Programme 2022

Thanks to the emergence of new innovations and cross-sector collaborations, global sales of licensed merchandise and services recorded an impressive growth of 7.75% in 2021 compared to 2019, according to the Global Licensing Industry Study conducted by Brandar Consulting. Despite the impact of global pandemic, worldwide sales of licensed products exceeded USD300 billion in 2021. Ms Maura Regan, President of Licensing International, believes that consumer experiences and culture moments will shape the future of the industry. In this session, she will share her insights about the key growth trends and her foresight to tap new market opportunities in the post-pandemic era.

Latest developments in global licensing

Licensing International

Maura Regan

President

SPEAKER

Guided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of The People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong Trade Development Council and China Cultural Media Group are teaming up to organise the first “China Opportunity” session at the Asian Licensing Conference 2022. This session will share licensing business opportunities in China with the latest developments in China’s policy support for the cultural and tourism industry, and highlight Hong Kong’s role as an international platform for licensing business. Aiming to enhance the development of cultural and tourism enterprises in Chinese mainland with a particular focus on international business collaboration, licensing professionals in this session will discuss the trends of the cultural and tourism industry, digitalisation and strategies for intellectual property, and share success stories.

China Opportunity

Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation (Department of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs), Ministry of Culture and Tourism of P.R. China

Gao Zheng

Director General

Hong Kong Trade Development Council

Jacky Chung

Director, Chinese Mainland

WELCOME REMARKS

Dean of Cultural Economic Research Institute, Central University of Finance and Economics

Wei Pengju

Professor

China National Arts and Crafts Museum & China Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum

Su Dan

Deputy Director

Tencent

Chen Fafen

Vice President and Senior Adviser

BRDGS

Vincent Chan

SENSES Holdings Limited

Ellie Ren

Head of Culture and Creative Business

Xinhua News Agency

Xu Danrui

Xinhuanet Editor and Host

MODERATOR

With over 20 years of history, Taiwanese author-illustrator Jimmy Liao’s artwork has been entering international markets with his books translated into multiple languages, adapted into musical dramas and movies, as well as showcases in overseas exhibitions. What are the changes of the art licensing market over these years? How different is it to enter the Asian and overseas market? Back in 2016, Jimmy turned the characters in his stories to galleries with the help of virtual reality (VR) technology. By and large, digital engagement of art IP is definitely going beyond VR and AR (augmented reality). Is digitalisation the next stage for art IPs? You may get the clue from this session.

Asian Art IPs Go International

Jimmy S.P.A. Co Ltd

Lee Yusan

General Manager

Two years on, the global pandemic has brought to the needs for museums to diversify and expand their revenue streams to reach for a broader global audience.  The licensing of art and cultural intellectual property (IP) allows museums to unlock the hidden values in their collections and achieve greater recognition.  In the digital era, innovative technologies play an indispensable role in the art and cultural IP licensing.  How can technology help to increase the value of their IP?  How can museums create sustainable revenue streams from immersive exhibitions and digital collectibles?  In what ways can museums leverage on the latest trend of NFT (non-fungible token) to license their IPs and generate revenue from their collections?

Cultural IP x Art Technology

ARTiSTORY

He Yizan

Founder and CEO

Blockchain technology in Web 3.0 is leading new commercial value to Japanese manga and anime culture. The visual nature and rich heritage behind popular manga and anime, present rich elements for transfer into the metaverse in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Trading of manga and webtoon as NFTs is attracting attention in Japan as a way to create new brand experience between fans and artists. In this session, Mr Kazuhiro Mizuno, CEO of Minto Inc., will share his insights about the impact of NFTs and Web 3.0 on Japanese webtoon IP with reference to their recent Minto Character Land Sale in The Sandbox.

What’s next for Webtoons? From manga to Web 3.0

Minto Inc.

Kazuhiro Mizuno

Leveraging pop culture to create licensed merchandises from films and TV shows has resulted in many different avenues of success. Essentially, great content and popular characters will always unlock new business opportunities in intellectual property (IP). Against the backdrop of the global pandemic, over-the-top (OTT) platforms are gaining much popularity while leading to more innovative licensing collaborations. Mr Russell Binder, President of Striker Entertainment, LLC, managing worldwide licensing programmes for many renowned properties such as The Hunger Games franchise and The Walking Dead, will walk us through the changes from traditional feature-film licensing business to television, gaming and streaming licensing.

Licensing Merchandise tied to Original Content

Striker Entertainment, LLC

Russell Binder

Founding Partner

Stephy Tang, a Hong Kong famous actress and singer, co-found 1011SIPTEA and established the first bubble tea bar in Xinyi District in Taipei in 2019. The business has been expanded to Malaysia, the U.S., Canada and Hong Kong through franchising. The tea bar is now a destination for healthier and unique flavours that boasts a cult-like following. Co-founder Frances Seto will share how 1011 SIPTEA built upon collaborations with eminent brands such as LINE FRIENDS, Snoopy, Miffy, Shinchan, Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer to offer distinctive consumer experiences and thus boost brand engagement.

