The first Brand Licensing Retailers’ Academy (BLRA) masterclass has been confirmed for Thursday May 12 at Brand Licensing Europe’s offices in central London.

Called ‘A deep dive into children’s licensing’, it will focus on licensing for 3- to 8-year-olds and run as a separate stream to the co-located, day-long Licensing Essentials Course.

A joint initiative between Brand Licensing Europe and Licensing International, the BLRA masterclasses have been launched to deliver ongoing, relevant, and inspiring licensing education to retail.

Retailers with an existing knowledge of licensing are encouraged to register an interest in attending ASAP. Space is limited and organisers will allocate places on a first come first served basis strictly to retail professionals only.

Agenda

13.00   Lunch (joining delegates from Licensing Essentials Course)

14.00   ‘Just what do children look for?’
Nick Richardson, founder and CEO, The Insights Group UK

Using exclusive new insights and data, this session will identify what children search for in the key toys and games, and apparel and gifting product sectors and consider how these searches are becoming increasingly refined. It will also highlight some of the key trends within the children’s market and, using predictive forecasting, into what to expect for the future.

14.45   ‘Why do they look for it?’
Gary Pope, CEO and co-founder, Kids Industries

Once again, using brand new insight and data, this session will consider what influences children’s product searches and what the different triggers are by age and/or sex. The session will delve a little deeper into how retail might consider these influences when planning licensed product in-store and online.

15.30   Academy Chat
Hosted by John Baulch, owner and publisher, Toy World, accompanied by Andrea Gornall, Sales and Licensing Director, 8th Wonder, Melanie Beer, Licensing Director EMA, Amscan International and Richard Hollis, Licensing Consultant.

With an emphasis on toys and games, this moderated panel session will discuss those topics affecting and impacting the global licensing industry.

16.00   Networking drinks/final Licensing Essentials Course Q&A panel

17.00   Close

Interested retailers can register here or contact Keith Pashley for further information.

Press Contacts

UK Contact
Charlie Le Rougetel / +44 (0)7736 330676 / charlie@bigtop-pr.co.uk

North American Contact
Elizabeth Foster / 646-744-3747 / efoster@licensing.org

About Brand Licensing Europe

Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) is the only pan-European event dedicated to licensing and brand extension, bringing together retailers, licensees and manufacturers for deal-making, networking and trend spotting. BLE is a must-attend event for businesses looking to discover and secure deals with the most sought-after brands, characters and images available for licensing. Visit www.brandlicensing.eu for more information.

About Licensing International

Licensing International is the leading trade organization for the $290-billion global brand licensing industry. Licensing International’s mission is to foster the growth and expansion of brand licensing around the world, raise the level of professionalism for licensing practitioners, and create greater awareness of the benefits of licensing to the business community at large. Licensing International was founded in 1985 and its members in over 40 countries enjoy access to an array of benefits, including extensive educational programming and global networking events. Visit www.LicensingInternational.org for more information.

John Baulch

John Baulch is the owner & publisher of Toy World magazine, and writer of the popular Friday Blog. He first started working in the B2B magazine space back in 1980, and while he has headed up publications in numerous markets during his career, he has always professed a particular affinity with the toy and licensing categories.

Nick Richardson

The Insights Family is the global leader in kids, parents and family market intelligence. Their pioneering real-time data portal provides totally independent data by surveying around than 700,000 family members a year across 22 countries. The company’s services enable clients to track trends, define their audiences and ultimately drive ROI across their business. A large proportion of their clients use their data to inform their licensing and consumer product strategies – allowing IP owners to analyse the success of their IP as well as their sweet spot audience, providing licensees and retailers with independent data to make decisions with confidence.

Gary Pope

Gary began his career as a school teacher leading an English department before becoming a learning designer for a change management consultancy. He co-founded Kids Industries in 1999 and today leads the agency as CEO to find answers to the most challenging problems in the family market.

With a number of industry accolades under his belt, Gary has created and executed award-winning marketing campaigns for numerous FMCG brands, hotels, global learning programmes, theme parks, private island destinations and globally recognised, best-in-class digital products. He is the recipient of a BAFTA for the Co-creation of the Disney Channel Kids Awards, two Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Special Awards for Strategy (GlaxoSmithKline and Aquafresh) and a Webby award for a campaign with Peppa Pig.