front page news

The Page 3 Calendar is on the front page of today's newspaper and covered all over the www.thesun.co.uk

new page3idol game ready to launch

Double G have now signed the license to develop a Page 3 game based on the legendary Page 3 idol competition.

launch of page 3 diamonds

Here's Danni and Nikkala modelling the range...

listen again and again

the piece on brand licensing starts about 15 minutes in.

you and yours

Check out you and yours at 12.15 tomorrow for a live broadcast about brand licensing.

300 members in 3 months

Our linked in group now has 300 members which is not bad since it only launched 3 months ago!

Go pickles!

Harry Ramsden's pickles outperforming average pickle sales in Tesco

Brand licensing on Linkedin

Our brand licensing group on linked in has now passed 200 members, with approximately 10 joining every day. Click on the logo to join

Page 3 Jewellery

Golden Goose have now secured a deal for manufacturer UJT to produce a range of Page 3 jewellery which will be distributed throughout the UK in Harvey & Thomson.

licensing curses

number 1: the curse of the new buyer

And here comes September

And yes, as predicted, people are coming back from holiday, people are going away, this could last until the end of the month.

meanwhile, analogy for slowness number 3246: working in licensing is like steering a glacier

French holidays and the Prisoner's dilemma

I was talking to my brother about the French and their unanimous August summer holiday and he said it reminded him of The Prisoner's dilemma:

Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies ("defects") for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?

The classical prisoner's dilemma can be summarized thus:
Both stay silent: Each serves 6 months
Prisoner B Betrays: Prisoner A gets 10 years and Prisoner B goes free
Prisoner A Betrays: Prisoner A goes free and Prisoner B get 10 years
Both betray: Each serves 5 years

The parallel with the summer holiday is this: if we all go away for August, nobody missed anything, nothing really happens, we all have a lovely holiday.

Some of us go away for August and some of us stay behind: some of us have a lovely holiday but worry about missing work, and some of us find work impossible because nobody's around.

None of us go away for August: we all get to carry on working efficiently.

On this basis, i think i prefer the French style vacations in option 1

Brand licensing on Linkedin

There are now 67 members of the brandlicensing group on Linked In. That may not sound like a lot but it's quite exciting for such a niche sector.

If you'd like to join, click on the link: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/73938/3C4DD7708EBB

spy club agenda

These are the headings from my 7 year old son's spy meeting agenda:

spy meeting:

urgent meeting
secret agent club
morning spy club
replace captains
mission (double)
people*
problems of spys
spy on
secret spys
bosses
computer spy information
players
secret players
members
secret nightclub
secret agent
real spy information

just how many layers of reality does a 7 year old work on?

waiting...

Patience is a virtue but it never got anything done!

a dystopian reality (2)

It occurred to me when I was in Boots. There were automated check outs beeping out in their androgynous, metallic proto-feminine voice and the subjugated masses apologetically scrabbled about with buttons, coins, bags, products and scanners. The following question came in to my head: "Did the IT specialists who invested in these new super-efficient tills, even remotely consider the possibility that investing the same money in humans might yield better results?"

Later in the day, a colleague expressed his concern about understanding the street signs in Tokyo (he's off for 3 weeks the lucky &$^%$) and one bright technofile in the office piped up "wouldn't it be great if you could just send a picture of street signs via your mobile phone and you automatically got a translation?"

On hearing this I went into rant mode. Something along the lines of: "Why do people automatically think that technology is the solution to every question? Wouldn't it be more satisfying to learn a little Japanese rather than create a technological solution that probably won't work? Why do all problems only seem to have a technological solution? Yada yada yada "

My frustration is that, rather like a chemical high, any investment in technology only ever achieves a short-term improvement in service and then disappoints as the initial buzz of an upgrade is superseded by the drudgery of constantly necessary updates, tweaks, refinements, and additional investment that is never budgeted for in the first round of finance.

Nevertheless, the yearn for the buzz achieved by technological advantage (which stems perhaps from an evolutionary adrenaline rush when we realise that we have better munitia than our enemies) is never satisfied. Humans are complicated, we yearn for personal attention which makes us incredibly likely to find ways to break technology, or to work outside it. In addition, technology manufacturers need to make a profit so they make best-fit, off-the-peg products that don't actually fit anyone.

Perhaps in the early days of the technological revolution, change was what we needed to move away from the blunt force, unskilled, soul destroying labour we had created. The challenge now though seems to be to apply the usability, and service led mentality of a programmer, but to incorporate a role for humanity to play into the business plan.

To finish where I started, why couldn't Boots invest in a system that lets people scan as you go around the store? Perhaps that way you could call a sales assistant to advise you and he could scan your goods and take payment, like a restaurant? That would be an upgrade for humans as well as machines...

a dystopian reality

Films like the Matrix and Terminator depict a dystopian future where technology dominates humanity with its superior processing power. The Terminator is a robot that can instantly learn how to drive any vehicle, use any weapon or recognise any face. This daunting feat lurks in the imagination of some techno-geek and is far from reality.

The real dystopia of technology is that it never fully delivers on its promise. Like the Terminator, it will always be something we imagine working. The reality is that technology raises up our hopes promising solutions and advancement and then dashes them with crashes and complexity making us feel vulnerable and dependent.

outsource?

One company i work with has just outsourced its outsourcing department... heaven help them

intro to latest article...