Beverages x IP: maximise the value of IP licensing to expand customer base through licensing

1011 SIPTEA

Frances Seto

Co-founder

Live Action Role Playing (LARP) games, particularly themed around murder mystery solving, made its first significant splash in mainland China in 2016. This immersive game is a form of role-playing where participants act out their characters based on a given script. There was explosive growth in its popularity among Asian youths in the past two years as LARP games offer a brand-new social experience for youths to make new friends. One key element of LARP games is to co-create and this session will share the licensing model of LARP on script licensing. Besides, new forms for LARP will be discussed such as LARP trips for maintaining players’ loyalty.

Live-action role-play (LARP) games and licensing

ShineRay Co Ltd

Kent Wang

Chairman

Mimi Wang

Vice President

The English proverb “two heads are better than one” may seem cliché, but it is at the heart of what makes co-branding so effective. Eddie Hui who founded B.Duck in 2005 when he made a bathtub toy for his son, creating the character of "Bathing Duck" as well as its intellectual property (IP). According to an industry report, Semk was the largest domestic character intellectual property firm in the Mainland China in 2021. In the successful co-branding example of B.Duck with PUBG and Identity V, you will learn the evolution of IP licensing from the physical to digital, and the synergies of such collaborations.

Brands crossover

Semk Holdings International Limited

Vincent Cheung

Executive Director and General Manager

With mobile gaming business becoming more competitive nowadays, it's important for developers to think strategically and creatively about how to stand out in the market.  While building a top-notch game is crucial, developers have to bring in additional values to players and extend the game’s lifespan. Intellectual property (IP) crossovers, or co-branding, are commonly seen as an effective marketing tool to increase brand recognition, increase engagement with existing players and attract new ones.  In this session, you will learn how the crossover between the world-famous survival shooter mobile game Free Fire (digital IP) and international celebrities has brought brand new experience to fans.

Free Fire Mobile Game x Physical Brands Crossover

Garena Online Pvt Ltd.

Wilson Chang

Head of Licensing & Merchandising, Free Fire

Launched in 2017, the first known game to use blockchain was CryptoKitties. A player would purchase NFTs with Ethereum cryptocurrency. Each NFT consisted of a virtual pet that the player could breed with others to create offspring with combined traits as new NFTs. The game made headlines in December 2017 when one virtual pet was sold for more than US$100,000. 
 In 2020, National Basketball Association (NBA) was launched after the success of CryptoKitties. It is easy to see why. Top Shot created a space, allowing users to buy, collect, and trade short videos of NBA players in a certain game, and pay with a credit card, and then they can own the copyright of the wonderful video through the amazing blockchain technology. For example, the Slam Dunk video of "LeBron James" was sold for US$387,600 in April 2021, setting a record for the transaction of a single video on the platform. 
 What exactly is the technology behind these blockchain games? What is the driving force behind the technology? The driving force behind this amazing record is Flow, the blockchain platform of Vancouver-based Dapper Labs.

Blockchain gaming

Dapper Labs

Mik Naayem

Co-founder and Chief Business Officer

Sustainability has become an integral pillar to all business strategies as people start to understand the environmental impact of human activity. Sustainability isn&rsquo;t just about producing with a sustainable sourced material, it&rsquo;s about making sure that we look at the impact of business when it comes to the environmental, our impact on society and the governance of this, it&rsquo;s about being responsible and accountable for the impact that our business has on the world around us and society. In this session, Ms. Teri Niadna, Managing Director of Brandgenuity Europe, and moderator Ms. Helena Stopher, CEO, Products of Change, will take us to explore more about its impact on the licensing business, the challenges for the industry practitioners, and the trend in the business.

ESG in Licensing

Products of Change

Helena Mansell-Stopher

CEO and Founder

Brandgenuity

Teri Niadna

Managing Director

At Christie’s Auction in March 2021, Beeple’s digital art piece “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” was sold at US$69 million, bringing Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) into the limelight. Since then, it has inspired a surge of enthusiasm and money around the technology. NFTs are believed to change the world - to spur vast new economic growth, including within virtual “metaverses,” and become the new norm for ownership. 

 In this session, we will learn how the Hong Kong-based unicorn Animoca Brands capitalises on the value of digital property rights, thereby enabling the rise of play-to-earn economies. Besides, Hanjin Tan, the first in the world to drop a Chinese music NFT, will share with us the business opportunities for IP owners and growth trends of Metaverse and NFTs.

