ON BRAND At CHSI Stitches 2024, Ian Downes, Director of Start Licensing Limited along with Steffi Stern from The Makerss spoke about the potential for branded kits & licensing for craft retailers. Here’s what Ian had to say... I was very pleased to join Steffi Stern from The Makerss at the CHSI Stitches show to talk about the ‘benefits’ for craft retailers in stocking and selling branded kits. I’ve worked in the brand licensing sector for over 35 years and welcome opportunities like this one to talk about licensing. I think it’s important to support your own industry. Like lots of industries, licensing needs support from retailers and we need to see the retail network engaged with licensing grow. The CHSI Stitches show presented a focussed forum to help spread the licensing message. In my view, face to face meetings, presentations and catch ups are very valuable – trade shows provide an efficient way of networking. I think we can underestimate their value in successfully bringing people together. I’ve got to know Steffi and The Makerss through my work with my client, Aardman. Steffi has created needle-felting kits featuring Shaun the Sheep and Robin, Robin (characters created and owned by Aardman). In addition, she has licenses with the RSPB, Me to You and Percy the Parkkeeper. She’s a great advocate for her craft and has proved to be a licensing enthusiast – embracing the opportunities that licensing brings with gusto. New licensing players like The Makerss bring fresh thinking and challenge conventional ways of working. The crafting category is one that’s well suited to licensing. There’s been a history of success in the crafting category with branded kits – a good recent example is Aardman licensee Build Your Own whose cardboard construction kits featuring Wallace’s Rocket won a Gift of the Year award in 2023. Licensing has featured in a range of crafting sectors but I guess sometimes crafting retailers have concerns about the suitability of licensed or branded kits in their stores. I’m guessing a key concern is how their customers will react to the kits. One of the themes of my presentation was that successful licensing campaigns are focussed on brands that have in built popularity and demand. We’re all fans of something and buying branded products gives consumers a way of expressing that fandom. Successful licensed brands bring with them an engaged audience and indeed an audience that is looking to buy official products. We’re more used to buying branded goods than ever these days – I’d imagine most people reading this article own some licensed products. Indeed, licensing is also working on a bigger scale these days – a great example is how the board game Monopoly has been developed as a real world ‘live experience’: consumers can play Monopoly on a big scale in an immersive experience sited in London’s Tottenham Court Road. As an aside, it’s important to reflect that licensed products aren’t just created for children these days. Increasingly, licensing is about brands that have an adult following with rights coming from categories like publishing, heritage, art and lifestyle sectors. Brand owners are now more adept 32
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