Anniversaries marking the passage of time since the release of an entertainment property in days of yore have traditionally been prime material for licensing. And a walk through the aisles of last week’s Brand Licensing Europe showed that 2019 will have more than its fair share.

“Breaking Bad” and Angry Birds both reach the 10-year mark in 2019, “Family Guy” and “Oggy and the Cockroaches” both have their 20th, “The Simpsons” has its 30th birthday, Ghostbusters has its 35th, and Alien has its 40th. Those are only a few of the birthdays being celebrated with tailored merchandising and promotional programs.

Fox, in particular, came armed with a bevy of programs and specialized style guides. To mark the 30th anniversary of The Simpsons in December 2019, it has five distinct looks and themes that are keyed to everything from the series’ original designs to female empowerment (Lisa).

Most of the plans that companies are developing involve a limited amount of commemorative merchandise and, in some cases, fan events. Examples of the latter include a Ghostbusters fan event fan event that Sony has slated on its lot in Culver City, CA, next fall, and a series of fan events in the UK and Australia that Entertainment One will stage to celebrate Peppa Pigs 15th anniversary on TV.

(Anniversary fever actually has already started. On a tour through a Primark store near BLE, a large rack of Disney merchandise was topped by a header promoting “Mickey, The True Original” with a special “90 Years of Magic” logo. Disney has wide-ranging promotional plans and merchandise slated over the next several months.)

“The 80s are trending right now” as evidenced, in addition to films and TV, by the widespread licensing of arcade games such Asteroids, Street Fighter and Pac-Man, and “we felt not to acknowledge that film is 35 years old would mean we were not feeding the fans,” says Sony’s Jamie Stevens of Ghostbusters.

The popularity of 80s properties is part of an overall trend toward the licensing of nostalgia IP. While many adults remember when the properties were au courant, their children are rekindling interest in them after viewing the films and TV series on TV or increasingly through streaming services’ vast libraries, say industry executives.

Among Fox’s top-selling licensed properties has been the film Sandlot, which marked a 30th anniversary in 2016, but saw product sales in the following year surpass those in the anniversary year, says Fox’s Eva Steortz.

“It is not just the big franchises, but also the obscure properties that were popular 20-30 years ago that are being brought back to the modern day,” says Steortz. “To do that you have to blend nostalgia with current fashion trends and contemporize the original artwork in making a fashion statement.”

Yet not all companies at BLE were sold on the need to build licensing programs around anniversaries. Xilam had a sign in its booth noting “Oggy and Cockroaches’” 20th anniversary in 2019, but has no plans for a special style guide or licensing program tailored to it, says the company’s Marie Laure-Marchand. Part of the reason is that the anniversary doesn’t apply throughout Europe, but rather is limited to France, Italy and Germany. At the same time, though, while Xilam isn’t readying licensing for the anniversary it will have plenty of marketing behind it, including a co-promotion with an aquarium in France and an “Oggy and the Cockroaches” section at the Leolandia theme park in Italy from November to January.

“It really has to target the countries where the 20th anniversary is relevant,” says Marchand. “The marketing is a tool for talking about the brand and I will pitch it because you will get exposure and communication.”

Contacts:

Entertainment One, Andrew Carley, EVP Global Licensing, 44 203 691 8513,
acarley@entonegroup.com

Disney, Josh Silverman, EVP Global Licensing, 818-544-0041, josh.silverman@disney.com

Sony Pictures Consumer Products, Jamie Stevens, EVP Worldwide Consumer Products, 310-244-6269, Jamie_stevens@spe.sony.com

Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products, Eva Steortz, 310-369-3611, eva.steortz@fox.com

Xilam Animation, Marie Laure-Marchand, EVP Consumer Products, +33 140 187 251