The metaverse and NFTs: key trends

Animoca Brands

Zaf Chow

Director of Digital Strategy and Partnerships

BBS Records

Hanjin Tan

Founder

Since the beginning of the pandemic, demand for health and wellness products, including masks, has soared to unprecedented levels.  Ryan Lee, who has been in the pharmacy business decided to establish a company and launch “Good Mask".  In order to stand out in the market, "Good Mask" has been transforming its business model and successfully introduced brand crossover with masks, which have gained great success in the industry.

Health & Wellness x Licensing

Good Mask

Ryan Lee

A new generation of location-based experiences (LBEs) are emerging around the world.  Entertainment companies are using Augmented Reality (AR) / Virtual Reality (VR) to provide a vivid experience.  Vicky will share her insights on the development of LBE and her experiences in organising the first ever MONOPOLY-themed attraction in the world: the MONOPOLY DREAMS ™ in ticketing LBE model.

New generation of location-based entertainment experience

MRM Entertainment Limited

Vicky Au

Director of Business Development

Get a comprehensive introduction on how the licensing business operates, including the scale, model and categories of the business, the related terminology and the ways to achieve business success etc.

Basics of licensing

The Smiley Company

Lapkeng Wong

Vice President of Business Development APAC

Understanding the core legal principles and practices to be a licensing professional.

Basics of licensing law

ELLALAN

James Choi

Partner

Learn the importance of brand guides (often referred to as style guides) and how they are prepared, and how brand owners and licensees can leverage brand guides to create quality products while maintaining a consistent brand image.

Creating a style guide

Happiplayground

Szeto Wai Ping

Founder and Creative Director,

Do you need a licensing agent or consultant?  If you’re planning about it, how do you figure it out who is right for you?  What should you need to know about them, and what are they going to ask you?  Representative from ENZO e Partners Limited, the official licensing agent of Lamborghini, will share from the perspective of an agent and the DOs and DON'Ts.

Working with agents & consultants

ENZO e Partners Limited

Enzo Wong

Most individual illustrators started their businesses with limited resources. How to get started when you wish to license your brand?  How to increase brand awareness with limited budget?  In this session, Orson will share his experience from branding, marketing to IP protection.

Building a licensing plan with limited budget

Good Vibes Hong Kong (Social Enterprise)

Orson Li

Creative Director

Direct-To-Retail (DTR) occurs when a licensing agreement specifies the retailer as the licensee and distributor of the licensed merchandise.  Retailers are keen to use DTR to stay competitive in the market and increase profit margins. Licensors are also open to DTR for shortening the products’ time-to-market and gathering direct consumer feedback for their licensed merchandise. In this session, successful retailers in Asia will share their intellectual property sourcing needs and requirement for licensing co-operations, as well as their successful licensing experiences.

Direct-To-Retail (DTR): Starlite Visual Communication Limited

Starlite Visual Communications Limited

Peter Au

Maureen Li

Sales Operation Manager

Direct-To-Retail (DTR): Chow Sang Sang

Chow Sang Sang

Cecilia Yim

Chief Market Strategy Officer

Renowned brands will share their brand stories with exclusive online presentation session followed by customized business matching.

Brand Forum: Bandai Namco

Brand Forum: CAPCOM

Brand Forum: Dai Nippon Printing

Brand Forum: Fuji Television

Brand Forum: Minto

Brand Forum: Poplar

Brand Forum: San-Byte

Brand Forum: Sony Creative Products

Brand Forum: TV Tokyo

Events at a Glance

Partners and Supporting Organisations 2024

Success Stories

Previous Event Information

Events

e-Fair Catalog

Exhibitor List 2024

SME Export Marketing Fund

Resource Centre

Exhibition

ALC Programme

About Licensing Academy

Media Partners 2024

Press Releases

Photo Gallery

Video Gallery

Media Centre

Press

Value for Money Hotels

HKTDC Marketplace app & E-badge

Visitor's rules and regulations

Caution on third party promotional offer

Visit

AIRFARE OFFERINGS

Visa & Permit for Entering Hong Kong

Important Notice for Indian Nationals Travelling to Hong Kong

Message for Muslim Visitors

Customs Requirements on Cross-border Cash Controls

Tour Information for Hong Kong

HKeMobility

Extreme Weather Arrangement

Travel Info

Market Trends

SME Support

Intelligence & Services

Enquiries

HKTDC Events

Intelligence Hub

Booth Format

EVENT AT A GLANCE

More than nine lives for this brand

Character brand became online sensation with cute animal looks

Local character Charging Buddies Take Fly at Licensing Show

Hong Kong’s tumblers wobble into Taiwan

Taiwanese cat characters promote culture overseas

Old Master Q-themed restaurant serves up unique experiences and licensing opportunities