• New on-demand sessions confirmed from Bandai Namco, Sanrio, American Red Cross and more
• Festival of Licensing is a virtual event that takes place Oct. 6-29, 2020
• FREE: Register to attend and book meetings at festivaloflicensing.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020: eHasbro, eOne, Crunchyroll and Chupa Chups are the latest mega brands to be confirmed for the Festival of Licensing Live Stage during the event’s opening week (Oct. 6-8, 2020), which is powered by Brand Licensing Europe. Festival of Licensing is a month-long virtual celebration of the global licensed consumer product industry that will bring together the world’s most powerful brands for four weeks to do business, strike deals, network, learn and so much more.

Fifty live keynotes, presentations and on-demand sessions have been confirmed to-date for Festival of Licensing, which runs Oct. 6-29 and incorporates three curated regional events for the world’s largest licensed consumer product markets – Europe, Asia and the Americas – and culminates with the global C-suite and executive-level virtual conference, Licensing Leadership Summit.

New content for the Live Stage, sponsored by Crunchyroll:

• Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020 at 12:40 pm BST: Creative agency Tela Italia, WildBrain CPLG Lifestyle and Perfetti Van Melle will join forces for the presentation “Chupa Chups: The Secret to Keeping Art Stories Sweet,” which looks into the creative energy behind Chupa Chups’ licensing success, and the importance of design as a tool for reinforcing brand relevance and uniqueness.
• Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020 at 3 pm BST: Senior executives from Hasbro + eOne, including Global Consumer Products General Manager and Senior Vice President Casey Collins, will present “Fuelling Franchises Together.”
• Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 3 pm BST: “Anime: The Inescapable Hit of Licensing – Powered by Crunchyroll” will show how anime licenses are powerful, audience-driving brands that offer sustainability in a crowded market. Crunchyroll speakers include Joellen Ferrer, Vice President, Global Communications and Corporate Marketing; Terry Li, Head of 360 and General Manager, Games; John Leonhardt, Head of Consumer Products; John Easum, Head of EMEA; and Waell Oueslati, Director of Acquisitions and Licensing, EMEA.

New content available to view on-demand beginning Oct. 6 includes:

• Yasuo Miyakawa, who has the enviable title of Chief PAC-MAN Officer and CEO of Bandai Namco Entertainment, presents “Nurturing a Legend: 40 Years of PAC-MAN.”
• Hussein Khalid, Director of the Information Technology Department, Sanrio, and Greg Holtzman, Marketing Director, Brainbase, are collaborating for “Why Sanrio Partnered with Brainbase to Streamline their Global Licensing Business.”

New content available to view on-demand beginning Oct. 20 (week 4, Licensing Leadership Summit) includes:

• Executives from Jazwares, Extreme Concepts, IHL Apparel Group, Best Accessory Group and The Brand Liaison take a broad look at the licensing landscape and unique business terms in light of COVID-19 in the session, “What do Licensees Want?”.
• Stephen Glockenmeier, Vice President, Marketing, Corporate Brand Licensing and Consumer Channels, American Red Cross, and Stu Seltzer, President, The Seltzer Licensing Group, investigate charity brand licensing and the importance of brand purpose to consumers with a deep dive case study.
• Sesame Workshop is mobilizing quickly to respond to the pandemic, racial injustice and current events to support the needs of young children and their families, adjusting continually as 2020 evolves. In the talk, “Orchestrating Speed-to-Market: How to Make Everything Hum in Concert,” Gabriela Arenas, Vice President, Licensing, North America, Sesame Workshop, will discuss how the non-profit is pivoting its speed-to-market approach to provide Sesame Street resources during these challenging times.

A series of sessions curated by industry trade association and Festival of Licensing partner Licensing International will also be available to view on-demand during all three regional weeks, include:

• “What you Need to Know to do Business in …” series
  15- to 20-minute on-demand sessions covering information on market size, local licensing and retail trends, business practices and much more for France, Russia, Germany, China, Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico.

• “Basics of Licensing” series
  Licensing 101 on-demand sessions available to view in local languages: French, Russian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and English.

“We are so excited to have such incredible brands, campaigns, products and individuals on the Festival of Licensing content program. The depth and breadth of topics being covered in-region and being made available globally is just phenomenal. What’s more, we still have three hugely inspirational keynote speakers to announce,” said Anna Knight, Vice President, Licensing, Informa Markets.

View the agenda here:  https://www.thegloballicensinggroup.com/en/agenda-overview.html

NOTES TO EDITORS:
Press registration is also open online at www.festivaloflicensing.com. If you’re interested in attending Licensing Leadership Summit as press, please contact your territory PR below.

For U.S. media information:
Lauren Lloyd

LicensingPR@informa.com

+1 (310) 266-4792

For European media information:
Charlie Le Rougetel at BIGTOP

charlie@bigtop-pr.co.uk

+44 (0)7736 330676

About Global Licensing Group
The Global Licensing Group at Informa Markets is the licensing industry’s leading tradeshow organiser and media partner. Its mission is to provide licensing opportunities around the world by bringing brands and products together. The following events and information products are produced for the licensing industry by the Global Licensing Group at Informa Markets: Licensing Expo, Brand Licensing Europe, Licensing Expo Japan, Licensing Expo Shanghai, The Licensing Leadership Summit, License Global magazine, License Global Daily E-News, The Licensing Mixtape and BrandEXT. Global Licensing Group events are sponsored by Licensing International.

About Licensing International
Licensing International is the leading trade organization for the global brand licensing industry. Licensing International’s mission is to foster the growth and expansion of 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. Founded in 1985, Licensing International members in over 40 countries enjoy access to an array of benefits. Visit LicensingInternational.org for more information.  

About Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll, a WarnerMedia company and the world’s most popular anime brand, connects anime and manga fans in more than 200 countries and territories with 360-degree experiences. Crunchyroll handles the distribution, licensing and promotion of some of the most popular Japanese manga and animation properties for consumers of all ages.