Licensing Expo has announced the opening keynote presentation under the event theme ‘Brands at Play’.
Taking place 21st-23rd May at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV, Licensing Expo brings together thousands of leading retailers, manufacturers and marketers to connect, identify future trends and secure consumer product deals with the world’s most influential brands.
Roughly 48% of the global population consider themselves either casual or active gamers. With mobile gaming capturing more players than ever before, the video game segment is building a community of billions and gaming is expected to be the next major category for consumer products growth. This opening keynote panel, Video Games: Driving Billions to Play, explores the ‘why’ behind gaming’s massive growth in popularity, what gamers look for in a brand and how the next franchise model will lead with video games, either from brand-new IP or the revival of heritage titles.
Panelists include Nick McWhorter, director of Global Licensing, CD Projekt Red; Doug Rosen, senior vice president, Games and Emerging Media, Paramount; Maya Rogers, CEO, Tetris and Ivo Gerscovich, chief Business and Brand officer, Sega of America; moderated by License Global’s Ben Roberts, Content director.
“Licensing Expo is where we plant the seeds for how we creatively approach emerging trends we see across the market. These phenomenal global leaders in gaming IP are at the forefront of tomorrow’s leading brand extensions, tapping into what resonates best with their communities,” said Anna Clarke, senior vice president of the Global Licensing Group, which produces Licensing Expo. “Especially as this year we focus on all iterations of Brands at Play, we are setting the stage by shining the light on gaming as the category of the future. Digitisation impacts brand engagement and is a critical area to provide education and ideas into how we can expand.”
As the gaming segment connects a community of billions globally, video games are quickly becoming the next major category for licensing growth. Licensing International reported 9.8% of the $340.8b global sales revenue of licensed merchandise and services in 2022 came from video games, software and apps.
More than 300 exhibiting companies, including Paramount, The Lego Group, Warner Bros., Nintendo, Riot Games, The Walt Disney Company, Netflix, Sega, Mattel, Crunchyroll, Minecraft, NASCAR and many more will be at Licensing Expo.
To learn more about Licensing Expo and register to attend, visit www.licensingexpo.com.
