“We don’t want to be limited by the lineage of the brand” BCCL’s Sandeep Dahiya in conversation with Jiggy George

On Friday, 20th March, we were lucky to have the man in the hot seat behind extending evergreen brands like Femina, Filmfare & Miss India, brand licensing veteran Sandeep Dahiya, CEO – Times Lifestyle Enterprise Director & business head – Brand Extension, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd. who was in conversation with Jiggy George, Country MD, Licensing International India and Founder & CEO, Dream Theatre Group

They had a free-wheeling chat on how to extend & monetise one’s company name, logo, trademarks  via brand licensing – a genre worth  $58 billion* globally.

Here are some of the key excerpts from the discussion:

  • Fundamentals of corporate and brand licensing are the same.
  • Awareness has reached a point where consumers are willing to pay a price to own a piece of the brand
  • Bennet Coleman Company Limited – is one of the largest media companies in India. Has one of the largest news daily, largest financial daily, largest network of movie channels, largest chain of radio stations, largest outdoor company – a few brands which have been around for 6-7 decades like Femina, Filmfare & Miss India
  • Brand extensions help unlock a lot of value for the company
  • Step 1 is to look at your brand portfolio and do a risk profiling
  • We decided to start with Femina – and do something around Fashion and Beauty. First partner was Shoppers Stop. 
  • They also looked at the services side and decided to launch Femina Flaunt late 2019.
  • Brand licensing done well. – Sandeep named Coca Cola, Kylie Jenner and Victoria Beckham
  • Objectives are different for different brands:
    1. How to stay relevant?
    2. How to jumpstart a new category? E.g. JVC, Discovery.
    3. Speed – finding someone else who can do it faster.

 

  • In the brand extensions model, we decided to do it ourself since we didn’t want to do co-branded. For the moment it will be a combination of COCO – Company Owned Company Operated and FOFO – Franchise Owned Franchise Operated which could lead to other models like Shared partnership.
  • Not everyone extends a brand into every market
  • If you are a media company licensees tend to expect you to bundle it into the deliverables and we do try to help if that’s our core competitive strength, but that shouldn’t be the reason for signing up
  • For Filmfare we are keen to sign up with the right hospitality players, Miss India is for a much younger audience
  • When you are planning a licensing foray you get inputs from the brand team but the ultimate blessings have to come from the management.
  • When you have 10 brands in the same category in the marketplace, they all need to have a unique aesthetic, and value proposition.
  • We don’t want to be limited by the lineage of the brand
  • What if we want to just launch a brand called Flaunt 3 years from now? Maybe it could be Unisex.
  • When we looked at the sales data from Shoppers Stop, a large number of sales were coming in from young millennials who had not read the magazine, but their first interaction was through fashion.
  • Femina Flaunt is currently available in 64 stores.
  • Licensing services are more difficult than licensing products since there are far more examples and case studies.
  • We’ve locked the brand in relevant categories in high Indian diaspora markets like Singapore, UAE, US, UK, Canada, Australia

 

The road ahead –

  • Femina Flaunt – 3-5 years 150-200 stores in the next year or so
  • Starting up in UAE
  • Fashion going online
  • Cafes in India and overseas

 

More about Sandeep:

With an experience of over 2 decades that spans across categories, Sandeep currently heads the brand extension business of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL), one of India’s largest multimedia conglomerate. With some of the legacy brands such as Filmfare, Femina and Miss India in its portfolio, Sandeep’s mandate is to extend these brands into the consumer space, outside their existing core businesses.

Under his leadership, Femina has extended into the multiple consumer product categories over the last 5 years – apparel, eyewear, footwear, accessories, and fragrances. The brand is today available in more than 60 Shoppers Stop stores, across India and in over 600 eyewear stores. Within 48 months of launch, Femina FLAUNT range of products have already had a cumulative MRP sales of over Rs. 400 million. In late 2019, Femina forayed into beauty services with the launch of      Femina FLAUNT Studio Salon in Mumbai. Situated at Khar Linking Road and spread over 3000 sq feet, the studio salon is a ‘statement-making’, contemporary hotspot, serving global beauty services and trends in hair, make-up, nails & skin. Over the next 5 years, the company plans to launch a robust franchise program, to create a footprint of over 100 salons in the first 5 years

Prior to BCCL, Sandeep spent 8 years at Viacom18, heading their Consumer Products division to create sustainable licensing model around their brands & IPs such as MTV, Vh1, Spongebob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer and Southpark, amongst others.

