Cocktail au Forum Kazachok

La 7ème édition du Kazachok Licensing Forum se tiendra au coeur de Paris les 8 & 9 Avril 2010. C’est LE Rendez-Vous incontournable du marché de la licence puisqu’il s’agit du 1er évènement dans le calendrier des évènements licences. Vous pourrez y rencontrer en direct les représentants de droits, découvrir en avant-première les propriétés de demain, rencontrer des nouveaux prospects, signer des deals, observer et analyser les tendances émergentes de l’industrie...
Découvrez le programme complet sur notre site Internet, cliquez ici!

Kazachok Licensing Forum

Paris, capitale de la licence les 8 & 9 avril 2010

Les professionnels de la Licence exposeront les 8 & 9 avril prochain dans L’Espace Propriétés du Kazachok Forum, The International Licensing Rendez-vous ! au cœur de Paris à la Halle Freyssinet. Venez visiter ce lieu de rencontres et de découvertes !

Près de 70 exposants se sont déjà positionnés sur le Licensing Forum 2010, parmi lesquels : CPLG, Moonscoop, Marathon Media, France Televisions Distribution, Lagardère Active Enterprises et Nickelodeon.
De nouveaux exposants feront leur début sur cette prochaine édition européenne comme Nelvana, Planeta Junior, Chaplin, Averbode, Procidis, 2 Dream, WWF, Chupa Chups, Willey ou encore Fitzroy Media. Retrouvez tous le catalogue des exposants en ligne sur notre site : cliquez ici

C’est l’occasion pour vous de découvrir les licences à venir et les tendances 2010/2011 !
Retrouvez le programme complet et les exposants du Forum sur notre site : http://forumlicence.kazachok.com

Interview of Marie-Astrid Lamboray – Largo Winch Design Licensing

The licensing rights to Largo Winch used to be handled by Editions Dupuis but the rights owners took them back and entrusted them to Marie-Astrid Lamboray, now Largo Winch's exclusive international agent by way of her company Largo Winch Design Licensing (www.largowinch-licensing.com)


1/ what is your development strategy for Largo Winch?
We want to make Largo Winch into a celebrity, which means placing him in the real world. The character is well suited for this kind of development since its adventures take place in the modern world. Therefore we're not interested in developing products stamped Largo Winch (unless on exception) but instead we favor using its image to enhance products, brands or partnerships.

Interview of Franck Cymes, France Télévisions Distribution's Director of Licensing and Events

Franck Cymes worked for 2 year as product managers for PSG Omnisport before being the commercial manager of TF1 Licences during 5 years. For the past 10 years he has been France Télévisions Distribution's Director of Licensing and Events.

Interviewed by Kazachok, Franck Cymes tells us what the key properties currently are in France Télévisions Distribution’s portfolio?

F. C.: We have well-established properties for every target with an emphasis on classics.

For preschool Noddy remains our leading brand, followed by Mr. Men that was a huge success when it was introduced. We also have Thomas the tank engine that will be arriving in France.

Evidently we are closely involved in developing Roary the racing car with French Master Toy Bandai and we have 2 important novelties: WordWorld that will arrive on France 5 for the spring of 2010… and Lulu Zipadoo's big début on France 5 scheduled for the end of 2010.

For girls Winx Club remains in the news with Season 4 arriving on France 3 and we are handling Rainbow's new animation series called Pop Pixie.

With the World Football Cup taking place in 2010 the Foot2Rue property will be our main priority for little boys with the arrival of Nicolas Anelka in the series and the licensed products coming out.

For older children we have high expectations for The Whizz Report and the new series Podcats that is a mix of music and multimedia, notwithstanding Mr. Men and Little Miss that is a fashion version of Mr. Men for young adults.

The Thalassa license is continuing to enjoy great success with seniors; we just signed new deals to develop watches, binoculars, umbrellas, etc.

Finally for the first time we are going to manage a brand that doesn't belong to the France Télévisions group: Vélib’ (Note of the translator: the name of the rental bikes available in Paris and suburbs).

Pepsi Drops Super Bowl To Focus On Facebook!

This will be the first time in 23 years that Pepsi will not air an Advert during the US Super Bowl. This is a huge change for Pepsi - culturally and financially.

