Often traditionally seen as ‘the goody bag department’ or a good way to make downstream revenue, are studios finally waking up to the fact that working with their licensed products team can deliver an important part of adult focused movie marketing campaigns? Long used for kids' films, with Disney leading the way, movie studios seem to be realising how licensed products and promotions can be an integral part of marketing campaigns for adult films as well.
We all remember the phenomenon that was last summer’s Barbie movie marketing campaign, with Margot Robbie sporting interpretations of Barbie’s iconic looks on red carpets and press junkets around the world. The licensed merchandise was also everywhere, the apparel, accessories and, of course, dolls. Not too unexpected given Barbie’s origins in dolls, and decades of licensing the iconic brand with generations, of mainly, girls having grown up with the products.
However this winter has seen the playbook repeated with Wicked. And you can see many similarities to the Barbie campaign. Even the close release of a more grown up traditional male focused film to partner with, 2023 had Barbenheimer - 2024 has Glicked.
Set in the world of Oz, Wicked has a deep heritage to pull from with familiar characters and colourways but nothing compared to Barbie and without the decades of huge product sales and promotions. And yet Wicked is everywhere, you can’t open your phone without seeing it, the huge coverage of the premieres and press junkets and clever content creation for social media.
And the licensed products are also everywhere. In a year of huge franchises ruling the box office, with 17 out of the top 20 global films, being franchise films and huge licensing opportunities with Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Despicable Me 4, Kung Fu Panda 4, Garfield, Moana 2 and Ghostbusters, its the first part of a stage musical that seems to be the one licensees and retailers are betting on.
And retail went early - usually 6 weeks pre-movie release is the watershed for products being released and promoted but Wicked products seem to have been around for much longer, with retailers stealing a march on each other and even discounting before the film’s release. Not out of nervousness but trying to grab share as early as possible, especially from the hardcore fans who want to show their fandom early and dress up to go to the movie theatre.
The Wicked licensing program is immense and spans across categories usually reserved for much more established IPs. The usual suspects are fighting it out - Target, Primark, Tesco, H&M, Claire’s, GAP, Crocs, Build-A-Bear, Hot Topic, Cotton On et al but we’re also talking 400 SKUs at Bloomingdales, alcohol tie ups with Patron & Pernod Ricard, a Starbucks promotion, Cambridge Satchel, own-label food products at Walmart, Shark hair products, LEGO and Fisher Price Little People.
Movie musicals are not usually the big bet in licensing but Universal has done a fantastic job getting so many partners on board, especially multiple partners in the same category such as beauty, toys & games and handbags. But more than just the fantastic revenue, helped by the film’s release so close to Christmas, the additional marketing for the film these partnerships have produced is immense. Across social, retail and influencers, the pink and green is hard to miss. Even the less than positive coverage of the Mattel packaging URL snafu, has meant that there is unlikely many people who aren’t aware of the film. It seems you can’t step into any retailer or pass any shop window without Wicked being incredibly prominent.
Gone then hopefully are the days of internal licensing teams having to try and explain to their theatrical marketing teams the value of licensed products and their presence at retail. How a pallet of products in Target or Walmart is as valuable if not more so, than a billboard or digital ad placement. It will be interesting to see how this will be replicated next November for Wicked part 2.
The ball is now in the court of licensees and studio licensing teams to keep producing great products that will not only be able to be showcased at product junkets, but to delight existing and new fans across a wide range of retailers so that the theatrical marketing teams see them as great additional avenues to get bums on seats for opening weekend, rather than just things to put in goody bags for journalists. And what 2025 films do we think could look to do the same? Superman Legacy I’m looking at you …
What do you think? Are you ‘holding space’ for Defying Gravity? Will it be this year’s ‘Let it Go’? And have you been impressed by Wicked’s licensing program and retail presence or do you think it's overkill for a film that is only the 63rd biggest ever opening weekend in the US? And only just beat out Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to be the 3rd biggest US opening weekend of 2024?
Will the Wicked products fly off the shelves like monkeys or will there be a lot of pink and green left on the shelves come the January sales? Join the conversation on LinkedIn.