Musings from Dennis #259. Sometimes in franchise management and brand building, opportunities come along and one has to be ‘quick footed’ to seize upon them. Because if executed well the initiative can form the basis for revenue generation across the region for the longer term. Case in point was how our Asian ‘Emily in Paris’ licensing got off the ground towards the end of 2021 and well into 2022 and years after. Ivan Wong signed this fabulous online store deal that was predicated upon our marketing support and contribution towards its e-commerce site setup as a support to the licensee’s business, or no deal. As a practice I would usually say no to such asks because it really is just one licensee’s effort but given the larger than usual SKU development (120+ items from wine to mobile accessories) planned for a simultaneous launch across multiple categories and markets, the fact that the young ladies’ demo was an under-developed segment for us at that time, and this deal could possibly be the genesis for the rest of our licensing efforts across Asia. I thought to myself, hey we need a best marketing and brand best practice to showcase to potential partners and drive the franchise, and this seemed like a golden moment for us. So we went ahead with the site support, and deal. Ivan was thrilled with the support (and I was very impressed that he could get this deal done). Timed to the show’s 2nd season premiere at the end of 2021, the site went live for fans across 10+ territories in Asia to shop their favourite Emily in Paris merch – and offered a new way for audiences to connect with this new CP brand in the market. The effort made an impact sizeable enough for other Asian markets to be impressed and awed by the EIP licensing opportunity that soon licenses in Indonesia, Philippines, India etc followed suite and created their own lines celebrating the indomitable spirit of this marketing executive in the City of Love. Ultimately and surprisingly for us, we were later informed that Asia led the way in terms of CP licensing revenue for EIP globally! How’s that for a best practice to emulate?
