Dream Theatre scores Licensing Rights for football icon Maradona

Dream Theatre, India’s premier brand management and licensing representation company, has secured the rights for the Maradona Consumer Products programme from Podium Icons, a division of Podium Brands Group in the UK.

Podium Icons has exclusively acquired the master licensor rights from Sattvica SA, the Argentine company which owns the Maradona, name, image and likeness rights, and has a range of assets and IP with which to be the sole authorised representative of the Maradona IP and to develop the Diego Maradona brand. Podium Icons has placed the rights for bringing brand Maradona to India and South Asia with Dream Theatre.

Maradona is arguably the greatest footballer of all time and celebrated for his exceptional skill and talent. His famous performance in the 1986 FIFA World Cup and his where he led Argentina to victory, ha made him a legendary figure in the world of sports, including in India. His impact and influence on the game of football have earned him a dedicated fan base across our country.  In 2000, his sublime performances on the pitch were rewarded when he jointly won the Fifa Player of the Century award with Brazilian legend Pele. The Argentine won the internet poll with 53.6% to Pele’s 18.5%.

The partnership focuses on launching authentic merchandise across categories like apparel, sporting goods, bags, luggage, memorabilia etc.

29 Jul 1986: Diego Maradona of Argentina kisses the trophy after the World Cup final against West Germany at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Argentina won the match 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Mike King/Allsport

“We are very excited to represent Maradona in India and South Asia. Maradona’s personality and impact on the game is timeless and as football gains ground in India, fans old and new will have a chance to celebrate the sheer genius of Maradona with authentic merchandise across categories”, says Jiggy George, CEO and Founder of Dream Theatre.

Sanjay Wadhwani, CEO and Founder of Podium Brands, said: “Maradona was more than just the greatest footballer of all time, he transcended the sport and became an icon to millions. We are thrilled to be given the honour of building and leading Maradona Brand with the purpose of sharing his remarkable story and, in time, building a lasting legacy promoting social and charitable causes in his name.”

Maradona’s merchandise will launch early 2024 and will be available across retail chains, stores and e-commerce platforms.

 

Dream Theatre orchestrates music distribution partnership between Orchard and ChuChu TV

Chu Chu TV

Dream Theatre is delighted to  facilitate a new partnership between the Tech-driven music distributor, Orchard and the leading Children’s entertainment company, ChuChu TV Studios.

Based in Chennai, India, ChuChu TV Studios is YouTube’s leading global provider of preschool education content.  To add, In its ten years of operation, CCTV has attracted an incredible 72 billion views and 120 million subscribers globally.

ChuChu TV content is centered around Education, Music, Inclusivity, and Creativity.  Ten of ChuChu TV’s videos have the distinction of crossing the one billion views mark!

 

Dream Theatre participates at Comic- Con Bombay edition with Pokemon

The Comic-Con happened in Bombay with great fanfare and people thronged in greater numbers than last year. The central takeout of this edition of Comis Con was the fascination for Japanese content and we fueled this interest by making Pokemon center stage.

The Celio Pokemon collection was also showcased at Comic-Con and Dream Theatre supported this line by bringing the crowd’s favorite character Pikachu to the show.

Pikachu made 3 appearances on both Saturday and Sunday and fans stood in long lines to take pictures with their favorite character.

Ed Sheeran is releasing a Pokémon collaboration song next week

Guess who finds Pokemon really cool?! And Ed Sheeran loves Pokemon so much that he has written a Pokemon-themed song “Celestial”, which will release on September 29, 2022! A self-confessed Pokemon fan who has collaborated with Pokemon before, Sheeran is seen surrounded by Pokemon Plushies and crooning lines from the new song.
“Ahead of the Pokémon World Championships in London earlier this year, Ed recorded a message for attendees. He’s also publicly spoken in the past about being stuck in a train station all night during his early touring days, and to pass the time he played Pokémon Red on the Game Boy Colour for nine hours straight.”
There is a new range of Pokemon Plush hitting stores and e-comm platforms soon and if you like Ed Sheeran find Pokemon cool too,  call us and add Pokemon power to your brand and products. For more information on how you can leverage Pokemon, please email elizabethkurien@dream-theatre.co.in.

Youtube Link to the Ed Sheeran song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23g5HBOg3Ic

News Links: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ed-sheeran-is-releasing-a-pokemon-collaboration-song-next-week/

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/09/ed-sheeran-pokemon-song-celestial

 

Pokemon targets the youth fans with a tie-up with Celio.

