which was a busy and colourful show, with new trends emerging; as was the London version. Hong Kong and Nuremberg equally saw interesting trends, and the overall mood of the industry seems to be positive for the year ahead.
We're off to the Australian Toy Fair next, and it will be interesting to see what is new in the continent, but before that we are finalising our Spring issue, which includes the Total Licensing Australia magazine including Brand Spotlights and Property Profiles. The main magazine will include the aforementioned Toy Fair Reviews, territory spotlights in France, Italy, and Nordic, a MIP TV preview, Children's Publishing feature, among others, and will be distributed at Kazachok, Bologna Book Fair and MIP TV.

Click here to read the latest Total Licensing Australia.

Winter issue of Total Licensing live!

The Winter issue of Total Licensing is now live!

Including features on the Middle East, South East Europe, Retro, Music Licensing, Toy Season, opinions from across the board in a Licensing Roundtable, news, features, and much much more.

Click here to view the Winter issue of Total Licensing

Busy times ahead

Happy New Year to you all.
2010 has been labelled by the British Press as ‘the year of hope’, which has a nice ring to it.
For Total Licensing, January marks the start of a busy year. The Winter issue of Total Licensing is packed with important features such as a look at emerging markets in South East Europe and the Middle East, examining why retro properties are so popular, an industry roundtable with opinions from several heads of industry, 2010 birthdays, toys, music licensing, and much, much more.
We will be at the Hong Kong Licensing Show from 11 January, the Toy Fairs in London, New York and Nuremburg, Spring Fair in Birmingham, and generally adding to our extensive air miles collection! We will also this year be broadening our market further with several new partnerships around the world, so watch this space.

Very Happy Holidays to all!

All of us at Total Licensing would like to wish you a very happy holiday season and a great start to 2010. For many people, this will mean taking a few days to relax with family and friends, with maybe a spot of over-indulgence along the way. Great Britain is currently labouring under a great deal of snow, which has caused chaos and delight in equal measure, and we know that this has been the case for many people in the USA and other countries - although the UK seems to have come to a complete standstill because of the white stuff! Hopefully everyone will make it to their destinations on time and actually get a bit of rest over the holidays.
We hope you have a great start to 2010 also, and very much look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

Coming together for Children in Need

By now, many of you, especially in the UK, will have seen the extravaganza that is Peter Kay’s single aimed at raising money for Children in Need 2009, The Official BBC Children in Need Medley, from his Animated All Star Band.
The single is a medley of songs including Can You Feel It by The Jacksons, Never Forget by Take That, Tubthumping by Chumawamba and Hey Jude by The Beatles. It took 132 hours to mix the vocals of the seven different songs included, with the project taking around two years to complete.
The remarkable thing from a licensing point of view is the sheer number of characters that are singing together, complete with the original voice actors. Over 100 animated characters appear, with all companies involved waiving their right to a fee in support of Children in Need, with all money raised going to organisations working with disadvantaged children and young people in the UK.
One can only imagine the feat it was to bring all these characters together, and the companies involved are in deserve of full praise.
Some of the characters involved include Bob the Builder, Paddington Bear, Angelina Ballerina, Pingu, Sooty, Bagpuss, Thunderbirds, Muffin the Mule, Thomas the Tank Engine, Peppa Pig, and the video plays out as a who’s who of children’s entertainment, old and new.
Well done to all involved!

Leading the way

Yet again, Total Licensing was leading the way into overseas markets as the only international licensing magazine to have a presence at the Dubai Character and Licensing Fair, held last week.
The show, held alongside the Dubai Games Expo, again proved that the Middle East has not only a growing creative industry but a significantly growing and sophisticated licensing industry based on local, as well as international characters.

Last year’s inaugural show was a deal struck between Nestlé and Tashkeel – owners of The 99 – for over a million dollars. This year, two major deals were signed at the show. The first was signed between Emari Toons, one of the regions biggest animation studios, and Speedy Productions from South Africa. The deal surrounds the South African company’s Know Your Nation – a series of two minute animated series which Emari Toons will produce 100 for each of the 22 Arab League nations.

