How to build brand licensing strategies using case studies from product categories such as toys and games, fashion, location-based entertainment (LBE), giftware and food from brand owners such as Disney, McDonald’s and LEGO.
Manufacturers and brand owners, known as Licensors, use brand licensing as a way of marketing and enhancing their core intellectual property (IP). Licensing allows an IP to extend a brand and to create new revenue streams by reaching a wider pool of consumers in adjacent product categories. A brand might want to diversify its portfolio or develop brands into new categories but might lack the necessary resource or expertise to do so – that’s where brand licensing can help.
License Global’s “What is Brand Licensing?” page goes into more detail about brand licensing strategies and why it is an important brand strategy and explains some of the key brand licensing terms.
"Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures" Plush set, Disney/Mattel
Brand Licensing Companies
License Global’s Top Global Licensors report showcases the most-powerful brand licensing programs at retail, ranking the performance of brands’ licensed consumer products, while highlighting the key strategies, collaborations and extensions they leveraged to achieve positive growth.
The top 10 brand licensing companies of 2023 are:
The Walt Disney Company
Dotdash Meredith
Authentic Brands Group
Warner Bros. Discovery
The Pokémon International Company
Hasbro
NBCUniversal/Universal Products & Experiences
Mattel
Bluestar Alliance
WHP Global
Brand Licensing Examples
So, what makes a successful brand licensing partnership? Here are some recent brand licensing examples that have stood the test of time.
Toy Brand Licensing Examples
Statistics from The Global Toy Report, published by License Global, highlight the strength of the global toy market, which closed 2021 with sales of $104.2 billion, an increase of 8.5% over 2020 and 12.7% over 2019 – making 2021 the best market performance in 10 years. In 2022, the U.S. toy market in particular saw increased sales revenue, closing Q3 with a 4% increase ($201 million). Stats taken from NPD.
The Walt Disney Company Case Study
The Walt Disney Company is the world’s largest licensor and sits at the top of Licenses Global’s Top Global Licensors report. Disney Consumer Products, Games and Publishing licenses its brands to companies with complementary manufacturing capability, including Hasbro, Mattel, the LEGO Group and Funko for products or services across multiple categories.
Disney partnered with LEGO on a series of products to commemorate its 100th anniversary, featuring sets and figures from movies such as “Up,” “Moana,” “Peter Pan” and “Toy Story,” as well as announcing a list of licensees that it will be working with for the “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” movie.
LEGO Disney “Up” House, LEGO
McDonald’s Happy Meal Case Study
McDonald’s has included branded toys within its Happy Meal, often to coincide with a big movie release, since the first collaboration with “Star Trek” in 1979. Since then, McDonald’s has become one of the hottest ways to gain access to new audiences and is leveraged for promotions by companies including Disney, Warner Bros., Mattel, Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, Nickelodeon and SEGA.
It’s not just movie releases that prompt a promotion with McDonald’s, they can be themed around anniversaries too, most recently for Christmas 2022 when The Lumistella Company, Rocket Licensing and McDonald’s announced the launch of the first The Elf on the Shelf Happy Meal – with branded packaging, including a choice of one of 10 North Pole plush characters.