Pokemon is not just for kids and we at Dream Theatre are super stoked to bring the Celio X Pokemon collection to stores in India! A must-have for every Pokemon fan, this cool collab comprises Pokemon T-shirts, Shirts, Sweatshirts, Hoodies, Jeans, and Joggers. Available across Celio stores and e-commerce platforms including celio.in, the collection is both making waves and delighting fans!
With its ever-growing appeal from kids to adults across content, merchandise, and games,  Pokemon is one of the most powerful brands in the licensing universe. Dream Theatre represents Pokemon for merchandising and content syndication and will be happy to help you add Pokemon power to your brands! To know more, do write to us at elizabethkurien@dream-theatre.co.in

 

To see more blogs, visit: https://dreamtheatre.co/blog/

If you thought Hello Kitty is a kiddy ONLY brand ….

Here is our latest drop only @ ONLY by Bestseller. Fashionably youth and available at X stores across India.

Hello Kitty is a “ design first “ lifestyle brand for girls and has shown fashion resonance globally . We at Dream Theatre continue this trend !

If you are a fashion retailer / manufacturer looking for more excitement to your line – we have the brand !

 

The Pokemon franchise in India gets one more screen with VOOT kids

Pokemon
Pokemon
VOOT Kids has reached an agreement with Dream Theatre’s syndication team for their top-represented franchise Pokemon. This is a volume of  11 seasons and 21 movies!
This gives Pokemon fans one more screen and supplements the content that plays out on linear TV broadcasts with  Disney. Pokemon is now on Hungama TV and is the top show on Marvel XD.
If you are a distributor or/and producer of products targeted at kids or young adults- Pokemon is the brand for you!
It’s the world’s top franchise. It has lots of awareness (which got bigger after Pokemon Go) and now has multiple screens of exposure for the brand.
License the power of Pokemon on your product. Connect with a loyal fan base. Increase sales.
Contact: Paavan Bose

Mail ID: paavan.bose@dream-theatre.co.in

Masters to Speak Out at Animation Masters Summit 2021

Click here for the AMS 2021 – Live master session Jiggy George

Screenwriter Meg LeFauve, Music composer Vidjay Beerepoot, Licensing and Merchandising expert Jigy George, Advertising veteran Rahul daCunha & Writer, director & creative producer Vani Saraswathi Balgam are the five ‘masters’ for the Animation Masters Summit 2021 edition organised by Toonz Media Group

Masters of animation industry will share their thoughts and speak their mind out at the 2021 edition of Animation Masters Summit.

Screenwriter Meg LeFauve, Music composer Vidjay Beerepoot, Licensing and Merchandising expert Jigy George, Advertising veteran Rahul daCunha and Writer, director and creative producer Vani Saraswathi Balgam are the five ‘masters’ for the 2021 edition.

Oscar nominated, Annie Award-winning screenplay writer Meg LeFauve holds the writing credits for some of the most popular animation features of our times. Marvel’s blockbuster Captain Marvel, Pixar hits Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur to name just a few.

Meg began her film career as a producer and President of Egg Pictures, where she produced Emmy and Golden Globe nominated films. A storyteller par excellence, Meg has taught at the American Film Institute and served as co-chair of the Graduate Producers Program at University of California’s School of Film and Television, where she taught master level story and development classes for several years.

Vidjay Beerpoot is the man behind the soulful score of the new animation feature Ainbo and the edgy soundscape of Netflix’s The Little Vampire 3D.

Adopted from India and brought up in the Netherlands, Vidjay has gone through an interesting creative journey through different cultures all the way to Hollywood. Today, based in Los Angeles, he composes music for movies, TV shows and video games all over the world, including for Disney, Netflix, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, Sony and Nickelodeon.

Jiggy George began his career as a designer and then went on to work with some of the top media and entertainment brands, right from MTV and Pogo to Viacom and Times of India.

Throughout his career, Jiggy George deftly balanced the ‘ying’ and ‘yang’ of creativity and commerce, achieving what very few in the industry can boast of – an undying passion for creativity, coupled with a nuanced understanding of management. Today, Jiggy is a successful entrepreneur and founder of Dream Theatre, one of India’s leading brand management and licensing companies.

From award-winning commercials to the country’s longest running ad campaign, ad man Rahul daCunha’s portfolio is formidable, to say the least. Working with some of the biggest and oldest brands in India, Rahul mastered the art of snugly positioning brands in the public psyche through immensely relatable, riveting campaigns.

Most notable being the campaign for Amul, widely adored for its subtle, superbly-timed social commentary. But advertising is only one side of this creative genius. As a theatre artist, Rahul has worked on some avant-garde productions as a director and playwright. His plays have travelled across the world from Australia to USA.

