You still need to plan, but agility and nimbleness have become essential characteristics in an age when hits and moments happen suddenly, and property owners, licensees and retailers look to monetize opportunities when emotions are at their highest.

Among the factors speeding the path to market:

• Everyone in the licensing food chain is monitoring Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms, using data analytics to spot and hop on emerging trends and consumer buying patterns.
• With “In the moment” events, licensees and licensors are setting up streamlined approvals that can shrink the process to a matter of hours.
• Advances in high-speed digital printing and other production technology have enabled licensees to churn out apparel within hours and days of a big sports milestone or a hit entertainment property or character suddenly catching fire.
• The rise of Ecommerce makes products available for sale within several hours of a final out being made or a winning touchdown scored. Services such as Merch by Amazon, BreakingT, Fanatics and others enable ecommerce-first availability for products where timing is critical.
• Particularly with entertainment properties, both licensor and licensee are trying to stay ahead of bootlegs and other unauthorized merchandise.

“With traditional retail and the time it took for approvals,” it was hard to capture an “in-the-moment” joke that might be good fodder for a t-shirt, said YouTube star Shane Dawson during the keynote session at last month Licensing Expo. “It [now] feels more personal because it is so fast.”

Speed matters. For example, a turning point in sports now can be immortalized in a t-shirt within a day or less, but it may only have a 48-72-hour shelf life, says NFL Players Inc.’s Steve Scebelo, whose organization licensed BreakingT for on-demand products featuring NFL players as well as the WNBA, which it also represents through REP Worldwide.

BreakingT has this shirt available the day after a big WNBA moment

For example, when the Las Vegas Sparks’ Chelsea Gray hit game-winning shot on May 20 to defeat the Minnesota Lynx in a rematch of the 2017 WNBA finals, BreakingT had a “She Called Game” t-shirt available the next day. And Topps has a Topps Now service that offers next-day sales of cards capturing a pivotal MLB or European soccer play or WWE moment from the night before (with delivery in 3-5 days).

A Savvy Consumer

“Fans are savvier than ever before and they expect more and we can’t just put something out there and expect people are going to buy it because there is so much competition,” says CBS Consumer Products’ Veronica Hart, whose company recently joined the new Amazon Merch Collab platform. “Just the expectation that people are watching something” and that products tied to it “will quickly be available is very challenging.”

Says Jamie Mottram of Breaking T: “We can get the most relevant products to the most relevant fans as quickly as possible and the conversion rates are great, but it is not without risks.” Last October BreakingT was quick to design and make a “Michael A. Tater” t-shirt celebrating Michael Taylor’s eighth inning grand slam that helped the Washington Nationals win a big game during the National League Divisional series. But the Cubs beat the Nationals two days later to win the series, the emotion of Taylor’s moment had quickly passed, so BreakingT was left with a small pile of inventory.

The company, which has licenses with NFL Players Inc. and the Major League Baseball Players Association, frequently promotes its products on a team’s unofficial fan web sites and shares any revenue from sales with that site.

Being “In the Moment”

To capture that “in-the-moment” event or take advantage an unexpected film or TV hit, companies also are moving to tighten the design approval process. What used to take days and weeks is being shaved to a matter of hours in the case of the NFLPA and BreakingT by having required “paperwork” available electronically, says Scebelo. Similarly, Topps typically monitors social media and watches games and with pre-approved designs and written copy in hand so it can get an approval, in some cases, from a licensor via text, says Topps’ Ira Friedman.

CBS was able to react quickly to the success of American Vandal

In entertainment, the approval process also has been stream-lined to allow for the sudden popularity of a TV series or film. For example, when social media interest surrounding CBS’ “American Vandal” on Netflix last September spiked as soon as the series became available, approvals were granted within two days of the premiere and product was available within a week, says Hart of CBS, which handles licensing for the show along with co-production partner Funny or Die. Parrot Analytics also tracked social media for show and Fifth Sun produced the apparel through Merch by Amazon.

Particularly in sports, “It is all about bringing a moment into the hands of the consumer a quickly as humanly possible,” says Friedman of Topps. “In the old days you would wait for the following year to get that World Series recap card, whereas now we are delivering it in a matter of hours.”

The Topps Now program also has been applied to entertainment. When the AMC series “Preacher” was released in 2016, cards featuring a specific character or scene were released the day after each episode aired, says Striker’s Russell Binder, whose agency handles licensing for the series. The decisions on which scenes or characters to include were partly based on social media, but also on the knowledge that new characters were being introduced or there was a key scene featuring the lead character, says Binder.

