CHINA LICENSING EXPO A SUCCESS!
According to both exhibitors and visitors, the 17th annual China Licensing Expo, held in Shanghai this past October, was a great success.
The show attracted 424 exhibitors across nearly four halls of the Shanghai International Expo Centre. In all, there were 86,128 visitors which was an increase of 30% on last year’s event. Interestingly, international buyers also grew this year with around 2000 attending – a 110% growth over last year.
The show is an eclectic mix of domestic and internationally-known brands. Global powerhouses such as Disney, Mattel and Hasbro all took part with impressive booths, alongside major Chinese organisations such as Tencent and The Palace Museum.
Staying on the subject of museums and heritage, this sector had a prominent profile at the show this year. The Palace Museum, of course, has been part of the show for many years. This year, however, saw the addition of a number of other institutions, such as the National Museum of China which now has a programme comprising more than 500 different licensed products ranging from fashion to stationery and homewares. The National Museum houses 1.43 million items of ancient and modern artifacts, books and works of art with the objective of explaining China’s 5000 year history to those who visit the Beijing-based museum.
Alfilo, too, were promoting various institutions including the V&A, The British Museum,The National Gallery in London, The Hermitage in Russia and MFA Boston.
Of course, The Palace Museum, which was founded back in 1925, includes the Forbidden City as well as Chinese art based on the consecutive Ming and Qing dynasties.
Sport was also featured – FC Internazionale football team, for example, had a booth, capitalising on the growing popularity of soccer in China. And automotive brands were on show with exhibitors such as Global Trademark Licensing who represent a wide variety of brands such as Lambretta, Jaguar, Range Rover and Lotus amongst others.
Enzo e Partners also focuses on automotive, with Chinese representation of Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Lamborghini and, most recently, China Racer.
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Eight different territory pavilions were present at the show this year including Russia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and, of course, the European Licensing Pavilion. This pavilion began in 2019 with ten different companies taking part. Following the pandemic and its aftermath, the pavilion restarted this year in a small way with a view to an increased pavilion next year. Companies participating this year were varied – MGL, Rainbow Productions and Two Daughters Entertainment as well as Total Licensing.
The reaction and response to the show was excellent from all the exhibitors. Just take a look at the reviews below.
“Three brilliant days at China Licensing Expo.We made some great connections and are now on the path to guānxì through the wonder of WeChat.. Thank you to TJPA China and Total Licensing Ltd for sorting everything.
When a a renowned Chinese business comes to your booth and says:“I saw your article in Total Licensing (while waiting on the Hasbro stand) and that you have a presence here….that means you are serious,” you know that you have spent wisely…
Until next year!”
Rob Goodchild, Two Daughters Entertainment.
“Local companies are a delight to do business with and they are very open to working with companies from all around the world. Being a UK based organisation is certainly no barrier. I identified the key sales opportunities and the openness with which the local companies do business meant sales leads were easily qualified and targeted. Doing business almost entirely over WeChat was revolutionary (to me) but not having to collate all forms of other social media, together with emails, meant that by the end of the Expo every lead had been followed up and serious enquiries were instantly apparent. Rainbow is definitely making headway with more and more costume characters being created and the exposure that CLE has given us is another step deeper into the vastness of the Chinese market.”
Simon Foulkes, Rainbow Productions
Special packages are available for those interested in taking part in the 2025 show. For more information, contact Jerry Wooldridge (jerry@totallicensing.com).