Before Viacom18, he spent over 10 years as a consultant with Marketing & Communications agencies – working on hyperactive consumer-driven brands such as Seagram’s, Lakme, Pepsodent, indya.com, Carrier, Sony Entertainment Television, Louis Vuitton and South African Tourism, amongst others.

He firmly believes that the best business decisions are the ones that are driven partly by insights, and partly by instincts.

 

Mr. Men partners with McDonald’s in the UK

mr-men-little-miss

The Mr. Men & Little Misses are popping up in McDonald’s all over the UK and Ireland with a new Happy Meal promotion. From 5th February – 17th March you can take home your own reusable cup. With 8 characters to choose from, collect them all now!

Get in touch with Renu Nair >> renunair@dream-theatre.co.in to work the magic of Mr. Men and Little Miss into your brand strategy.

Dream Theatre to represent Liverpool Football Club in India

Brand management and licensing agency, Dream Theatre has won the mandate to develop the licensing business of Liverpool Football Club in India and South Asia covering Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

According to the company, Liverpool Football Club’s association with Dream Theatre will give football fans in India access to a licensed range of products across categories like apparel, sporting goods, apparel accessories, gifts and novelties, eyewear and more in the lifestyle segment.

Dream Theatre will be partnering with world class licensees and working closely with them to launch and grow a comprehensive line of products and services. The licensed LFC merchandise will be available at leading chain stores, standalone outlets and on e-commerce portals.

“We are very proud and thrilled to be working with Liverpool Football Club, the Champions of Europe. The club has such a strong legacy and a very passionate fan base in India. Dream Theatre will forge long-term partnerships with licensees and retailers with one aim: drive value for our partners and delight our fans and consumers with authentic products that are world class, affordable and accessible”, Jiggy George, CEO and founder, Dream Theatre, said.

Liverpool Football Club is one of the most feted and followed football clubs in the world with a global reach of 1.07 billion followers and 450 million audiences on TV in 2017/18. It is one of the most popular English Premier League clubs in India and has been named as one of the most trusted football clubs in India across successive seasons.

“We’re delighted to welcome Dream Theatre to our global football and retail family. Relationships like this are incredibly important to the club to ensure that we can bring LFC closer to all our supporters who are based across the world, not just at home in Liverpool,” Mike Cox, senior VP, merchandising, Liverpool FC, said.

Dream Theatre, which operates in the spaces of entertainment, sports and lifestyle licensing in India and south Asia and works with some iconic intranational and national IPs, will leverage its prowess and experience in licensing to drive the Liverpool Football Club licensing programme in India.

Source:  https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/dream-theatre-to-represent-liverpool-football-club-in-india/70801446

Dream Theatre to represent Subway Surfers in India & South Asia


Brand and Licensing Management Company To Bring SUBSURF, Consumer and Lifestyle Brand Based on World’s Most Downloaded Endless Runner Game, To Market

Dream Theatre, India’s foremost Brand Management and Licensing representation company, has secured the official licensing and merchandising representation in India and South Asia for SYBO Games’ SUBSURF® consumer and lifestyle brand, based on Subway Surfers, the world’s most downloaded endless runner mobile game.

The first game to reach one billion downloads on Google Play, Subway Surfers crossed the 2.5 billion downloads worldwide mark earlier this year.  In India, the game itself has 262 million downloads to date, making the region the largest market for Subway Surfers in the world. More than just a game, Subway Surfer is a lifestyle and entertainment franchise, which includes Subway Surfers: The Animated Series, a short-form series that notched over 110 million views on YouTube since its June 2018 launch.

