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"We want to cooperate in the licensing of intangible cultural heritage IP and promote the intangible cultural heritage of Wuzhong District, Suzhou," said Cao Rui, director of intangible cultural heritage protection at Suzhou Wu Culture Museum. This year, Suzhou Wu Culture Museum participated in the 2024 Global Licensing Expo Shanghai for the first time, bringing 66 intangible cultural heritage projects and classic works of more than 150 intangible cultural heritage masters. The IP licensing industry has now become a huge market, and the demand for IP cooperation from buyers and companies is upgrading. Cao Rui was at the booth for only one morning, and she welcomed many game and film and television companies to consult and negotiate the possibility of using intangible cultural heritage IP in character costume design and other aspects.

Various IP images gathered at the 7th Global Licensing Expo Shanghai

Against the backdrop of the continued diversification of the global licensing market, the 7th Global Licensing Show Shanghai was held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center from July 17 to 19. The exhibition area of ​​this exhibition reached 48,000 square meters, bringing together more than 350 exhibitors and 1,800+ IPs, with a total of five theme sections: animation, image, game, literature, film and television and media, brand and agency, cultural and art, and trendy life. The exhibition not only included well-known licensors such as Universal, Warner, Tencent, Youku, Mango TV, and well-known domestic and foreign IPs such as Pleasant Goat, Bears, Doraemon, and Sanrio, but also included national style IPs such as the Palace Museum and Wu Culture Museum, fully demonstrating the diversity and richness of the licensing market.

The exhibition hall was crowded with people

The power of IP: A rabbit brings vitality to variety shows

The latest Global Licensing Market Report released by the International Licensing Association shows that global sales of licensed goods and services will reach a record high of $356.5 billion in 2023, up 4.6% from 2022. Among them, the revenue of entertainment/character business increased by 9% to a staggering $147.6 billion. In this market segment, animation, video games and social media performed particularly well, bringing new vitality and growth points to the market.

Mango TV Xiaomang APP Exhibition Area

In the Xiaomang APP exhibition area of ​​Mango TV, the huge "Nanbo Bunny" puppet waved and interacted with the audience enthusiastically. This IP image was born in July last year and is closely related to the variety show "Jumping into the Geography Book". Jiang Li, the head of Xiaomang e-commerce corporate publicity, introduced that last year, Xiaomang's first customized variety show "Jumping into the Geography Book" was officially launched as an innovative exploration of content e-commerce platforms. "Nanbo Bunny" also accompanied the Nanbo Brothers and the audience in the show to grow all the way and won everyone's love.

"We have a team operating the Nanbo Rabbit IP. Now Nanbo Rabbit has its own account, peripherals, puppets, emoticons..." Jiang Li said, "The Nanbo Rabbit, who loves traveling, adventure and freedom, now has a group of loyal fans. Everyone will discuss it in the official community and official Weibo. With the help of the Nanbo Rabbit IP, the vitality of the program has also been extended.

Nanbo Rabbit, which came to the offline IP licensing exhibition for the first time, also attracted the attention of many brands. Jiang Li revealed that museums, shopping malls and other upstream and downstream enterprises have negotiated with Xiaomang E-commerce, considering introducing Nanbo Rabbit or co-branding with it to conduct commercial cooperation with the power of IP.

Since its introduction to the Chinese market in 2017, the scale of the Licensing Expo Shanghai (LEC) has grown rapidly in seven years, and this year it will be expanded to two exhibition halls, Hall 1.1 and Hall 2.1. The exhibition is committed to creating a display platform for "category clusters", covering animation images, film and television broadcasting, online literature, game entertainment, sports e-sports, cultural and art, fashion, publishing, corporate brands, online videos, characters, celebrities, music, non-profit organizations and colleges and universities. It is particularly worth mentioning that the game category has also seen a significant expansion in scale at this exhibition, which has injected new vitality into the innovative development of the game industry.

The rise of cultural and museum industries: traditional culture becomes a new hotspot for IP licensing

With the revival of traditional culture, IP in the museum field has also become a hot spot in the field of IP licensing in recent years. Sanxingdui, Suzhou Museum, Palace Museum, and Wu Culture Museum have all brought IP cultural and creative products with distinct regional and cultural characteristics.

Toy purchasing and selection worker Hu Zhihong saw a Hanfu doll in the cultural and art IP exhibition area.

