Brand Licensing Europe opens for 25th London outing on Tuesday
Everything is gearing up for Brand Licensing Europe, which opens its doors for the 25th time in just a couple of days, and there’s plenty going on the interest the greeting card world.
This year BLE runs from Tuesday to Thursday, 24-26 September, and has extended its mission to provide licensing opportunities around the world by bringing brands and products together with the launch of the Discovery & Design accelerator zone to support entry level licensing entrepreneurs.
The zone sits within the busy Character & Entertainment sector and houses 14 smaller businesses including card publishers such as Molly Mae (stand AD13), Ginger Betty (AD15), Middle Mouse (AD12), and Jelly Armchair (AD02), as well as Brilliantly Brave on the stand of licensing agent This Is Iris (AD06), Nicole Elders with Larkshead Licensing (A150), plus research and design company Vicki Thomas Associates (AD09)
The full agenda of conference sessions, networking programme, and fun events is now live, and BLE event director Ella Haynes said: “This year’s programme includes a free, inclusive three-day conference programme, valuable networking opportunities and lots of fun not-to-be missed events – all great complements to the thousands of pre-planned and spontaneous, business critical meetings taking place on the show floor.”
In its first outing at the only pan-European annual event dedicated to licensing and brand extension, Molly Mae has been checking out the licensing guides from the GCA and Anti-Copying In Design and business manager Victoria Hawley said the company, now owned by creative lead Jude Kenney, “is ready to take the plunge”.
“Getting ready for the show has been so exciting,” she added, “it’s completely different to our usual trade shows, we’re not taking racks of cards, boxes of catalogues and our orders book. We’ve had some sample products made and created visuals of how our card designs translate to a wider market potential.
“I’m not ashamed to admit that taking delivery of our sample products might have made me squeal with a bit of excitement!
“There’s no fixed plan of who we want to work with and what our priorities for the show are. The show has drawn an impressive list of registered visitors, many of whom it would be our dream to work with. We have some meetings lined up, a couple which weren’t necessarily areas of licensing that had come to mind, but we’re excited to learn more and are now counting down the days.”
Brilliantly Brave is just over six months old and the socially-conscious publisher’s founders Stuart Cox and Jean Pryde are set to expand beyond greeting cards with a mission to help mental health by partnering with This Is Iris for licensing representation following their initial meeting at the PG Live trade show in June.
It’s a similar approach for calligrapher Nicole Elders, known for painting pictures with words, who is making her first foray into licensing with Larkshead where MD Clare Piggott said: “We see Nicole’s artwork having the potential to be applied to multiple product categories plus we look forward to expanding her brand into further strategic collaborations with heritage and conservation sites.”
Tracey Colliston is returning with her former License This! winning brand Ginger Betty hoping to expand beyond her new stationery venture, which has been well received.
She said: “Ginger Betty is really versatile in that it appeals to several age groups and genres, from nursery to homewares. We can’t wait to be there!”
At Jelly Armchair, sisters Cat and Liz Faulkner have some experience of putting card designs on to products as they produced their own while running a retail shop for six years, and are now confident of their offer with a variety of different IP.
Company manager Stephen Davies explained: “We’re especially interested in showing products that we’ve created in small quantities ourselves, such as homewares and games, to more experienced industry partners who have distribution and manufacturing expertise to see if we can work together.”
Middle Mouse owner and designer Bec Wright is also a BLE newbie and looking to diversify her designs, with the aim of doing more of her first love of designing rather than selling.
“I have some exciting video game IP launching at BLE,” Bec said, “and would love to find a software team to help move this forward. I’d also love to make contact with some publishing companies as books are a huge passion of mine, as well as homeware companies that like bright, bold patterns!”
As the show celebrates its 25th anniversary, plans include a party on the opening day with a string quartet playing modern pop songs, mind-boggling magician, sumptuous birthday cake, fizz aplenty, party props and selfie ops with Mable, the brand-new BLE mascot.
Hosted in partnership with Licensing International and sponsored by show organiser The Insights Family, the BLE party to end all parties will take place from 5pm-7pm on Tuesday across two of the show floor bars, The BLE Birthday Bar and BLE x One Piece Bar 2024.
Ella added: “This is a big year for BLE, and what better way to celebrate than on the show floor with the entire European licensing community around us and the people, businesses and brands who have driven – and continue to drive – this amazing, exciting, non-stop industry forward year on year.
To find out more about Brand Licensing Europe and to register to attend the show, which takes place on Tuesday-Thursday, September 24-26 at ExCeL London, go to www.brandlicensing.eu