Vani Saraswathi Balgam started associating with the animation industry at a time when the rest of us would have just started watching animation. Thanks to her dad, who started an independent 2D animation studio out of their home, Vani grew up in an exhilarating creative environment throughout her childhood.

Starting with painting, photography and amateur film-making as a teenager, she went on to establish a successful career in animation. She worked as the Head of Creative Management for DreamWorks Animation in Shanghai and as Executive Director of Rhythm & Hues studio in India. She managed the teams of artists and technicians that created the VFX and digital characters in Academy Award- winning movies like Life of Pi, The Golden Compass and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Organised by Toonz Media Group, the virtual Summit will be held from May 4 to 8, 2021, over the Zoom platform.

At the inaugural session, the welcome speech will be delivered by P Jayakumar, CEO, Toonz Media Group. This will be followed by a keynote address by filmmaker and founder of Whistling Woods Films Institute Subash Ghai.

Then comes the felicitation and AMS Awards declaration by Ashish Kulkarni, FICCI Chairman for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic Forum.

Prof Nina Sabnani, winner of the Legend of Indian Animation Award at Animation Masters Summit 2021 and Ketan Mehta, winner of Special Contribution to Indian Animation Industry Award for his overall contributions to the industry, will deliver the acceptance speech.

On Day 2, the Ed Tech panel discussion to start at 10 am IST will have Ashish Kulkarni as moderator. The panelists are Dhimant Vyas, Chief Creative Director, Byjus, Dr M Srinivasan, Founder, GEAR Foundation, Prerna Jhunjhunwala, Founder, Little Paddington and Creative Galileo and Sasikumar Pillai, Executive Director, Toonz Education Services. From 11.30, there will be an in conversation session with Rahul daCunha.

While Day 3 will have an in conversation session with MegLeFauve and session by Jiggy George, Day 4 will have sessions by Vidjay Beerepoot and Vani Saraswathi Balgam.

On the last day of the summit, there will be an AWN panel discussion. Dan Sarto will be the moderator, and Monica Lago Kaytis, Co-Founder, Rise Up Animation, Bryan Dimas, LatinX in Animation, LXiA Co-Founder and Co-Director, Jinko Gotoh, Vice President, Women in Animation and Mansi Darbar-VP, Corporate Strategy and Development, IN10 Media will be the panelists. This will be followed by Ri8brain launch.

Animation Masters Summit (AMS) is an annual event celebrated by Toonz Media Group, a leading name in animation and Kids & Family Entertainment. Established in 1999 as the first ever animation event in India called “Week with the Masters”, it was recently renamed as Animation Masters Summit (AMS).

Animation Masters Summit celebrates the beautiful art of animation, bringing talents and experts from around the global animation Industry to interact with aspiring young talents. The event also offers a platform for masters to offer inspirations and insights on what it takes to create, connect and drive engaging content in this invigorating new entertainment era.

 

Source:  Pickle

 

Licensing: The secret weapon in an Indian marketer’s arsenal

Jiggy George
WARC
WARC

Licensing: The secret weapon in an Indian marketer’s arsenal

Jiggy George

Source: WARC Exclusive, May 2021

Licensing offers Indian brands many opportunities but Dream Theatre’s Jiggy George says it is ignored by leadership teams and their strategy.

  • Indian marketers can use licensing as a way to test the market and launch in non-core categories.
  • Through licensing, Indian consumers can tap into the brand promise and reputation of the mother brand.
  • Successful licensed brands reflect years of investment and the core brand’s performance.

Why it matters

The global licensing industry is estimated at nearly US$300 billion with an annual growth rate of 12% but most Indian marketers have not explored this option because companies in India prefer to produce and market themselves versus partner via licensing.

Takeaways

  • Licensing is an excellent tool for Indian brand owners to protect their IP and reinforce branding while reaching new consumers.
  • At the same time, licensees save as no resources are needed for brand building with a market-ready brand.
  • The sophisticated online medium in India offers the best solution for licensing with better control of piracy.

Are you an Indian marketer with a strong brand that has brand extension possibilities in categories outside of your core business? Licensing could be your answer to bridge this challenge.

Why create a new team and distribution when you could license the brand to someone who has these capabilities and intent?

For years, I thought it would be great to see the Indian mega-brand Amul license its distinct flavor of butter to a cookie manufacturer and launch Amul cookies. Then, Amul decided to do it in-house, perhaps due to it being an extension of the brand’s food business and because of its distribution network.