As representing agent, Dream Theatre will establish and grow the licensing business in India and South Asia. Jiggy George, Founder and CEO, Dream Theatre Pvt. Ltd. said, “Subway Surfers’ extraordinary and long standing popularity makes it a solid licensing proposition in India, the no. 1 growth market in the world. With the growth of licensing content from the digital world, we are very excited to work with the market leaders to establish and grow the licensing business for Subway Surfers in India. The licensing business will aim to leverage and echo the infectious energy of the brand in the products and services that we will bring to our fans in India.”

“Dream Theatre is an ideal partner to grow the SUBSURF licensing business in India and South Asia,” said Naz Amarchi-Cuevas, Chief Commercial Officer, SYBO Games.  “We’re confident that Dream Theatre understands the brand’s audience and values, and as such will deliver the spot-on consumer merchandise and experiences Subway Surfers fans desire.”

About Dream Theatre Pvt. Ltd.

Dream Theatre leverages the power of licensing to CREATE, REPRESENT and DISTRIBUTE iconic brands in South Asia. These brands are focused on Entertainment, Sports and Lifestyle businesses. Dream Theatre represents The Smiley Company, Sanrio, Real Madrid, FIFA 2018, The Pokémon Company, Rovio amongst other brands for Licensing and Merchandising in India and South Asia. Dream Theatre represents ChuChu TV, the most popular kids network of channels on YouTube, globally for their licensing and merchandising portfolio. The company manages content syndication for key brands and creates and retails products via Dream Theatre group companies. For further information, please visit http://www.dreamtheatre.co.

 

About SYBO Games:

SYBO Games is a Danish mobile games developer founded in 2010, known for the massive mobile hit Subway Surfers (co-developed and published by Kiloo).  Five years after the launch of the mobile game, Subway Surfers topped 2017’s most downloaded mobile game in the world.  Subway Surfers has been downloaded more than 2.5 billion times since its launch. To find out more visit http://sybogames.com/.

https://www.facebook.com/SubwaySurfersSybo/

https://www.instagram.com/sybo_games/

https://twitter.com/sybogames

https://www.youtube.com/SyboGames

Jiggy George opens the Indian licensing Expo in Mumbai

The 3rd edition of India Licensing Expo (ILE) 2019 – India’s largest brand licensing exhibition began on a rainy note at the Bombay Convention & Exhibition Centre, NESCO. However, this didn’t dampen the mood indoors, as the conference kicked off with Marty Brochstein from Licensing International lighting the traditional lamp.

The opening address was delivered by Ms. Ritu Marya, editor of Franchise India. Martin “Marty” Brochstein along with Jiggy George, Founder & CEO, Dream Theatre and Head, Licensing International, India delivered the opening keynote on The Future Trends In Brand Licensing & Building new Labels.

Marty took the stage first and spoke about some of the key global statistics and India’s place among its peers (#18 in 2018 – up 2 spots from #20 in 2017) with $1.59 billion sales in retail. He spoke about how these days many brands are digitally native, given the changing landscape fuelled by the technology disruption and all-pervasive nature of e-commerce. However, 76% of business is still done in brick & mortar stores. He then briefly touched upon the growing importance of “experiential licensing” riffing off Ms. Ritu Marya’s comment that “people have enough stuff they crave experiences” He also shared some examples of successful collaborations done by brands like Nike & Netflix (Stranger Things) and Vans and Warner Bros. (Harry Potter). He concluded his presentation by highlighting the importance of being more socially conscious especially if one wants to be relevant to the younger audience.

Marty was followed by Jiggy George Founder & CEO, Dream Theatre India Pvt Ltd., who shared his thoughts on licensing trends from an Indian & Asian context.

He echoed Marty’s sentiment that the future of licensing lay in ‘experiences’ and that brand owners should pay heed if they are to survive in this new-brand-a-day market.

These days when everyone is “looking down” instead of “looking up” Jiggy shone the spotlight on a few key trends/opportunities for the licensing fraternity to take note off.

The rise of digital brands like Youtubers – Ryan from Ryan’s Toy Review who has 19.8 million subscribers, ChuChu TV which has over 10 channels and 39 million subscribers, and influencers like Lilly Singh & Bhuvan Bham who are raking in the moolah by being topical and completely in sync with their followers. So is digital content the new brand opportunity? Are digital influencers the new celebrity? Jiggy then delved deeper into the discussion around building franchises that last like a Superman, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and even homegrown IP like Singham which has managed to transform and re-invent itself its latest avatar being Little Singham!

