Author: Duan Qing
Editor: Nurhahachi
Source: Thunder News
Recently, LICENSE GLOBAL, a licensing industry magazine under the Global Licensing Show, released the "2024 Global Top Licensing Agents Ranking" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which Lei Bao has translated and organized.
According to the report, the licensing industry continues to experience tremendous growth, with global sales of licensing agents increasing by $5.7 billion in 2023 and totaling $93.63 billion in retail sales for the full year. Among these authorized agents, the top 10 companies collectively generated $69.6 billion in retail sales, and the top 20 companies generated more than $85.24 billion in retail sales.
What do successful licensing agents do and what are the trends?
The licensing industry is booming, and License Global has produced the Global Licensing Agency Rankings Report to fully understand the influence of licensing agents in the global brand licensing space and explore how these companies, experts and studios are advancing the brand licensing business.
The World's Top Licensing Agencies 2024 ranks 50 agencies in the consumer goods industry representing hundreds of household names, revealing the annual growth of the agencies involved.
First of all, a brief understanding of what is a reseller, and an authorized reseller is a bridge between the IP owner (i.e., the licensor) and the potential licensee who wants to use the IP to develop products or services. The responsibilities of an authorized agent include identifying potential licensing opportunities, negotiating licensing agreements, and maintaining long-term relationships between licensors and licensees.
All in all, the goal of a brand and IP licensing agency is to help both parties maximize the value of the brand while maintaining the brand's reputation.
License Global outlines key trend strategies for the continued growth of the world's top licensors, including:
First, technology and innovation. Agencies continue to invest in cutting-edge investments, such as generative AI, while continuing to expand their technology, leveraging blockchain integration and data analytics to optimize brand management and identify emerging trends. A 2020 Oracle study found that companies that take advantage of emerging technologies saw a 58% increase in annual revenue.
Second, sustainable development and consumer-centric strategies. Long-term partnerships focused on eco-friendly practices and materials align values with consumers, enhancing brand reputation and contribution. According to Forbes magazine, 92% of consumers are more likely to trust environmentally friendly or socially conscious brands, 88% will be more loyal to companies that care about social or environmental issues, and 66% of global consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products.
3. Diversity, inclusion and transparency. Building a diverse workforce that actively engages in previously overlooked market segments can promote inclusivity and unlock untapped market opportunities. According to the MeKinsey D&I Global Market Report, inclusive teams are 35% more productive, and productive and diverse companies have 2.5 times higher cash flow per employee.
Fourth, partnerships, collaboration, and global expansion. Agencies gravitate towards the ongoing trend of expanding their business globally.
Fifth, customer experience and engagement. Prioritizing customer satisfaction, increasing brand engagement through social media, and increasing brand awareness contribute to holistic brand management and market penetration. 62% of businesses identified as "customer first" say their omnichannel customer engagement strategy has resulted in higher profit margins than non-customer-first businesses. Forbes found that 90% of social media users follow at least one brand.
Sixth, market trends, flexibility and adaptability. Strategy stems from the state of the market, and agencies must quickly adapt to changing market demands, remain customer-centric, and provide sustainable revenue for both clients and licensees.
The world's top 50 authorized agencies: Aliyu soared to TOP11, and Yizhou people and Lingbang continued to be on the list
This year, 15 new brands were added to the list in the Top Global Licensing Distributor Report, presenting a new picture that reflects the innovation that global licensing agents bring to the global market.
IMG is at the top of the list for the sixth consecutive time, with customers represented by brands such as Pepsi, Fortnite, Volkswagen, Assassin's Creed, My Little Pony, Rainbow Six, Maserati, Transformers, and more, with retail sales of $17.2 billion in 2023 (up $1.8 billion year-on-year).
The top 2 companies are CAA, with annual retail sales of 13.83 billion US dollars, representing customers such as Coca-Cola, Netflix, Minecraft, League of Legends, Jaguar, etc., and the top 3 is Beanstalk, which has retail sales of about 10.1 billion US dollars, and its representative customers include Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty, etc.), Microsoft, Ubisoft, U.S. Army, etc. The TOP4-TOP10 are LMCA, Brand Cental, Global Icons, WildBrain CPLG, CLC, Brandgenuity, and The Joester Loria Group. These ten companies are basically at the top 10 of the list every year, but the rankings of some companies have fluctuated.
The TOP11 on the list is Aliyu, an authorized agent in China. Last year, Aliyu entered the list and ranked 25th, and this year it soared 14 places to 11th place, with retail sales of $2.75 billion ($430 million the previous year).
As a leading brand in the licensing industry, Aliyu is one of the key enterprises of Leibao, and Leibao continues to follow up and report on Aliyu's movements. In a recent exclusive interview, Jiang Xuheng, vice president of Aliyu, told Lei Bao that since its establishment, Aliyu has made many attempts. From 2018 to 2019, Aliyu first established the strategic direction of providing infrastructure services for the whole industry, and then proposed a unique full-link service model of "IP2B2C", which has become a bridge connecting IP, brands and consumers.
Aliyu mentioned that the key bottleneck that restricts the overall development of the industry in today's society is not the "poor information", that is, the IP party and the brand side do not understand each other and cannot find each other, but how to give more support to merchants during and after the cooperation of authorization. This also aligns with the philosophy outlined in License Global's report.
The top 12 on the list are also from China's Guangzhou Yizhou people, who have been selected into the list of the world's top authorized agents for three consecutive years and continue to maintain the 12th place, with annual retail sales of 2.75 billion US dollars in 2023 (retail sales of 1.6 billion US dollars in 2021 and 2.1 billion US dollars in 2022);
How big is the "cake" in the Asia-Pacific region, and what are the key categories in 2023?
According to License Global's research last year, global sales of licensed goods totaled $87.92 billion, and this year this figure increased by $6.01 billion to $93.94 billion.
From the perspective of retail sales data, the top 10 agents have global retail sales of more than 69.6 billion US dollars, and the top 20 have accumulated global retail sales of about 85.24 billion US dollars.
In terms of regional data, North America accounted for the vast majority of the pie, with retail sales of $78.42 billion, a year-on-year increase of more than $7 billion, companies headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region totaled $8.61 billion ($8.61 billion in the report, and $8.3 billion in the pie chart), and Europe (including the United Kingdom) contributed $5.26 billion to global data, while Latin America saw a key increase of more than $383 million to $1.64 billion.
The report also identifies key categories of the licensing industry.
Fashion was the main choice for licensed consumer products by all major players (licensees, licensors and agents) throughout 2022 and 2023, attracting 69% of respondents.
This was followed by food and beverage (51%), toys and games (46%), health and beauty (32%), footwear and accessories (28%), location-based entertainment (26%) and home décor (26%).
Overall, the report's key findings show an increase in the total global retail sales of licensed merchandise, represented by brand licensing agencies, and the report continues to focus on key categories that are critical to shaping the future of brand licensing and expanding the market.