I’ve just returned to the office after a very successful BLE event. As I wandered the aisles bumping into people I knew, just about everyone’s opening remark was “it’s busy, isn’t it?” No doubt there will be official confirmation of numbers soon, but the feeling was that attendance was extremely healthy.
The mood was upbeat too. I spoke to a lot of licensors, licensees and retailers, and across the board there was a feeling that licensed products are playing a crucial role in ensuring the toy market finishes this year in a good place. 2026 is set to be another big year for licensing too, and BLE is the perfect place to start or continue the conversations about planning for next year.
Ahead of the show, the organisers had stated their intention to attract more European visitors to the event, and – anecdotally – it felt like they succeeded in their aim. I heard lots of different languages in the aisles and on stands – at times it felt like I was in Nuremberg rather than London!
A big thank you to all of those licensors who found time in their busy schedules to see members of the Toy World / Licensing.biz team – we truly appreciate it. And a particularly big thank you to Hasbro for inviting us to their showcase – it was a very well-delivered presentation, and the resurgence of Peppa Pig has not only created great momentum for the business but has also provided a strong blueprint that it can apply to other brands in its portfolio. It’s good that Hasbro sees us as trusted partners – because that’s how we see ourselves. I’ll never quite understand the licensing companies that talk about the importance of partnership and then bar media from their showcase events – are we not considered partners? If we are, why would we risk derailing the partnership (and being completely blunt, losing valuable advertising revenue) by printing something we shouldn’t – only a crazy person would do that. Licensees tend to tell us about the good (and bad) bits, so it’s not as if we don’t get the information anyway; it would just be nice if we got it first rather than second-hand. But hey-ho, it meant more time on the show floor to see partners, so every cloud…
Read the rest here.
