HIPPO BLUE

Hippo Blue (the Licensee) called on us to help them enter the licensing space. They had never licensed an entertainment property before and felt that they needed an expert team to navigate them through the process.

The first thing we did was focus on understanding the Licensee’s customer base and objectives. We familiarized ourselves with their products and where they were being sold.

We spent time with the Licensee to build a strong understanding of their customer base, target audience and overall vision for licensing. This allowed us to develop a shortlist of suitable licenses to consider, and the preferred route was a portfolio deal with Disney.

Once we had established the ideal licenses to explore, we prepared a pitch which detailed all of the information a Licensor typically looks for when considering a proposal. We personally presented this to the Licensors on a call and answered any questions they had about the proposal, before starting negotiations around the commercial terms of the license.

We managed the License Agreement process to ensure all parties were on the same page before signing. This included reviewing the contract and helping the Licensee understand some standard licensing terms that they were unfamiliar with.

Once the license was signed we were able to access style guides and assets. We reviewed all of the available material and took the Licensee through the breadth of possibilities. We worked with the Licensor to best understand which assets would be most suitable for the Licensee’s product. The range includes many Disney characters and the SKUs list was extensive, so our Head of Product Development made sure all submissions were made in a timely manner to follow the tight production schedule.

All materials had to be submitted at various stages of development. We managed this diligently on behalf of the Licensee, submitting material to the Licensor’s preferred approvals platform. Anything that we thought wouldn’t get approved was amended before being submitted, allowing for a more efficient process.

The product launched on the Licensee’s website and social channels. We aligned with the Licensor and Licensee marketing and social teams to ensure the launch was maximised across all channels. We also organised a press release that was circulated amongst the licensing press, which was covered by a variety of industry publications.

We continue to manage reporting obligations such as quarterly royalties reports.

We pride ourselves on providing the best level of service possible, and that means supporting the Licensee with anything that comes up throughout the licensing process.