So you’re sitting in your office looking at the jars of product in the exhibition display cabinet. You know you’ve got a great brand with huge awareness and masses of customer affection. You’ve probably got a 50 year history of advertising and in your reception area is a specially sleeved copy of The Superbrands Book from 1994. Suddenly, after hours of scratching your head about ways to generate revenue and build customer awareness, in a blinding moment of inspiration, you stand up at your desk and, as if the light has suddenly dawned on you shout ‘Eureka! Licensing’ startling your embattled P.A. But before you can spread the word across the whole of your organisation, think carefully. What steps should you take to embark on the road to licensing enlightenment? When should you present your ideas to the board? Why might it be a good idea to retire at this point in your illustrious career? How come this part of the introduction has more questions than answers? Don’t worry dear reader, this road is well trodden and all will become clear.

more to come in the next edition of the Brand Licensing Source Book

interesting fact number 3256

In 1800 there were 6 million people living in England. Now there are 58 million. No wonder we all work in virtual space these days.

a new sport?

How long before carrying the olympic torch past rioting protesters becomes an Olympic sport...

from facebook to linkedin

Just as fluctuating shares in one company affect the entire industry sector, so it is with the internet. The success of Facebook now looks like a shooting star compared to the slow steady burn of linkedin. Whilst Facebook was for fun ,and advertising driven; linkedin is for business and charges for heavy use.

The main benefit of Facebook's success for linkedin is the proof of attractiveness of social networks, and the increase of users who have broken through the fear of trust barrier. I can see a future where email's blocked unless it comes from a trusted source (just like phonecalls are now) and linkedin provides a viable form of spam police. Where you are available to people because someone you trust introduces you.

Apparently Bill Gates has deleted his Facebook entry and joined Linkedin, what else do you need to know...

Top 10 ways to make a licensing deal go with a zing

1) Get everyone behind the licensing strategy - from the top to the bottom
2) Give the product an enormous PR and marketing launch
3) Support the product all the way into retail
4) Feature the product on all branded marketing
5) make the product look the same as the branded product
6) make sure the legals don't get in the way of renewals
7) incentivize success, don't punish it
8) celebrate success
9) be generous, not mean spirited
10) deliver on the brand promise

how to screw up a licensing deal?

Top 10 Surefire ways to screw up a licensing deal:

1) heavy handed lawyers
2) poor chemistry
3) failure to have a strategy approved at the highest level
4) someone leaves the company
5) noone asked a retailer if they'd stock the product
6) someone gets ill
7) the company is sold
8) the brand goes into melt down
9) too many agents closing on the deal
10) slow approval process

anyone got any others?

the downside of risk / reward fee structures

The worst thing about earning a share of a deal that may or may not happen is when, at the cusp of signature, something goes wrong. In the case of two deals that have recently floundered, one fell apart when the other side's negotiator was put on 9 month's gardening leave, and the other has given up the ghost after the other side fell tragically ill.

As the man in the middle there's no greater feeling of powerlessness than watching one half of the puzzle dissolve into mush. From now on I resolve to only work with healthy people who can never be fired!

From hall 5 to hall 20 and back again

Yes, it's www.Springfair.com, where the world unites under one roof to celebrate another year of ranging and stock updating. The paradox is that we crave both variety and stability, which means that buyers have to look for something that is both recognisable and new.

Best part of Spring Fair: seeing mass innovation both good and bad

Worst part of Spring Fair: definitely the awful (and creepy) life-size, robot singing Santa Claus's - i have to tiptoe past them... brrrrrrr

If you're there on Monday and Tuesday then we probably have an appointment already!

fun with lawyers

Why do lawyers spend months sitting on a contract and then send it back with enough red ink for it to virtually unrecognisable. Do they honestly think this is conducive to reaching an agreement?

product of the year

Definitely one of the most succesful licensing programmes around is Product of the Year. This global organisation is instantly recognisable for its ability to generate cash out of brandowners' desires to win awards. At a ceremony that resembles the Oscars (think Air Freshener instead of Brad Pitt), P&G, Unilever, SC Johnson, Nestle and L'Oreal divide up the rights to use the red quadrangle on their products for another 12 months - paying a hefty £75k for the privilege.

This is textbook marketing judo as these branding collosi are thrown by a flyweight with leverage.

how much is your bottleneck?

A bottleneck in the wrong place can be lethal. If an artery clogs the heart can stop working and you die. So too in organisations - how much work is not even attempted because of the slow progress of existing projects. Inefficiency will kill opportunity every time mainly because, as humans, we lose interest if we're ignored.

With licensing, as with any project that requires continuous buy-in, it's all about striking while the iron is hot (or in most cases, luke warm). If the flow of deals is constrained by legal and administrative chin stroking, then there are deals that will either go stagnant or not be attempted purely because the box-tickers pens move slowly.

Many companies use administrative stagnation as a failsafe, protecting the company from bad ideas by creating obstacles so that only really persistent ideas survive. This creates a protectionist state where the idea-killers rule and the frustrated persistent entrepreneur moves on to the next project.

Effective management is about supporting the taking of calculated risks, not maintaining the status quo.

NPD and Viagra!

Never throw away R&D, even if it flops. “Remember, Viagra was a cardiac drug that failed,” notes Julie Hennessy, clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. “But for some reason, people didn’t want to return their samples.”

let's get one thing straight

Well, 2008 certainly opens up a whole new set of rhyming opportunities.... great, straight, fate, mate... but mostly the year opens with a refreshing sense of foreboding rather than the usual optimism. With an American credit crunch, threatening to wipe millions of dollars off anything that moves, there's a sense that the current economic climate is distinctly stormy. What a great name though, the credit crunch... a fabulously doom-laden moniker.

In tough times, brands tend to polarise around either mass or luxury, which is going to make things difficult for products clinging to the magnetic middle and offering 'massclusivity.' More, no doubt much more, on this in the weeks to come