Another major signing involved Lammtara and their Freej characters. Lammtara signed a strategic alliance with Al Hokair Group to launch the first of six themed merchandise areas in shopping malls throughout Saudi Arabia.

All told, the exhibition and attendant conference again provided a valuable snapshot of the industry in a rapidly emerging region. We’ve said, time and time again, that you can only understand a a country or a region by visiting it, talking to people and listening to what makes a market tick. That’s why we, and of course the magazine, have been at events around the world over the last twelve months and why we will continue to be there.

Sunshine, Seinfeld and Simpsons in Cannes!

What a difference six months makes!
At MIP.TV in April, not only was the global economic issue at the forefront of most conversations but the weather seemed to understand the subdued mood and it poured with rain throughout the show.
Fast forward to October and MIPCOM and what an amazing difference. The sun shone and the mood was upbeat as executives focused on deals rather than economic crises.
With Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution celebrating the 20th anniversary of ‘The Simpsons’ during MIPCOM, series creator Matt Groening drew a capacity crowd and an unprecedented standing ovation to his keynote discussions with ‘The Simpsons’ executive producer Al Jean and their host/moderator and ‘Super Size Me’ director Morgan Spurlock. Cannes Mayor Bernard Brochand declared Wednesday Simpsons Day in the city and Matt Groening received the inaugural MIPCOM Creative Icon Award the same evening.
Another American comic icon, Jerry Seinfeld, wowed hundreds of international buyers at MIPCOM with a stand-up set and the international unveiling of his new comedy-panel format ‘The Marriage Ref,’ created and executive produced by Seinfeld and Ellen Rakieten and distributed by Endemol.
With over 12,000 delegates in Cannes, MIPCOM registered an increase on the 11,500 delegates who attended MIPTV in April. Buyers were also out in force, with over 4,000 in town compared to 3,500 at MIPTV.

Brand Licensing a huge success all round

We're back from Brand Licensing, which ran from 30 September - 1 October, and what a great show it was. By all accounts, everyone who exhibited and visited had an extremely busy and productive time. The show itself had a great atmosphere, with the aisles jam-packed and a real buzz around Olympia.
Quite a change from last year, where the key words in everyone's sentences seemed to be 'credit crunch' and 'economic meltdown'. Not so gloomy this year - either because things really are looking up for a lot of businesses, or because the industry has accepted that times are changing, and things have to change too. Either way, it was a good show for everyone that we spoke with.
From Total Licensing's point of view, we were so pleased that so many people were interested in the magazines, had a lot of positive things to say, and it was great to see familiar faces, and many new ones too. At one point we had representatives from Asda, C&A and Debenhams on the stand all at once, taking copies of the magazine away.
We were also pleased to introduce several people from various countries to curry one evening!

Licensing Factory, Segways, and New Europe

Publisher Francesca and Director Jerry attended the Licensing Factory in Croatia last week, and aside from scooting around the aisles on Segways and Ferrari pedal cars and a member of the licensing industry dressed up as Dangermouse, found the show informative and beneficial. So much so that Total Licensing is going to run an important New Europe and Balkan States feature in the upcoming Winter issue.
These are up and coming areas, with great enthusiasm to continue the foray into licensing.
Francesca was also particularly honoured to be featured on Croatian national television, and in one of the country's newspapers - indeed, as she pointed out, on page 11 was an article and picture of President Obama making a speech, with Francesca following a mere 20 pages on. A media star at last!

Green credentials...

We're pleased to announce the release of our latest issue, which you can read here:
http://publishing.yudu.com/A1g40k/tlautumn09/

And a brand new website!
http://www.totallicensing.com where you can find everything you’ve ever wanted to know about us, our publications, our ethos, edit schedules, advertising rates, how to subscribe to publications, newsletters and digital issues, details of important upcoming events, read archives, and much more.
Take a look!