With the ICC Cricket World Cup on, how could one not speak about the HUGE opportunity in sports. Not just cricket but even E-sports, which has spawned such franchises as Fortnite and PUBG. There are 250 million Fortnite users around the globe! The Marshmellow performance on Fortnite saw 10 million viewers, 300 million dollars were spent every month on Fortnite merchandise.

To round it off after sharing his thoughts on curated brand experiences like the Cartoon Network tie-up with Marriott and Cher’s collab with Sofitel, Jiggy flew around Asia to highlight some interesting examples of how some of their exports are influencing the youth in India like Pokémon (Japan), K-Pop & Hello Kitty (Korea) and more. He concluded by posing a challenge to Indian designers to create our own design aesthetic which will resonate with the world.

To cap off the day Jiggy won the Brand Licensing Leader Award (Agent) You can watch him get Jiggy with it

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzz0u2yFKuD/

The Dream Theatre team ended the night on a high winning 2 metals at the glitzy (& hilarious) awards show hosted by Siddharth Kanan.

The first one was for the Most Popular Animation Series on an OTT platform for CHUCHU TV.

The second was bagged by Jiggy George for Brand Licensing Leader – Agent

“The prowl anthem got over 40 million hits on Youtube within a few weeks!” Jiggy George @ Music Inc 2.0

It was a busy 2 days at the JW Marriott on 21st & 22nd June where the who’s who of the music biz gathered to discuss all things ‘music’.

Day 2 saw Jiggy George Founder & CEO Dream Theatre (and Head, Licensing International India) take the stage on a panel to discuss feeding the superfan appetite | Sports x Music

The session was moderated by veteran event producer Ravi Krishnan (ex-IMG, Stepathlon Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd.) who was joined on stage by panelists Lydia Buthello EVP Brand Experience and Events, Star India, Jiggy George Founder & CEO Dream Theatre (and Head, Licensing International, India), Indranil Blah, CEO, Mumbai City FC, Vivek Nayer, CMO, Mahindra & Mahindra & Mohit Joshi, MD, Havas Media.

Music Inc 2.0
Ravi Krishnan, Jiggy George, Lydia Buthelo, Indranil Blah,Vivek Nayer, Mohit Joshi

Ravi kicked off the panel by commenting that India’s become a more diverse country in the last 10 years! He also asked panelists to weigh in on how they were using music to drive engagement among fans, especially during the offseason? Mohit Joshi asked the audience to recall the last sports anthem apart from Chak De and Bar Bar from Lagaan. Jiggy commented on how Mojostar had launched brand Prowl with Tiger Shroff and released it in tandem with T-series and saw it accumulate over 40 million views within a short span of time which helped induce trial of the brand. Indranil Blah too spoke about the fact that despite Mumbai not being a very football-centric city they had managed to engage a large active base of fans through music. Vivek Nayer spoke passionately about M&M’s continuing efforts in Formula 3 to use music and fuse it with experiential marketing to deliver their brand message & how it’s been paying rich dividends.

You can watch footage from the panel discussion here (thanks to Ankit & the good folks at www.Loudest.in)

 

 

 

Jetting with Jiggy & team to the Las Vegas Expo!

For more than 35 years, Licensing Expo has connected the world’s most influential entertainment, character, art, and corporate brand owners and agents with consumer goods manufacturers, licensees and retailers. Whether you are looking to spot trends, build partnerships, or secure brand rights for your products, Licensing Expo has your answer.

This year Sush, Jibi and myself travelled to the mecca of licensing. Licensing Expo 2019 had all the studios and brands in all their glory . It was wonderful to catch up with friends , clients and colleagues from this wonderful industry. It was a special one for Dream Theatre as we partnered on Chu Chu TV with premier agency Brandgenuity in the USA and Canada . Brandgenuity sported Chu Chu TV in their booth and garnered two dozen odd meetings . Lots of interest for the brand in these markets and look out for this space for more information . It was also wonderful to see the iconic brands we represent – Pokemon , Angry birds, Smiley, Hello kitty have a big presence at the show !