Hu Zhihong, a purchasing and product selector at Toy Planet, saw a Hanfu doll in the Cultural and Museum IP exhibition area and asked if there was a discount for large-scale purchases. Hu Zhihong is very familiar with the product and can even accurately point out that this doll has 4 styles, each with replacement clothing. Hu Zhihong told reporters that he has been engaged in toy purchasing for 7 years and is currently doing purchasing work for a toy trendy store in Nanxiang. He has participated in the Global Licensing Exhibition for 5 consecutive years. "I am in this industry and am very familiar with the new products of each season, but I still have to come to offline exhibitions every year. On the one hand, I look at the real thing, and on the other hand, I talk to the manufacturer about ways to cooperate." This year, he paid special attention to toys in the field of traditional culture, so he focused on the museum IP exhibition area. "There are many categories of dolls in the store. This year, I want to add some dolls with national style themes." Hu Zhihong said that as a retail manufacturer, they will also tend to choose products with IP attributes when selecting products. Toys with such distinctive attributes are more popular with consumers.

The "Wuzhong Intangible Cultural Heritage" exhibition area of ​​the Wu Culture Museum

The Wu Culture Museum, which participated in this exhibition, carefully planned the "Wuzhong Intangible Cultural Heritage" exhibition area, which showcased 66 intangible cultural heritage projects in Wuzhong, Suzhou, and brought together classic works by more than 150 intangible cultural heritage masters. The cultural and creative products on display, such as Suzhou embroidery, kesi silk, jade carving, brick carving, and wood carving, are exquisitely crafted, embodying the exquisite skills of intangible cultural heritage craftsmen, which made the audience linger and admire. However, Cao Rui, the director of intangible cultural heritage protection at the Suzhou Wu Culture Museum, said that in addition to cultural and creative sales, they hope to do more intangible cultural heritage IP licensing cooperation. The rotating 3D cultural relics presented on the big screen in the exhibition hall and the large number of intangible cultural heritage digital exhibits stored in the tablet computer are all intangible cultural heritage IPs they hope to launch.

"We have a large number of intangible cultural heritage master resources, many of whom are skilled and have set up their own studios, but most of them are small in scale and it is difficult to form a clustering effect. We integrate these intangible cultural heritage resources, and what we most hope to do is to cross-border attempt to spread the intangible cultural heritage of Wuzhong District, Suzhou to a wider range in the form of IP." Cao Rui mentioned that they currently hope to try IP cooperation in fabric patterns, carving patterns, etc. Although the attempts made by the Wu Culture Museum itself in IP development are still relatively rudimentary, the exquisite handicrafts still attracted a group of manufacturers interested in intangible cultural heritage to come to negotiate. Cao Rui revealed that the heads of game and film and television companies have expressed their hope to cooperate with the Wu Culture Museum in clothing and props design, and some companies also hope to use intangible cultural heritage design elements on product packaging.

Suzhou embroidery exhibits in the "Wuzhong Intangible Cultural Heritage" exhibition area

The "Wuzhong Intangible Cultural Heritage" exhibition area, which focuses on presenting intangible cultural heritage, not only provides brand partners with rich and diverse IP themes and materials, but also opens up new paths for the inheritance and development of traditional culture, demonstrating the continuous innovation and vigorous development of licensing industry trend content.

In order to better leverage the resource advantages of its own professional platform, the Global Licensing Show Shanghai Station launched trade matching services such as "Find IP", trade matching, VIP core buyer plan, and special category matching meetings, combining online matching products with offline trade shows, and building a cross-border communication platform around the needs of buyers and companies for IP cooperation. The trade matching event provides exhibitors and visitors with one-on-one pre-show meeting reservation services, breaking down cross-industry communication barriers, helping and facilitating accurate and efficient matching and transactions between licensors and licensees. In 2023, a total of 22,934 trade matching meetings were initiated, an increase of 28% year-on-year, and 8,997 matchings were successfully completed. This year, the organizers specially planned 4 special category buyer matching meetings during the exhibition, covering four major areas: culture and tourism, food, clothing, and beauty.

Related industry forums are being held at the exhibition site

A number of special forums and events were held concurrently with the exhibition, including authoritative industry events such as the China International Licensing Industry Summit (CLC), the China Licensing Industry Awards, the China Licensing Industry Forum, and the Partner Conference. These events brought together authoritative industry associations, professional media, and industry leaders to break down cross-industry communication barriers, and jointly explore ways to grasp the pulse of the industry and promote innovation and development in the industry.