Instead of simply endorsing or licensing their name and likeness for a product, many of today’s celebrities are putting up their own money seeking to build and own their personal brands. Victoria Beckham, Justin Timberlake (William Rast), gwen stefani (L.A.M.B.), and Jay-Z (Rocawear) are just a few who’ve made the entrepreneurial model work…
Experiental Licensing
Pop Goes 24 Hour Fitness
May 4, 2015
Fitness maven Cassey Ho is the latest digital celebrity to heighten her profile through licensing. 24 Hour Fitness is working with the fitness instructor and YouTube personality to roll out her POP Pilates regimen in its fitness clubs nationally…
Retail
Target’s Pulitzer Problem
May 3, 2015
It seemed a major coup for mass merchant Target to have signed high- end designer Lilly Pulitzer for an exclusive fashion and home line. But it wasn’t all triumph for “Tar-jay” when the 250-piece Lilly Pulitzer collection launched April 19. Within hours (and in some stores, minutes), crazed customers had plucked the shelves clean. Online traffic was so great that…
Fragrance
Smell of Success
April 20, 2015
A pair of world famous celebrities are celebrating 10 years of fruitful fragrance licensing collaborations with the release of special 10th anniversary limited edition products that are both currently available…
Digital Celebs
Grumpy Cat Grows Her Brand
April 20, 2015
Digital celebrity Grumpy Cat continues to ride the cyber wave by making new license agreements with Dynamite Comics, Playrific, and Bay Northwest…
Celebrity
Left Shark Hits Shelves
March 16, 2015
Less than a month after her attorneys put Shapeways’s unlicensed Left Shark figurines out of business, Katy Perry (Bravado Intl. Group Merchandising Services) has launched her own, official products featuring the choreographically clutzy fish that became an instant Internet sensation during the Super Bowl halftime show. There are two official Left Shark offerings…
Celebrity
Who Owns the Left Shark?
March 2, 2015
The loveable, rhythmically challenged “Left Shark” who stole the show during the Katy Perry Super Bowl halftime performance is at the center of a legal battle. Perry claims the dancing (and we use that term loosely) sea creature is her copyrighted intellectual property and sued Shapeways for selling Left Shark figurines without a license…
Furniture & Home Furnishings
Trisha’s Southern Home
March 2, 2015
Country music artist, cookbook author and Food Network star Trisha Yearwood is moving out of the kitchen with her first line of furniture, Trisha Yearwood Home Collection, in partnership with Klaussner Home Furnishings…
SCoReCaRD: STaR WaRS
Celebrities v. Licensees in Court
February 2, 2015
Celebrity licensing deals are like marriages: Some succeed but many end in divorce, recrimination and litigation. Here’s a Scorecard summarizing some high profile cases from recent years…
Digital Celebs
Digital Celebrities: YouTube Stars, Bloggers Enter the Licensing Arena
February 2, 2015
While mass media did, in fact, turn ordinary people into worldwide celebrities as Andy Warhol famously predicted, social media has made it possible for them to sustain celebrity status a lot longer than 15 minutes. Today’s digital celebrities use social media platforms to develop loyal followings in cyberspace. And, inevitably, many of those celebrities are now turning to licensing to cash in on their cyber-fame. Here’s an overview…