Globally renowned university Cambridge is set for a busy year of licensing programs, with plans unveiled this week by UK agent The Point.1888 and Fitzwilliam Museum Enterprises (FME), the Cambridge subsidiary responsible for licensing.
The Point.1888 says the mission of the University of Cambridge has always been to contribute to society through education, learning and research at the highest international level. Renowned globally for its education and research excellence, there is growing interest among the public in its amazing range of museums, libraries and botanical gardens, which cover art, artifacts, polar exploration, anthropology, zoology, geology and the history of science.
“All of our income goes to support the vital research and activities of our museums and botanic garden,” Len Dunne, CEO of FME Ltd, explains. “We are excited to expand our UK licensing activities program, working with the dynamic team at The Point.1888.”
Since signing with FME in early 2020, The Point.1888 has facilitated successful partnerships for the university with online homewares, wall art, furniture, and accessories platform Fy, with a range of eight prints which launched In September 2020. “To add to this success from last year, the goal for 2021 is to roll out more licensing programmes for the university brand as well as its museum collections and botanic garden,” the company said in a statement. “In order to deliver on this, The Point.1888 is in the final stages of organising a Virtual Summit to be held early summer, for licensees and retailers to get to know the institution, see the key collections and hear all about the forthcoming plans.”
The event will be key for extending the brand into new categories this year, which include Homewares, Garden, High end food gifting, Collaborations, Toys & Games, Apparel and Accessories.
One huge success initiated very promptly in early 2020 by FME Ltd, involved the clever adaptation of works of art from the Fitzwilliam Museum to show what social distancing might look like through the ages. They wowed the nation with a launch of greeting cards, print-on-demand stationery, gin, homewares, apparel and, of course, face masks. This has been a major inspiration for The Point.1888 in planning this year’s licensing ranges.
“The University and its museums normally welcome 7 million visitors each year, which has been negatively affected by COVID,” said Bethan Garton, Commercial Director at The Point.1888. “We were pleased in 2020 to support their important work via licensing to generate much needed income. Our plans for this year will do so much more and we’re delighted to be seeing it all put into action.”