|
|
As children head back to school, a new study by the Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA) – the global trade association for licensing - has revealed the nation's favourite licensed toy brands amongst British children and what we can expect to see adorning backpacks, pencil cases and lunch boxes in the classroom this September. The study showed that global brands Lego and Barbie dominate both in the UK and abroad, as the brands celebrate their 65th and 55th birthdays respectively, demonstrating the longevity of these iconic brands.
Interestingly, 80% of the top ten girls' toy licenses revolve around a character. This drops to 60% amongst boys. Lego, top amongst boys, only managed third place for girls but when combined with the character based Lego Friends it could actually also be considered as the lead license for girls. Favourite characters understandably differed by age group. Most markedly creations from Disney fared universally well amongst children aged two and under taking 40% of the top licences in this age group. Kelvyn Gardner, Managing Director for LIMA UK comments that, "The dominance of strong licensing programmes has clearly won the hearts and minds of British families. Despite the strength of global iconic brands and franchises, it's also good to see home grown talent such as Thomas & Friends and Peppa Pig feature in the top ten list". The global study, carried out by Kidz Global on behalf of LIMA, was conducted with over 30,000 children and their parents who were polled online around the world, with over 1250 respondents based in the UK. The study measures the relative awareness, popularity and merchandise appeal of the most important brands to children across age four age categories (0-2, 3-6, 7-9, 10-14). |