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We’ve broken down the stats to bring you the top 40 companies as ranked by the most-searched-for by licensing executives through TLL’s Licensing Sourcebook Online (LSO). See the complete list below.
Roughly 43% of the list are licensors, 70% are licensees, and 8% are retailers (several companies have more than one role).
A full one-quarter (25%) of companies on the list are toycos, 20% are apparel brands/manufacturers (all have at least some sportswear/athleisure offerings), 18% are larger entertainment/film studios, 13% are print publishers, and 10% are video game companies. Surprisingly, two of the top 15 companies are primarily footwear manufacturers—Vans (No. 5) and Converse (No. 14), which have a strong pop culture pull.
Just three retailers made the top 40 list, in part because of their prolific profile in licensing overall:
- Uniqlo (No. 18; the company is known for licensing in brands for t-shirts and fashion collabs),
- Target (No. 28; a buyer that also partners with brands on a variety on goods),
- Amazon (No. 38; as well as a thriving ecommerce empire, also owns an entertainment studio).
Note that the list includes searches by company for all time by subscribers to LSO, and that the count has been adjusted to include abbreviated and misspelled searches. The list includes duplicate searched by the same executives who may have searched for a company repeatedly over time (in cases where a contact has changed or moved, for example).
The top-searched for companies so far in 2019 are:
- Electronic Arts
- Spin Master
- Levi Strauss
- Jazwares
- NBCUniversal and Wicked Cool Toys (tied)
Here’s the full list of the top 40 companies, as ranked by the most searched for by licensing executives through LSO for all time:
- NBCUniversal
- Warner Bros.
- Disney
- Nintendo
- Hasbro
- Vans
- Electronic Arts
- Mattel
- Spin Master
- Sony
- Funko
- Penguin Random House
- Nike
- Converse
- Netflix
- 20th Century Fox
- Bioworld
- Uniqlo
- Levi Strauss
- Rubie’s Costume
- Jazwares
- Cloudco (form. American Greetings)
- Hallmark
- Concept 1
- Procter & Gamble
- LEGO
- Adidas
- Target
- Dunkin’ Donuts
- Scholastic
- Hybrid Apparel
- Pokémon
- Jakks Pacific
- Tomy
- Harley Davidson
- McFarlane
- Mad Engine
- Amazon
- Harper Collins
- FAB Starpoint