By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
The brand licensing agency The Point.1888 was founded in 2014, just one decade ago, but there’s a good argument to be made that it has the longest history in the entire industry.
In fact, the numerals ‘1888’ refer to that history, as the original company was founded that year in the outskirts of London.
“My great great grandfather Joseph Miller started his company in October, 1888 in Borough, London,” explains The Point.1888 CEO Will Stewart. “There was a jam factory over the road where all the workers were having to use sacks to cover their suits when unpacking the fruit. You always wore a suit in those days even if you worked in a factory. He decided he could make aprons for them, so went over the road and spoke to the owner. They shook hands and off he went to make the aprons.”
After Miller helped his neighbors out of a jam, so to speak, Miller’s business continued to grow over the decades, and eventually it began working with the film industry.
Will Stewart later founded The Point.1888 based on the business principles of his great great grandfather Joseph Miller.
“The business evolved hugely over the following 130 years but always stayed close to the protective clothing and footwear market, with manufacturing facilities in Borough until the 1980s,” Stewart says. “They supplied the Ministry of Defence, numerous movie studios and most famously made the gauntlet worn in the first Robocop movies.”
While the family company wasn’t involved in licensing, the people running it had acquired a vast amount of experience in branding, marketing, and getting products to retail. That experience was a great boon to Stewart when he founded The Point.1888, a move so successful that it led to a consolidation of the family business.
“The Point.1888 was named in honor of the heritage and family values that existed then,” Stewart explains. “I founded my business in 2014 as a retail-focused brand extension agency, and then in 2018, on the 130th anniversary, we decided to merge the businesses and focus further on the strategic and consultancy part of the industry to better inform the brand extension programs we were running.
“Today we deliver strategy and advisory work for new IP owners looking to enter the brand licensing industry, but we also use our wisdom, knowledge, experience and perspective to build long term, sustainable revenue streams for our represented clients.”
As one gets to know Will Stewart, one learns he is a firm believer that everyone should do what they’re best at, which is also very often what they love doing the most.
So The Point.1888 has charted a very different course than other brand licensing agencies, in order to provide a broader range of important services to their clients.
The entire operation operates under a parent company called True Purpose Enterprises. The company says that True Purpose is “passionate about businesses being a force for good, through humans starting and growing true purpose-driven businesses, and using purpose as a central mission to disrupt big industries.”
Beneath the parent there is the original licensing agency The Point.1888, but there are also three other companies, each specializing in its own area.
“We have always been very adaptable, and the new businesses were all driven by the needs of the consumer and the clients,” Stewart says. “The world is a strange place and there’s nothing more front end of marketing than brand extension. We build strong relationships with our clients, we have an outstanding reputation and we are noisy on LinkedIn, so we have constantly been asked to provide additional services over the years.”
The different divisions or companies include a retail consultancy called Spotlight.1888, which was founded in 2022; Story.1888, a creative marketing agency; and Eighty Ate, a brand licensing agency that focuses specifically on the food and beverage sector, and which was just founded in 2023.
“Story.1888 is our creative marketing agency, and it came about because we were always asked if we could help with Style Guides, assets, social media marketing, launch plans, campaigns and beyond,” Stewart says. “I have always followed the Richard Branson principal that, if you are asked if you can do something in business, then always say yes and work out how to do it later. I always said yes!!!
“Story.1888 has been a huge rollercoaster, running a huge campaign for Tourettes Action, to partnering the much loved M&S Percy Pig sweet with Nails Inc.”
“Our licensing division (The Point.1888 and Eighty Ate) remains our core offering and biggest division, but it is driven by retail demand delivered by our retail consultancy (Spotlight.1888),” Stewart explains. “We were constantly being asked by retailers to help them understand the licensing market better and also were approached by IP owners and inventors who wanted us to help them get listings at major retailers.
“So, we formalized Spotlight.1888 as a retail consultancy in 2022. Launching at BLE post-COVID was huge, and it has grown to be such an impressive business in its own right. Hannah Redler (co-founder of Spotlight.1888) and I have been so proud to see this new business flourish.”
Story.1888 also plays a central role in the company’s overall methodology, as Stewart says many new products fail for a lack of consumer awareness, so he decided to “make his own noise.”
“Creating and crafting a single brand licensing agreement is incredibly difficult, it takes a huge amount of time and has thousands of other challenges along the way,” he points out. “Once something is actually launching, it always amazed me how little noise was made about this quite incredible, sometimes up to 18-month journey, so we decided to make our own noise.
“This is how Story unfolded and its journey has been so far reaching since then. Getting any marketing budget for anything out of anyone these days is very difficult. That’s because the market is tough and marketing budgets are so easy to cut first, but beware of not being noisy. It catches up with us all.
“When you go on the Tube in London, look at the brands that are consistently advertising on there — Coca Cola, British Airways, Jack Daniels —you’d think they wouldn’t need to advertise but they always do.”
Stewart says each of the companies has its own specialty, but they also work together in a synergistic manner, in the best interests of the client.
“The businesses perfectly complement each other and fit neatly together as our unique methodology,” he explains. “Strategically Informed – True Purpose – Retail Focused – Brand Extension. We are officially launching our new methodology at BLE this year.”
While the methodology may be new, the principles behind it go back to the company formed by his great great grandfather more than a century ago, which is the need to meet retail demand. Often, Stewart says, companies create a product for which there is no demonstrated retail demand, but like his ancestor, Stewart says customer demand