by ANNA KNIGHT, senior vice chairman of licensing, World Licensing Group
Many dad and mom need to share the traditions of their youth with their youngsters. Whether or not they have favourite bedtime tales, video games, or characters, dad and mom need their youngsters to really feel the identical pleasure and happiness enjoying and utilizing their imaginations they felt once they had been younger.
The Lumistella Co., the artistic group that introduced simply recognizable manufacturers like The Elf on the Shelf to the world, is returning to Licensing Expo in individual this 12 months with a portfolio of identified and cherished in addition to brand-new IP, all prepared for licensing. Not solely will The Lumistella Co. be out there with their very own location-based leisure experiences, but additionally they’re desperate to share how they proceed innovating in a quickly altering panorama.
I lately had the pleasure of sitting down with Christa Pitts, co-CEO of The Lumistella Co., who has been attending Licensing Expo for greater than ten years. Right here, Christa breaks down how licensing and attending Licensing Expo have helped the group keep forward of the curve in relation to innovating, branding, making connections, and increasing on new concepts.
The Lumistella Co. can be exhibiting at Licensing Expo from Could 24-26 on the Mandalay Bay Conference Heart in Las Vegas. Licensing Expo supplies one of the best alternative to safe the rights to 1000’s of shopper manufacturers, leisure icons, and extra for merchandise or shops. Click on right here to register for Licensing Expo without spending a dime.
Anna Knight: How do you employ Licensing to proceed to innovate?
Christa Pitts: As an organization, our function is to create joyful household moments. We search licensing companions who share that focus and assist convey our North Pole universe to life. Whether or not by location-based experiences, like The Elf on the Shelf’s Magical Vacation Journey, merchandise corresponding to our Kellogg’s cereals the place households can get pleasure from a welcome-back breakfast with their Scout Elf, or leisure like our partnership with Netflix, we search companions that may improve customers’ experiences with our manufacturers. We’re excited to proceed innovating new tales and discovering participating methods for followers to find the enchanted world that exists past The Elf on the Shelf.
AK: What tendencies are coming down the pipeline?
CP: Prospects anticipate omni touchpoint engagement with their favourite manufacturers. So, every thing from shopper merchandise to narrative experiences that invite repeated interplay will proceed to drive this enterprise. As well as, digital experiences proceed to emerge as alternatives to work together with our customers in new methods. The Lumistella Co. invests in participatory experiences like Roblox to convey the buyer into our world and turn into lively gamers in our story universe. Our manufacturers are all about connection to 1 one other, the beliefs of goodwill and good cheer, and the characters that exemplify these traits. Whereas we create enduring traditions, our manufacturers will proceed incorporating of-the-moment tendencies that reach and elevate connections with our characters.
AK: What drew you to return to Licensing Expo?
CP: It’s the place the enterprise of licensing will get achieved! The Lumistella Co. first exhibited at Licensing Expo greater than a decade in the past in 2010, and we’ve returned every year since. We stay up for assembly with present and potential companions from across the globe to debate trade tendencies and discover potential activations and licensing alternatives. The Expo has at all times offered a welcoming venue for us to foster robust relationships and develop partnerships. Lastly, our firm has grown fairly a bit for the reason that final Expo was held. As an illustration, we’ve rebranded to The Lumistella Co. and are excited to share all that has transpired over the previous a number of years.
AK: What excites you about participating together with your neighborhood in individual at Licensing Expo this 12 months?
CP: Private Connection. Licensing Expo indicators an emergence from the pandemic and a return to extra regular interactions from enterprise and private views. Having an opportunity to see our companions, buddies, and friends and conduct enterprise face-to-face once more is a present. Plus, as The Lumistella Co. continues to evolve from an organization primarily centered on shopper merchandise to a home of world manufacturers which encompasses experiences and occasions, the Expo is a key alternative to determine partnerships that additional our imaginative and prescient, mission, values, and function.
AK: What challenges have you ever confronted within the absence of in-person exhibitions, and what do you hope to attain at Licensing Expo?
CP: Initially, at Licensing Expo 2020, we had deliberate to announce our company rebrand from CCA and B, LLC to The Lumistella Co., a reputation that extra precisely displays the enchanted universe our world represents. The pandemic had different plans for us, although, and as soon as issues began shutting down, we would have liked to revisit our technique. Luckily, we might nonetheless pivot and elevate our new company model globally, however not in the identical method we had deliberate.
By way of what we hope to attain, we’re excited to share who the corporate is now versus who we had been in 2020. Now we have launched our characters to Roblox gamers with The Elf on the Shelf Official Snowball Battle recreation, inked a partnership with Netflix as a real studio dwelling for our content material, each within the originals and licensed area, grown our model attain into six extra worldwide markets, and in the end, proven how we’re poised for long-term progress throughout a number of verticals.
Register for Licensing Expo right here to schedule a gathering with The Lumistella Co. and uncover their suite of licensable IPs.
