In the days of social media influencers, a top ‘property’ like YouTube star Charlotte M can be just as big a deal in the licensing industry as a corporate or entertainment brand … even at the young age of 13-years-old!
Just ask Maurizio Distefano Licensing (MDL), which has been appointed as worldwide licensing agent for Charlotte M., a young YouTuber who at 13 is already a social media star with more than 800,000 subscribers on YouTube, a TikTok following of close to the same number, and 100,000 followers on Instagram.
Charlotte M. is especially popular among teenage girls, who love the humor and spontaneity with which she talks about her life and the topics that affect her life—and, of course, their lives: first crushes, friendship, arguments, going to school and how she fills her free time.
The Charlotte M. story began when she asked her mother to record her pretending to transform herself into a mermaid with a magic potion. YouTube viewers took notice, her videos became more polished and professional, and her audience grew. She even recorded her own song. Called I Love You, which has more than six million views on YouTube and is also available on Spotify. She has already planned the release of her next song for this summer.
Charlotte M.’s popularity has inspired Fabbri Editori to publish a series of novels, the first two of which —Charlotte M. Un’estate al College Infestato (Summer in the Haunted College) and Charlotte M. Un Amore Oltreoceano (An Overseas Love)—are now available in bookstores and on mondadoristore.it. Un’estate al College Infestato has also been adapted for a movie that will be shot this summer. Charlotte M. is now working on her third book.
“MDL sees many opportunities in a wide range of categories for its Charlotte M. licensing campaign,” said Maurizio Distefano, President of the global agency. “Working with Charlotte M. allows us to build a licensing campaign that reflects the web star’s world, a world known and loved by the digitally savvy teenagers who assiduously follow top influencers and who make up the target audience for licensed Charlotte M. merchandise. We’re looking at a number of different product categories, for all of which we believe we can create projects with high impact and excellent sales prospects.”
This move into social media influencers is fairly new for the licensing industry, but is one being embraced even by the largest agencies as social media influencers prove their ability to both create and promote various brands.
MDL is a global agency that works with major brands, including animation brands like Masha and the Bear, Bing, CoComelon, and Blippi;fashion brands likePREMOLI+DI BELLA, Filippo Laterza and Stefano Cavalleri; major music stars like Motorhead, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and The Police; and corporate or entertainment brands like Hell’s Kitchen, Baileys, Guinness, and LIFE.
But MDL also sees the massive growth in the reach of social media influencers like Charlotte M., with whom the agency is making a global play for licensing deals.