It’s not to fault Amul’s management decision but it could have considered partnering in this category with an established player like ITC foods or Parle and keeping their focus on dairy products.

Why license?

Licensing is one of the potent tools in the arsenal of a marketer that checks many boxes, beyond the obvious one of revenue generation. I also believe it’s a closely guarded secret that has not unlocked its potential in India as it’s not in the MBA curriculum or on the menu cards of marketers.

I call it a closely guarded secret as there is more than meets the eye. Consumer durables like a hairdryer, toaster, headphones or perfumes are usually licensed products. Consumers unaware of this are tapping into the brand promise and reputation of the mother brand. It’s also the outcome of years of investments made by brand owners in their core business. So the brand owner invests in building its core business and licenses the possibilities outside the core.

This is also true for entertainment brands. Lines get blurred as properties may start with one medium and move to others. They could have started from comics (like DC and Marvel), movies (Lucas and Star Wars), books (Harry Potter), toys (He-man), games (Pokémon) or design (Hello Kitty). Regardless, the fact is that owners have made investments worth millions of dollars in the content to then make extensions for their brand and leverage consumer products via licensing.

The more successful licensed brands reflect years of investment and performance of their core brand. It’s akin to sport – we are less likely to be bothered by a million endorsements/extensions from a sportsmanlike Virat Kohli as long as he keeps winning on the field. This is also the reason why Air Jordans are timeless and so too Kanye West and his brand Yeezy with Adidas. The design aesthetic is great but it’s unlikely to have worked if their body of work was not inspiring. We are tapping into the trust and performance of the “mother ship”.

Understanding the concept better

Simplistically, licensing is like a simple lease agreement. The owner of a brand (licensor) leases the intellectual property to a third party (licensee) for a designated time and geography and for a fee. This fee is usually like royalty on sales and a minimum guarantee model.

The global licensing industry was estimated at US$292.8 billion in 2019 at retail and is growing at 12% annually. There are many kinds of licensing. From corporate licensing (likes of Coca-Cola, Harley Davidson, Ford) to collegiate licensing (Harvard, Yale, etc).

Entertainment and character are 44% of the market at US$128,392 million. US/Canada accounts for 58% of the market, followed by Western Europe at 19% and North Asia at 10%.

India ranks 18th in the world with US$1,864 million at retail with a 0.6% share. Character entertainment, corporate, and fashion are its top three categories.

(Source: Licensing International)

Besides the obvious benefits of revenue, licensing allows marketers to test market their brand in geographies before they actually spend resources for a full-fledged launch. It allows marketers to protect their IP and reinforce their brand positioning. It also allows a brand owner to extend its offering to new target consumers, for example, many cannot afford an Amani suit or Fendi bag but they can buy the perfume.

Similarly, one may not be able to purchase an MF Hussain or Raza artwork but a mug embellished with the splendour of their designs would be our cup of tea.

Licensing also reinforces brand equity and authenticity. Bourbon brand Jack Daniels extending into chocolates or barbecue sauces is an example.

Beyond all of this, licensing is the transference of emotions of trust, pride, and humour of the mother brand to the licensed offering. This explains why sporting teams license their brand into merchandise and why fans sport them with pride.

For a licensee, it saves them the resources of brand building by leaning on a market-ready brand.

Why has India not fully realised the value of licensing?

I believe most marketers have not explored licensing as a possibility in their marketing plan. With corporate brands, there are many opportunities and it’s largely a function of the leadership teams and their strategy. Indian companies prefer to produce and market themselves versus partner via licensing. It’s rarely in their consideration set.

So an iconic brand like Royal Enfield in India produces all their non-biking gear, apparel and helmets with an in- house team while Harley Davidson uses licensing to globally extend its brand.

Unless it’s a tactical promotional tool – why not stick to your core business and license non-core to strong licensees who will create great products and distribute to the target audience? Then use marketing effectively to build on marketing events and legitimise the merchandise?

My belief is that very few brands have the luxury of self-activating in all their relevant categories.

I would further clarify by saying that one should build brand extensions via self-activation if it’s in the same business of food, personal products or fashion.

Again, this is a decision based on how big the categories are and how much resourcing should be thrown into this extension. Some fashion brands have acknowledged licensing in categories like fashion accessories, recognising the value of focusing their in-house teams, COGs, marketing and operations on their core apparel. Brands like Levis and Pepe license innerwear and accessories to licensees who produce and distribute under license.

