BLE – silver anniversary, gold star… it’s the Friday Weblog!Toy World Journal

Gentle exhaustion – tick. Step rely by the roof – tick. A voice that may make Tom Waits sound like Aled Jones – tick. Yep, it’s been one other hectic commerce truthful week, as I’ve spent the previous few days down at Excel attending the twenty fifth anniversary BLE present. Thoughts you, not less than I wasn’t battling jet lag as properly, as quite a few folks from the toy neighborhood who arrived again from LA over the weekend had been bravely doing (some extra efficiently than others, it must be mentioned).

Certainly, a number of toy suppliers and retailers had been nonetheless out in LA this week, so sadly missed the occasion – though to be truthful, you wouldn’t have observed, as BLE was completely heaving, particularly on the primary day. Even the final day of the present (yesterday) was respectable – a lot in order that by lunchtime yesterday, the present had achieved its highest-ever attendance in its 25-year historical past. Retail attendance was “off the chart” in line with present organiser Anna Knight, and she or he and her staff ought to be very happy with what they delivered this week. Gold stars all spherical.

Numbers apart, the temper at BLE was additionally arguably essentially the most buoyant because the pandemic. Even final 12 months, there was nonetheless some residual warning, significantly from among the large studios, with cinema attendance persevering with to lag behind pre-Covid days and the entire streaming debate leaving plenty of licensing folks feeling just a little nervous. Don’t get me mistaken, there’s nonetheless speak of ‘right-sizing’ some licensing operations and there proceed to be casualties on all sides of the licensing neighborhood. However on the entire, the conferences that the Toy World / Licensing.biz staff had this week felt much more constructive and optimistic. It was extra a case of ‘okay proper, what can we do’ than the prevarication and obfuscation we’ve typically come up towards in recent times. Licensors steered that licensees and retailers had been equally forward- wanting and open-minded, wanting to debate how partnerships and alternatives might be developed. I sense there’s extra of a ‘can do’ mentality creeping again into licensing, and that may solely be a great factor – it’s at all times been a channel identified for its relentless optimism and positivity, and it’s good to see the boldness returning.

To have a good time the present’s silver anniversary, there was a party on the primary night time at which “OG’s” who had been attending because the inaugural present in 1999 had been invited to participate in a gaggle photograph to mark the event. There had been some confusion over the phrase “OG” when the decision was posted on-line – some thought it stood for “Previous Gits” relatively than “Authentic Gangstas.” However, all of us confirmed up – the photograph is on the backside of this weblog.

Individuals typically ask me on the present if I’ve seen something new, and the reply is invariably ‘no’ – however that’s precisely accurately. If I’m fully unaware of one thing, chances are high that both a licensing firm will not be doing its job correctly or I’m not. What BLE does offer you is an efficient sense of the properties that licensors are prioritizing, and the place their efforts and focus are going to be positioned subsequent 12 months. You hear from licensees and retailers which licences are working properly, and which haven’t actually taken off or are beginning to wane. All in all, you get extra info and perspective to assist form your pondering for the approaching 12 months(s) – and that must be value a day or two of anybody’s time who’s severe about licensing.

Subsequent 12 months’s present returns to what most what take into account BLE’s extra conventional time slot – the early a part of October (Seventh-Ninth). In truth, the present will solely happen in September as soon as within the subsequent decade in line with Anna. It is a aid on a lot of ranges; for the toy neighborhood, it avoids a conflict with the LA journey, particularly as no-one fairly is aware of which weeks it’ll fall into from one 12 months to the following. On a purely private and egocentric degree, will probably be infinitely simpler to work on our BLE ’25 preview concern all through September than it was to drag all of it collectively in August this 12 months. Just about everybody’s a winner…

In fact, the entire conversations at BLE are about 2025 – and even 2026/7/8 in some circumstances. That helps with the sensation of optimism, as everybody naturally seems to be to the longer term anticipating a brighter day. However earlier than we get there, there’s this 12 months’s essential run by to Christmas to navigate first. To qualify for subsequent 12 months’s race, you’ve acquired to complete this 12 months’s in a single piece. And as we already know, not everybody will do this…

However let’s look on the brilliant aspect. The climate is popping grim (I’m off to hold on engaged on my ark constructing abilities after I end scripting this), so that can make shoppers really feel extra ‘Christmassy’. Amazon has paid its company tax for the primary time in 4 years: the group’s UK Companies arm paid £18.7m in “present tax” final 12 months on gross sales of £27bn after the tax break introduced in by Rishi Sunak ended. And not less than most of us don’t work at Harrods – I wager they might have one thing to say to anybody who believes that ‘any publicity is nice publicity’ proper now.

Earlier than I am going, there have been a number of snippets of gossip to deliver you from BLE. GP Aptitude apparently has a brand new UK nation supervisor – Edward Catchpole, who will likely be acquainted to many within the licensing neighborhood from his days at Disney amongst others. He’s been away from the toy and licensing area for a number of years, however he’s returned – as so many toy and licensing folks typically do. There’s one other large story involving an acquisition that hasn’t fairly acquired over the road in time to make at this time’s Weblog – however keep watch over your inboxes for potential Breaking Information later at this time (offering all goes to plan).

By no means a uninteresting second? You wager.