Vegas Licensing Expo
2023 Report

Written by Shaun Riches

The world's largest licensing show, Licensing Expo Las Vegas is back!

Vegas Licensing Expo
2023 Report

The world's largest licensing show, Licensing Expo Las Vegas is back again. With a 13% increase in 2022’s total attendance, we saw the number of visitors returning coming close to pre-pandemic levels. Thousands of brands, and countless meetings; it was great to be back again. We've collated our top picks featuring our favourite stands, products, experiences, photo ops and much more! So if you didn't get a chance to attend, or leave your stand we’ve got you covered. Here are our takeaways from this year’s show.

Hasbro

Arguably one of the biggest stands of the show, Hasbro’s stand showcased their huge roster of properties with two giant screens overlooking the entrance playing sizzle reels as well as on the hanging walls surrounding the stand. On the stand was a Dungeons and Dragons tavern-themed drinks bar. And no matter what time or day we walked past the stand was always gathering a crowd!

Peanuts Worldwide

Celebrating 50 years with Beagle Scouts, Peanuts Worldwide branded their stand and transported you to the great outdoors with trees, greenery, log cabin-style wood walls and character cut-outs of their classic characters on the show. Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, making this stand incredibly impactful. If their stand wasn’t already catching your eye, the giant screens above the entrance displaying their recent work and collaborations would!

Crayola

Winner of one of the Best licensed brands for Publishing, Stationery, and Social Expression. Crayola had one of the most colourful stands at the show, it was hard to miss! The colourful world of Crayola was doodled across a white stand alongside the cut-out crayon characters and the very clever product displays made Crayola stand out for us. They also had a fundraiser selling fresh flowers, which you can see later on!

Zuzubaland

Hailing from Brazil, a new addition to this year’s roster and one of the most themed stands we saw at the show. Chairs/ tables made to look like various foods/cakes as well as a life-size character model of Zuzu and huge scenic backdrops from the show made it feel like you were in Zuzubaland! With their impactful appearance at the show and a new movie on the horizon we think you will be seeing Zuzubland for years to come!

Diversity

Licensing Expo Vegas embraced the celebrations of Pride month by including a Pride-themed Café in collaboration with ‘It Gets Better Project’; a nonprofit organization with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect the LGBTQ+ youth around the globe. This and the abundance of colourful properties and stands around the show gave the feeling of an added layer of kindness and compassion. This a loud and proud statement about embracing our differences and coming together that is going to have a big impact on how licensing goes from here on out.

Pudgy Penguins - Stand

The stand was designed to look like a giant igloo with great effect. Perfectly on brand for the IP “Pudgy Penguins”, their stand was very creative and certainly caught our eye. This stand deserved an honourable mention in our report!

Product - Physical

Some of our favourite products spotted around the show: Riot Games X Nerf – using the weapon from the character Jinx as a Nerf gun, genius! Dr Suess – Lovely product range shows the wacky worlds of Dr Suess. Sunshine & Glitter x Crayola – This fun and protective sunscreen will have you sparking in iridescent biodegradable pink glitter all season long! Tetris x Braille – Collaborating with the skateboard youtube brand Braillie, shred like a pro while paying homage to the best video game of all time. Squishmallows – Squishmallows had so many creative product apparel on their stand, it was hard to choose our favourite! Ubisoft – Classic Assasin Creed characters as plush? Sold!

Product Visuals - Paramount

Carrying on their trend to show products as a visual instead of physical form, Paramount had product visuals plastered all over their stand. They even took it a step further by having holograms showing 3d turnarounds of these products! (unfortunately, both the video and photos weren’t able to capture these “holograms”!) This big product imagery is very impactful and is great for people unable to get on the stand and see samples.

Photo Ops

Everywhere you looked there were amazing photo opportunities, we’ve decided to compile our favourites here: Bandai/ Namco – Giant Tamagotchi, Viz – Naruto Ramen, Mattel – Barbie Card, Nintendo – Link Statue, CloudCo – Giant Care Bear & Tetris – Tetris game.

Interactive

A couple of our favourite interactive experiences we managed to see between meetings.
Mazien, a Japanese gaming YouTuber and newcomer to the show had a giant Mikey-themed interactive maze!
Sony Entertainment, for their properties Cobra Kai, had an interactive screen where you could punch and kick the air to break the wall of the dojo on screen!
Crayola, color the world with kindness, to help fund raise had a van selling allsorts of colourful flowers.

Fashion Hall

Fashion was a big focus for the show this year, the fashion hall showed off a slew of brands and their recent collaborations. These included Vans x Crayola, Smurfs x Emporio Armani, Minecraft x Crocs, Teletubbies, and Strawberry Shortcake just to name a few!

Fashion Magazine - Smurfs

Smurfs, leaning in on the fashion theme of the show, created a limited edition fashion magazine as a B2B document that was handed out at the show, and we created it for them!

Ones to Watch

Sustainability, collaborations and the digital landscape used to be something we talked about seeing as a rising influence at these shows, They’re now common practice in the licensing industry, however, what we saw at Vegas, and to an extent at BLE last year, are newly emerging themes.

Asian Influence

Each year, more and more at these trade shows, we have seen the rise of Western properties, Licensing Expo Las Vegas was no different. Anime, manga and “Kawaii” characters are beginning to dominate the licensing landscape. Bolstering such a unique style and occult followings it’s no surprise we have seen these properties and brands rise in the last few years.

Gaming industry

Game IPs are nothing new to the licensing industry however, with the lack of E3 they need a new place to show off their properties and where else is better than at Licensing Expo Las Vegas? Minecraft, SEGA, Riot Games, Tetris, Nintendo & Pokemon ( just to name a few) huge companies in the gaming sphere are becoming household names and not just for the games they make!

Digital content

This year’s Expo was host to internet superstars such as Nyan Cat and Maizen.
Nyan Cat’s journey from a viral video sensation in 2011 to becoming an Expo regular is so exciting! The character’s simple and charming nature always brings smiles and nostalgic feelings, showing just how infectious and iconic it has become in today‘s pop culture.
When we stumbled upon Maizen, this awesome Japanese YouTube gaming channel, it felt like entering a whole new world. Their content is super inventive, filled with originality and lively commentary that just bursts with joy in the digital realm. It’s like they’re waving a vibrant banner of happiness for everyone to enjoy.

What a great show we can’t wait to see everyone again next year!

You can see more images here

Vegas Licensing Expo
2023 Report