Dream Theatre’s consulting project for Bennett & Coleman looked at extending their publishing assets into other categories. With valuable inputs from their editorial teams and business head, we built the architecture for the brands, licensed Femina to Shoppers Stop that now carries apparel and fashion accessories in over 60 stores. The team has now ventured into salons.

On FMCG, we have seen some food licensing of Cadbury’s Oreo with ice cream.

Opportunities for effective licensing in corporate and fashion

If one looks at the opportunity for India’s entertainment-licensed brands, the good news is that India ticks two of the three boxes for a successful licensing business. First, Indian consumers know about entertainment, corporate, fashion and even collegiate brands.

We have a vibrant entertainment economy and it’s fairly inexpensive to consume entertainment brands. It’s fairly affordable for consumers to access a gamut of channels, with smartphones now providing even more access to brands.

Another factor influencing our knowledge of brands is travel, with more Indians travelling for leisure than ever before pre-COVID-19.

Second, our consuming class in India is significant.

However, the third component of this three-legged stool is still half-baked – retail.

There is a direct correlation between the growth of organised retail and the growth of licensing as a business. Most retail in India is disorganised, with scattered mom-and-pop stores that make licensing challenging and limit it.

  • Firstly, most of this scattered trade has restrictions of size and don’t present the best environment for licensed products, ie display and range.
  • It’s challenging due to a lack of addressability and lots of royalties are underreported; the business is much larger than is reported by licensees.
  • The third challenge is piracy, which is linked to the lack of addressability.

In India, it’s also unlikely that you will find pirated products in any organised retail outlets but only because the footprint is still very limited.

Online in India is very sophisticated and better than many countries in the world. It offers a “last mile” reach to fans and is the best solution for licensing.

However, online majors are more incentivised to increasing resellers versus protecting IPs. Most brands face huge piracy online and the takedown of pirated products by the platforms leaves much to be desired. In fact, it’s more challenging to prove that you are a legitimate brand on a platform like Amazon and Flipkart than listing a pirated product as a reseller/distributor.

The genesis of online retail and the growth of this business in India has been fuelled by private equity money. The goal was to build a habit with Indian consumers through discounting versus convenience. Being value seekers, Indians have been enjoying these discounts and services and this has placed a big burden on the producers of merchandise (prospective licensees). The pricing makes it challenging to load royalties. If price is most important and if piracy is rampant even on the online platforms, then pirates win.

The market has also not grown due to a lack of investment of brand owners. Most of the licensors believe that just because their brands resonate in major markets like the US and Europe, they should work in India without effort. This is true for some brands with global investments in India but for the rest, it’s a lazy strategy.

Most of these owners make no effort to protect their IP or marketing. For them, it’s the classic chicken-or-egg dilemma: if the market is still not giving huge returns, why focus resources?

There is little effort to bring down piracy (especially online which seems more in their control) or legitimise strong licensees via any support.

Conclusion

In all of this, there is always hope. The brand owners who invest early and deep will capitalize, akin to the Japanese and Korean companies that have stayed invested in many Indian businesses. It’s too big a market to ignore and organised retail will continue to grow and so will addressability. The prominent licensors will invest and push platforms to legitimise their offering. More important, they will be forced to have a flexible and differentiated strategy in this market.

More corporate marketers will see licensing as a better tool to test the market and launch in non-core categories. Focus will be a key consideration where brands stick to categories in which they have the expertise and optimal resources. Less will be more, where they capitalise on their brand value by using licensing as an effective tool to reach their target audience.

It’s only a matter of time.

About the author

Jiggy George

Founder & CEO, Dream Theatre

Jiggy – who is also the head of the India chapter of Licensing International, the global trade organisation for the licensing business – previously held senior management positions in Turner Broadcasting and Viacom, where he set up the licensing business for both companies.

He started his career as a fashion designer and entertainment journalist. He has a master’s degree in management studies and significant experience in sales (Times of India), marketing (MTV and Pogo), licensing (MTV, Cartoon Network and Warner Bros), and project management (Turner and Sesame Street).

Add some smiley to your portfolio today!

Walk into the food aisle in Indian retail or online, and you now see a range of snack food options. The Indian snacking food industry is booming with a shift in lifestyles, changes in the standard 3-meal model, and Gen Z/millennial focusing on health and convenience.

The Smiley brand is much more than our famous “McCain Smiles” and has had many successful private labels and category extensions in snacks, biscuits, chips, juices, ready to eat options.

Smiley could be a happy, recognizable, visually refreshing, and a differentiated licensing option for your brand. To know more : Contact Paavan Bose paavanbose@dream-theatre.co.in