By Mark Seavy

Conversations at last week’s Licensing Expo in Las Vegas spanned location-based entertainment (LBE), food and beverage, digital gaming, collaborations, tariffs, and the changing approach to a traditional tentpole.

Tentpole properties and the extensive marketing programs that support them remain critical for brand licensing, executives said. But beyond those four-quadrant film and television launches, platforms like TikTok and Roblox have created new opportunities to engage deeply with specific demographics.

This comes as companies increasingly blend consumer products, digital gaming and platforms, marketing, and other operations that once operated largely independently into single units. And with that merging comes an ability to target a narrow but deep audience on digital platforms like Roblox, YouTube, TikTok, and others.

“Tentpoles still drive audiences, so you still need to have a hit show or movie business… because everything operates off of it, but what a tentpole is now is very different,” said Adam Goodman, CEO of Invisible Narratives and former Paramount Pictures executive.

Goodman’s joint venture with director Michael Bay is developing a film around YouTube’s Skibidi Toilet, a viral meme about toilets with talking heads that’s hugely popular with Gen Alpha (2010-2025). Skibidi Toilet has 45.8 million subscribers on YouTube.

“When you were spending hundreds of millions of dollars to produce a film, you needed to capture everyone. Now you can go after specific demographics and have gigantic tentpoles that 11-year-olds are all about, but 13-year-olds have never heard of before,” Goodman said.

This growing focus on using social media or digital gaming content to capture specific audiences hasn’t escaped the studios’ notice.

Paramount, for example, operates Paramount Digital Entertainment, which licensed developer Gamefam for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) Battle Tycoon, a title that was released on Roblox last August. Paramount established TMNT on Roblox in 2023 and Gamefam also released a SpongeBob SquarePants game on the platform.

Mattel, which has 15 film projects in development, including Masters of the Universe (June 2026), also licensed developer Uken Games for Mattel Match Toybox Unlocked. It marks the company’s first crossover free-to-play mobile title featuring Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, Uno, Thomas & Friends, and other characters in a puzzle game.

“The entry point becomes different because you used to have a $100-million tentpole [film] but now you have the ability to grow brands on these platforms and go from there,” said Doug Rosen, SVP and GM/Head of Global Games and Emerging Media at Paramount. “The expertise developers have at community building on digital platforms is pretty incredible.”

As companies work to capture these specific fan bases, tariff-related obstacles are on the horizon. While the imposition of higher levies on goods imported from China are on a 90-day hiatus until late August, conversations about potential solutions dominated conversations at Licensing Expo.

Some department store chains, which typically place orders for holiday programs in late March, have delayed them until the tariff issues are clarified, said Marty Segelbaum, CEO and President of art agency MHS Licensing. Discussions also centered on potential royalty reductions, extensions on minimum guarantees, or deductions on contract requirements, licensing executives said.

Ross Stores CEO James Conroy, meanwhile, emphasized the chain’s “resiliency” in releasing earnings last week, but conceded that it is possible the retailer will see a short-term impact on profitability as a result of the tariffs. The discount chain also withdrew its financial guidance for the year.

Yet in most cases, tariff strategies remained fluid. For example, one mass retailer’s tariff plans featured three different scenarios in preparing for fall and holiday shipments that start in June. Having several plans in place appeared to be an astute move on Friday, when President Trump said trade talks with the European Union had stalled and that he would recommend that imports from Europe face a 50% tariff starting June 1st. Trump also suggested a 25% tariff be applied to iPhones made outside the U.S.

And as preparations for the holiday season begin, the costs of 40-foot containers from China are starting to rise, having hit $2,233 for the week of May 12th, the first increase since April 10th, according to Drewry’s World Container Index. Forty-foot container rates from Shanghai, China to New York, NY surged 19% during the same period to $4,350, while those from Shanghai to Los Angeles, CA were up 16% to $3,136.

An additional concern is that, if tariff issues are resolved, demand will peak and cause container costs to jump as they did in the post-Covid period in 2021, when prices stretched past $20,000.

“Everyone is planning for worst- and best-case scenarios and nobody is having a wait-and-see attitude,” said Jamie Stevens, EVP of Global Consumer Products and Licensing at Sony Pictures Entertainment. “Toy companies are a little further out [in terms of moving some production out of China], but apparel firms can shift production to other countries more quickly. Every licensee is different.”