By Mark Seavy

As the competition for consumer attention grows, brands are expanding their reach into new licensed categories (or revamping old ones) in an effort to connect with different demographics. As a result, licensing partners are working to expand beyond a brand owner’s core categories in the hopes of appealing to new consumers.

Fruit and vegetables supplier Dole, for example, signed a licensing agreement for its Dole Whip  flavors with protein supplement company Beam for an eight-SKU line that includes a pea protein-based vegan powder targeted at 18- to 34-year-olds. This gym-focused demographic is younger than the company’s standard audience, with Dole itself best known among consumers aged 35 years and up. The brand is no stranger to licensing, having had an inbound agreement with Disney for several years and an outbound pact with PepsiCo for bottled fruit drinks.

Crayola, meanwhile, is making a play for consumers over the age of 18 with an Art House experience under development with location-based entertainment designer Kingsmen Xperience. It also recently introduced the Campaign for Creativity program, which is designed to reunite consumers with the crayon-based art they created as children. The program is part of the company’s elementary school-based Dreamers Makers program that launched in 1984. To reach those now adult artists, Crayola enlisted Clear Channel’s billboards in Miami and Orlando, FL to showcase the decades-old artworks in a weeklong promotion, which took place earlier this month.

“The market now is significantly more diversified, and it provides an opportunity to broaden the brand and provide new revenue streams, provided we remain true to it and bring it to life in a way that is authentic,” said Victoria Lozano, EVP for Marketing at Crayola. “It is absolutely a way to reinvent the business under the brand.”

Broader brand expansion is also being delivered by brands returning to categories they departed long ago. Gordon Brothers, which invested in the Nicole Miller label in 2022, recently relaunched with licensee Versa in sportswear and neckties. This return is significant as menswear was once a key contributor for the fashion brand. At the time Nicole Miller launched a men’s fragrance in 1994, menswear accounted for 40% of the brand’s annual revenue. Nicole Miller first moved into menswear in 1986, four years after its founding, with novelty neckties.

In addition to the launch of new products and experiences designed to reach (or reconnect with) different demographics, marketing programs have also been an area of focus as brands seek to capture consumers’ sometimes fleeting interest with attention-grabbing promotions.

Dole is seeking to bring the brand into desserts, salad dressings, dips, spreads, and branded character-based costumes, said Delmarys Garcia, Associate Vice President for Brand Management at Beanstalk. Crayola, meanwhile, formed a studios division and is working with Cake Entertainment on an animated children’s TV program based on the Pablo preschool series that first launched in 2017. The new BBC-commissioned series, due in 2026, focuses on an eight-year-old autistic boy.

“It is such a crowded landscape, and consumers have such a short attention span that brands are looking for new and disruptive ways to connect with their consumers,” Garcia said. “Beam skews a bit younger, and Dole is meeting consumers where they are. Younger consumers may have not interacted with the brand recently, but this is a friendly reminder about it.”