Brand Licensing Europe 2019 – Identity’s Highlights From The Event
Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) brings together 7,800+ retailers and manufacturers with 260 leading brand owners and agents across entertainment, art, sports, corporate brands, gaming, heritage and more to identify new trends, build partnerships and secure brands’ rights. Alongside Licensing Expo, BLE is the must-attend event for anyone looking to discover and secure deals with the hottest brands, characters and images available for licensing.
After celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2018, this year the event moved from Olympia London to its new home at ExCeL London. The 2019 show took place between 6-8 October and in this article we will look at our highlights from Brand Licensing Europe 2019.
Global Brands Group
Global Brands Group (GBG) is one of the world’s leading branded fashion accessories, footwear and apparel companies. At Brand Licensing Europe 2019, the GBG booth was wholly conceptualised, designed, manufactured and built by Identity. We provided a fresh approach to the stand design which was fun, attractive and confident, cementing Global Brands Group’s reputation as the go-to company for the world’s best brands.
This was a welcoming and open space that included high level branding, reception counter, table and seating for relaxed meetings, an eye-catching bespoke product display case and video showcase wall. The creative use of brand colouring on the walls, plinths and flooring empowered the space with a dynamic presence, ensuring an immersive and exciting visitor experience. Suffice to say, the booth was busy through all days of BLE and the client was very happy.
Rovio
Undoubtably the highlight of this year’s show, Rovio’s Angry Birds stand at BLE 2019 featured an enormous digital screen that, both in width and height, filled the booth space and served as a showcase for some truly incredible animation from the Rovio team, including delightful little touches such as the characters interacting with and bouncing off the physical environment. Rovio are celebrating 10 years of Angry Birds in 2019 and clearly pulled out all the stops with their winning presence at BLE. Here’s to another successful decade!
Sony PlayStation
Sony PlayStation’s concept for the show this year was the creation of a home within the booth space to allow the brand to showcase an alternative side of their licensing opportunity, which now includes furniture and additional homeware. Open and inviting, the stand felt quite minimalist, almost providing a relaxed retail experience.
Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Warner Bros interesting and colourful space saw them cross-promote a number of subsidiary brands and IP, including HBO, Cartoon Network, Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts, DC Comics, Powerpuff Girls, Scooby Doo, Looney Tunes and more.
JCB
The show floor at BLE is a very competitive space, and the smartest event profs will be actively seeking an elegant solution to make sure visitors can quickly find them. And this giant pink JCB did exactly that, serving as both an excellent piece of wayfinding and also a great talking point for delegates.
Aardman
There’s always so much to see at BLE, particularly when it comes to character props, and this giant Shaun The Sheep on the Aardman stand was perhaps the most impressive at the show. Exceptionally well made and absolutely massive, Shaun was impossible to miss!
UBISOFT
A primary function for exhibiting at an event such as BLE is to create an interesting environment to host meetings, which are typically back-to-back for the major brands. The 6 elegant meeting rooms on the UBISOFT stand were all designed and themed to some of the company’s most successful video game titles, creating a personalised experience that was actually quite unique at the show.
Moomin
The wonderful Moomin stand made its debut at BLE 2018 and was essentially the same this year, and why not? One of the most creative and aesthetically-pleasing booths at the show, the only slight black mark in 2019 was the beautiful silhouette ceiling cut-outs didn’t benefit from the sun shining through from above, as they did at Olympia last year.
There are so many wonderful booths and activations at BLE that this list could keep on going and going, so see below for a gallery of other favourites from the show!
If you’d like to know how Identity can help with your next live event, please give us a call on +44 (0)1323 469111 or email us at letstalk@identitygroup.co.uk.
