Brand Licensing Europe Moves Forward

Now in its 18th year, Brand Licensing Europe will expand its footprint with even more educational sessions, on-site activations, new exhibitors and more.

This year's Brand Licensing Europe, set for Oct. 10-12 at London's Olympia, currently boasts a raft of fresh exhibitors, new activations, an extensive Retail Mentoring Programme and more.

The 19th annual trade show will once again be divided into three sections–Art & Design, Brands & Lifestyle and Character & Entertainment–that will be filled with new and established brands. Thus far, a host of new exhibitors have signed on to participate in the 2017 event, including Emoji Company, Endemol Shine U.K., Ty, Historic Royal Palaces Enterprises, Juventus Football Club, Kitkase, May the Thoughts Be with You (last year's License This! winner), Crazy Bell Agency, Last Lemon, Rugby World Cup, Ypsilon Licensing and more.

To date, more than 180 companies have signed on to exhibit at BLE including popular brands such as Nickelodeon, Toei Animation, Mattel, "Masha and the Bear," Moomins and Smiley, among many others.

In addition to a host of new and returning exhibitors, the annual licensing trade show is also planning several new activations this year.

First, BLE will expand the Brands & Lifestyle Theatre program to include more sessions throughout the day on each day of the show. The program will also include a live activation each day to showcase the potential of lifestyle brands across multiple categories. Possible activations include catwalks, music and more.

BLE will also debut a new Gaming Activation Area, which will be divided into two parts. The first part will serve as an interactive space for demos and competitions, while the second will highlight the potential of gaming at retail, from concept to store.

"We are so excited to roll out these new initiatives at Brand Licensing Europe this October," says Anna Knight, brand manager, BLE. "Last year's Brand & Lifestyle Theatre program was so packed–we're hoping to further meet the needs of this growing licensing category."

Continues Knight: "I'm also particularly excited about our brand-new gaming activation, a really important theme for this year that I'm hoping will not only showcase our fantastic gaming exhibitors, but that will also shine a spotlight on this critical growth market and dispel some of the myths of gaming licensing."

BLE has also unveiled a number of retailers that have joined this year's Retail Mentoring Programme, which is designed to give buying and merchandising professionals a deeper understanding of the licensing industry. The mentees participating in this year's course, which is now CPD accredited, represent multiple retail categories and departments including buyers, marketers and designers from the apparel, gift, toys and leisure sectors.

Standout additions to this year's Mentoring Programme include online retailer Character.com, specialty toy buying group Toymaster, apparel retailer M&Co, supermarket chain Morrisons and the U.K. theater chains Odeon and UCI Cinemas Group.