“In television you don’t want to give anything away before they see it in episodes, because that is what creates appointment television. But once it is exposed, you want to be take advantage of those moments that are memorable,” says Binder. “It is taking advantage of the moment and capitalizing on a memorable scene or character that we want to have available today on a product, as opposed to waiting 6-8 weeks [for approvals] when it might not be as relevant.”

Changes in Manfacturing

Topps Now service captures “In the Moment” events

The faster pace is being accompanied by companies seeking to manufacture in the markets they serve. For example, BreakingT uses contract printer Sans Screenprint in Manassas, VA, whose owner, Sixto Naranjo, is an investor in BreakingT, giving him added incentive to insure there is the manufacturing capacity needed for quick hitting production runs. Evode Group’s Merchmaker print on demand platform launched in the UK, but it plans to use local suppliers as it expands to other international regions to insure finished product can be delivered quickly, says Evode’s Charlotte Clisby. The Merch by Amazon program has a plant in Dallas to provide product in the U.S. And Topps Now has dedicated staff that tracks games for that pivotal play or event that can be turned into merchandise. The physical cards produced are typically up for sale by noon the next day and will be available for as little as 24 hours or up to a week depending on consumer demand, Friedman said.

“Speed to market is very important for the consumer because Generation Z is the first generation to grow up with an iPad in front of them,” says Sanrio’s Craig Takiguchi, whose company has had discussions with Amazon about joining the recently announced Merch Collab platform. “They can make or break a brand overnight and everyone increasingly wants everything now.”

The faster turnaround times are being driven, in the case of apparel, by advances in printing technology. For example, new machines can simultaneously print a white base on one shirt and color on another, a technological advance that wasn’t available five years ago, says Trevco’s Trevor George. With high speed digital printers, Trevco also has been able to double its production capacity during the past 11 years to 800 shirts in an eight-hour shift.

Even toy manufacturers, who require time-consuming mold development before production can start, have shortened the time from concept to shelf to 9-12 months from up to two years, says Cartoon Network’s Peter Yoder.

As the speed at which products are delivered to market quickens, so is the pace at which content is available for licensing. The traditional TV model was for merchandise to be developed once the first season was underway, and an audience for the show was apparent. But that’s not the case anymore. For instance, the December launch of Cartoon Network’s series “Craig of the Creek” was accompanied by a small amount of products from licensee Trevco as a test of whether a consumer products market existed at that point, says Yoder.

A Risk Factor

Yet with the increasing speed at which some new properties are being brought to market, licensors also can risk souring retailers if the initial products are unsuccessful.

“Sometimes you are almost damning your property before you give it an opportunity to get its footing,” says Susan Brandt of Dr. Seuss Enterprises. “You need to get a following to be successful in licensing. Otherwise you risk retailers saying ‘I tried that and it didn’t work.’ It is not that it didn’t work. It’s just that you tried it too early.”

Even among the companies involved in Amazon Merch Collab program, executives concede that much still needs to be proven. But those same executives also know that the increased pace of the business is here to stay.

“It is really exciting time right now and when you have an idea of a trend, the fact that you can beta test in real time solves a problem as to whether it will be successful or not,” says Hybrid Apparel’s Jarrod Dogan. The market for creating products in real time is “going to be slow to start,” but the fact that they can now be created with consumer input from social media and other channels is “changing the whole product development process.”

(Note: This article discussed the issue of speed to market in relation to the entertainment and sports businesses. We’ll examine fast fashion later this summer.)

Contacts:

BreakingT, Jamie Mottram, CEO, 703-489-5180, jamiemottram@gmail.com

Cartoon Network, Peter Yoder, VP, 212-275-6535, peter.yoder@turner.com
CBS Consumer Products, Veronica Hart, VP Licensing, 212-975-6894, veronica.hart@cbs.com

Hybrid Apparel, Jarrod Dogan, CEO, 714-952-.3866, jdogan@hybridapparel.com

United Talent Agency/Shane Dawson, Erin Stover, Account Executive, 310-776-8229, stovere@unitedtalent.com

NFL Players Inc., Steve Scebelo, VP Licensing and Business Development, 202-572-7472, steven.scebelo@nflpa.com

Sanrio, Craig Takiguchi, Chief Operating Officer, 310-896-3252, ctakiguchi@sanrio.com

Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Susan Brandt, Pres., 858-459-9744 x100, susanb@drseuss.com

Topps, Ira Friedman, VP Global Licensing, 212-376-0596, ifriedman@topps.com

Trevco, Trevor George, Pres., 248-526-1400 x45, tgeorge@trevcoinc.com