Licensing at Light Speed: The Monetizing Maze
From unlikely collaborations to celebrity licensors, brand monetization is entering a brave new world, finds Tom Phillips.
Brands are being monetized in new and exciting ways, but stakeholders should still rely on established licensing techniques, said panelists in the virtual session The Modern Innovative License: Creative Monetization Strategies for Your Brand.
Collaboration, celebrities, influencers, social media, and the metaverse are turning licensing into a multi-layered series of relationships that brands must navigate carefully.
Marking the biggest shift, celebrities or other influencers have become more aware of how much value they add and are negotiating to charge for that as the licensee, said Jessica Cardon, general counsel at YMF Carpet, Inc (US).
Ms. Cardon said licensors with a traditional wholesale type of relationship for distributing goods now have to be prepared to offer and support direct consumer platforms.
Alan Kravetz, CEO of Full Sail IP Partners (US), said his company is looking for licensees “in a very different world.” Full Sail IP Partners acquires aspirational mid-market brands with untapped potential and builds out their businesses through trademark licenses.
“The ability for the licensee to take a brand into these different channels, and secure other marketing support and collaborations: all of those other mechanisms of brand popularization, have become more important,” said Mr. Kravetz.
Tom Lingard, partner at Stevens & Bolton LLP (UK), said the direct-to-consumer element brings with it brand loyalty and transparency “and how you live up to the promises that you’re making to your customers.”
The consumer marketplace has shifted more toward the expectations and demands of the younger generation, said Ms. Cardon.
This demand includes an awareness of social and environmental issues, requiring brands to be more transparent about their beliefs, she added.
“Although it feels in some ways like the Wild West, that brands are extending everywhere, the basic discipline shouldn’t disappear from the process.”
Alan Kravetz, Full Sail IP Partners (US)
Ms. Cardon referenced a perfume collaboration with singer-songwriter Billie Eilish that she worked on, in which the singer, who is vegan, insisted no animal products were used in the supply chain.
“People that you now partner with will have their own belief system that they are going to impose on you. You have to learn to mirror that and figure out how it fits with the consumer’s belief system,” said Ms. Cardon.
And anyone involved in brand monetization must respect the influence of consumers’ beliefs on buying behavior, said Mr. Lieberstein, who shared research that showed 87 percent of Americans will purchase from a company that advocates for an issue they care about.
“If you’re a brand owner, and you’re not paying attention to those numbers, you’re missing out on a huge percentage of the marketplace,” he warned.
Creative Collaborations
One of the most exciting things to come out of this movement is brand collaboration, the panel agreed. These include tie-ups that might have seemed unlikely in the past, such as the limited-edition sustainable sneaker line released by Adidas AG (Germany) and Allbirds, Inc (US).
“Who would ever imagine that people would think that their brands were sufficiently elastic, that Adidas and a company like Allbirds would do a collaboration,” said Mr. Kravetz.
“They’re basically competitors in the pure sense,” he said. “But as the model has become more accepted and used, people are getting more creative and then realizing the stuff actually works.”
“You need to go and check with your business people: Can we actually comply with this? Can we meet these standards.”
Sanjana Sharma, UL LLC (US)
This behavior is also influencing the supply chain, said Sanjana Sharma, associate general counsel at UL LLC (US).
She said this “relaxation” of traditional brand monetization is allowing brands to do more interesting partnerships, “to potentially be more playful or more highbrow, lowbrow, or just to do things that you wouldn’t necessarily expect.”
New License Terms
License agreements are becoming more complicated than ever before, said Mr. Kravetz, but this does not mean brands should drop established licensing strategies.
“Although it feels in some ways like the Wild West, that brands are extending everywhere, the basic discipline shouldn’t disappear from the process,” he said, adding that basics like understanding what your brand means to whom, is still as important.
From an in-house perspective, Ms. Sharma said companies must form key relationships inside the business to make sure that any of a licensor’s proposals can be achievable. “You need to go and check with your business people: Can we actually comply with this? Can we meet these standards?” she said.
Mr. Lingard urged brands to “carefully consider” their exit strategies early on. “Decide who owns what when the relationship ends,” he said.
Concluding, Ms. Sharma suggested: “Choose your collaboration partners with as much care as you might choose your spouse because you’re going to be in a long-term relationship with them.”
Video courtesy of Adobe Stock / Akurra
New INTA Report
On Tuesday, May 2, INTA will be releasing a report on IP-related taxation issues in the EU, Switzerland, and UK that will provide valuable information for IP professionals. Entitled Report on the Taxation of Trademarks and Complementary Rights in Europe, it focuses on the importance of tax issues to the trademark practitioner and the impact of tax issues on the trademark lifecycle. It will be available online to members as an exclusive members-only benefit.
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
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