Pepsi will focus its energy and money on its online presence where the brand believes a younger and accessible audience is spending its time.

Just like many other brands (GAP, Budweiser and Coca-Cola) who have switched to an online marketing strategy in order to encourage consumers to engage with their products via the Internet, Pepsi has developed a project called “The Pepsi Refresh Project” which will feature social-networking campaigns that leverage the participate/contribute-and-vote-online model.

Pepsi is looking to appeal to the consumer’s more compassionate side by offering grants "to those presenting the best ideas to improve the communities we call home and, perhaps, transform the society we call America.”

The $20 million digital-based project will highlight a new website and a presence on Facebook. The social platform is now widely used as it allows corporations to contact consumers directly with the creation of brand-centric pages and themed applications.

If this change of strategy reveals to be successful, it will be interesting to see how other major brands invest in Super Bowl commercials in the future!

Naruto Shippuden Sails on to International Success

Naruto Shippuden is into its 6th series in Italy on Italia 1, with a new slew of licensed products ready to go on the Italian and European markets.

The Licensing Machine has inked new contracts with Cartiere PIGNA spa for stationery, Supreme Factory (in Spain and Andorra) for PC accessories and videogames available on DS, WII and PSP platforms and with the French company CTI for a new collection of homewear fabrics distributed throughout Germany.

Naruto’s international success is confirmed by sales totaling 80 million manga (5.6 million in Italy, the Iberian peninsular and Germany), 10 million videogames worldwide and over 330 episodes of the series produced in Japan.

Vampiremania hits licensing

The new fantastic heroes have brought new blood to a market of which licensing definitely wants a bite.

After Le Roi Soleil and Cleopatra, Dracula will be the next hero of the musical that French star choreographer Kamel Ouali has started working on. The vampire created by Bram Stoker in 1897 is already back in bookstores in a new novel titled "Dracula l'immortel" (Immortal Dracula). Another reason to wonder like did French newspaper Le Parisien on page 1 last October: Why are vampires enjoying such a success? The answer is the Twilight saga! The series invented by Stephenie Meyer rekindled the literary gender by addressing a much larger audience.

The Twilight Effect
«Heroic Fantasy has existed for a long time but it used to enthuse mostly boys, notes Eglantine Deneux, executive director of the licensing branch at M6. Twilight is the first example of girls relating with that world.» That was proven by book sales (34 Million copies of the 1st four books sold) and completely confirmed when the first film after the saga came out with Robert Pattinson's performance turning into the idol of an entire generation of teenagers and young adults. « There are over 90 Million websites referring to Twilight and nothing but in France there are over 600 fans-clubs» says Eglantine Deneux. These addicts rushed to Twilight - chapter I: Fascination (2.7 Million tickets sold in France) and Twilight - chapter II: New Moon that was released on November 18th and are already dying to see Twilight 3 in July 2010.

A real godsend for licensees, starting with Neca the worldwide master – licensee that offers bags, jewelry, stickers, belts, hats, watches, figurines, etc. PhotoBox was a partner of the DVD and for the occasion created an exclusive poster on which fans could add their picture next to the leading actor. This huge Vampiremania that is mostly feminine has already started to trigger vocations. Vampire Knight, created by Matsuri Hino, is one of them. It’s a Shôjo, a girls' manga, that was a hit in Japan and after which an animated series was launched in 2008.

From fantasy to gothic
In Twilight or Vampire Night that is also about a pacific relationship between vampires and humans, teenagers find subjects they find important at that age such the fight between good and bad, transgression, and death experienced like a game. These themes are also important to the Gothic tribe. The Gothic trend is more a nook than fantasy but it has a lot of meaning for fans. Another example is the relaunching of Emily The Strange. This comic book character with long black hair is returning with an entire range of textile, accessories, and stationary that should attract gothic girls. Nelvana is also surfing that wave with its character Ruby Gloom, a little girl who lives in a dark mansion with her Cyclops, ghost and skeleton friends...

Nowadays who hasn’t dreamed of being a teenager fan of Twilight?
With society models swaying, little assurance of finding a job or not and family standards on the fragile side, it doesn’t seem surprising that teenagers want to seek refuge in worlds where reality is replaced by fiction, magic, virtual words or even darkness, all realms that appear fascinating and  exciting!